11 Best Fivetran Alternatives & Competitors in 2025 (Features + Comparison)

When your eCommerce analytics depend on data pipelines that are slow, rigid, or costly, the platform you choose becomes more than just tech. It shapes your entire data strategy. Picking the right ELT provider can define how quickly you understand customer behavior, optimize marketing spend, and scale operations. In 2025, Fivetran remains popular, but its reputation for premium pricing, limited flexibility, and dependency on cloud deployment often frustrates teams.

That’s why more data engineers, analytics leads, and CTOs are exploring Fivetran alternatives or Fivetran competitors. They’re looking for tools that still automate data ingestion but also allow customization, on-premise or hybrid deployment, and cost transparency. In fact, recent IDC research shows that nearly 60% of enterprises report ELT tool overspend by 15 to 40% due to row-based billing. This is something Fivetran’s model directly contributes to.

This guide walks you through eleven standout alternatives to Fivetran. We begin with what Fivetran offers and where it falls short. Then, we compare the competing platforms, highlighting which tool shines in each dimension. While we include open-source options like Airbyte and enterprise-grade players like Talend, we’ll also dive deep into Saras Daton, showing why it offers a compelling Fivetran alternative for ecommerce and enterprise businesses with hybrid needs.

By the end, you’ll have a clear sense of which platform aligns best with your business goals. It will also help you see why Saras Daton may be the only tool that bridges ease-of-use, flexibility, and affordability without compromise.

Related Read: Best ETL Tools in 2025

What is Fivetran?

Fivetran is a cloud-based ELT solution widely adopted by modern data teams. It specializes in automated, maintenance-free pipelines that extract data from SaaS apps, databases, and event streams. Instead of requiring users to design custom connectors or schedule ingestion jobs, Fivetran automatically builds and maintains data pipelines, handling schema drift and change data capture (CDC) for near real-time syncing. It’s fully hosted in the cloud, removing infrastructure burden, but also limiting deployment choices for businesses with on-prem needs.

Key Features of Fivetran

• Extensive, managed connector library: Fivetran provides 700+ prebuilt connectors, covering SaaS, databases, files, and events.

• Automated schema handling: It detects source schema changes and adjusts destinations without manual intervention.

• Change Data Capture (CDC): Supports near-real-time updates for enabled sources, such as databases and certain APIs.

• dbt integration: Seamless orchestration with dbt Core for in-warehouse transformations via SQL.

• Enterprise­-grade security: Includes role-based access control and SOC 2 compliance.

Fivetran Pricing

Fivetran’s pricing is based on Monthly Active Rows (MAR), i.e., essentially the number of unique rows processed. Every unique row synced during a month counts toward your bill. A typical ecommerce company with frequent updates might sync millions of rows daily, quickly moving them out of their base tier. While simple to understand, this model often surprises teams with unexpected overages when usage spikes or automates incremental loads.

Limitations of Fivetran

Despite its strengths, Fivetran has some limitations too. Here are a few major ones:

• Pricing Structure: We have seen row-based cost scaling steeply with data volume spikes, especially for high-growth or customer-facing ecommerce platforms.

• Customization: Fivetran has limited ability to tweak how and when data syncs happen outside provided settings.

• On-Premise Support: It’s fully cloud-hosted, i.e., no hybrid or on-prem option.

• Integration with Existing Tools: Requires Fivetran-managed connectors; no facility to blend or reuse internal data flows.

• Scalability: Row-based billing doesn’t always correlate with actual value or warehouse cost.

• Regional Compliance: Data sovereignty concerns when regional hosting isn’t available.

• Real-Time Needs: CDC has latencies of several minutes, unsuitable for true real-time analytics or ML use cases.

Above limitations show why teams are actively seeking a Fivetran alternative that fits their unique technical stack and business realities.

11 Best Fivetran Alternatives and Competitors (2025)

These tools offer different strengths, whether you’re scaling across hybrid environments or simply trying to reduce ELT costs. Here’s what each platform does best:

1. Saras Daton – Best for ecommerce companies needing real-time analytics, full-stack automation, and no-code flexibility

