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Alation Data Catalog vs erwin Data Intelligence comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 1, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
5.7
Alation Data Catalog boosts efficiency by reducing search time, cutting costs, and enhancing user independence in data management.
Sentiment score
5.2
Erwin Data Intelligence enhances efficiency, cuts costs, and improves delivery speed, while boosting data governance and decision-making capabilities.
We have seen a return on investment, having saved close to 10.5% of our costs, with expected ROI growing yearly by about 17%.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
Instead of going into Google or consulting a colleague, I can just go to Alation Data Catalog, search there, and understand everything by myself.
Data Engineer at Yum! Brands
Compared to competitor products like Collibra, erwin Data Intelligence is more cost-effective, providing a data catalog and data lineage views without the high costs associated with governance software.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.6
Alation's support is generally positive, with fast ticket processing but some issues with time zones and complex problem-solving.
Sentiment score
7.8
erwin Data Intelligence customer service is responsive and skilled, though response times can vary; Premier Support improves interaction speed.
Some of them have dragged on for six months, which is much longer than we would ever want some support issues to go on.
Senior Data Engineer & Data Platform Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
we have defined several SLAs that have resolved critical issues and incidents with excellent support.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
we have been able to contact them, and they have been able to help us whenever we have had issues
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Quest technical support is very good, as they provide not only a technical help desk but also a data automation team that creates and customizes smart connectors, offering a wealth of skilled support.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
For technical support, they need to improve response time.
Data Unit Manger at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.8
Alation Data Catalog excels in scalability for expanding user bases and data size, with some API limitations on free versions.
Sentiment score
6.8
erwin Data Intelligence offers scalable user capacity and metadata handling, but faces performance issues with large data volumes and cloud integration.
As data sizes grow, we can also scale categorizations, calibrations, and the types of data we ingest and catalog through this tool.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
Alation Data Catalog's scalability is really good since everything is cloud and everything gets pulled into the system via Snowflake and DBT automatically.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Alation Data Catalog's scalability has met our needs as our data and user base has grown.
Senior Data Engineer & Data Platform Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Regarding scalability, I would rate erwin Data Intelligence as an eight or nine for its ability to expand.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
When we tried to connect erwin Data Intelligence to ERP on Oracle Cloud, specifically Oracle Fusion, we encountered many problems.
Data Unit Manger at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.5
Alation Data Catalog is praised for stability, reliable performance, excellent maintenance, with minor on-premises outages and DBT load concerns.
Sentiment score
8.1
erwin Data Intelligence is stable with positive feedback, improved metadata handling, and suits small to medium enterprises well.
It has never gone down when we wanted to access it.
Senior Data Engineer & Data Platform Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Alation Data Catalog has been stable for me, as I haven't seen much downtime.
Senior ORM Analyst Assistant Vice President at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
From my experience, Alation Data Catalog is stable.
Senior Data Analyst at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
It is good for small and medium enterprises, but larger enterprises with huge amounts of metadata might face some issues.
Data Unit Manger at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
From my perspective, I would rate the stability of erwin Data Intelligence as an eight or nine out of ten.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Alation Data Catalog needs improved lineage, user interface, automation, security, and integration with Power BI and external APIs.
Erwin Data Intelligence needs improvements in customization, integration, performance, AI features, analytics, and support for better user experience.
The platform needs improvement in integrating with BI tools, reducing manual efforts, and facilitating a smooth connection.
Senior Data Governance at a university with 51-200 employees
Additionally, bringing in AI capabilities to automate tracking and labeling can optimize how we handle data information levels.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
Alation Data Catalog can be improved by enhancing their lineage capabilities to make it easier for us as users to search the lineage without having to use the Alation Data Catalog user interface.
Senior Data and Analytics Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
erwin Data Intelligence could improve particularly in the UI, as they are using old technologies that are not modern and do not serve the current requirements of the modern market.
Data Unit Manger at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
The dashboard in erwin Data Intelligence is customizable, and you can easily create different views.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
 

Setup Cost

Alation Data Catalog pricing is high, but discounts and long-term agreements offer better value compared to competitors.
erwin Data Intelligence offers affordable pricing with user fees around $7,000, full suite $100,000, and potential discounts available.
Collibra is a little bit expensive than Alation, but I presented the benefits of having that platform, so that little bit of money was not a big deal.
Senior Data Governance at a university with 51-200 employees
Discussions with the vendor partners provided a detailed breakdown of costs and how they can be reduced over time.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
 

