10 Best ETL Software Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 20 tools reviewed.
With so many different ETL software available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to extract, transform, and load large volumes of data more efficiently but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different ETL tools with various teams and projects, with my picks of the best ETL software.
What Is ETL Software?
ETL software is a type of application used to facilitate data integration processes, especially in the context of data warehousing and business intelligence. ETL stands for Extract, Transform, Load, representing the three key functions of the software: extracting data from various sources, transforming it into a uniform format, and loading it into a target database or data warehouse.
The benefits of ETL software include efficient consolidation of data from multiple sources, leading to improved data quality and consistency. It automates complex processes of data preparation, saving significant time and resources. By providing accurate and structured data, ETL software supports informed decision-making and is essential for effective business intelligence. It also offers scalability to handle growing data volumes and supports data governance by maintaining traceability and audit trails.
Overviews Of The 10 Best ETL Software
Here’s a brief description of each ETL software that showcases each vendor’s best use case, their noteworthy features, and some pros and cons. I’ve also included screenshots to give you a snapshot of their user interface too.
Skyvia is an ETL cloud platform. It provides a unified solution for data integration, backup, synchronization, and management. Skyvia supports popular platforms such as Salesforce, Dynamics 365, Google BigQuery, MySQL, and PostgreSQL.
Why I picked Skyvia: Skyvia is easy to use and straightforward. It allows users to navigate and access features effortlessly. With a visual interface and drag-and-drop functionality, users can easily configure data integration workflows without coding. The availability of pre-built connectors and templates simplifies the process of setting up connections and data flows between various systems.
Skyvia Standout Features and Integrations
Features include connectivity to cloud applications and databases for data integration and synchronization. Skyvia also provides data backup and restore capabilities for data protection and recovery. Advanced data mapping and transformation options allow users to customize and manipulate data during integration.
Integrations include Salesforce, Dynamic 365, SugarCRM, Zoho CRM, HubSpot, NetSuite, Pipedrive, Streak, Insightly CRM, and Freshsales.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Cloud-based platform
- Pre-built connectors
- Easy-to-use interface
Cons:
- Dependency on internet connection
- No free trial
Funnel is a marketing data integration solution that offers a wide range of connectors to various marketing tools and platforms.
Why I picked Funnel: Funnel offers a large library of pre-built connectors, including popular platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, HubSpot, and many more. This comprehensive connector coverage allows marketers to aggregate and unify data from multiple marketing sources easily. This enables them to gain valuable insights and make data-driven decisions for their marketing campaigns.
Funnel Standout Features and Integrations
Features include data collection and consolidation from various marketing sources. It also offers powerful data transformation capabilities, allowing users to easily clean, manipulate, and normalize their data. The reporting and visualization features allow users to view data in a visually appealing format.
Integrations include 500+ marketing and sales software, including Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Google Analytics, Tiktok, Instagram, Salesforce, Adobe Analytics, LinkedIn, Shopify, and Quora.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Offers advanced analytics features
- Robust data transformation capabilities
- Automates data collection
- Offers advanced analytics features
- Robust data transformation capabilities
- Automates data collection
Cons:
- Reliance on third-party integrations
- Limited data visualization customization
- Reliance on third-party integrations
- Limited data visualization customization
Starfish ETL allows organizations to gather data from diverse sources such as CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, social media platforms, and more. By integrating and analyzing data from these sources, businesses can gain an in-depth understanding of their customers, behaviors, preferences, and interactions across different touchpoints.
Why I picked StarfishETL: I picked Starfish ETL due to its ability to handle large volumes of data efficiently. It offers features like parallel processing, load balancing, and optimization techniques to deliver high-performance data integration even in demanding environments.
Also, Starfish ETL prioritizes data security and provides features such as encryption, role-based access controls, and data masking. This ensures that sensitive information is protected throughout the data integration process.
StarfishETL Standout Features and Integrations
Features include pre-built connectors that enable data integration, monitoring and logging capabilities, and customization options. Data mapping ensures data transformation between source and target systems. It also generates reports and analyzes data to gain insights.