2. Matillion – Best for deep cloud-native data transformation with SQL-centric teams

3. Stitch Data – Best lightweight ETL for startups and small teams with basic sync needs

4. Portable.io – Best for fast, custom-built long-tail SaaS connectors

5. Airbyte – Best open-source ELT for engineering teams needing connector flexibility

6. Hevo Data – Best for teams prioritizing quick implementation and zero-maintenance

7. Rivery – Best for hybrid teams looking to unify ELT with data orchestration

8. Meltano – Best for open-source ELT pipelines with heavy developer involvement

9. AWS Glue – Best for Amazon-native teams needing serverless, scalable pipelines

10. Talend – Best for enterprises needing end-to-end data governance

11. Skyvia – Best budget-friendly ETL for small businesses and Excel-based analytics

1. Saras Daton

Saras Daton is a no-code ELT platform built specifically for ecommerce and enterprise data teams that want full-stack automation with zero engineering overhead. It supports over 150 prebuilt connectors and lets users schedule, monitor, and transform data without writing code. Daton excels in use cases like real-time marketing analytics, revenue attribution, and omnichannel ecommerce reporting by integrating seamlessly with platforms like Shopify, GA4, Klaviyo, and Meta Ads.

Where Fivetran requires ongoing monitoring of MAR limits, Saras Daton offers a flat-rate pricing model. This makes costs more predictable for businesses dealing with high-volume updates. It’s also one of the few alternatives to Fivetran that supports both cloud and on-premise deployment, along with native CDC and real-time capabilities.

‍

Suggested Read: Saras Daton vs Fivetran

Key Features:

• 150+ ecommerce-friendly connectors

• No-code data modeling and transformation

• Flat monthly pricing with unlimited syncs

• Real-time CDC for mission-critical sources

• On-premise, hybrid, and cloud deployment options

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

‍

Customer Case Study

True Classic is a fast-growing men’s apparel brand known for high-quality, affordable basics designed for everyday comfort. As a digital-first business, it relies on platforms like Amazon, Walmart, Shopify, and Klaviyo to drive growth, making accurate, real-time data critical to its operations.

How True Classic Reduced ELT Costs by 88% Annually by Migrating from Fivetran to Saras Daton

Real User Reviews (from G2 & Capterra)

• “The easiest tool we’ve ever implemented for Shopify to BigQuery.”

• “Support team is responsive and genuinely helpful.”

• “It’s everything Fivetran promised but never delivered.”

2. Matillion

Matillion is an ELT platform focused on transformation in Snowflake, Redshift, and BigQuery. Unlike Fivetran, Matillion offers a transformation-first approach, making it ideal for data teams that want to control business logic inside the warehouse. It offers strong integration with dbt and allows full orchestration with tools like Airflow.

Key Features:

• Deep transformation pipelines built for cloud warehouses

• Visual UI and code support for SQL workflows

• High degree of customization for transformations

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Matillion uses a credit-based, pay-as-you-go or capacity-based model.

Most implementations use the Data Productivity Cloud at $2.50–$2,000+ monthly, depending on volume and user count

3. Stitch Data

Stitch Data, now part of Talend, offers basic ELT capabilities with minimal setup. It supports over 100 connectors and focuses on being a lightweight option for early-stage teams. Unlike Fivetran, Stitch’s pricing is based on the number of rows synced per month, but with slightly more transparent tiers.

Key Features:

• 100+ out-of-the-box connectors

• Automatic schema detection

• Integrates easily with cloud data warehouses

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Pricing is usage-based, primarily on monthly rows processed.

4. Portable.io

Portable specializes in offering thousands of niche SaaS connectors built rapidly by request. This makes it ideal for mid-sized businesses with obscure tools not supported by standard ETL vendors. Its “connector-as-a-service” model helps overcome one of Fivetran’s key issues: slow rollout of new integrations.

Key Features:

• 1,000+ rare connectors and growing

• Custom connectors delivered in <48 hours

• SaaS-native, fully hosted solution

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Flat-rate pricing per data flow; unlimited data and connector volume included.

5. Airbyte

Airbyte is a popular open-source alternative to Fivetran, offering 300+ connectors and the ability to build your own. It provides both a free open-source version and a fully managed cloud service. For teams with engineering resources, Airbyte offers flexibility and transparency at scale, particularly around data privacy, custom pipelines, and extensibility.

Key Features:

• Open-source, customizable connectors

• Supports incremental sync and schema evolution

• Growing cloud-hosted version (Airbyte Cloud)

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Pricing is offered as open source (free), volume-based (Cloud), and capacity-based (Teams/Enterprise):

6. Hevo Data

Hevo Data is a fully managed ELT platform designed for simplicity and scale. It supports 150+ connectors and includes built-in capabilities for CDC, transformations, scheduling, and monitoring. Where Fivetran tends to lock users into rigid configurations, Hevo offers more flexibility in setting up custom ingestion pipelines with no coding.

