Most businesses have data stored in a variety of locations, from in-house databases to SaaS platforms. To get a full picture of their finances and operations, they pull data from all those sources into a data warehouse or data lake and run analytics against it. But they don't want to build and maintain their own data pipelines.

Fortunately, it’s not necessary to code everything in-house. Here's an comparison of two such tools, head to head.

About Azure Data Factory

Azure Data Factory is a cloud-based data integration service for creating ETL and ELT pipelines. It allows users to create data processing workflows in the cloud,either through a graphical interface or by writing code, for orchestrating and automating data movement and data transformation.

Stitch and Talend partner closely with Microsoft. While this page details our products that have some overlapping functionality and the differences between them, we're more complementary than we are competitive. Microsoft Azure offers lots of products beyond what's mentioned on this page, and we have thousands of customers who successfully use our solutions together.

About StreamSets

The StreamSets DataOps Platform includes five components:

  • Control Hub is the dashboard for building, deploying, and operating data flows.

  • Data Collector is an open source tool for designing streaming data pipelines with both a graphical UI and a command-line interface.

  • Data Collector Edge is a data ingestion and analytics tool for IoT and cybersecurity edge systems that runs via an ultralight agent.

  • Data Protector discovers and secures sensitive data as it moves through a pipeline, to aid compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and other regulations.

  • DataFlow Performance Manager adds historical comparisons and data SLAs for availability, accuracy, and security.

  • About Stitch

    Stitch Data Loader is a cloud-based platform for ETL — extract, transform, and load. More than 3,000 companies use Stitch to move billions of records every day from SaaS applications and databases into data warehouses and data lakes, where it can be analyzed with BI tools. Stitch is a Talend company and is part of the Talend Data Fabric.

    Azure Data Factory LogoStreamSets LogoStitch Logo
    FocusETLETL, transformations, data prepData ingestion, ELT
    Database replicationFull table; incremental via custom SELECT queryFull replication or change data captureFull table; incremental via change data capture or SELECT/replication keys
    SaaS sourcesAbout 20, with several more in previewOnly SalesforceMore than 100
    Ability for customers to add new data sourcesNoYesYes
    Connects to data warehouses? Data lakes?Yes / YesYes / YesYes / Yes
    Transparent pricingYesNoYes
    G2 customer satisfactionHelp4.6/5Not Rated4.8/5
    Support SLAsYesAvailableAvailable
    Purchase processOptions for self-service or talking with salesRequires a conversation with salesOptions for self-service or talking with sales. Also available from the AWS store.
    Compliance, governance, and security certificationsHIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, othersHIPAA, GDPRHIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2
    Data sharingNoNoYes, through Talend Data Fabric
    Vendor lock-inMonth to monthAnnual contracts. StreamSets Data Collector is open source, other parts of the platform are proprietary.Month to month or annual contracts. Open source integrations
    Developer toolsREST API, .Net and Python SDKsSeveral APIsImport API, Stitch Connect API for integrating Stitch with other platforms, Singer open source project

    Let's dive into some of the details of each platform.

    Transformations

    Azure Data Factory

    Azure Data Factory supports both pre- and post-load transformations. Users apply transformations either by using a GUI to map them, or in code using Power Query Online. Azure Data Factory supports a wide range of transformation functions.

    StreamSets

    StreamSets comes with more than 50 pre-load transformation processors, which users can drag and drop onto a graphical workspace. Processors can look up, remove, convert, parse, and aggregate data from various sources. Developers can write their own custom processors in Java, Java Expression Language (EL), JavaScript, Jython, Groovy, and Scala.

    Stitch

    Stitch is an ELT product. Within the pipeline, Stitch does only transformations that are required for compatibility with the destination, such as translating data types or denesting data when relevant. Stitch is part of Talend, which also provides tools for transforming data either within the data warehouse or via external processing engines such as Spark and MapReduce. Transformations can be defined in SQL, Python, Java, or via graphical user interface.

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    Connectors: Data sources and destinations

    Each of these tools supports a variety of data sources and destinations.

    Azure Data Factory

    Azure Data Factory integrates with about 80 data sources, including SaaS platforms, SQL and NoSQL databases, generic protocols, and various file types. It supports around 20 cloud and on-premises data warehouse and database destinations.

    StreamSets

    StreamSets Data Collector (SDC) supports more than 40 storage and database sources, plus Kafka Streams and MapR Streams; no SaaS integrations are available other than Salesforce. Destinations include Google BigQuery, Snowflake, Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Lake, and more than 30 other database, storage, and streaming platforms.

    Stitch

    Stitch supports more than 100 database and SaaS integrationsas data sources, and eight data warehouse and data lake destinations. Customers can contract with Stitch to build new sources, and anyone can add a new source to Stitch by developing it according to the standards laid out in Singer, an open source toolkit for writing scripts that move data. Singer integrations can be run independently, regardless of whether the user is a Stitch customer. Running Singer integrations on Stitch’s platform allows users to take advantage of Stitch's monitoring, scheduling, credential management, and autoscaling features.

    Support, documentation, and training

    Data integration tools can be complex, so vendors offer several ways to help their customers. Online documentation is the first resource users often turn to, and support teams can answer questions that aren't covered in the docs. Vendors of the more complicated tools may also offer training services.

    Azure Data Factory

    Azure Data Factory provides support via online forums and an online support request form. Email and phone support are available. Documentation is comprehensive. Digital training materials are available.

    StreamSets

    StreamSets provides support through a Zendesk ticketing system. Documentation is comprehensive. Digital training materials are available.

    Stitch

    Stitch provides in-app chat support to all customers, and phone support is available for Enterprise customers. Support SLAs are available. Documentation is comprehensive and is open source — anyone can contribute additions and improvements or repurpose the content. Stitch does not provide training services.

    Pricing

    Azure Data Factory

    Pricing for Azure Data Factory's data pipeline is calculated based on number of pipeline orchestration runs; compute-hours for flow execution and debugging; and number of Data Factory operations, such as pipeline monitoring.

    StreamSets

    StreamSets provides a 30-day free trial. Pricing isn't disclosed.

    Stitch

    Stitch has pricing that scales to fit a wide range of budgets and company sizes. All new users get an unlimited 14-day trial. Standard plans range from $100 to $1,250 per month depending on scale, with discounts for paying annually. Enterprise plans for larger organizations and mission-critical use cases can include custom features, data volumes, and service levels, and are priced individually.

    Get started now

    Which tool is better overall? That's something every organization has to decide based on its unique requirements, but we can help you get started. Sign up now for a free trial of Stitch.

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