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Alteryx Designer vs FME comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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

Alteryx Designer
Ranking in Data Integration
16th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
FME
Ranking in Data Integration
26th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Alteryx Designer is 1.5%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FME is 1.3%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Alteryx Designer1.5%
FME1.3%
Other97.2%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Prince Raju - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Data Analyst at Ernst & Young
Powerful tool for cleansing, formatting, and transforming data – especially unstructured files
When you open a raw Excel file, it can be hard to look at everything in detail. Alteryx makes it much easier to go through the data, summarize it, and use different tools for analysis. So, Alteryx Designer have significantly reduced the time I spend on data analysis tasks. Moreover, the drag-and-drop interface of Alteryx Designer improved our overall workflow.
Gert Booysen - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Solutions Leader at GE Vernova
Extensive format support and reliable integration enhance data management while new pricing model requires reassessment
I haven't had any input or requirements from any customers that are not currently covered, so I don't have any additional needs that were identified or raised to me. Regarding pricing, with the model changes that they've implemented a while back, it actually made it more expensive to use, especially on the server side. They changed the licensing model, and that made customers think it is overpriced. Some customers were actually looking at alternatives. Pricing with the model changes was perceived negatively. I work primarily with enterprise customers, Vodacom, Eskom, so it's tier-one customers. For small customers, this solution is a bit too expensive. They don't really use it and just do direct integration on smaller implementations. This is basically used by tier-one customers. FME is still able to save time and money for clients. It's still a good investment. Regarding similar products to FME, GE developed a product called Data Fabric. That is a real-time operational integration platform, Data Fabric Network Connect, which is a GE Grid OS product. It is actually more expensive than FME, but the purpose is different as it's operational. The vendor in this case is GE, and it's a company that we bought that used to be called Greenbird. In current use scenarios, FME is still leading compared to Data Fabric. The GE product has a different application.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I have been using Alteryx Designer only for data modeling and data structuring."
"Alteryx Designer offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it highly user-friendly. Unlike Python and Apache Airflow, which require coding, Alteryx allows users to accomplish tasks without any programming knowledge. Its simplicity makes it accessible to anyone, even those without coding experience, and this ease of use is one of Alteryx's key advantages."
"The main valuable aspect is the simplicity of use across all features."
"One of the things I like about Alteryx Designer is how easy it is to connect numerous data inputs, including API connectors. This helps tremendously in reducing the time required to extract data from systems like SAP that don't have straightforward connectivity options."
"Alteryx Designer's best features are that it's easy to use and performs well."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its API connections. Its predictive analytics feature has helped us pass some ETL processes to analysts rather than developers."
"It has great UI."
"I like Alteryx Designer's drag-and-drop feature, where you drag a component, configure it and quickly run it."
"It has a very friendly user interface. You don't need to use a lot of code. For us that's the most important aspect about it. Also, it has a lot of connectors and few forms. It has a strong facial aspect. It can do a lot of facial analysis."
"All spatial features are unrivaled, and the possibility to execute them based on a scheduled trigger, manual, e-mail, Websocket, tweet, file/directory change or virtually any trigger is most valuable."
"From my reseller perspective, the best features in FME are the ease of operation and the fact that it works."
"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface. There is nothing better. It is very easy to debug because you can see all steps where there are failures. Overall the software is easy to optimize a process."
"We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else."
"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
 

Cons

"The major concern in Alteryx Designer stems from the high costs attached to the product."
"Based on my experience, the tool could be improved by providing sample reports or pre-configured workflows tailored to specific industries, like finance. It needs to integrate an AI chatbot as well."
"Alteryx needs to improve its web governance. The gallery you use to filter the data is something else that could use some work. For instance, if you have a report connected to a database and want to filter a specific user, you should be able to suggest a specific region or a particular year. I know that the Alteryx isn't designed for data governance, but that would be great to think about."
"The conditional join feature should be improved."
"The only thing is sometimes it can be a bit slow."
"Alteryx Designer overall should be easier to use."
"For smaller clients with ten to 15 employees, Alteryx can be expensive. The server capabilities are costly too. The technical support could also improve by being quicker in response times."
"We discontinued using Alteryx's data science studio because it was not very user-friendly."
"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."
"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."
"FME can improve the geographical transformation. I've had some problems with the geographical transformations, but it's probably mostly because I'm not the most skilled geographer in-house. The solution requires some in-depth knowledge to perform some functions."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
"The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licenses are expensive, making it difficult to consider acquiring additional licenses to the existing ones."
"Alteryx Designer is an expensive solution."
"The tool is priced high."
"I rate the price of Alteryx Designer a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"Alteryx is a little bit expensive compared to competing solutions."
"I rate Alteryx Designer a six out of ten for pricing."
"The pricing is bit expensive."
"The product is a bit expensive, it should be looked into."
"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
"We used the standard licensing for our use of FME. The cost was approximately €15,000 annually. We always welcome less expensive solutions, if the solution could be less expensive it would be helpful."
"The product's price is reasonable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
21%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
7%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Government
32%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Computer Software Company
6%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alteryx Designer?
When you open a raw Excel file, it can be hard to look at everything in detail. Alteryx makes it much easier to go through the data, summarize it, and use different tools for analysis.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alteryx Designer?
It's cheaper than Palantir, but even Alteryx is too much for small clients. It is expensive, considering the server capabilities.
What needs improvement with Alteryx Designer?
For smaller clients with ten to 15 employees, Alteryx can be expensive. The server capabilities are costly too. The technical support could also improve by being quicker in response times.
What needs improvement with FME?
I haven't had any input or requirements from any customers that are not currently covered, so I don't have any additional needs that were identified or raised to me. Regarding pricing, with the mod...
What is your primary use case for FME?
The use cases for FME are mainly integration to the GE Smallworld product. GE Smallworld is a GE product, and we are using it to integrate with other third-party products into GE Smallworld and ADM...
What advice do you have for others considering FME?
The overall rating for FME is eight out of ten, and I prefer the feedback to be anonymous. My job title is Senior Solutions Architect.
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

Information not available
 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System
Find out what your peers are saying about Alteryx Designer vs. FME and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,954 professionals have used our research since 2012.