Integrations include 300+ connectors, such as ActiveCampaign, Airtable, ADP, Amazon Marketplace, Asana, Bamboo HR, Basecamp, BigCommerce, Bing Ads, and Box.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Robust security features
- Encourages user feedback
- Easy to use
Cons:
- Initial setup requires technical expertise
- Complex for beginners
Fivetran is a cloud-based ETL software for businesses of all sizes. With 300+ no-code and pre-built data connectors, Fivetran is an all-in-one destination for ETL processes.
Why I picked Fivetran: One of the best features of Fivetran is automated schema drift handling and updates. Data sources often undergo changes in their schema or structure over time. These changes, known as schema drift, can pose challenges for data integration processes.
Fivetran addresses this issue by providing automated schema drift handling. It actively monitors the source systems for schema changes and automatically adjusts the data pipeline accordingly.
This means that when a source system undergoes schema changes, Fivetran adapts to these changes without requiring manual intervention or reconfiguration. As a result, businesses can maintain a seamless and uninterrupted data integration process, ensuring that the data remains accurate and up-to-date.
Fivetran Standout Features and Integrations
Features include data pipeline orchestration capabilities, which ensure that data is continuously synced and up-to-date in the destination. While Fivetran primarily focuses on data movement, it also provides basic data transformation capabilities, such as data filtering, database replication, column renaming, and data type conversions. Additionally, Fivetran also provides monitoring and alerting, which help ensure the health and reliability of data pipelines. Users can receive notifications about potential issues or failures, allowing them to address them promptly and maintain data consistency.
Integrations include Amazon S3, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Search Console, Google Sheets, HubSpot, LinkedIn Ad Analytics, Marketo, Oracle, and Salesforce.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Real-time data syncing
- Good customer support
- In-depth documentation
Cons:
- Dependency on cloud infrastructure
- Limited data transformation options
Data Fetcher for Airtable is a tool that allows users to retrieve and extract data from their Airtable databases.
Why I picked Data Fetcher: One of the notable features of Datafetcher for Airtable is its ability to automate data extraction and synchronization from Airtable. This allows users to set up scheduled or triggered data fetches, ensuring that their external systems or tools always have access to the most up-to-date information from Airtable.
Another valuable feature of Datafetcher for Airtable is its ability to perform data transformations and mappings during the extraction process. This feature gives users enhanced control over how their Airtable data is structured and formatted in the destination system.
Data Fetcher Standout Features and Integrations
Features include advanced filtering and query options, allowing users to extract specific subsets of data based on criteria such as conditions, date ranges, or customized queries. It also provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the setup and configuration of data fetches.
Integrations include Airtable, Apify, Clearbit, Coinbase, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, Google Calendar, Google Maps, Google Sheets, and Pipedrive.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides encryption and access controls
- Ensures data consistency across systems
- Easy data extraction
Cons:
- Dependence on Airtable API
- Limited support for advanced ETL features
Parabola is ETL software that allows users to design and automate data workflows. It has an interactive interface that provides drag-and-drop capabilities.
Why I picked Parabola: Parabola offers a user-friendly interface that makes it accessible to users without extensive technical expertise. This can benefit businesses that want to empower non-technical team members to handle data integration tasks. This can reduce reliance on IT resources and speed up the development process.
The visual interface allows users to design and configure data integration workflows by dragging and dropping components. This graphical representation enables users to better understand and validate the logic of their workflows, making it easier to identify and resolve any issues that may arise.
Parabola Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a vast library of pre-built connectors and transformations, enabling integration with various data sources. It also supports automation, allowing users to schedule and execute workflows at specified intervals, saving time and effort. Additionally, Parabola.io offers robust error handling and debugging capabilities.
Integrations include Airtable, Amazon, Box, Bubble, Copper, Databox, Drip, Dropbox, Facebook Ads, and Front.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Pre-built connectors and transformations
- Visual workflow design
- User-friendly interface
Cons:
- Subscription-based pricing
- Limited advanced functionalities
Workato is an integration and automation platform that enables businesses to connect and automate workflows between different applications and systems.
Why I picked Workato: The best aspect of the software is the recipes feature. A recipe is a set of instructions that defines how different applications and systems should interact and respond to specific triggers or events. These recipes are built visually using a drag-and-drop interface and allow users to automate complex workflows without extensive coding.
