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Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs SAS Data Integration Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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

Pentaho Data Integration an...
Ranking in Data Integration
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAS Data Integration Server
Ranking in Data Integration
39th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics is 1.5%, up from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Data Integration Server is 0.8%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics1.5%
SAS Data Integration Server0.8%
Other97.7%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Michelle Lawson - PeerSpot reviewer
Principal Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Streamlines complex data workflows and has supported automated customer payment notifications
I haven't used Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics in a couple of years, so I don't know how it can be improved. I was pretty pleased with it and was self-taught on it, working a lot with their team at various times, but they were surprised that I was able to learn it all by myself. The documentation is not bad, and documentation is the main thing that any product can do to make themselves better because the easier it is to find examples of what you're trying to do improves the learning curve. I think it took me the longest to learn how to do the asynchronous processing and have things wait for other things to finish processing before continuing on in the workflow. I choose 8 out of 10 because the one reason that it's been rejected at T-Mobile is that everything has to go through a provisioning process and has to get approved, meaning the actual code base has to be investigated by T-Mobile before they'll allow us to use tools of that nature. For whatever reason, we just haven't been able to get that approval; I don't know if it's on Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics' side or if it's on our side. The more you can make it easier for companies to feel comfortable that your product is secure, robustly tested and bug-free, and free of any other kind of negative hacks, the more quickly it will get accepted.
NN
Works at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees
Offloads processes on the server side but needs better installation syntax
One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference between two dates, the general syntax in SAS is called the data difference or data net function. However, another name is used, such as NF and INK. Without knowledge of SAS programming, it becomes unclear what these functions mean. It is not good to define function names this way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Sometimes, it took a whole team about two weeks to get all the data to prepare and present it. After the optimization of the data, it took about one to two hours to do the whole process. Therefore, it has helped a lot when you talk about money, because it doesn't take a whole team to do it, just one person to do one project at a time and run it when you want to run it. So, it has helped a lot on that side."
"It makes it pretty simple to do some fairly complicated things. Both I and some of our other BI developers have made stabs at using, for example, SQL Server Integration Services, and we found them a little bit frustrating compared to Data Integration. So, its ease of use is right up there."
"Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics is a great solution to accomplish big things in a very short time."
"This solution allows us to create pipelines using a minimal amount of custom coding."
"Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has had a notably positive impact on my organization, enabling us to complete several projects efficiently."
"Its drag-and-drop interface lets me and my team implement all the solutions that we need in our company very quickly. It's a very good tool for that."
"It's my understanding that the product can scale."
"I absolutely love Hitachi. I'm one of the forefront supporters of Hitachi for my firm. It's so easy to integrate within our environments. In terms of being able to quickly build ETL jobs, transform, and then automate them, it's really easy to integrate throughout for data analytics."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
"The solution offers very good data manipulation and loading."
"The solution is very stable."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
 

Cons

"One thing I wish was better about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics is its performance, as it sometimes gets intensive on the CPU standpoint, taking a lot of memory in some cases, especially when dealing with big data sets."
"​I work with the Community Edition, therefore I do not have support. There was an issue that I could not resolve with community support.​"
"It could be better integrated with programming languages, like Python and R. Right now, if I want to run a Python code on one of my ETLs, it is a bit difficult to do. It would be great if we have some modules where we could code directly in a Python language. We don't really have a way to run Python code natively."
"If you develop it on MacBook, it'll be quite a hassle."
"​There is not a data quality or MDM solution in the Pentaho DI suite.​"
"I would like to see improvements made for real-time data processing."
"It's not very stable, at least not in the case of the community edition. I'm working with the community edition right now and I think perhaps it is because of that it is not very stable, it causes the system to sometimes hang. I'm not sure if this is the case for pair tiers."
"Since Hitachi took over, I don't feel that the documentation is as good within the solution. It used to have very good help built right in."
"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."
"The initial setup of SAS Data Integration Server was complex."
"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."
"So I would like to see improved integration with other software."
"One area for improvement is the installation process."
"The transform tool has limited access. They should make it more flexible."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Sometimes we provide the licenses or the customer can procure their own licenses. Previously, we had an enterprise license. Currently, we are on a community license as this is adequate for our needs."
"For most development tasks, the Enterprise edition should be sufficient. It depends on the type of support that you require for your production environment."
"When we first started with it, it was much cheaper. It has gone up drastically, especially since Hitachi bought out Pentaho."
"I mostly used the open-source version. I didn't work with a license."
"You need to go through the paid version to have Hitachi Lumada specialized support. However, if you are using the free version, then you will have only the community support. You will depend on the releases from Hitachi to solve some problem or questions that you have, such as bug fixes. You will need to wait for the newest versions or releases to solve these types of problems."
"I believe the pricing of the solution is more affordable than the competitors"
"If a company is looking for an ETL solution and wants to integrate it with their tech stack but doesn't want to spend a bunch of money, Pentaho is a good solution"
"The cost of these types of solutions are expensive. So, we really appreciate what we get for our money. Though, we don't think of the solution as a top-of-the-line solution or anything like that."
"It is an expensive program."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise31
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which ETL tool would you recommend to populate data from OLTP to OLAP?
Hi Rajneesh, yes here is the feature comparison between the community and enterprise edition : https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/pdf/brochure/leverage-open-source-benefits-with-assurance-of-hita...
What do you think can be improved with Hitachi Lumada Data Integrations?
In my opinion, the reporting side of this tool needs serious improvements. In my previous company, we worked with Hitachi Lumada Data Integration and while it does a good job for what it’s worth, ...
What do you use Hitachi Lumada Data Integrations for most frequently?
My company has used this product to transform data from databases, CSV files, and flat files. It really does a good job. We were most satisfied with the results in terms of how many people could us...
What needs improvement with SAS Data Integration Server?
One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference...
What is your primary use case for SAS Data Integration Server?
I am involved in the ETR job. My role is focused on executing the ETR job.
What advice do you have for others considering SAS Data Integration Server?
I use it without further details. For example, if I use SAS to connect to a NetEazt database or purchase a shared asset to ODBC, I can connect to any database with ODBC connection support. The over...
 

Also Known As

Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Kettle, Pentaho Data Integration
SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server, Enterprise Data Integration Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

66Controls, Providential Revenue Agency of Ro Negro, NOAA Information Systems, Swiss Real Estate Institute
Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance
Find out what your peers are saying about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs. SAS Data Integration Server and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
882,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.