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Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs TIBCO BusinessWorks 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho Data Integration offers cost-effective, efficient ETL solutions with significant time savings, enhancing IT processes despite perceived obsolescence.
Sentiment score
6.3
TIBCO BusinessWorks is valued for its flexibility, reliability, and quick ROI, making it a leading business integration solution.
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 vendor with 201-500 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.1
Pentaho's support is praised for knowledge and responsiveness, but response times vary, especially for the community edition.
Sentiment score
6.4
TIBCO BusinessWorks customer support receives mixed reviews, praised by some for efficiency but criticized by others for inconsistency.
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 vendor with 201-500 employees
Communication with the vendor is challenging
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
The technical support from TIBCO BusinessWorks is very good.
E2E Delivery Expert - Ignite Delivery & Technical Enablement at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Customer service is very helpful.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
I rate TIBCO technical support as fantastic on a scale of one to ten.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Pentaho scales well for small to medium data, but may struggle with large datasets, fitting diverse organizational roles.
Sentiment score
6.4
TIBCO BusinessWorks is scalable and versatile, but users report mixed experiences with autoscaling and cost issues outside the cloud.
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
Pentaho Data Integration handles larger datasets better.
Data Architecture and Engineering Specialist at coprocenva
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics' scalability is commendable, as it allows us to scale up according to our needs.
Data architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
It is not like AWS where I can add memory or more servers.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Pentaho is generally stable and reliable, though occasional memory issues and bugs occur, especially in community editions.
Sentiment score
7.4
TIBCO BusinessWorks is stable and reliable, though version 6 faces migration challenges and SAP Adapter issues, averaging high ratings.
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
TIBCO BusinessWorks is quite stable and scales very well, so we are happy.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
It is stable, however, every now and then, it just ends.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Room For Improvement

Pentaho needs improved logging, debugging, user interface, performance, environment management, cloud support, documentation, and user feedback integration.
TIBCO BusinessWorks faces usability issues, high costs, inefficiencies, and lacks advanced integration with AI, IoT, and cloud.
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 vendor with 201-500 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
I also lack the option to use programming languages beyond Python and SQL, and a provision to incorporate Scala code in the scripting component would be beneficial.
Data architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
AI-driven features in TIBCO BusinessWorks would be beneficial, so that our business tech BA can do the development rather than needing programmers.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
The learning curve takes time compared to webMethods.
Senior Analyst at Etisalat
They should ensure that what was working in the previous version must also work in the new version of BW six.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
 

Setup Cost

Pentaho Data Integration provides free and paid versions, with users valuing cost-effectiveness despite rising Enterprise Edition prices.
TIBCO BusinessWorks pricing is costly for smaller companies but more reasonable for large enterprises with flexible resources.
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
Pricing is for an enterprise application, so the company pays for it with a company license.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
The current licensing cost for the product involves our resource sourcing team for negotiations.
E2E Delivery Expert - Ignite Delivery & Technical Enablement at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Because we have enterprise licenses, the pricing for TIBCO BusinessWorks is quite reasonable for us, so we do not see any issue.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
 

Valuable Features

Pentaho offers intuitive data integration with extensive customization, supporting rapid ETL development, big data, and minimal coding.
TIBCO BusinessWorks provides user-friendly, scalable solutions with robust integration and low-code environment for efficient connectivity and rapid deployment.
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 vendor with 201-500 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
It's a great software application for the middleware use cases to connect the front channels to the back ends in a secure and safer way.
Senior Analyst at Etisalat
Drag and drop make it easier to build the service end to end.
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
TIBCO BusinessWorks' real-time data exchange capability has benefited our customers greatly; we conduct a lot of messaging with Superstream and external partners, so it works well for us.
Lead Solutions Architect at UNSW Australia
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Data Integration an...
Ranking in Data Integration
11th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TIBCO BusinessWorks
Ranking in Data Integration
18th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 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 TIBCO BusinessWorks is 0.9%, up from 0.9% 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%
TIBCO BusinessWorks0.9%
Other97.6%
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.
CL
Software Developer at Telkom Mobile
Drag and drop capabilities simplify service development for easy building
It is drag and drop. Drag and drop make it easier to build the service end to end. It is easier to build services with BusinessWorks. When I have an architecture designed to plug in the service itself with BW, it makes things much easier. It is easy to integrate, especially when the architecture is well-designed.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Retailer
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Hospitality Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise29
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise24
 

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...
How does TIBCO BusinessWorks compare with Mule Anypoint Platform?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether TIBCO BusinessWorks or Mule Anypoint platform integration and connectivity software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Mule...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO BusinessWorks?
The current licensing cost for the product involves our resource sourcing team for negotiations. It depends on the type of licenses being used, whether perpetual or not. Sourcing manages these aspe...
What needs improvement with TIBCO BusinessWorks?
There could be improvement areas in TIBCO BusinessWorks because every area needs to improve as the industry is demanding and traffic is increasing. Performance and latency could be enhanced. Additi...
 

Also Known As

Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Kettle, Pentaho Data Integration
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

66Controls, Providential Revenue Agency of Ro Negro, NOAA Information Systems, Swiss Real Estate Institute
Euler Hermes, QSuper, Scandinavian Airlines
Find out what your peers are saying about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs. TIBCO BusinessWorks and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.