It typically consists of triggers, actions, and conditional logic. Also, Workato provides a vast library of pre-built recipes that users can leverage as a starting point or inspiration for their own automation needs.
These recipes can be customized and tailored to match the specific requirements of a business process. For example, it automatically sends a notification to a designated Slack channel whenever a new lead is created in Salesforce.
Workato Standout Features and Integrations
Features include advanced data mapping and transformation capabilities, robust error-handling mechanisms, real-time triggers, collaboration tools, and scalability to handle enterprise-scale integrations.
Integrations include Adobe, Airtable, AWS, Autodesk, BigCommerce, BitSight, Blackline, BMC, Clause, and Constant Contact.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Suitable for businesses of all sizes
- Provides workflow automation features
- Wide range of pre-built connectors
Cons:
- No mobile app
- Limited data transformation capability
Hevo Data is a powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) and ELT software that specializes in real-time data integration, enabling organizations to ingest, transform, and load data from various sources into their target destinations, such as Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, etc.
Why I picked Hevo Data: It is a low-code tool that offers several features that enable real-time data integration. It leverages Change Data Capture (CDC) technology to capture and replicate only the changed data from source systems, minimizing the data transfer and processing overhead. This enables efficient real-time data integration without impacting system performance.
It also allows you to replicate data from various sources, including databases, cloud services, SaaS applications, and more, in real-time. This ensures that your analytics platforms and data warehouses are continuously updated with the latest data.
Hevo Data Standout Features and Integrations
Features include real-time data integration, drag-and-drop functionality, automated data transformation, and support for various integrations. The software also enables robust error handling, data quality monitoring, security and compliance measures, and real-time monitoring.
Integrations are available with 150+ software, including MongoDB, Google Analytics, Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, Pendo, Pinterest Ads, Chargebee, and Braintree.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Enables automated data transformation
- Wide variety of integrations
- Simple interface
Cons:
- Reliance on third-party integrations
- Limited customizations
Keboola is an end-to-end ETL platform that helps businesses manage their entire data lifecycle, from data extraction and transformation to storage, analysis, and reporting. It is best for businesses of all sizes because it provides a free forever plan for startups and an enterprise plan that comprises private SaaS and enterprise SLA.
Why I picked Keboola: I chose Keboola because of its data transformation capabilities. It enables businesses to clean, reshape, and enrich their data. It also provides a wide array of transformation components and functions, both visual and code-based, allowing users to perform complex data manipulations and calculations. This flexibility ensures that businesses can prepare their data appropriately for analysis and reporting.
Another great aspect of Keboola is its user-friendly interface that simplifies the ETL process. It provides a visual data pipeline builder, allowing users to easily define data extraction, transformation, and loading steps. This ease of use reduces the learning curve and empowers users to handle ETL tasks efficiently.
Keboola Standout Features and Integrations
Features: Keboola allows businesses to easily connect and incorporate data from diverse systems, automate data workflows for efficiency, ensure data security and compliance, leverage preferred data analytics tools for analysis and reporting, and receive comprehensive assistance in implementing and optimizing the platform.
Integrations include 2Performance, Active Campaign, Apache Hive, Asana, Azor, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Firebird, Firebolt, and Google Big Query.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Robust security features
- Cloud-based infrastructure
- Scalable
Cons:
- No free trial
- Limited machine learning functionality
Census is an advanced ETL software platform that supports a wide range of data connectors and works on top of your data warehouse. It's built for marketing teams that want to tap into the vast amount of data and run more successful marketing campaigns.
Why I picked Census: Census offers several features for marketing teams, but the feature I liked the most is the Audience Hub.
It allows users to create and manage audiences or segments based on their data. It gives marketers a centralized platform to define specific criteria and filters for audience segmentation. With the Audience Hub, marketers can easily build and maintain dynamic and up-to-date audience segments for their marketing campaigns. You can then feed the audience lists into marketing or advertising software.
Census Standout Features and Integrations
Features include a large connector library, visual data mapping, and centralized data management. Census enables automated data syncing and scheduling, which ensures that data stays updated across different systems and platforms. It also offers data validation features to ensure the data's accuracy and integrity.
