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Azure Data Factory 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

Azure Data Factory
Ranking in Data Integration
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (2nd)
FME
Ranking in Data Integration
22nd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 7.9%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FME is 1.9%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Joy Maitra - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data pipeline creation with good analytics and and thorough monitoring
Azure Data Factory is a low code, no code platform, which is helpful. It provides many prebuilt functionalities that assist in building data pipelines. Also, it facilitates easy transformation with all required functionalities for analytics. Furthermore, it connects to different sources out-of-the-box, making integration much easier. The monitoring is very thorough, though a more readable version would be appreciable.
Alan Bloor - PeerSpot reviewer
Great for handling large volumes of data, but it is priced a bit high
When I do coding, I think about every single function. Some of these functions can be very elementary, like doing a substring or some capitalization. But FME removes all that coding because it's a transformer, so the time to develop an application to get to a point where you're producing results is decreased massively. It used to take weeks and months to develop software, and now I can use something like FME, and within one day, we get results. We can look at and validate data. 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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Data Factory's best features include its data source connections, GUI for building data pipelines, and target loading within Azure."
"The two most valuable features of Azure Data Factory are that it's very scalable and that it's also highly reliable."
"The most valuable aspect is the copy capability."
"The feature I found most helpful in Azure Data Factory is the pipeline feature, including being able to connect to different sources. Azure Data Factory also has built-in security, which is another valuable feature."
"Microsoft supported us when we planned to provision Azure Data Factory over a private link. As a result, we received excellent support from Microsoft."
"The solution has a good interface and the integration with GitHub is very useful."
"I am one hundred percent happy with the stability."
"Its integrability with the rest of the activities on Azure is most valuable."
"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
 

Cons

"The one element of the solution that we have used and could be improved is the user interface."
"Some known bugs and issues with Azure Data Factory could be rectified."
"It's a good idea to take a Microsoft course. Because they are really helpful when you start from your journey with Data Factory."
"The performance could be better. It would be better if Azure Data Factory could handle a higher load. I have heard that it can get overloaded, and it can't handle it."
"We require Azure Data Factory to be able to connect to Google Analytics."
"DataStage is easier to learn than Data Factory because it's more visual. Data Factory has some drag-and-drop options, but it's not as intuitive as DataStage. It would be better if they added more drag-and-drop features. You can start using DataStage without knowing the code. You don't need to learn how the code works before using the solution."
"In the next release, it's important that some sort of scheduler for running tasks is added."
"I would like to be informed about the changes ahead of time, so we are aware of what's coming."
"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."
"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."
"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There's no licensing for Azure Data Factory, they have a consumption payment model. How often you are running the service and how long that service takes to run. The price can be approximately $500 to $1,000 per month but depends on the scaling."
"The pricing is pay-as-you-go or reserve instance. Of the two options, reserve instance is much cheaper."
"The pricing model is based on usage and is not cheap."
"Data Factory is affordable."
"It seems very low initially, but as the data grows, the solution’s bills grow exponentially."
"The price you pay is determined by how much you use it."
"My company is on a monthly subscription for Azure Data Factory, but it's more of a pay-as-you-go model where your monthly invoice depends on how many resources you use. On a scale of one to five, pricing for Azure Data Factory is a four. It's just the usage fees my company pays monthly."
"I am aware of the pricing of Azure Data Factory, but I prefer not to disclose specific details."
"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
"The product's price is reasonable."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Government
30%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How do you select the right cloud ETL tool?
AWS Glue and Azure Data factory for ELT best performance cloud services.
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
What do you like most about FME?
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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FME?
The pricing is really bad. Last year, they rebranded the whole pricing structure. It used to be moderately priced at about £400 per user per year. Now they've changed the whole thing, and it's expe...
What needs improvement with FME?
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. There must be a technical or comm...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Coca-Cola 4. General Electric 5. Johnson & Johnson 6. LinkedIn 7. Mastercard 8. Nestle 9. Pfizer 10. Samsung 11. Siemens 12. Toyota 13. Unilever 14. Verizon 15. Walmart 16. Accenture 17. American Express 18. AT&T 19. Bank of America 20. Cisco 21. Deloitte 22. ExxonMobil 23. Ford 24. General Motors 25. IBM 26. JPMorgan Chase 27. Microsoft (Azure Data Factory is developed by Microsoft) 28. Oracle 29. Procter & Gamble 30. Salesforce 31. Shell 32. Visa
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 Azure Data Factory vs. FME and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.