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Alation Data Catalog pros and cons

Vendor: Alation
4.0 out of 5
Badge Leader

Pros & Cons summary

Buyer's Guide

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Alation Data Catalog freed up data science engineers by documenting information, allowing them to focus only on high-value questions, increasing productivity.
Alation Data Catalog's SQL query publication feature is highly valued.
Metadata cataloging is one of the most valuable features of Alation Data Catalog.
Workflow automation and metadata tagging enhance data integration and quality.
Alation Data Catalog improves data efficiency and collaboration, aiding faster onboarding and analysis.

CONS

Alation Data Catalog lacks end-to-end data lineage capabilities.
Alation Data Catalog needs improvements in data governance and would benefit from an interactive data quality solution.
Setting up connectors has been problematic, with support challenges from Alation.
Data observability in Alation Data Catalog would assist in addressing current challenges.
Alation Data Catalog's search functionality is limited, primarily searching titles rather than descriptions or source comments.
 

Alation Data Catalog Pros review quotes

reviewer1693698 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Governance Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Oct 14, 2021
We had some of our data science engineers, who had built out some cloud-based data and data products for users. They were spending a lot of their time, up to 30 to 35% of their time, answering questions about the data and helping people understand how to use it. Once they were able to document that information within Alation, they were only focusing on around 5% of the high-value questions that really couldn't be solved through the catalog itself. It freed them up to be more productive, it made their end-users more productive, and it made the adoption rate of their data products rise more quickly because people were able to get to using them.
JG
Data Governance Manager at Cbus
Oct 28, 2021
Given the relatively low level of maturity, Alation's most relevant feature at the moment is a user interface that's easy to navigate, which helps us find and understand the data. So while Alation has a lot more functionality, our pain point right now is being able to easily find, understand, and trust the information to use it.
Hariprasath Thiyagaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager - Data Governance, Master Data Systems at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jul 21, 2022
Alation Data Catalog's best feature is the SQL query publication.
Learn what your peers think about Alation Data Catalog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
Data Governance Specialist at Nestle
Jun 22, 2023
The most valuable features of Alation Data Catalog are the simplicity in onboarding data sources, the security in securing the data sources, and the way the various users of Alation Data Catalog communicate with each other through a messenger.
Brahma Lam - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at CVS Health
Sep 7, 2023
The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature.
reviewer2281572 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Oct 30, 2023
We can customize templates based on our use cases.
reviewer2266875 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 6, 2024
The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms.
GV
Data Engineer at GISbiz
Jun 13, 2024
The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation.
PS
data engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Jul 1, 2024
The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature.
SR
Chief Architect at Tata Consultancy
Jul 23, 2024
Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it.
 

Alation Data Catalog Cons review quotes

reviewer1693698 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Governance Specialist at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Oct 14, 2021
I know that this has been on their roadmap and they're working on it, but as a whole, there's an untapped reservoir of capabilities within their article features that could be used and built upon.
JG
Data Governance Manager at Cbus
Oct 28, 2021
Alation Data Catalog doesn't support end-to-end lineage. By that, I mean the ability to trace the movement of data from when it first comes into our organization to where it's consumed.
Hariprasath Thiyagaraj - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager - Data Governance, Master Data Systems at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jul 21, 2022
Alation Data Catalog needs to develop a lot in terms of data governance and would be improved with a built-in interactive data quality solution.
Learn what your peers think about Alation Data Catalog. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
AS
Data Governance Specialist at Nestle
Jun 22, 2023
Alation Data Catalog does not provide end-to-end data lineage.
Brahma Lam - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer at CVS Health
Sep 7, 2023
The tool's domain model needs to be changed.
reviewer2281572 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Business Intelligence Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Oct 30, 2023
The interface is not user-friendly.
reviewer2266875 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Feb 6, 2024
The product's data governance features need improvement.
GV
Data Engineer at GISbiz
Jun 13, 2024
It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying.
PS
data engineer at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Jul 1, 2024
We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues.
SR
Chief Architect at Tata Consultancy
Jul 23, 2024
Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement.