FME vs WhereScape RED comparison

Safe Software and WhereScape are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Safe Software is ranked #26 with an average rating of 8.7, while WhereScape is ranked #49. Safe Software holds a 1.7% mindshare in DI, compared to WhereScape’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Safe Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of WhereScape users who would recommend it.

FME

Read 5 FME reviews

2,554 Views
1,870 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

WhereScape RED

Read 15 WhereScape RED reviews

1,614 Views
1,081 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

FME

WhereScape RED

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

WhereScape RED and FME are competing products in the data integration and management category. FME seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive feature set, particularly in data transformation, which justifies its cost.

Features: WhereScape RED offers strong end-to-end automation, simplifying workflow management and speeding up data warehouse development. It provides automatic code generation, metadata-driven architecture, and automation of data warehouse tasks, such as automated documentation. FME is known for extensive data transformation capabilities, supporting a wide variety of data types. It features a powerful graphical interface, supports numerous connectors, and integrates well with scripting languages like Python.

Room for Improvement: WhereScape RED could improve in areas such as expanding support for additional data transformation features, enhancing integration flexibility with more external tools, and providing a more user-friendly interface. FME can focus on improving automation capabilities beyond data transformation, adding more robust scheduling functionalities, and reducing reliance on manual optimization for complex dataflows.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: WhereScape RED provides a straightforward deployment model with efficient processes and attentive customer service. FME offers a user-friendly deployment experience and is distinguished by its extensive support resources, including strong community forums, which may provide a slight edge in overall support experiences.

Pricing and ROI: WhereScape RED may require a higher initial setup cost, but rapid ROI is achieved through increased productivity and reduced project timelines. FME presents a comparable upfront investment, with its broad feature set offering potential for enhanced long-term value. Its pricing is considered worthwhile, providing a more evident ROI, especially in complex data environments.

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

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. WhereScape RED

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

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

WhereScape RED

Ranking in Data Integration

49th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of FME is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of WhereScape RED is 1.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

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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it_user584544

Manager Data Warehousing at a university with 10,001+ employees

The architecture is based on metadata and documentation is automated.

I would love to see a GUI interface for defining dependencies between build processes. RED provides a spreadsheet like interface for defining the dependencies between builds. Once the dependencies are defined, RED can produce a nice dependency diagram to give a visualization of the dependency tree. It would be easier to define complex dependency relationships if the dependency diagram were interactive. Our legacy ETL tool provided this GUI dependency definition via a drag and drop diagram which was very useful. The solution provided by WhereScape does work, and the dependency diagrams generated are helpful. It would just be nice to have the ability to define dependencies via a diagram, since dependencies relationships are much easier to understand via a diagram.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"RED has provided us the ability to integrate, stage, and transform data from diverse sources into an enterprise-grade data warehouse which meets the needs of my organization, but it also enables us to easily and quickly make ETL or DW changes."

"WhereScape RED has improved our business's ability to generate needed reporting without requiring a large team of developers to manually code all of the necessary plumbing."

"RED generates comprehensive documentation and regenerates it as quickly as things changes, but it also provides impact documentation."

"The tool supports multiple target update methods."

"The most valuable feature is the metadata generated code."

"Their support staff are very knowledgeable, courteous, and professional. I feel their support staff go above and beyond to assure their customers are satisfied."

"Naturally produces a way to easily debug your DW data solutions."

"WhereScape is really helpful in terms of architecture data. Everything is one of automation. Two people can do thousands of tables in one day or two. It saves a lot of time."

More WhereScape RED pros

Cons

"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."

"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."

"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."

"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."

"They need a more robust support center. It has been a bit difficult to find solutions to problems that are out-of-the-box."

"The ability to execute SSIS projects within WhereScape would be nice because we have a lot of packages that are too cumbersome to recreate."

"The scheduled jobs which are run by the WhereScape scheduler seem to be a strangely separate animal. Unlike all other WhereScape objects, jobs cannot be added to WhereScape projects. Also, unlike all other objects, jobs also cannot be deleted using a WhereScape deployment application."

"Customization could be better."

"Improve the object renaming ability (it works, but it could be more automated)."

"Jobs cannot be deleted via the deployment package. When deploying from dev to QA or production, a job has to be retired. The job has to be manually removed from the target environment."

"The solution can be a little more user-friendly on enterprise-level where people use it."

"It could use a tool to diagnose what is missing from the environment for WhereScape to install successfully."

More WhereScape RED cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's price is reasonable."

"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."

"Speed to market of a warehouse solution at a relatively inexpensive price point."

"Our company purchased a corporate unlimited license."

"ROI is at least 10 times."

"Factor in the price of specialized consulting who know this product. They're hard to find and expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Government

29%

Energy/Utilities Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Comms Service Provider

Financial Services Firm

19%

Insurance Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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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SSIS vs FME

Compared 7% of the time

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs FME

Compared 6% of the time

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Compared 18% of the time

Informatica PowerCenter vs WhereScape RED

Compared 17% of the time

SSIS vs WhereScape RED

Compared 11% of the time

Matillion ETL vs WhereScape RED

Compared 8% of the time

dbt vs WhereScape RED

Compared 7% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

FME

March 2025

Download FME product report

Buyer's Guide

WhereScape RED

February 2025

Download WhereScape RED product report

Overview

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

WhereScape is data warehouse software that automates the Data Warehouse lifecycle. From implementation to maintenance, WhereScape will ensure your data warehouse projects are completed up to 5x faster than manual coding.

WhereScape

Sample Customers

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

British American Tobacco, Cornell University, Allianz Benelux, Finnair, Solarwinds and many more.

Buyer's Guide

FME vs. WhereScape RED

February 2025

Free Report: FME vs. WhereScape RED

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