FME vs Fivetran comparison

Fivetran and Safe Software are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Fivetran is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.8, while Safe Software is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.7. Fivetran holds a 2.2% mindshare in DI, compared to Safe Software’s 1.8% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Fivetran users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Safe Software users who would recommend it.

Fivetran

Read 25 Fivetran reviews

3,228 Views
2,319 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

FME

Read 5 FME reviews

2,503 Views
1,829 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Fivetran

FME

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

FME and Fivetran are key players in the data integration market. FME is preferred for its ability to handle complex spatial data transformations, whereas Fivetran is favored for its ease of setup and automated capabilities in cloud environments.

Features: FME shines with its comprehensive geospatial analysis abilities, support for complex data types, and a wide array of connectors facilitating diverse system integration. Its graphical interface simplifies the debugging and optimization processes. Fivetran's strongest features include automated data pipeline management, easy integration with systems like DBT, and the ability to handle large data volumes with minimal manual intervention. The solution's change data capture capability ensures efficient data flow between platforms.

Room for Improvement: FME could enhance its cloud deployment options and streamline its setup process to reduce the initial complexity. Users also seek more intuitive interfaces for non-specialist users. Fivetran might improve by offering more detailed customization options for advanced users, expanding its native connector list to cover less common databases, and optimizing its pricing structure for smaller data loads.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: FME excels in offering robust, customizable on-premise deployment solutions with extensive configuration options, catering to specific data needs. Conversely, Fivetran provides a quick, cloud-based deployment model that minimizes setup time and maintenance through its automated updates. While FME supports more detailed configurations, Fivetran simplifies deployment, backed by effective customer service.

Pricing and ROI: FME requires a higher upfront investment due to its feature-rich environment and customization potential, yielding a higher ROI in complex data transformation cases. Fivetran uses a subscription model with lower initial costs, delivering quicker ROI for fast-paced cloud integrations, especially beneficial for organizations looking to implement swiftly and scale efficiently.

To learn more, read our detailed FME vs. Fivetran Report (Updated: February 2025).

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. Fivetran

February 2025

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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

Fivetran

Ranking in Data Integration

12th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Replication (3rd), Cloud Data Integration (8th)

FME

Ranking in Data Integration

26th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Fivetran is 2.2%, up from 1.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of FME is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Erik Jones

Head of BI and Analytics at HyperScience

Solution reduces time-to-value; high ROI

Fivetran has room for improvement in data pipeline observability. The Fivetran logs are fairly basic, compared to, for example, the insight Fivetran gives into helping users understanding the performance of data pipelines. So I think their observability into the pipeline itself could be improved. In addition, Fivetran is in the very early stages of allowing other companies to access its metadata API, but that's something that could use improvement, and I know that they're working on right now. We use a separate tool for "reverse ETL", which is the opposite of what Fivetran does; it pushes data from your data warehouse back out to business applications. If Fivetran pulls data from those same applications, they should also enable users to push it back. I would love to do both ETL and reverse ETL in the same tool. It would be nice if Fivetran offered both their regular offering plus the reverse ETL option as well.

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Alan Bloor

Geographic Information System Developer at Public Sector

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.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its arrays are powerful enough to handle migrations even when the replication is happening in the background, without causing any trouble with the ongoing traffic."

"For us, Fivetran has been able to scale both in terms of the data we bring into our warehouse and the amount of data that we use as well."

"SysTrack load is the best feature."

"The solution is stable. We've never faced any stability issues."

"It is not like a traditional ETL, but it gives quite a lot of flexibility."

"The simplicity of the solution is its valuable feature."

"The most important feature of the solution is its ability to build data pipelines in less time."

"The simplicity and scalability are the strongest features of Fivetran."

More Fivetran pros

"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."

"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."

"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."

Cons

"I would like Fivetran to implement additional resource monitoring and restriction policies."

"I would like for them to incorporate additional transformations. A valuable aspect of the product is that it does inflight transformations and that could be expanded."

"An in-line data quality checking capability is missing"

"This solution needs to improve its real-time data and transformation availability."

"The documentation is decent, but it's hard to find information online about Fivetran. For example, if you try to search for an error code, you won't find much information about it in forums."

"HVR Software's technical support could be improved. Whenever we log a case, the response that we get from the support is a bit delayed."

"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."

"Fivetran could improve in the area of customization, especially in how they socialize their tools."

More Fivetran cons

"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."

"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."

"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."

"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 product is reasonably expensive"

"I've heard that the license for HVR is a bit costly compared to its competitors, but since it's reliable and efficient, I think the customer shouldn't be bothered about the cost."

"In the first year, we were given a very good discount. It was approximately 20,000 Euros per year. In the third year, we purchased credit for two years and the price was 33,000 Euros per year."

"When you have a lot of workflows and complex use cases, pricing goes down as you use it more."

"The pricing model is okay and mid to large companies will not have an issue with it."

"The solution is affordable."

"Fivetran is very expensive, and its database-driven pricing model is outdated."

"I can't give exact amounts because that's based on usage, but it's more expensive than some of its competitors."

More Fivetran pricing and cost advice

"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

Educational Organization

27%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

30%

Energy/Utilities Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What's the deal with the HVR software acquisition?

As a user of HVR Software I followed this deal closely. Fivetran is apparently trying to establish more in its sector and by buying an already established data replication software, they become som...

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Does HVR Software provide reliable insights?

I honestly can't think of another data replication software that can give you better statistics and insight than HVR Software. There's the feature for topology and statistics and both of them can ...

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How much traffic can HVR Software handle?

As someone who works at a company where a high volume of information is replicated and has tried several data replication softwares, I can tell you that you're looking at the right one. HVR Softwar...

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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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Fivetran

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

FME

March 2025

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Overview

Fivetran, the global leader in data movement, is trusted by companies like OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon and Spotify to centralize data from SaaS applications, databases, files, and other sources into cloud destinations, including data lakes. With high-performance pipelines, seamless interoperability, and enterprise-grade security, Fivetran empowers organizations to modernize their data infrastructure, power analytics and AI, ensure compliance, and achieve transformative business outcomes. Learn more at Fivetran.com

Fivetran

FME is the data integration platform with the best support for spatial data. Run workflows on the desktop or deploy them in a server or cloud environment.

Safe Software

Sample Customers

Autodesk, Condé Nast, JetBlue, Morgan Stanley, OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon, SpotifyNational Australia Bank, Saks, Cemex, Okta, Dropbox, Pitney Bowes, World Fuel Services,Lufthansa, AutoZone, ASICS, ASOS, Coupa, Databricks, Hermes, New Relic, Intercom,Canva, Honeywell, Square, DocuSign, Nandos, Oldcastle Infrastructure

Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. Fivetran

February 2025

Free Report: FME vs. Fivetran

Find out what your peers are saying about FME vs. Fivetran and other solutions. Updated: February 2025.

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