Alation Data Catalog vs Unifi comparison

Alation and Unifi Software are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Alation is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.4, while Unifi Software is ranked #28 with an average rating of 7.0. Alation holds a 7.4% mindshare in DG, compared to Unifi Software’s 0.2% mindshare. Additionally, 76% of Alation users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Unifi Software users who would recommend it.

Alation Data Catalog

Read 11 Alation Data Catalog reviews

6,566 Views
4,011 Comparison Views

76% willing to recommend

Unifi

Read 2 Unifi reviews

106 Views
88 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Alation Data Catalog

Unifi

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Unifi and Alation Data Catalog compete in the data catalog solutions category with distinct features for different organizational needs. Alation Data Catalog has the upper hand in comprehensive features and functionality.

Features: Unifi provides an intuitive collaboration platform, seamless data preparation and integration, and strong data governance tools. Alation Data Catalog offers advanced metadata management, AI-powered data insights, and robust query support, facilitating data discovery across diverse environments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Unifi offers quick deployment with minimal configuration and responsive customer service. Alation Data Catalog requires more extensive setup with a dedicated support team for effective onboarding and troubleshooting.

Pricing and ROI: Unifi is noted for budget-friendly setup costs and faster ROI with affordable pricing suitable for small to medium enterprises. Alation Data Catalog has a premium price point justified by enhanced features, geared toward large enterprises prioritizing comprehensive data management solutions.

To learn more, read our detailed Alation Data Catalog vs. Unifi Report (Updated: January 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Alation Data Catalog vs. Unifi

January 2025

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Helped 832,460 peers since 2012

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

4th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Metadata Management (2nd)

Unifi

Ranking in Data Governance

28th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Integration (45th), Data Preparation Tools (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 7.4%, down from 11.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Unifi is 0.2%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Brahma Lam

Developer at CVS Health

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.…

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Doug Isabelle

Owner at Doc-IT

Good management and pricing but not great for enterprise environments

In a high-density location, we're running into connectivity drops. There may be too many rouge devices broadcasting, and the devices is getting interference from another channel. The only to fix this is to reboot and we need something that reboots on the fly. We also need better security for VLANs and VPNs. There are issues with certain Apple devices. Technical support is not very helpful. The initial setup, which seemed straightforward at first, had to be redone. This may not have been the fault of the product. We're not sure what went wrong.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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."

"We can customize templates based on our use cases."

"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."

"Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication."

"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."

"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."

"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."

More Alation Data Catalog pros

"The controller makes it easy to control everything from one platform. The management is easy."

"It's easy to manage and support the user, our guests, and our customers if they have a problem."

Cons

"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."

"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."

"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."

"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."

"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"

"The tool's domain model needs to be changed."

"The interface is not user-friendly."

"It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying."

More Alation Data Catalog cons

"It's stable, but it depends on the office and location."

"There are issues with certain Apple devices."

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."

"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."

"The solution is a little expensive."

"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."

"There is no license. The solution is free."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

No data available

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

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What do you like most about Unifi?

The controller makes it easy to control everything from one platform. The management is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Unifi?

The pricing for what it offers is very good.

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What needs improvement with Unifi?

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 36% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 18% of the time

Collibra Governance vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 13% of the time

Ataccama ONE Platform vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 4% of the time

Microsoft Purview eDiscovery vs Alation Data Catalog

Compared 4% of the time

More Alation Data Catalog Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Alation Data Catalog

February 2025

Download Alation Data Catalog product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Integration

January 2025

Download Unifi product report

Also Known As

Alation

No data available

Overview

Alation pioneered the data catalog market and is now leading its evolution into a platform for a broad range of data intelligence solutions including data search & discovery, data governance, lineage, stewardship, analytics, and digital transformation.

Thanks to its powerful Behavioral Analysis Engine, inbuilt collaboration capabilities, and open interfaces, Alation combines machine learning with human insight to successfully tackle even the most demanding challenges in data and metadata management. With Alation, analysts are empowered to search, query and collaborate on their data to achieve faster, more accurate insights.

Trusted by 400+ enterprises worldwide like Salesforce, Nasdaq, LinkedIn, Finnair, and Cisco.

Alation

The Unifi Data Platform breaks down the barriers of operational data silos and democratizes information across the enterprise. At the heart of the platform is a comprehensive suite of self-service data discovery and preparation tools to empower business users. Employing machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, and optimized for the cloud, Unifi predicts what the business user wants to visualize and then connects the resulting data natively to the BI tool for fast, accurate results.

Unifi Software

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.

Big Incites, Cloudera, Flywheel Data, Hortonworks, MapR, Platfora, Qlik, Tableau Software, zData Inc.

Buyer's Guide

Alation Data Catalog vs. Unifi

January 2025

Free Report: Alation Data Catalog vs. Unifi

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