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 7.9, while IBM is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.0. Fivetran holds a 2.3% mindshare in DI, compared to IBM’s 2.0% mindshare. Additionally, 89% of Fivetran users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

Fivetran

Read 27 Fivetran reviews

4,481 Views
2,733 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Read 13 IBM Cloud Pak for Data reviews

2,499 Views
2,349 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Fivetran

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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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: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Data

July 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

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Replication (3rd), Cloud Data Integration (6th)

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Ranking in Data Integration

24th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Virtualization (3rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Fivetran is 2.3%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 2.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Mediha Šiljić

Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab

Built-in connectors offer extensive data source integration and time savings

Fivetran could improve by adapting more for technical users and by providing more options for such users. There should be more adaptability in terms of new features. If a specific feature is required, it should be integrated promptly. Improvement in existing connectors with new features is desirable. Enhancements around customer-focused product adaptation are also suggested.

Read full review

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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For us, Fivetran has been able to scale both in terms of the data we bring into our warehouse and the amount of data that we use as well."

"There's the general feature of the platform where it just makes it very easy to integrate different things, but I would say a specific difference is their integration of DBT,."

"Making the decision to implement Fivetran was supported by the fact that they have better connectors than other competitors."

"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."

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

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

"It is easy for users to get accustomed to the tool due to its gentle learning curve and clear error transparency."

"The simplicity and scalability are the strongest features of Fivetran."

More Fivetran pros

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

"It is a scalable solution, and we have had no issues with its scalability in our company. I rate the solution's scalability a nine out of ten."

"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."

"Cloud Pak's most valuable features are IBM MQ, IBM App Connect, IBM API Connect, and ISPF."

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

"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."

"The most valuable features of IBM Cloud Pak for Data are the Watson Studio, where we can initiate more groups and write code. Additionally, Watson Machine Learning is available with many other services, such as APIs which you can plug the machine learning models."

"What I found most helpful in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is containerization, which means it's easy to shift and leave in terms of moving to other clouds. That's an advantage of IBM Cloud Pak for Data."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data pros

Cons

"I would like to see an improvement in the support offered by Fivetran."

"An in-line data quality checking capability is missing"

"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."

"I would like for them to incorporate additional transformations. A valuable aspect of the product is that it does inflight transformations and that could be expanded."

"Fivetran is very expensive for data sources with a lot of rows, such as email data. I would like to see cheaper pricing for data sources like that."

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

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

"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."

More Fivetran cons

"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."

"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."

"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."

"The solution's user experience is an area that has room for improvement."

"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."

"The interface could improve because sometimes it becomes slow. Sometimes there is a delay between clicks when using the software, which can make the development process slow. It can take a few seconds to complete one action, and then a few more seconds to do the next one."

"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."

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"The solution is affordable."

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

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

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

"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."

"The product is reasonably expensive"

"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."

More Fivetran pricing and cost advice

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

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

"The solution is expensive."

"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."

"It's quite expensive."

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

"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."

"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."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

30%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

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 do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Data?

DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources.

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

Comparisons

AWS Database Migration Service vs Fivetran

Compared 14% 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

AWS Glue vs Fivetran

Compared 5% of the time

More Fivetran Competitors

IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 40% of the time

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

Compared 12% of the time

Denodo vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 11% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 10% of the time

Palantir Foundry vs IBM Cloud Pak for Data

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Cloud Pak for Data Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran

July 2025

Download Fivetran product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Pak for Data

June 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

July 2025

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