Hevo also includes real-time support across many connectors, making it suitable for ecommerce teams running time-sensitive marketing or inventory workflows. Its UI is beginner-friendly, and it features automatic error handling, which reduces operational load on small data teams.

Suggested Read: Saras Daton Vs Hevo Data

Key Features:

• Real-time sync with minimal setup

• Native transformation engine

• Built-in monitoring and alerting

• 150+ prebuilt connectors

• Automated error resolution

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Flat-rate, tiered event-based pricing:

7. Rivery

Rivery is a cloud-native ELT platform that goes beyond ingestion and transformation by offering built-in orchestration. It allows users to combine data workflows across ingestion, transformation, and even reverse ETL, making it a more comprehensive solution compared to Fivetran.

Rivery’s “logic rivers” allow businesses to build advanced, conditional data flows. This makes it an attractive tool for mid-market enterprises that need flexibility without maintaining multiple tools. It supports over 200 prebuilt connectors and offers native integration with tools like Snowflake, Redshift, and BigQuery.

Key Features:

• All-in-one data operations (ETL + orchestration)

• 200+ managed connectors

• Reverse ETL support

• Drag-and-drop UI for building flows

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Usage-based pricing by "BDU credits" (platform operations/executions):

8. Meltano

Meltano is an open-source ELT platform built on top of the Singer protocol. It’s highly modular and is best suited for teams that want full control over pipeline design, deployment, and scheduling. Unlike Fivetran, Meltano doesn’t offer managed services. Here, everything needs to be hosted, monitored, and maintained by the user.

Nevertheless, it’s highly flexible. You can use it for version-controlled pipelines, integrate with GitLab CI/CD, and even embed dbt for transformations. Meltano is an ideal fit for engineering-heavy organizations that want to avoid vendor lock-in and maintain transparency in their data stack.

Key Features:

• Open-source and self-hosted

• Supports Singer taps and targets

• Full GitOps compatibility

• Strong dbt integration

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Free (self-hosted). Paid enterprise support options are emerging.

9. AWS Glue

AWS Glue is Amazon’s serverless data integration service that’s deeply embedded in the AWS ecosystem. While not a drop-in Fivetran replacement for every team, it’s an excellent option for enterprise customers already invested in AWS. It handles ETL pipelines at scale and integrates with S3, Redshift, Athena, RDS, and more.

Glue requires coding in Python or Scala, and setup can be complex. But for advanced teams, the payoff is automation, scale, and cost-efficiency, especially when paired with tools like Step Functions or Lambda for orchestration.

Key Features:

• Fully serverless

• Tight AWS service integration

• Supports Spark-based transformation

• Scalable data cataloging and job scheduling

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Based on Data Processing Units (DPUs) per minute. No fixed tiers.

10. Talend

Talend offers a comprehensive suite of data tools, and some of them are ingestion, transformation, governance, and quality monitoring. Rather than being just an ELT tool, it’s a full data management platform. Talend is often chosen by enterprises in finance, healthcare, or other regulated industries for its strong compliance features.

Unlike Fivetran, Talend supports on-premise deployment, advanced lineage tracking, and extensive auditing. However, its steep cost and complexity make it less suitable for smaller teams or ecommerce companies focused on agility.

Key Features:

• End-to-end data integration and quality platform

• Governance and data lineage

• On-premise and cloud deployment

• Broad protocol and format support

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Usage/capacity-based, typically only annual contracts.

11. Skyvia

Skyvia is a cloud-based data integration platform focused on affordability and simplicity. It supports over 80 connectors and includes basic ELT, backup, and replication services. While it lacks real-time or advanced orchestration, it’s a great starting point for smaller ecommerce operations who need to sync data from a few platforms to Google Sheets, Excel, or SQL-based BI tools.

Skyvia is a solid alternative to Fivetran if you're primarily concerned about pricing and not dealing with large-scale data volumes or strict latency requirements.

Key Features:

• Affordable data sync

• Connectors for Excel, Google Sheets, CRMs, and ecomm tools

• Cloud UI with no installation

• Data backup and replication

Pros and Cons:

Pricing:

Modular plans depending on use case (ETL, Connect, Backup).

How to Choose the Right Fivetran Alternative

When you're choosing between Fivetran competitors, just looking at the features might not help you. You should also focus on what fits your business goals, resources, and operational constraints. Here’s how to break down that decision strategically:

Understand Your Business Needs

First, start with the “why.” Are you optimizing for marketing analytics? Rebuilding data infrastructure? Expanding ecommerce integrations?

