Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Alation Data Catalog vs Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 9, 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)
Protegrity’s Data Protectio...
Ranking in Data Governance
18th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
Database Security (7th), Data Masking (5th)
 

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 Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform is 0.8%, down from 0.9% 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.…
Vinoth Raj Prabhakaran - PeerSpot reviewer
Beneficial data security, good support, and straightforward initial setup
The initial setup of Protegrity Data Security was straightforward. However, we had a few problems, it's not multi-tenanted. It does not have a hierarchy of roles and differential priorities. To have the initial sandbox version of Protegrity Data Security up and running, took approximately one week. However, it needed to be set up in a resilient way because if it fails, then it is going to be a challenge bringing back the lost information. We have to be particular in terms of architecting it correctly which is taking us a bit of time. We are anticipating anywhere between four to six weeks to be finished.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"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 platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms."
"The most valuable features of Alation Data Catalog are the simplicity in onboarding data sources, the security in securing the data sources, and the way the various users of Alation Data Catalog communicate with each other through a messenger."
"We can customize templates based on our use cases."
"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"Given the relatively low level of maturity, Alation's most relevant feature at the moment is a user interface that's easy to navigate, which helps us find and understand the data. So while Alation has a lot more functionality, our pain point right now is being able to easily find, understand, and trust the information to use it."
"The solution’s pricing is moderate."
"The product is stable."
"Its technical support team is helpful."
"The most valuable feature of Protegrity Data Security is the reduction of information being exposed."
 

Cons

"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."
"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"
"Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage."
"The interface is not user-friendly."
"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."
"The tool's domain model needs to be changed."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."
"Protegrity is using a different OS which has some bugs. Sometimes it's causing an initialization error."
"The solution's UI could be better."
"Protegrity Data Security could improve by having more integration."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is a little expensive."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"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."
"We pay for a few additional services apart from its licenses."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Governance solutions are best for your needs.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
36%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 needs improvement with Protegrity Data Security?
Protegrity is using a different OS, which has some bugs. Sometimes, it's causing an initialization error.
What is your primary use case for Protegrity Data Security?
We use the solution to encrypt sensitive data like PII data. Any unauthorized person cannot find the exact sensitive value in case of data issues. We are using that tool to protect sensitive data.
 

Also Known As

Alation
Protegrity Data Security
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
A $4 billion retail conglomerate and holding company
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Protegrity’s Data Protection Platform and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.