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Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs TIBCO Spotfire comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
5.8
TIBCO Spotfire boosts ROI by reducing maintenance, enhancing efficiency, and improving data analysis for informed decision-making and productivity.
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
I have seen a return on investment with TIBCO Spotfire; it has significantly reduced our manual report creation time and increased data-driven decision-making efficiency, so our ROI is good in that aspect.
Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ 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
6.9
TIBCO Spotfire's customer service is praised for responsiveness and expertise, with some variability in support quality noted.
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
Having a local partner was crucial for us while they were there.
Production Engineer at Parex Resources Inc
I would rate the customer support for TIBCO Spotfire nine out of ten.
Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
TIBCO's support, especially for integration products, is swift.
Business Enabler at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
 

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
7.0
TIBCO Spotfire is highly scalable with improved load balancing, suitable for large datasets, but cost may be a concern.
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
The platform was able to support multiple simultaneous users and connect to cloud analytics in the backend, making it quite scalable.
Data Governance System Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

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
6.5
TIBCO Spotfire is stable and reliable, with occasional issues in complex projects, improved by hardware updates and software patches.
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
There are no significant stability issues as long as the product's capabilities are understood and not overly pushed.
Business Enabler at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
The action logs allowed us to check traceability and see how mature and stable the setup was if corruption, performance drift, or synchronization issues occurred.
Data Governance System Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Overall, TIBCO Spotfire is a good product and has been a stable platform.
Lead Data Engineer at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Pentaho needs improved logging, debugging, user interface, performance, environment management, cloud support, documentation, and user feedback integration.
TIBCO Spotfire's UI is outdated, lacks customization, struggles with data handling, and users seek better integration and training.
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
TIBCO Spotfire and ClickView need improvement in scheduling, which is critical yet lacking in quality.
Business Enabler at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
It could be very useful if the coding part of using the platform could be more user-friendly in terms of visual capability.
Production Engineer at Parex Resources Inc
For regulatory submissions, we sometimes had to additionally deploy external tools to provide our client with a perfect export.
Data Governance System Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Pentaho Data Integration provides free and paid versions, with users valuing cost-effectiveness despite rising Enterprise Edition prices.
TIBCO Spotfire's pricing is high yet valuable, with complex licensing and long negotiation, but offers strong ROI and features.
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
TIBCO Spotfire's pricing is high, particularly in traditional markets like Turkey, impacting market penetration.
Business Enabler at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for TIBCO Spotfire appears fair.
Global Head - DevOps and AIOps Startegist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Pentaho offers intuitive data integration with extensive customization, supporting rapid ETL development, big data, and minimal coding.
TIBCO Spotfire offers powerful analytics, easy visualizations, and customization, integrating diverse data sources for insightful business decisions.
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
TIBCO Spotfire integrates with R and Python, offering a differentiator from the competition.
Business Enabler at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Our client wanted a single analytic environment to serve as a one-stop place where their teams could explore, visualize, and collaborate in real time while maintaining security and regulatory expectations.
Data Governance System Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I think having Python included is a big win because you get the chance to customize your algorithm and your in-house development without having a big dependency on a third party.
Production Engineer at Parex Resources Inc
 

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Data Integration an...
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (11th)
TIBCO Spotfire
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
74
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (13th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics and TIBCO Spotfire aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics is designed for Data Integration and holds a mindshare of 1.5%, up 1.3% compared to last year.
TIBCO Spotfire, on the other hand, focuses on BI (Business Intelligence) Tools, holds 1.1% mindshare, up 1.0% since last year.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics1.5%
SSIS4.0%
Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC)3.7%
Other90.8%
Data Integration
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
TIBCO Spotfire1.1%
Microsoft Power BI9.4%
Tableau Enterprise6.7%
Other82.8%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

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.
reviewer2774796 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Governance System Specialist at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Clinical teams have transformed trial data into real-time, governed insights for faster decisions
Our client was a biotech company whose clinical pipeline was expanding with teams across clinical operations, biometrics, safety, and translational sciences. All these organizations and departments were drowning in data. Every week, teams stitched together different PowerPoint decks, SAS listings, spreadsheets, and extracts from central labs, CTMS, and warehouses. The problem was not a lack of data but a lack of timely insights. We were constantly asked which sites were falling behind, whether there was any worrying safety drift, or which biomarkers were correlating with response. Analysts would manually rerun scripts or pull static listings, which resulted in delays ranging from two weeks to a month. There were also many inconsistencies in definitions between ORR, PFS censoring rules, and protocol deviation categories, causing confusion and rework. Our client wanted a single analytic environment to serve as a one-stop place where their teams could explore, visualize, and collaborate in real time while maintaining security and regulatory expectations. TIBCO Spotfire became their live analytics workspace. Previously, teams had to collect emailed spreadsheets and various documents. By having one combined place, teams could open dynamic dashboards that were directly governed by curated datasets. The data canvas showed every transformation step, which helped the client maintain traceability for audits. Data functions written in R or Python allowed statisticians to encode and have approved analytic methods that could be used everywhere. Before implementing the tool, we built a framework and strategy. First, we mapped their high-value pain points including trial enrollment forecasting, safety drift monitoring, protocol deviation detection, and biomarker response analysis. Based on these priorities, we defined common language and common rules by aligning calculations with CDISC standards and creating shared data functions for lab shift rules and biomarker classifications. This prevented inconsistent interpretations across studies. We then built the technical foundation by connecting TIBCO Spotfire securely to their EDC, R environment, data lake, and row-level security to ensure adherence to PHI, PII, and regulatory compliances. Clinical operations dashboards provided real-time insights into enrollments and deviations. Safety dashboards were deployed to visualize patterns, biomarker distributions, and tumor burden changes for their cancer-related drug studies. The business validated the dashboards based on GxP principles, and we trained the study teams and built new templates so that trials could launch analytics much faster.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Educational Organization
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Healthcare Company
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

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 Business18
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise42
 

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...
What do you like most about TIBCO Spotfire?
TIBCO Spotfire is easy to use. We initiated Spotfire as POC, with support from a tech team based in South Africa. While they assisted with the setup, we conducted the POC ourselves.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Spotfire?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for TIBCO Spotfire appears fair, and I think they are fairly priced as far as the features are concerned.
What needs improvement with TIBCO Spotfire?
TIBCO Spotfire can be improved in several areas. The UI can be enhanced, and the usage and flexibility need to be better compared to other analytical tools.
 

Also Known As

Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Kettle, Pentaho Data Integration
Spotfire
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

66Controls, Providential Revenue Agency of Ro Negro, NOAA Information Systems, Swiss Real Estate Institute
Allergan, ASSS de Montreal, Avantium, Blue River, Bank of Montreal, Citibank, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann Logistics, Merck, Novartis
Find out what your peers are saying about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs. TIBCO Spotfire and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.