FME vs Fivetran comparison

Fivetran and Safe Software are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Fivetran is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.1, while Safe Software is ranked #23 with an average rating of 8.0. Fivetran holds a 2.0% mindshare in DI, compared to Safe Software’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Fivetran users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Safe Software users who would recommend it.

Fivetran

Read 28 Fivetran reviews

4,168 Views
2,542 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

FME

Read 7 FME reviews

2,737 Views
2,135 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Fivetran

FME

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

FME and Fivetran are key players in the data integration market. FME is preferred for its ability to handle complex spatial data transformations, whereas Fivetran is favored for its ease of setup and automated capabilities in cloud environments.

Features: FME shines with its comprehensive geospatial analysis abilities, support for complex data types, and a wide array of connectors facilitating diverse system integration. Its graphical interface simplifies the debugging and optimization processes. Fivetran's strongest features include automated data pipeline management, easy integration with systems like DBT, and the ability to handle large data volumes with minimal manual intervention. The solution's change data capture capability ensures efficient data flow between platforms.

Room for Improvement: FME could enhance its cloud deployment options and streamline its setup process to reduce the initial complexity. Users also seek more intuitive interfaces for non-specialist users. Fivetran might improve by offering more detailed customization options for advanced users, expanding its native connector list to cover less common databases, and optimizing its pricing structure for smaller data loads.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FME excels in offering robust, customizable on-premise deployment solutions with extensive configuration options, catering to specific data needs. Conversely, Fivetran provides a quick, cloud-based deployment model that minimizes setup time and maintenance through its automated updates. While FME supports more detailed configurations, Fivetran simplifies deployment, backed by effective customer service.

Pricing and ROI: FME requires a higher upfront investment due to its feature-rich environment and customization potential, yielding a higher ROI in complex data transformation cases. Fivetran uses a subscription model with lower initial costs, delivering quicker ROI for fast-paced cloud integrations, especially beneficial for organizations looking to implement swiftly and scale efficiently.

To learn more, read our detailed FME vs. Fivetran Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. Fivetran

September 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Fivetran

Ranking in Data Integration

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Replication (3rd), Cloud Data Integration (7th)

FME

Ranking in Data Integration

23rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Fivetran is 2.0%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FME is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Fivetran	2.0%
FME	1.5%
Other	96.5%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Vigneswar Jeyaraj

Manager at InfoCepts

Real-time data replication and integration streamline processes and enhance productivity

The most valuable feature of Fivetran so far is the data replication. The real-time data replication is what I see best in the market where it reduces the overhead of customers needing to maintain the pipeline. Even when an error occurs, it automatically tries to solve the issue without manual interaction needed. The effectiveness of Fivetran's pre-built connectors in enhancing my customer's productivity is significant because everything is easily configurable. The documentation is very clear, so there's no difficulty in finding the necessary steps. Everything is pre-documented. The pre-built connectors that are available are excellent. Most functionalities are covered, and in most cases, it works according to expectations.

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Alan Bloor

Geographic Information System Developer at Public Sector

Great for handling large volumes of data, but it is priced a bit high

When I do coding, I think about every single function. Some of these functions can be very elementary, like doing a substring or some capitalization. But FME removes all that coding because it's a transformer, so the time to develop an application to get to a point where you're producing results is decreased massively. It used to take weeks and months to develop software, and now I can use something like FME, and within one day, we get results. We can look at and validate data. We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The simplicity of the solution is its valuable feature."

"Fivetran is an easy-to-deploy solution for organizations looking at integrating a wide variety of data sources."

"The most important feature of the solution is its ability to build data pipelines in less time."

"The solution is stable. We've never faced any stability issues."

"Overall, I would rate Fivetran nine out of ten."

"The general data ingestion is valuable. It's used for a lot of data. It provides about 90% of the data we use in our data warehouse without needing data engineering."

"Its arrays are powerful enough to handle migrations even when the replication is happening in the background, without causing any trouble with the ongoing traffic."

"SysTrack load is the best feature."

More Fivetran pros

"All spatial features are unrivaled, and the possibility to execute them based on a scheduled trigger, manual, e-mail, Websocket, tweet, file/directory change or virtually any trigger is most valuable."

"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."

"We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else."

"It has a very friendly user interface. You don't need to use a lot of code. For us that's the most important aspect about it. Also, it has a lot of connectors and few forms. It has a strong facial aspect. It can do a lot of facial analysis."

"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."

"From my reseller perspective, the best features in FME are the ease of operation and the fact that it works."

"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface. There is nothing better. It is very easy to debug because you can see all steps where there are failures. Overall the software is easy to optimize a process."

