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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Talend Open Studio 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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data
Ranking in Data Integration
26th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
Talend Open Studio
Ranking in Data Integration
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 1.7%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Talend Open Studio is 2.8%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Talend Open Studio2.8%
IBM Cloud Pak for Data1.7%
Other95.5%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Michelle Leslie - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Sushrit Moundekar - PeerSpot reviewer
Has supported building flexible data pipelines and streamlined ETL orchestration
There should be a dedicated support team for Talend Open Studio. We do have a support team, but at times it is critical for us to fix certain things within one or two hours. Usually, the support team takes some 12 hours, which is the standard edition of support. If we could have round-the-clock support, we would be able to resolve many issues which we encounter during the development part. The initial setup for Talend Open Studio is a little complex. We need to have a dedicated person who has an understanding of Talend Open Studio as a tool. It takes some level of expertise, so it is not an easy process, but once we have a dedicated associate who is knowledgeable in that particular field, it becomes comparatively easier.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."
"Cloud Pak is a very, very, very good system."
"Its data preparation capabilities are highly valuable."
"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."
"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."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."
"It has got so many connectors. It is intuitive and easy to use."
"It is user-friendly and the interface is good."
"The main differentiator that I have seen between Talend and other data integration tools is the ability to view the data pipeline in the form of a program."
"The Talend Studio connected to the Talend MDM (Master Data Management) is the most valuable feature. Talend Studio is used to create a job stream that connects to multiple data sources, matches, compares or creates a golden record for overall identification. It also has a good catalogue of objects that can be dragged and dropped for building models."
"The data integration aspect of the solution is excellent."
"Stability feels fine."
"You can use Talend as a stand-alone application without customization to collect data and generate reports over dashboards. It's got great functionality."
"The most valuable feature for me when it comes to this solution is that it's easy to use."
 

Cons

"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."
"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 could have more connectors."
"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 thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."
"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 technical support could be a little better."
"The product is trying to be more maturity in terms of connectors. That, I believe, is an area where Cloud Pak can improve."
"In terms of features, it has all the features that I need. However, it consumes a lot of resources. It is using a lot of RAM, and they need to fix the issue related to resource consumption. It currently requires more than 24 gigabytes of RAM, which is a big amount of RAM."
"Talend Open Studio is in Java language, and right now, you can only use the debug functionality in Java. I see that people who know programming languages other than Java currently face difficulties."
"Multiple products are there within the product suite. That can be actually trimmed down."
"The stability of the solution could improve when running jobs. There can be errors when running projects but in the end, it works well and the errors do not impact the result."
"he overall marketing and documentation of this product need to improve a lot."
"The product could be more intuitive."
"The physical appearance of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"I think my biggest problem with the tool is that the errors are very hard to debug."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"It's quite expensive."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"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."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"The paid version of this solution has a very high price, but even with the limitations, the Community version works fine."
"We are using the free version of the tool, because the enterprise version is a little expensive."
"The cost for one year for the ETL tools, not for the big data, is 6K per year. It is a good price."
"Open Studio has a basic license and additional costs for services, including customer support and technical assistance."
"For Talend Open Studio, there is a need to make yearly payments towards the licensing cost. Talend Open Studio is a bit expensive, in my opinion."
"It is an open-source tool which means it is a free solution."
"Pricing is always a challenge. It is quite an expensive model, but because the platform is so simple to use, we haven't had to purchase any additional licenses."
"The solution will be more expensive if you have a low data volume and a large number of developers."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
27%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business22
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise18
 

Questions from the Community

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.
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
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...
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...
How does Talend Open Studio compare with AWS Glue?
We reviewed AWS Glue before choosing Talend Open Studio. AWS Glue is the managed ETL (extract, transform, and load) from Amazon Web Services. AWS Glue enables AWS users to create and manage jobs in...
What do you like most about Talend Open Studio?
It is easy to use and covers most of the functions needed. We can use the code without any extra effort. The open source is very good. They have the same commercials with additional connectors. The...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
Open Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
Almerys, BF&M, Findus
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Talend Open Studio and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,837 professionals have used our research since 2012.