For example, if you're a Shopify-native brand needing real-time attribution from Meta Ads and Klaviyo, a no-code tool like Saras Daton or Hevo makes more sense than a DevOps-heavy platform like Meltano or Glue. But if you're building CI/CD data workflows across a hybrid cloud, Rivery or Matillion may be worth the investment.

Ease of Use

If your team is lean or doesn’t have dedicated data engineers, avoid tools that require scripting or manual deployments. Fivetran can feel “plug-and-play,” but it lacks UI-level flexibility and makes advanced tasks difficult without engineering help. Tools like Saras Daton and Hevo provide a smoother, self-serve experience.

Evaluate Key Features

Here’s where Fivetran often falls short:

• Real-Time Capabilities: CDC is only supported on selected connectors with several-minute latency.

• Integration with Existing Tools: Custom connectors are limited unless built by Fivetran’s team.

• Deployment Options: Fivetran is strictly cloud-based.

• Data Governance: Very little visibility into how pipelines interact across systems.

• Security & Compliance: While secure, Fivetran doesn’t support region-specific deployments needed for GDPR, HIPAA, or SOC1 in hybrid clouds.

Choose a platform that checks boxes across these categories, especially if you’re in ecommerce, healthcare, or finance.

Connectors Library

One of the most common reasons teams move away from Fivetran is because it lacks the long-tail connectors they need. For example, if your team uses a niche ecommerce CRM or fulfillment system, Fivetran won’t support it, nor will they build it quickly. Portable.io and Airbyte shine here.

If you're dealing with standard tools like GA4, Facebook Ads, Amazon, or Shopify, nearly all platforms support those, but Saras Daton’s ecommerce-first connectors make them faster to implement and customize.

Scalability

Fivetran’s MAR-based pricing penalizes data growth. As your business scales, it leads to more customers, more events, and more rows. Hence, you pay significantly more. Therefore, you should look for flat-rate or usage-tied models that correlate with actual value. Saras Daton, Rivery, and Matillion offer better visibility into how scale impacts cost.

Cost vs. Value

Don’t just look at base cost, factor in setup time, engineering effort, support access, and hidden MAR overages. For instance, a $500/month Fivetran plan can balloon to $2,000/month after just a few million new rows in a heavy campaign week.

Tip: Choose platforms with flat pricing or row-independent usage, especially for ecommerce brands running seasonal promotions or real-time dashboards.

Customer Support

Fivetran’s support is email-based and often gated by pricing tier. If you're mid-campaign and something breaks, waiting 24 hours won’t cut it.

Saras Daton, Hevo, and Rivery all offer direct support via Slack or live chat, an important differentiator when pipelines power live reporting or ad spend optimization.

Why Saras Daton is the Best Fivetran Alternative

After reviewing 11 strong platforms, Saras Daton emerges as the best all-around Fivetran alternative, especially for ecommerce and enterprise teams looking for a no-code solution with modern deployment flexibility.

Here’s a breakdown of how Saras Daton compares across real-world decision-making areas:

Saras Daton solves three of the most frustrating Fivetran issues:

1. Unpredictable costs – You’re not penalized for data growth.

2. Limited connector availability – Especially in ecommerce and marketing ops.

3. No deployment flexibility – You can run Daton in your cloud, hybrid, or even on-prem setup.

And unlike open-source tools that require developer-heavy setup, Saras Daton is fully managed with minimal effort from your team. You get full control of your pipelines without owning the infrastructure.

Who Is Saras Daton Ideal For?

• eCommerce brands scaling across Shopify, BigCommerce, Meta Ads, and Klaviyo

• Mid-market and enterprise teams needing GDPR-ready deployments

• Data teams that need real-time reporting for growth, retention, and marketing ops

• BI teams looking to speed up attribution, LTV models, or CAC tracking

Final Thoughts

Choosing the right ELT tool can accelerate your analytics strategy or weigh it down with hidden costs and complexity. While Fivetran is still widely used, it’s clear that many teams have outgrown it. Whether you’re dealing with increasing data sync costs, limited connectors, or a lack of control, there’s no shortage of Fivetran competitors offering more flexibility.

If your team needs:

• Predictable costs,

• Ecommerce-first integrations,

• Hybrid deployment options,

• Or real-time reporting without DevOps bottlenecks...

Saras Daton should be at the top of your list.

Ready to replace Fivetran with a tool built for your business needs? Talk to the Saras Daton team today.