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Alation Data Catalog vs Microsoft Purview Data Governance comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alation Data Catalog
Ranking in Data Governance
7th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (2nd)
Microsoft Purview Data Gove...
Ranking in Data Governance
1st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
57
Ranking in other categories
Microsoft Security Suite (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 5.9%, down from 11.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Purview Data Governance is 23.9%, down from 25.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

Brahma Lam - PeerSpot reviewer
Has metadata cataloging features but needs changes in domain model
The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature.  The tool's domain model needs to be changed.  Alation Data Catalog is stable.  The solution is scalable.  Alation Data Catalog's deployment is easy. I rate it a nine out of ten. Deployment takes only two to three hours to complete.…
James McDowall - PeerSpot reviewer
The sensitivity and retention options in Purview are excellent
Some of the menu headings may not be easy to understand for some people. For example, when I first used Purview, I noticed that one of the self-compliance centers had changed its name. Microsoft has done a huge amount of updates, and sometimes it's hard to keep track of what Purview can do. We almost constantly have to explore it. Maybe Microsoft could have a 365 roadmap where we can look at upcoming features, or some kind of bulletin announcement for Purview users that explains new features and what they can do in simple terms. We could also look at the menu settings. In my experience of using Purview, we've never used it as an exclusive system for IT professionals or technical staff. We were very keen that other specialists around the business made use of some of these features because we thought that some of what Purview could do was relevant to other departments as well as IT. For example, we have HR managers and financial staff who use it. I think that some of the terminology in Purview is pitched toward IT and tech professionals, and it may not be immediately understood by other specialists. This is something that could be improved.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"We had some of our data science engineers, who had built out some cloud-based data and data products for users. They were spending a lot of their time, up to 30 to 35% of their time, answering questions about the data and helping people understand how to use it. Once they were able to document that information within Alation, they were only focusing on around 5% of the high-value questions that really couldn't be solved through the catalog itself. It freed them up to be more productive, it made their end-users more productive, and it made the adoption rate of their data products rise more quickly because people were able to get to using them."
"The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation."
"The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."
"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."
"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."
"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"You can set up automated dates to alert on internal data."
"MIP also provides strong information rights management settings, such as the ability to specify who has access to content and at what time."
"My favorite features are eDiscovery and insider risk management, because these are the major threats to an organization that can't be easily traced."
"Has a good interface and is reasonably priced."
"Data authentication enables us to classify documents based on whether they should be restricted for internal consumption or permitted for external sharing."
"I really like the entire system for auto-labeling content. It's a very refined system. I use the Keyword Query Language to define refined string-based metadata, and then I can really go deep into the specific data with the specific properties labeled in such and such a way."
"The most important aspect is our vision to create a data marketplace and Data Governance policies."
"I use the tool in projects as a medium to provide information as reports to the stakeholders."
 

Cons

"Alation Data Catalog needs to develop a lot in terms of data governance and would be improved with a built-in interactive data quality solution."
"I know that this has been on their roadmap and they're working on it, but as a whole, there's an untapped reservoir of capabilities within their article features that could be used and built upon."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"The tool's domain model needs to be changed."
"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."
"Alation Data Catalog doesn't support end-to-end lineage. By that, I mean the ability to trace the movement of data from when it first comes into our organization to where it's consumed."
"Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"The product's data governance features need improvement."
"The API needs some improvement when connecting to non-Microsoft API sources. This is a limiting factor."
"The technical support has room for improvement."
"Overcoming certain control issues would significantly enhance our overall satisfaction."
"I try to avoid opening tickets with Microsoft due to long response times, which is frustrating."
"There should be more clarity about the costing, particularly how the cost is calculated, especially when utilizing health reports and quality features."
"There are differences when looking at an incident in the M365 portal versus Purview, and the main one is the advanced hunting. In the M365 portal, you can write KQL queries and fetch data. If that was available in Purview, it would be very good."
"Reflecting organizational changes within Purview is impractical."
"I would like to have AI functionality on the dashboard to help me analyze and report on the data that we capture using Purview on a daily basis."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"A three-year agreement is better than a one-year rolling 12-month agreement from a price point of view. I'd recommend looking at a three-year deal because you can't stand up a catalog and produce value in 12 months."
"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"Purview is included in our Microsoft E5 licensing."
"Microsoft Purview requires a Microsoft 365 license and is included with an E5 license."
"It is cheap. It is based on consumption. If somebody wants to start using it, the price is definitely cheaper than a tool like Collibra."
"We pay $15,000 per end user for the E5 license."
"The interesting part is how they are bundling the version into the E5 stack. If it was not for that inclusion, this would have been a difficult conversation for us, so kudos to Microsoft on that. Separating it out may become a problem for customer retention. It is definitely a good move on Microsoft's part to include it as part of any existing or any system upgrades for customers that were on E3."
"To get the full features of Purview, we currently need E5 enterprise licenses, which are expensive."
"The solution is extremely affordable for the K-12 space."
"Microsoft Purview is a subscription-based service, so we need either an E3 or E5 license to use it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alation Data Catalog?
The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alation Data Catalog?
I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solut...
What needs improvement with Alation Data Catalog?
When issues arise, two key concerns arise. First, how can we perform root cause analysis faster? Second, how can we optimize resource allocation, considering the associated costs? Every customer is...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Purview?
It is designed to seamlessly connect to various data sources, which is particularly beneficial for our customers who primarily use Microsoft technologies.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Purview?
The auto-tagging feature should be available at a lower licensing level.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Purview?
Auto-tagging should be available at lower levels of licensing. Right now, a high level of licensing is needed for auto-tagging, and this feature should be made available at a lower license level.
 

Also Known As

Alation
Microsoft Purview, MS Azure Purview
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Microsoft Purview Data Governance and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.