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 FlyData

FlyData is a cloud-based ETL platform for database sources.

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.


Focus	Data ingestion, ELT to Amazon Redshift from managed databases	ETL, transformations, data prep	Data ingestion, ELT
Database replication	Full table; incremental via binary log or using a FlyData agent running on a Linux server	Full replication or change data capture	Full table; incremental via change data capture or SELECT/replication keys
SaaS sources	None	Only Salesforce	More than 100
Ability for customers to add new data sources	No	Yes	Yes
Connects to data warehouses? Data lakes?	Yes / No	Yes / Yes	Yes / Yes
Transparent pricing	Yes	No	Yes
Support SLAs	No	Available	Available
Purchase process	Options for self-service or talking with sales	Requires a conversation with sales	Options for self-service or talking with sales. Also available from the AWS store.
Compliance, governance, and security certifications	GDPR	HIPAA, GDPR	HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2
Data sharing	No	No	Yes, through Talend Data Fabric
Vendor lock-in	Monthly contracts	Annual contracts. StreamSets Data Collector is open source, other parts of the platform are proprietary.	Month to month or annual contracts. Open source integrations
Developer tools	None	Several APIs	Import 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

FlyData

FlyData focuses on the E and L, extraction and loading, of ELT. It extracts raw data from one of seven database sources and loads it into Amazon Redshift without performing transformations.

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.

Try Stitch for free for 14 days

Unlimited data volume during trial
Set up in minutes

Set up in minutesUnlimited data volume during trial

No credit card required

Connectors: Data sources and destinations

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

FlyData

FlyData supports seven database sources and no SaaS platforms. The only destination it supports is Amazon Redshift. Customers can request that the company build a new data source or destination, but no one outside of the company can build new ones or make improvements to existing ones.

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.

FlyData

FlyData provides support through Intercom online chat and via email. Documentation consists of a few dozen online pages. The company does not provide training services.

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

FlyData

FlyData pricing ranges from $199 to $4,467 per month, based on number of rows transferred. Annual and custom plans are also available, and require a conversation with sales. The company offers a 14-day free trial.

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.

Give Stitch a try, on us

Select your integrations, choose your warehouse, and enjoy Stitch free for 14 days.

Set up in minutesUnlimited data volume during trial