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 Elastic Logstash

Elastic is the corporate name of the company behind Elasticsearch. Logstash is a command-line tool that runs under Linux or macOS or in a Docker container. It integrates log data into the Elasticsearch search and analytics service. Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana make up the company's ELK Stack.

About Dell Boomi

Boomi implements cloud-based application integration using a graphical front-end interface. The company was acquired by Dell in 2010.

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.

Elastic Logstash LogoDell Boomi LogoStitch Logo
FocusLog replication and managementApplication integration, workflow automationData ingestion, ELT
Database replicationNoneFull tableFull table; incremental via change data capture or SELECT/replication keys
SaaS sourcesNone80More than 100
Ability for customers to add new data sourcesYesYesYes
Connects to data warehouses? Data lakes?Yes / YesYes / YesYes / Yes
Transparent pricingYesNoYes
G2 customer satisfactionHelp4/54.2/54.8/5
Support SLAsNoAvailableAvailable
Purchase processAvailable as a free download. Also bundled as part of the Elastic Stack, which is available via subscriptionRequires a conversation with salesOptions for self-service or talking with sales. Also available from the AWS store.
Compliance, governance, and security certificationsGDPR, SOC 2 Type 2HIPAA/HITRUST, PCI DSS, ISO 27001HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2
Data sharingNoNoYes, through Talend Data Fabric
Vendor lock-inLogstash is open source software shipped under the Elastic licenseMonthly or annual contractsMonth to month or annual contracts. Open source integrations
Developer toolsFour monitoring APIs, instructions for writing plugins in JavaAtomSphere API for programmatic control of the AtomSphere platform, Connector SDK for writing custom connectorsImport 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

Elastic Logstash

Logstash provides plugins for several kinds of transformations, including filtering and deserializing data, extracting fields, and enriching data with lookups. Filters are text files, and users can edit existing filters and write their own; Logstash filters are Ruby gems.

Dell Boomi

Boomi handles process execution through procedures it calls shapes. Boomi supports a set of prebuilt transformations within its various shapes (such as text encoding, encryption/decryption, search/replace, and combining documents), and it lets users create custom preload transformations by coding JavaScript or Groovy scripts to convert data from the source application into a format that can be used by the destination.

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.

Elastic Logstash

Logstash supports more than 50 log and event data sources. Destinations include Google BigQuery data warehouse, Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3 data lakes, Elasticsearch, and more than 50 other file formats and operational monitoring platforms.

Dell Boomi

Like other application integration platforms, Boomi typically replicates data changes one at a time between multiple systems, as events happen, rather than pushing batches of data to a single central repository. Boomi supports two kinds of connectors, which it calls application and technology connectors. There are 80 application connectors (mostly to SaaS platforms, including data warehouses and data lakes) and 22 technology connectors (to databases and services like SFTP, HTTP, and IMAP). Developers can write their own custom connectors in Java using Boomi's Connector SDK.

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.

Elastic Logstash

Logstash vendor Elasticsearch provides support through a customer-only portal. Logstash is also supported through an open source community. Documentation is comprehensive. Digital training materials are not available.

Dell Boomi

All customers get email support, and customers on premier support plans get live chat and phone support. Dell also offers Boomi consulting, including onsite consulting for support. Documentation on Dell's help site is comprehensive. A community site provides additional peer and company support. Dell offers on-demand and instructor-led digital training.

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

Elastic Logstash

Logstash is a free download, and is available bundled with other products in the Elastic Stack as a subscription, which starts at $16 per month. More expensive plans are available that feature things like dedicated support, custom plugins, machine learning, and advanced security features.

Dell Boomi

Plans are billed monthly, starting with a rate of $549 per month. A 30-day free trial is available.

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