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 Improvado

Improvado is a cloud-based ETL platform aimed primarily at marketing companies.

About Azure Database Migration Service

Azure Database Migration Service is a managed service designed to enable migrations from multiple database sources to Microsoft Azure data platforms. The service uses Microsoft's Data Migration Assistant to generate assessment reports that provide recommendations to guide you through the changes required. When you're ready to begin the migration process, Azure Database Migration Service performs all the required steps.

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 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.

Improvado LogoAzure Database Migration Service LogoStitch Logo
Focus Data ingestion, marketing dashboardMigrating on-premises databases to the cloudData ingestion, ELT
Database replication No database data sourcesOne-time migration only — not designed for ongoing replicationFull table; incremental via change data capture or SELECT/replication keys
SaaS sources About 80NoneMore than 100
Ability for customers to add new data sourcesNoNoYes
Connects to data warehouses? Data lakes?Yes / YesNo / NoYes / Yes
Transparent pricingNoYesYes
G2 customer satisfactionHelpNot Rated3.9/54.8/5
Support SLAsUnknownYesAvailable
Purchase process Requires a conversation with salesOptions for self-service or talking with salesOptions for self-service or talking with sales. Also available from the AWS store.
Compliance, governance, and security certificationsNoneHIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001, othersHIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2
Data sharingNoNoYes, through Talend Data Fabric
Vendor lock-inUnknownMonth to monthMonth to month or annual contracts. Open source integrations
Developer toolsREST APIREST APIImport 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

Improvado

Improvado provides preload transformations on data moved through the Improvado UI. Improvado transforms data into a format that they believe to be better for users, but it doesn't support user-configured transformations. Improvado also lets customers move raw data to a destination by writing code that calls their API.

Azure Database Migration Service

Azure Database Migration Services does no transformation. DMS is intended to be a simple way to do easy migrations, such as from on-premises SQL Server to Azure SQL Database, or MySQL to Azure Database for MySQL, or MongoDB to Azure Cosmos DB.

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.

Improvado

Improvado supports about 80 integrations to SaaS platforms. Several other data sources are "available by request only." Improvado supports Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery data warehouses; Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage data lakes; and PostgreSQL, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Postgres Plus database destinations. 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.

Azure Database Migration Service

Azure Database Migration Service integrates with 10 on-premises database sources and six Azure database destinations, but no data warehouse or data lake destinations.

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.

Improvado

Improvado provides support through Intercom online chat and via email. Documentation is provided in the form of how-to articles. The company doesn't provide training services.

Azure Database Migration Service

Azure Database Migration Service 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.

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

Improvado

Improvado doesn't disclose pricing, and has no free trial period.

Azure Database Migration Service

Pricing for Azure Database Migration Service is calculated based on compute hours used.

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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