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Azure Data Factory vs SSIS 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
6.9
Number of Reviews
90
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd)
SSIS
Ranking in Data Integration
4th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

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 SSIS is 8.0%, up from 8.0% 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.
BobAmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust and does a good job of handling overload conditions
We purchase an add-on called task factory primarily to allow bulk delete, update, and upsert capability. I'd like to see this be part of the standard package. I believe there are ways to build a model and set variables so that it can be a generic process. In my next system, I would like to have a generic process that would handle all the logging and processing in a model that can be modified and enhanced as the need for a better process, or different statistics to be logged is discovered. I'd want this in a way that the model can be changed and all the processes, with their unique parameters, could all be changed with the model upgraded. I believe they should add some features that help to create the code using a model. This would allow for continuous improvement of the model uses and easy replication of all the different programs that use the model.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is a complete ETL Solution."
"The flexibility that Azure Data Factory offers is great."
"We have been using drivers to connect to various data sets and consume data."
"For developers that are very accustomed to the Microsoft development studio, it's very easy for them to complete end-to-end data integration."
"The security of the agent that is installed on-premises is very good."
"It is very modular. It works well. We've used Data Factory and then made calls to libraries outside of Data Factory to do things that it wasn't optimized to do, and it worked really well. It is obviously proprietary in regards to Microsoft created it, but it is pretty easy and direct to bring in outside capabilities into Data Factory."
"The scalability of the product is impressive."
"Azure Data Factory became more user-friendly when data-flows were introduced."
"We like that this solution includes a developer edition, free of charge, to allow for training."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is performance."
"The solution is stable."
"Like most Microsoft products, SSIS is user-friendly and easy to use."
"The technical support is very good."
"The most valuables features are the relatively short learning curve, and the automation capabilities provided through the BIML add-in for SSDT."
"The most valuable features for our company are the flexibility and the quick turn around time in producing simple ETL solutions."
"The script component is very powerful, things that you cannot normally do, is feasible through C#."
 

Cons

"Azure Data Factory's pricing in terms of utilization could be improved."
"There aren't many third-party extensions or plugins available in the solution."
"There are limitations when processing more than one GD file."
"The main challenge with implementing Azure Data Factory is that it processes data in batches, not near real-time. To achieve near real-time processing, we need to schedule updates more frequently, which can be an issue. Its interface needs to be lighter."
"A room for improvement in Azure Data Factory is its speed. Parallelization also needs improvement."
"There's no Oracle connector if you want to do transformation using data flow activity, so Azure Data Factory needs more connectors for data flow transformation."
"Customer service is not satisfactory. Third-party personnel handle support and rely on a knowledge repository."
"Lacks in-built streaming data processing."
"We have issues with SSIS connectors while extracting data from Excel sources."
"There are a lot of things that Microsoft could improve in relation to SSIS. One major problem we faced was when attempting to move some Excel files to our SQL Server. The Excel provider has a limitation that prevents importing more than 255 columns from a particular Excel file to the database. This restriction posed a significant issue for us."
"The solution should work on the GPU, graphical processing unit. There should also be piping integration available."
"Sometimes, there are compatibility issues with some features. From time to time, I also face issues when trying to migrate. If I misconfigure things when I use Snapshot, the migration will fail.It can take a long time to migrate huge amounts of data, so it would be nice if that could be faster."
"SSIS sometimes hangs, and there are some problems with servers going down after they've been patched."
"Generic processes should be used instead of custom code for each table."
"Options for scaling could be improved."
"At one point, we did have to purchase an add-on."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is competitive."
"The cost is based on the amount of data sets that we are ingesting."
"The licensing model for Azure Data Factory is good because you won't have to overpay. Pricing-wise, the solution is a five out of ten. It was not expensive, and it was not cheap."
"The pricing model is based on usage and is not cheap."
"The licensing cost is included in the Synapse."
"For our use case, it is not expensive. We take into the picture everything: resources, learning curve, and maintenance."
"Understanding the pricing model for Data Factory is quite complex."
"This is a cost-effective solution."
"SSIS' licensing is a little high, but it gives good value for money."
"If you don't want to pay a lot of money, you can go for SSIS, as its open-source version is available. When it comes to licensing, SSIS can be expensive."
"The solution comes free of cost."
"This solution has provided an inexpensive tool, and it is easy to find experienced developers."
"t's incredibly cost effective, easy to learn the basics quickly (although like all ETL tools requires the traditional learning curve to get good at) and has an immense user base."
"This solution is included with the MSSQL server package."
"It would be beneficial if the solution had a less costly cloud offering."
"We purchased the standard edition of SQL Server and SSIS came with it free of charge."
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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%
Government
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

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...
What do you like most about SSIS?
The product's deployment phase is easy.
 

Also Known As

No data available
SQL Server Integration Services
 

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
1. Amazon.com 2. Bank of America 3. Capital One 4. Coca-Cola 5. Dell 6. E*TRADE 7. FedEx 8. Ford Motor Company 9. Google 10. Home Depot 11. IBM 12. Intel 13. JPMorgan Chase 14. Kraft Foods 15. Lockheed Martin 16. McDonald's 17. Microsoft 18. Morgan Stanley 19. Nike 20. Oracle 21. PepsiCo 22. Procter & Gamble 23. Prudential Financial 24. RBC Capital Markets 25. SAP 26. Siemens 27. Sony 28. Toyota 29. UnitedHealth Group 30. Visa 31. Walmart 32. Wells Fargo
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. SSIS and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.