Integrations are available with 150+ tools, including Facebook, ActiveCampaign, Airtable, Asana, Campaign Monitor, Google Ads, Chargify, Chargebee, Stripe, and Insightly.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Extensive support and documentation resources
- No-code setup
- User-friendly interface
Cons:
- Limited customization options
- Dependency on connectors
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Skyvia | From $19/month | Website |
| Funnel | $399/month/account | Website |
| StarfishETL | From $400/month | Website |
| Fivetran | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Data Fetcher | From $24/month | Website |
| Parabola | From $80/user/month | Website |
| Workato | From $10,000/year (billed annually) | Website |
| Hevo Data | From $299/month | Website |
| Keboola | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Census | From $960/month | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Options
Here are a few more worthwhile options that didn’t make the best ETL software list:
- Panoply
Best for data warehousing and ETL
- Lyftrondata
Best ETL software for automated schema discovery
- Databricks
Best for combining data lakes and data warehouses in one
- Singular
Best for marketing data tracking and analysis
- Rivery
Best for building complex data pipelines
- Supermetrics
Best for data integration and reporting
- Integrate.io
Best for data integration and workflow automation
- Mozart Data
Best ETL software for data preparation
- Dataslayer.ai
Best for automating data extraction and reporting in Google Sheets
- dbt
Best ETL solution for data transformation through SQL and Python
Selection Criteria For ETL Software
Here’s a short summary of the main selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best ETL software for this article:
Core Functionality
While evaluating dozens of ETL software, I looked for the following core functionalities:
- Data extraction: The ETL software should allow users to extract data from various sources such as databases, files, APIs, and streaming platforms.
- Data transformation: The tool should provide capabilities to transform and manipulate data, including cleansing, aggregating, filtering, joining, and splitting data sets.
- Data loading: The software should support loading transformed data into target systems, such as databases, data warehouses, data lakes, or cloud storage.
Key Features
Other than facilitating ETL processes, here are the key features the software should provide:
- Data mapping and transformation: The ETL software should offer a comprehensive set of features for mapping source data to target data structures, handling complex data transformations, and ensuring data compatibility.
- Data quality and validation: The tool should include functionality for data profiling, data cleansing, data deduplication, data validation, and data quality monitoring to ensure accurate and reliable data.
- Scheduling and automation: The software should enable the scheduling and automation of ETL processes, allowing users to define workflows, set up dependencies, and execute jobs at specific intervals or events.
- Error handling and monitoring: The ETL tool should have robust error handling mechanisms, provide real-time monitoring of ETL processes, and offer alerts or notifications for failures or issues.
- Reporting and visualization: The software should offer capabilities for generating reports, creating data visualizations, and presenting insights derived from the ETL process.
Usability
Usability is another crucial aspect to consider when selecting ETL software. The tool should provide intuitive controls, clear visualization of data flows, and a well-organized layout. Additionally, a code-free or visual data transformation interface can greatly enhance usability, enabling users to design and build data transformations through a drag-and-drop or graphical interface, eliminating the need for complex coding.
Lastly, responsive customer support channels, including documentation, community forums, and direct assistance, contribute to a positive user experience.
Value For Money
The chosen ETL software should provide a good balance between its features, performance, and price. It should deliver the necessary functionality required for the specific use case while offering a reasonable return on investment. Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of the software should consider factors such as licensing fees, scalability options, maintenance and support costs, and potential productivity gains or time savings achieved by using the tool.
People Also Ask
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about ETL software.
What are the types of ETL tools?
What are the benefits of ETL software?
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Conclusion
Statista states that by 2025, global data will be more than 180 zettabytes. While data provides valuable insights that help improve decision-making, the vast amount of data businesses have is useless if they can't manage it. Hence, I researched and compiled this list of ETL software and data integration tools that will help you solve your data management and integration challenges.
However, remember that choosing the right tool depends on your specific requirements, so take the time to evaluate each option and consider factors like scalability, ease of use, and compatibility with your existing systems. If you’d like to learn more about such tools, remember to subscribe to The RevOps Newsletter.