Valuable Features

Alation Data Catalog boosts productivity with intuitive features, seamless data management, and enhances collaboration through advanced governance and cloud integration.
erwin Data Intelligence excels in data management, lineage visualization, and automation, enhancing collaboration, data literacy, and governance efficiency.
It was the only data catalog tool where I could save and even create SQL queries.
Senior Data Governance at a university with 51-200 employees
Importantly, we establish a single source of truth, centralizing metadata and standardizing definitions, which minimizes confusion and helps with consistent data use across the organization.
Senior Staff Cyber Security Cloud Data Architect at GE Healthcare
My stakeholders can find relevant data assets quickly using a Google search without needing technical jargon, reducing the time spent searching for data.
Data Engineer at Yum! Brands
This feature is probably the most valuable because it allows for automated reverse engineering of lineage.
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
The mind maps clarify for the business the related business terms and the relation between the business terms and other technical terms and technical data products, and they are very effective.
Data Unit Manger at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Alation Data Catalog
Ranking in Data Governance
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (3rd)
erwin Data Intelligence
Ranking in Data Governance
16th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
AI Governance (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 3.9%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of erwin Data Intelligence is 1.9%, down from 2.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alation Data Catalog3.9%
erwin Data Intelligence1.9%
Other94.2%
Data Governance
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2776527 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data and Analytics Consultant at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Increases data discoverability and boosts self-service analytics through enriched metadata and intuitive search
The best features that Alation Data Catalog offers are its search capabilities and the fact that it works with many different data platforms; it is essentially platform agnostic. The other piece that I really think is important is how easy it is to use as well as to manage. What makes the search capabilities of Alation Data Catalog stand out for me is the fact that every item within the catalog is indexed and searchable, as well as the filtering features that allow you to narrow down to just the types of assets that you need. Wildcard searches are also very helpful. It is a very intuitive tool, as long as you are using the filters. Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by allowing users to answer questions that they had without trying to track down an expert. This has saved them quite a bit of time and frustration. It has allowed them to solve problems they probably would not have been able to solve had they not had the catalog. We have been measuring the curation of content within the catalog that has gone up over time, and we have also seen the number of users in the catalog increase, as well as the amount of activity within the catalog increase. We were seeing about an average of about 20% increase month over month for the last few months.
Jog Raj - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
Automated lineage and business glossaries have improved data understanding and collaboration
I am open to answering a few questions about erwin Data Intelligence and sharing my opinion about the product. Regarding the analytic part of the product, I find it very interesting that erwin Data Intelligence has its own inbuilt reporting toolset, with a new version coming out in January that will be AI-powered. This means you will be able to write analytical reports and questions based on the metadata and data lineage, making it more powerful than the current version, as AI will assist in creating those reports and performing analysis on the metadata. I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long. Creating a data catalog and developing data lineage takes significant time, and I expect that AI will help accelerate the process of creating data products by streamlining the steps involved. I can recommend erwin Data Intelligence to other users. I would rate this review as an eight out of ten overall.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Educational Organization
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise15
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alation Data Catalog?
I haven't had any experience with pricing, setup costs, or licensing, as I have been strictly an end user and haven't had any administrative or management responsibilities.
What needs improvement with Alation Data Catalog?
Some of the downsides about the lineage is that some of the code is quite difficult to read as the formatting is a bit ugly sometimes. Alation Data Catalog can be improved with the lineage formatti...
What is your primary use case for Alation Data Catalog?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for the past year now. My main use case for Alation Data Catalog is updating data descriptions and making sure analysts have what they need to do their job. W...
What needs improvement with erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?
In my opinion, the analytics part of erwin Data Intelligence is not satisfactory. The name 'Intelligence' is not related specifically to analytics; it is focused on data governance with no advanced...
What is your primary use case for erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?
My main use case for erwin Data Intelligence is applying it and the DQ Labs in a financial institution.
What advice do you have for others considering erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?
The integration of business glossaries has significantly helped improve collaboration in our organization. We define the business glossaries first during meetings with the business, and then we bul...
 

Also Known As

Alation
erwin DG, erwin Data Governance
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
Oracle, Infosys, GSK, Toyota Motor Sales, HSBC
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. erwin Data Intelligence and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.