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Denodo 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

Denodo
Ranking in Data Integration
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
37
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (1st), Cloud Data Integration (5th)
FME
Ranking in Data Integration
23rd
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 September 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Denodo is 1.7%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FME is 1.5%, 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 (%)
Denodo1.7%
FME1.5%
Other96.8%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Atanu Chatterjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Data virtualization and integration enabled while caching and scalability room for improvement
In terms of improvements for Denodo, regarding performance, in cases where there are multiple virtualizations—such as reading from one Denodo view that is virtualized, and from that view there's also virtualization, and another team is reading from that view—if multiple virtualizations happen with no caching in between, it becomes slow. This occurs because it is cascading; whenever at the top level someone is reading data, that request is getting cascaded to the nth level, causing issues, especially in cases such as Power BI reports. We need to consider implementing some persistent layer in between. The scaling process should improve because many things are getting automated. The scale-out part needs to be automated, though I am uncertain whether Denodo has already implemented that feature.
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

"In general, it's good for us to make tests so we can scout the data."
"It is a go-to tool for data virtualization. The virtualization and data catalog are the features of why we chose Denodo."
"The data abstraction is the most valuable feature."
"It is easy to virtualize data using the solution."
"The data catalog feature is valuable as it helps define data structures without storing data."
"The most valuable aspects of this solution are the short time frame in which you can deliver and connect."
"One thing that we have noticed is that when you have a BI tool, you end up building a lot of the logic in the BI tool, but as a company, every company wants to be tool agnostic because today, you could be in the Qlik Sense, and tomorrow, you may decide to go with Tableau or something else that is there. If you have put a lot of logic within the tool, transitioning or moving away from one BI tool to another tool becomes a very intensive process. By keeping the logic in Denodo, you can move to any tool."
"The most valuable feature is the performance. Denodo is very useful, especially in this huge pharma environment. I've found that older SAP solutions were very tightly coupled to each other, which resulted in data restrictions. Getting data from different sources was tough and tedious. Compared to these old solutions, Denodo is very easy to work with for the analytical team. Now that we've implemented this virtualization layer, we are capable of getting the data very smoothly. We implemented a very small unit, but the performance and integration have been very good."
"From my reseller perspective, the best features in FME are the ease of operation and the fact that it works."
"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 standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
 

Cons

"While AI and ML integration is present, understanding its implementation better could be beneficial."
"We can't scale it to meet digital requirements."
"Denodo can improve usage management-related aspects. If you deal with the mini views, it gets stuck. The performance is very slow when we go with a large number of views and high volume."
"They need to invest more in the optimization engine. It will be a fantastic tool for them to enhance automation and improve the GUI interface, especially for Integration, as some tools are still not fully integrated, such as Iceberg."
"Denodo has some difficulty supporting large numbers of records."
"I would like to see a connectivity option with third-party apps, for example, JDBC, and ODBC drivers. Currently, we need to install it separately from the Denodo side and then connect it."
"We occasionally have some integration issues that we need to work through."
"There have been some issues when you are at a table. Currently, Denodo exports data sets for a tabular model. When you are finished modeling your database or data warehouse they export a link to be used in Tableau. They should support other tools like Power BI."
"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"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."
"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost for Denodo is in line with other similar products."
"The licensing charges for this solution are payable annually."
"Depending on the size of the client you want to work with, it can be prohibitively expensive at times."
"Talking with my manager and others, nobody has complained about the pricing so far which is a positive sign."
"The pricing is pretty good, and I would rate it at four out of five."
"The licensing should be improved, as the cost per connector is quite expensive."
"Cost wise, on a scale from one to five, with one being the cheapest and five being the most expensive, Denodo would be at three. We get all the features in a bundle."
"I am not super familiar with the pricing, but so far, it seems good. We have been happy. We haven't seen any problems. The only time we had to pay extra was during the upgrade. We didn't upgrade at the time they told us to upgrade, and we had to pay extra to keep the service. They had stopped the support for the older version and moved to the newer version. It was not their fault. It was our fault because we didn't get on board quickly."
"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."
"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Government
33%
Energy/Utilities Company
12%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Does Denodo provide useful data virtualization education? Is it useful to attend their training?
If you are a Denodo user, it makes sense to undergo their training. Different types of professionals can benefit from it, including administrators, developers, and architects. If you are keen on i...
In experience, what might Denodo be lacking or need improvement on?
I like Denodo a lot. It offers quick and easy web service deployment within minutes. There are not any flaws that I think make the product less good or effective. The only thing I can point out is...
Which industries can benefit from Denodo the most?
Denodo is suitable for pretty much all sectors that deal with: Big data Cloud solutions Data governance Logical data fabric Master data management In my opinion, organizations in different fields...
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?
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...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Autodesk, VHA, AAA, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Caterpillar, European Chemical Agency, Seagate, Nationwide, Time Warner Cable, Pantex, Inditex, BNSF Railways, Vodafone, CIT Group, Jazztel, Wolters Kluwer, Telefonica, TransAlta
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 Denodo vs. FME and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.