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

Azure Data Factory vs Informatica PowerCenter comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 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

Azure Data Factory
Ranking in Data Integration
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd)
Informatica PowerCenter
Ranking in Data Integration
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
80
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 10.1%, down from 12.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 10.3%, down from 12.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Q&A Highlights

PiyushAgarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 23, 2023
 

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.
Lars Borchers - PeerSpot reviewer
A stable and reliable product that provides a variety of features for data integration
The solution is not for newcomers. It has an old touch. The solution must improve the integration with new services. It was part of the program at Informatica when they moved to their cloud platform. It is integrated. However, from an on-premise perspective, we need to buy licenses for PowerExchange. If we want a native driver to access a special service, we need to extend our license to those services. It is expensive. I don't like that it's not all included in the solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Data Flow and Databricks are going to be extremely valuable services, allowing data solutions to scale as the business grows and new data sources are added."
"The most valuable feature is the ease in which you can create an ETL pipeline."
"The most important feature is that it can help you do the multi-threading concepts."
"From my experience so far, the best feature is the ability to copy data to any environment. We have 100 connects and we can connect them to the system and copy the data from its respective system to any environment. That is the best feature."
"The solution handles large volumes of data very well. One of its best features is its ability to integrate data end-to-end, from pulling data from the source to accessing Databricks. This makes it quite useful for our needs."
"I like that it's a monolithic data platform. This is why we propose these solutions."
"The interface of Azure Data Factory is very usable with a more interactive visual experience, making it easier for people who are not as experienced in coding to work with."
"Most of our customers are Microsoft shops and prefer Azure Data Factory because they have good licensing options and a trust factor with Microsoft."
"The most valuable features of Informatica PowerCenter are the ease of use, and development, and is simple to find resources."
"Error handling capability is quite good in Informatica PowerCenter because it provides a very detailed session log, which is really helpful to identify errors."
"The features I find most valuable is that the solution is very user-friendly and the graphical design is very easy to understand."
"It has a Data Catalog that uses the Model repository."
"The interface is very clean and clear."
"I would recommend that others considering the solution go ahead and use it for any batch and high volume loads with complex transactions."
"Once you have learned Informatica, it is very easy to use."
"Enterprise-scale ETL solution that's very stable and is easy to scale. It integrates and connects with multiple new systems, both structured and semi-structured."
 

Cons

"The deployment should be easier."
"Azure Data Factory should be cheaper to move data to a data center abroad for calamities in case of disasters."
"The initial setup is not very straightforward."
"The pricing scheme is very complex and difficult to understand."
"Data Factory's performance during heavy data processing isn't great."
"One area for improvement is documentation. At present, there isn't enough documentation on how to use Azure Data Factory in certain conditions. It would be good to have documentation on the various use cases."
"They require more detailed error reporting, data normalization tools, easier connectivity to other services, more data services, and greater compatibility with other commonly used schemas."
"I would like to see this time travel feature in Snowflake added to Azure Data Factory."
"Unstructured data handling is an important area with a shortcoming that needs improvement in the solution."
"Compared to solutions offering similar functionalities, Informatica PowerCenter is not very flexible regarding customized integrations."
"While Informatica is great for data-integration, it does not have any analytics features. Thus, organizations have to always look for another product for their BI needs."
"Lacks ability to calculate cost of the product."
"The price of the product is an area of concern where improvements are required, considering the fact that the present licensing charges of the tool are expensive."
"Now they are migrating to a new version, and they have something that is called Informatica Developer. Previously, they just had PowerCenter. Now, when they move everything to Informatica Developer it's not as good or stable like it was when it was PowerCenter, though it has some nice features. This Developer tool could be better."
"There can be scalability issues. Huge amounts of data ingestion will impact performance."
"As a connector to big data, it is not well developed. We've had problems connecting Informatica with Hadoop. The functionality to connect Informatica with Hadoop, for me it's not good."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing model is based on usage and is not cheap."
"Product is priced at the market standard."
"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."
"For our use case, it is not expensive. We take into the picture everything: resources, learning curve, and maintenance."
"This is a cost-effective solution."
"I rate the product price as six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"Pricing is comparable, it's somewhere in the middle."
"Understanding the pricing model for Data Factory is quite complex."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"According to what I've heard and read on various blogs, it's quite expensive when compared to similar competitive products."
"Pricing for Informatica PowerCenter isn't cheap, but if I compare it with IBM, it's as expensive as IBM, however, Informatica PowerCenter is more innovative, especially when compared to a giant company such as IBM that has thousands of products. Informatica PowerCenter is limited only to data management, but it has new features that come out every quarter. Points for ease of use and flexibility go to Informatica PowerCenter, but price-wise, IBM and Informatica are equal because they're both expensive."
"Our client has purchased the license, and we are using it."
"The licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis."
"The price could be better. It's very expensive. On a scale from one to five, I would give Informatica PowerCenter's price a one."
"I consider this to be an expensive product."
"Its licensing is expensive in terms of scaling."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called SSIS. The collection helps organizations boost productivity with code-free compo...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
How do you evaluate the pricing model of Informatica PowerCenter?
The pricing model of Informatica PowerCenter is suitable for big companies and enterprises. This is an amazing product, and it certainly does its job, however, if you are a medium or small business...
 

Also Known As

No data available
PowerCenter
 

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
University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. Informatica PowerCenter and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.