Cons

"Fivetran should add more connectors because its competitors, like Airbyte, have more connectors."

"HVR Software's technical support could be improved. Whenever we log a case, the response that we get from the support is a bit delayed."

"We use a separate tool for "reverse ETL", which is the opposite of what Fivetran does; it pushes data from your data warehouse back out to business applications. If Fivetran pulls data from those same applications, they should also enable users to push it back. I would love to do both ETL and reverse ETL in the same tool."

"I would like Fivetran to implement additional resource monitoring and restriction policies."

"There is not a lot of options to customize the pipeline, and the cost is high."

"Fivetran would be improved by adding the ability to integrate the data from third-party APIs."

"The solution is very expensive. I would like to have a better integration of the solution with Azure."

"It should have a few more monitoring functionalities."

More Fivetran cons

"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."

"The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point."

"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."

"FME can improve the geographical transformation. I've had some problems with the geographical transformations, but it's probably mostly because I'm not the most skilled geographer in-house. The solution requires some in-depth knowledge to perform some functions."

"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."

"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't have the exact information, but I know it is high, and it is on a yearly basis. There is no additional cost for what we're doing. We're always open to doing things cheaper, so we might potentially implement a different solution."

"The solution is affordable."

"The pricing model is okay and mid to large companies will not have an issue with it."

"The product is reasonably expensive"

"I can't give exact amounts because that's based on usage, but it's more expensive than some of its competitors."

"The licensing costs are extremely high for the usage of somebody who has one GB or two GB of usage per day for real-time traffic. There are many other players in the market which are similarly priced or competitively priced. On average per month, it used to come around 12,000-15,000 USD, which is very high."

"Fivetran is very expensive, and its database-driven pricing model is outdated."

"When you have a lot of workflows and complex use cases, pricing goes down as you use it more."

More Fivetran pricing and cost advice

"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."

"The product's price is reasonable."

"We used the standard licensing for our use of FME. The cost was approximately €15,000 annually. We always welcome less expensive solutions, if the solution could be less expensive it would be helpful."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Retailer

Government

33%

Energy/Utilities Company

12%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	4

Questions from the Community

What's the deal with the HVR software acquisition?

As a user of HVR Software I followed this deal closely. Fivetran is apparently trying to establish more in its sector and by buying an already established data replication software, they become som...

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Does HVR Software provide reliable insights?

I honestly can't think of another data replication software that can give you better statistics and insight than HVR Software. There's the feature for topology and statistics and both of them can ...

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How much traffic can HVR Software handle?

As someone who works at a company where a high volume of information is replicated and has tried several data replication softwares, I can tell you that you're looking at the right one. HVR Softwar...

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What do you like most about FME?

We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FME?

The pricing is really bad. Last year, they rebranded the whole pricing structure. It used to be moderately priced at about £400 per user per year. Now they've changed the whole thing, and it's expe...

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What needs improvement with FME?

I haven't had any input or requirements from any customers that are not currently covered, so I don't have any additional needs that were identified or raised to me. Regarding pricing, with the mod...

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Comparisons

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Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Fivetran

Compared 5% of the time

Nexla vs Fivetran

Compared 3% of the time

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Azure Data Factory vs FME

Compared 24% of the time

Talend Open Studio vs FME

Compared 10% of the time

SSIS vs FME

Compared 9% of the time

Alteryx Designer vs FME

Compared 9% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs FME

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran

September 2025

Download Fivetran product report

Buyer's Guide

FME

September 2025

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Overview

Fivetran, the global leader in data movement, is trusted by companies like OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon and Spotify to centralize data from SaaS applications, databases, files, and other sources into cloud destinations, including data lakes. With high-performance pipelines, seamless interoperability, and enterprise-grade security, Fivetran empowers organizations to modernize their data infrastructure, power analytics and AI, ensure compliance, and achieve transformative business outcomes. Learn more at Fivetran.com

Fivetran

FME is the data integration platform with the best support for spatial data. Run workflows on the desktop or deploy them in a server or cloud environment.

Safe Software

Sample Customers

Autodesk, Condé Nast, JetBlue, Morgan Stanley, OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon, SpotifyNational Australia Bank, Saks, Cemex, Okta, Dropbox, Pitney Bowes, World Fuel Services,Lufthansa, AutoZone, ASICS, ASOS, Coupa, Databricks, Hermes, New Relic, Intercom,Canva, Honeywell, Square, DocuSign, Nandos, Oldcastle Infrastructure

Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. Fivetran

September 2025

Free Report: FME vs. Fivetran

Find out what your peers are saying about FME vs. Fivetran and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.

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