Fivetran vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data comparison

Fivetran and IBM are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Fivetran is ranked #12 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #26 with an average rating of 7.0. Fivetran holds a 2.0% mindshare in DI, compared to IBM’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Fivetran users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Fivetran

Read 29 Fivetran reviews

3,915 Views
2,349 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,186 Views
2,055 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Fivetran

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

IBM Cloud Pak for Data and Fivetran compete in the data integration and management space. IBM Cloud Pak for Data has the advantage in terms of support and pricing satisfaction, while Fivetran stands out with its robust features that justify its cost.

Features: IBM Cloud Pak for Data integrates diverse data sources, providing a unified platform for AI-driven insights. It offers advanced analytics capabilities and strong governance features. In contrast, Fivetran is known for its seamless data pipeline automation and efficient data connectors, simplifying the ETL process. Its automation and simplicity significantly differentiate it from competitors.

Room for Improvement: IBM Cloud Pak for Data could enhance its deployment simplicity and reduce its complexity for businesses with limited IT resources. Its customer service could benefit from more streamlined processes. Fivetran might improve in providing more personalized support and enhancing its flexibility for complex data processes. The cost structure could be more adaptive to different scales of data usage.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cloud Pak for Data requires a comprehensive setup and a detailed deployment strategy, which can be complex. It features a notably hands-on customer service providing in-depth assistance. Fivetran, contrastingly, offers a straightforward deployment with plug-and-play functionality, focusing on ease and efficiency. Its customer service is efficient but more tailored to automated processes rather than personalized support.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Cloud Pak for Data typically involves a more substantial initial investment but delivers strong long-term ROI through extensive capabilities and scalable infrastructure. Fivetran, with a lower upfront cost, provides attractive quick return benefits due to its efficient data handling, but its ROI is highly dependent on the volume and complexity of data processes, potentially making it a more costly solution over time.

To learn more, read our detailed Fivetran vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

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

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Fivetran is 2.0%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.8%, up 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%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data	1.8%
Other	96.2%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Hafiz Usman

Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot

Has accelerated data integration workflows and supports seamless development of custom connectors

I've worked extensively with Fivetran, mainly used for extraction purposes, and I've worked with the transformation element in it as well. Fivetran not only has built-in connectors but also provides SDK connectors, allowing us to develop our own connectors in an easy manner. I don't have to write raw Python scripts or dumping scripts; it offers straightforward examples and guidelines, making it much simpler to develop custom connectors inside Fivetran. We've been able to develop many custom connectors as well, which is unique and beneficial for having everything centralized instead of having those connectors located elsewhere. One of the best features by Fivetran is its clean, simple, and intuitive UI. It includes a transformation section where I can deploy my DBT queries and scripts. It also supplies good tracking capabilities for billing estimates and user permissions, allowing for customization to the desired level. The number of connectors it has remains a standout feature, and within connectors, the options available are very helpful. Although it sometimes appears static due to its built-in nature, it offers good flexibility for data transformation and caching, which I appreciate because it saves us extensive script-writing time.

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Michelle Leslie

Data asset management engineer at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database

What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.

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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

"Fivetran can perform data migration incredibly fast, depending on the source and target."

"The user interface is mostly UI-based, eliminating the need for a lot of coding."

"The compare feature is the most valuable piece of it."

"The ease of usability is the most valuable feature. It's very easy and quick to set up. It also has a central hub as opposed to GoldenGate which is one direct interface. For GoldenGate I would have needed three interfaces whereas with HVR I have a central interface that manages everything."

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

"Fivetran is remarkably easy to use; I haven't encountered any other data integration tool that is as user-friendly."

"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."

"Fivetran provides time savings, cost reductions, and improvements in data quality, and when the time investment decreases, fewer developers are needed, which means significant savings."

More Fivetran pros

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."

"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."

"I love the way that I can start at a very basic level with my data management journey by capturing my policies, justifying my data, and putting them into different categories to say this is data relating to individuals, for example, or data relating to geography."

"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."

"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."

"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."

"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

Cons

"The biggest area for improvement is in customization, particularly in how Fivetran socializes its tools."

"The documentation is decent, but it's hard to find information online about Fivetran. For example, if you try to search for an error code, you won't find much information about it in forums."

"The documentation can be laid out better to make it easier to find things, and I really wish there was built-in support for changing passwords. Some features don't work as advertised for the platform/repository database, and HVR is not always the fastest at getting results."

"More connectors are needed for exotic, popular, and rising star portals."

"In our case, we ultimately did not end up using Fivetran because we were able to do custom connects at a lower cost compared to Fivetran. From a cost perspective, if the number of connectors is lesser, then Fivetran is not the most cost-efficient option."

"There was a random change to our contract in a unilateral manner after the first year. The overall cost of using Fivetran was then unclear and this is the reason I would not recommend this solution."

"The environment must be more development-friendly."

"Their pricing has increased over the years, so it's not seen as an advantage anymore."

More Fivetran cons

"The technical support could be a little better."

"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."

"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."

"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."

"The solution could have more connectors."

"The product must improve its performance."

"The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem."

"What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

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."

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

"I would say they're a little bit on the expensive side, and their contract process is not particularly good, but there is a lot of potential flexibility."

"I rate the pricing a six out of ten."

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

"I've heard that the license for HVR is a bit costly compared to its competitors, but since it's reliable and efficient, I think the customer shouldn't be bothered about the cost."

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

"In the first year, we were given a very good discount. It was approximately 20,000 Euros per year. In the third year, we purchased credit for two years and the price was 33,000 Euros per year."

More Fivetran pricing and cost advice

"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."

"The solution is expensive."

"It's quite expensive."

"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."

"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."

"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."

"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Retailer

Financial Services Firm

28%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	10
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	16

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Large Enterprise	8

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 ...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

My primary use case for Cloud Pak is that I am the reference Data steward for the Africa regions in the banks where I work. My main objective is to capture the reference data in Caltech or Data and...

See all answers

Comparisons

AWS Database Migration Service vs Fivetran

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle GoldenGate vs Fivetran

Compared 11% of the time

Qlik Replicate vs Fivetran

Compared 8% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Fivetran

Compared 6% of the time

Confluent vs Fivetran

Compared 4% of the time

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IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 44% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 13% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 9% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran

October 2025

Download Fivetran product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

October 2025

Download IBM Cloud Pak for Data product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cloud Pak for Data

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

IBM Cloud Pak® for Data is a fully-integrated data and AI platform that modernizes how businesses collect, organize and analyze data to infuse AI throughout their organizations. Cloud-native by design, the platform unifies market-leading services spanning the entire analytics lifecycle. From data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI, IBM Cloud Pak for Data helps eliminate the need for costly, and often competing, point solutions while providing the information architecture you need to implement AI successfully.

Building on the streamlined hybrid-cloud foundation of Red Hat® OpenShift®, IBM Cloud Pak for Data takes advantage of the underlying resource and infrastructure optimization and management. The solution fully supports multicloud environments such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud™ and private cloud deployments. Find out how IBM Cloud Pak for Data can lower your total cost of ownership and accelerate innovation.

IBM

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

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

September 2025

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