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Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs SAP Business Data Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 29, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.4
Pentaho and Lumada integration improved efficiency, reduced costs, and enhanced decision-making speed, benefiting companies' competitiveness and project wins.
Sentiment score
6.6
SAP Analytics Cloud boosts ROI by streamlining data automation and reporting, accelerating decision-making and improving business processes efficiently.
I have seen a return on investment; my team was able to stay extremely small even though we had a lot of data integrations with many companies.
Principal Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I can testify to the return on investment with metrics regarding time saved; we have increased our efficiency by about 20 to 30 percent due to the swift migration processes facilitated by the tool.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I have noticed a return on investment with Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics in terms of time savings and staff reduction.
Data Analyst at Telefonica Digital
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.1
Pentaho support experiences vary; some note effectiveness, others delays, with community forums often supplementing Enterprise's speedy ticket responses.
Sentiment score
6.1
SAP Analytics Cloud support is generally responsive, but users desire quicker responses, more expertise, and improved training resources.
24/7 assistance is available for the Enterprise Edition.
Data architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
take the time to understand our business requirements, offering appropriate recommendations.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Communication with the vendor is challenging
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
The technical support is a very well-organized service, with a lot of tools for me as a consultant and for the end user on how to contact SAP support and get issues solved.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
We are satisfied with the technical support from SAP because when we reached out, we were able to get very good support from SAP colleagues.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
I am satisfied with SAP's technical support team; they provide very good support.
BI Lead Consultant at Intercom Enterprises
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho Data Integration offers good scalability for moderate datasets but struggles with large volumes and cloud architectures.
Sentiment score
7.3
SAP Analytics Cloud is scalable and versatile, supporting large user bases while integrating well with other SAP products.
It can be scaled well until you reach a point where you need to perform a lot of operations, and the issue arises when it runs out of memory to handle some data.
Data engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Its ability to scale horizontally in cloud-native architectures or for massive real-time processing is limited.
Data Analyst at Telefonica Digital
Pentaho Data Integration handles larger datasets better.
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
SAP Analytics Cloud can be used by a small company, and it can be used by a large corporate.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
I would rate its scalability up to nine on a scale of one to ten.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho is stable and reliable, though minor bugs and performance issues occur, especially with older or complex queries.
Sentiment score
7.4
SAP Analytics Cloud is stable and reliable, though minor connectivity and performance issues occur with large datasets and variable updates.
Performance issues arise due to reliance on a flowchart-based mechanism instead of scripts, which can lead to longer execution times.
Data architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
I find that version 3.1 is the most stable version I have ever used.
Founder-CEO at Ubuntu Analytica
It's pretty stable, however, it struggles when dealing with smaller amounts of data.
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
You have a chance to test it on your test tenant in small increments, so it should not break your productive reports and productive environment.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
 

Room For Improvement

Pentaho requires better cloud adaptability, scalability, real-time processing, modern UI, language support, performance, documentation, and environment compatibility.
SAP Analytics Cloud users seek improved integration, compatibility, visualization, programming support, pricing, analytics, documentation, technical support, and interface design.
We should also explore more effective partitioning for parallel processing and fine-tuning database connections to reduce load times and improve ETL speed.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics can be improved by working with different environments, specifically the possibility to change the variables, meaning I write my variables only once and can change them for different environments such as production or development.
Founder-CEO at Ubuntu Analytica
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics could have real-time processing and automatic alerting, having alerts or automatic notifications when a job fails or when certain data doesn't meet certain rules.
Data Analyst at Telefonica Digital
On the other hand, it is perfectly fitting to the SAP environment, with seamless integration to all SAP modules, not only ERP but also SuccessFactors and other tools from the SAP family.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
Documentation-wise, we see some gaps when trying to connect different solutions.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
 

Setup Cost

Pentaho offers a cost-effective solution with appealing Community and Enterprise editions, maintaining positive sentiment despite some price increases.
SAP Analytics Cloud is pricey but valuable for SAP integration, requiring careful cost analysis and license management.
I use the community version of Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics, and I do not need additional costs.
Project Manager at Laberit
The setup cost was minimal, and the pricing experience was pretty good.
Data engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
The company covered it and they had no problem paying for it because they saw that it was cost-effective in terms of performance afterwards.
Data Analyst at Telefonica Digital
 

Valuable Features

Pentaho offers intuitive data integration with broad connectivity, simplifying complex transformations and providing flexibility and automation across environments.
SAP Analytics Cloud is valued for its predictive analytics, integration, user interface, AI features, and cost-effective comprehensive functionalities.
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has positively impacted my organization because it meant we didn't have to write a lot of custom API back-end processing logic; it did the majority of that heavy lifting for us.
Principal Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It automates the data workflow, including extraction, cleansing, and loading into warehouses for BI reporting purposes, while also removing duplicates, validating data, and standardizing formats, enabling real-time decision-making.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has positively impacted my organization because it is easier to use, and my knowledge about this work facilitates the translation from the source to my final system.
Project Manager at Laberit
For SuccessFactors and S/4HANA Cloud, there are pre-built reports available which are commonly used by customers.
Project Manager at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
The capabilities of SAP Analytics Cloud that I consider the most valuable are that all three functionalities are in one tool.
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Data Integration an...
Ranking in Data Integration
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Business Data Cloud
Ranking in Data Integration
18th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (5th), Cloud Analytics (2nd), Predictive Analytics (3rd), Data Governance (11th), Cloud Data Warehouse (12th)
 

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.
Pavlina Pankova - PeerSpot reviewer
Competence Leader - BI at Sabris CZ s.r.o.
Brings reporting, planning, and prediction together in one seamless workflow
I think the areas of SAP Analytics Cloud that could be improved or enhanced are mentioned by users or companies, and they would definitely mention the price in terms of planning licensing. From a consulting point of view, I don't see any major weaknesses. It is reasonably well-developed, and the perfect strength is that innovations are coming on a quarterly basis. It is slightly behind other tools in terms of the number of graphical outputs. Some tools have it faster, but every increment of innovations contains new features. On the other hand, it is perfectly fitting to the SAP environment, with seamless integration to all SAP modules, not only ERP but also SuccessFactors and other tools from the SAP family, for example, integrated business planning for the production planning. This is really a highlight compared to other tools.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise17
Large Enterprise31
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business24
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise39
 

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...
Which would you choose - Tableau or SAP Analytics Cloud?
Tableau is easy to set up and maintain. In about a day it is possible for the entire platform to be deployed for use. This relatively short amount of time can make all the difference for companies ...
What do you like most about SAP Analytics Cloud?
In the data warehouse, you're free to make changes. You can make everything text, meaning it's always a string. Even numbers appear as text, giving you the flexibility to work with all columns.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Analytics Cloud?
I normally do not deal with the commercials, so I am not aware of the pricing part of it.
 

Also Known As

Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Kettle, Pentaho Data Integration
SAP Analytics Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

66Controls, Providential Revenue Agency of Ro Negro, NOAA Information Systems, Swiss Real Estate Institute
Live Oak Bank
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