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 Google Cloud Dataflow

Google Cloud Dataflow lets users ingest, process, and analyze fluctuating volumes of real-time data. It's one of several Google data analytics services, including:

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

About AWS Data Pipeline

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a host of tools for working with data in the cloud. Data Pipeline focuses on data transfer. It's one of two AWS tools for moving data from sources to analytics destinations; the other is AWS Glue, which is more focused on ETL.

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

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.

Google Cloud Dataflow LogoAWS Data Pipeline LogoStitch Logo
FocusStream and batch processingData transferData ingestion, ELT
Database replicationFull table; incremental replication via custom SELECT statementsFull table; incremental replication via timestamp fieldFull table; incremental via change data capture or SELECT/replication keys
SaaS sourcesNoneNoneMore than 100
Ability for customers to add new data sourcesYesNoYes
Connects to data warehouses? Data lakes?Yes / YesYes / YesYes / Yes
Transparent pricingYesYesYes
G2 customer satisfactionHelp4.1/5Not Rated4.8/5
Support SLAsYesYesAvailable
Purchase processSelf-serviceSelf-serviceOptions for self-service or talking with sales. Also available from the AWS store.
Compliance, governance, and security certificationsHIPAANoneHIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2
Data sharingYesYesYes, through Talend Data Fabric
Vendor lock-inMonth to monthMonth to month. No open sourceMonth to month or annual contracts. Open source integrations
Developer toolsCloud Dataflow REST API, SDKs for Java and PythonAWS Data Pipeline API gives programmatic control over most Data Pipeline operations. SDKs are available for several languages.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

Google Cloud Dataflow

Cloud Dataflow provides a serverless architecture that can shard and process large batch datasets or high-volume data streams. The software supports any kind of transformation via Java and Python APIs with the Apache Beam SDK.

AWS Data Pipeline

Data Pipeline supports preload transformations using SQL commands. You can create a pipeline graphically through a console, using the AWS command line interface (CLI) with a pipeline definition file in JSON format, or programmatically through API calls.

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.

Google Cloud Dataflow

Cloud Dataflow supports both batch and streaming ingestion. For batch, it can access both GCP-hosted and on-premises databases. For streaming, it uses PubSub. Cloud Dataflow doesn't support any SaaS data sources. It can write data to Google Cloud Storage or BigQuery.

AWS Data Pipeline

Data Pipeline supports four types of what it calls data nodes as sources and destinations: DynamoDB, SQL, and Redshift tables and S3 locations. Data Pipeline doesn't support any SaaS data sources.

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.

Google Cloud Dataflow

Google provides several support plans for Google Cloud Platform, which Cloud Dataflow is part of. Documentation is comprehensive. Google offers both digital and in-person training.

AWS Data Pipeline

AWS provides online support through a ticketing system and a knowledgebase. Support tickets may get phone or chat responses. 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

Google Cloud Dataflow

Cloud Dataflow is priced per second for CPU, memory, and storage resources.

AWS Data Pipeline

Data Pipeline pricing is based on how often your activities and preconditions are scheduled to run and whether they run on AWS or on-premises.

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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