Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Alation Data Catalog vs Immuta comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 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

Alation Data Catalog
Ranking in Data Governance
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (3rd)
Immuta
Ranking in Data Governance
21st
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Data Security Posture Management (DSPM) (13th), AI Data Analysis (22nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 4.0%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Immuta is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Alation Data Catalog4.0%
Immuta1.8%
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.
Dibyajyoti Rath - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Analyst at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Centralized access control has secured sensitive data and supports compliant self-service analytics
Immuta is very helpful, but it can be improved in a few areas. The initial setup and policy design can be complex and require a learning curve. The user interface could be more interactive, especially for non-technical users. Policy troubleshooting and debugging could be easier with better visibility into why access was allowed or denied. Performance optimization and deeper integration with more tools could make it even better. Additional improvements would strengthen Immuta further. The documentation and real-world examples would help teams onboard faster. More out-of-the-box policy templates could reduce setup time. Improved policy simulation and testing would help teams understand the impact of changes before applying them. Stronger alerting and monitoring features would help quickly identify access issues. Finally, more end-user training and simplified workflows would make it easier for business users to adopt.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by allowing users to answer questions that they had without trying to track down an expert, saving them quite a bit of time and frustration and allowing them to solve problems they probably would not have been able to solve had they not had the catalog."
"Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by allowing users to answer questions that they had without trying to track down an expert."
"Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by allowing analysts to be onboarded much quicker and easier as a lot of their questions are answered within Alation Data Catalog."
"Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it."
"Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by improving the data marketplace section, the data utilization section, and the quality of the data."
"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"We have improved data quality and accuracy, made informed decisions faster while reducing risks, and ensured compliance by enabling security and efficient access."
"We do see a return on investment, though I cannot share exact numbers."
"Immuta has had a very positive impact on our organization, helping us strengthen data security by ensuring sensitive data is only accessible to the right users, simplifying compliance with clear audit trails and consistent policy enforcement, reducing manual access management to save time for data and security teams, and enabling safe self-service analytics so our team can access data faster while still meeting governance and regulatory requirements."
"What I appreciate the most is its user-friendliness."
"All features available are good."
"The tool's most valuable feature is restriction."
"Instead of manually tagging data, Immuta’s auto-discovery capability identifies sensitive information, such as country labels, gender information, and other personal data."
 

Cons

"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."
"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."
"We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues."
"Alation Data Catalog can be improved by treating areas that could incorporate best practices or improvements, such as identifying data domains, which refer to logical data groups customers, vendors, and other entities."
"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."
"I notice a couple of pain points with Alation Data Catalog: they can improve on the lineage perspective and improve their data sources integration."
"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."
"The tool's domain model needs to be changed."
"There is room for improvement in enhancing the monitoring capabilities."
"Immuta is very helpful, but it can be improved in a few areas."
"Immuta is behind in updating upgrades and software releases."
"We have had some challenges with their support when we were migrating to the cloud version. We we had some issues, and it took us several attempts to get a proper responses as part of that migration."
"The implementation process with Immuta was quite challenging, primarily due to issues related to database handling and the syncing of user groups."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"A three-year agreement is better than a one-year rolling 12-month agreement from a price point of view. I'd recommend looking at a three-year deal because you can't stand up a catalog and produce value in 12 months."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"Immuta's pricing is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Governance solutions are best for your needs.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Insurance Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Alation Data Catalog?
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.
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 needs improvement with Immuta?
Immuta is very helpful, but it can be improved in a few areas. The initial setup and policy design can be complex and require a learning curve. The user interface could be more interactive, especia...
What is your primary use case for Immuta?
My main use case for Immuta is data governance. In my project, which is a data governance project, I use Immuta as a centralized data access management tool. A specific example of how I use Immuta ...
What advice do you have for others considering Immuta?
My advice for others considering Immuta would be to plan your policies carefully. Think through roles, data sensitivity, and use cases before setup. Invest in training to ensure both technical and ...
 

Also Known As

Alation
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Alation Data Catalog vs. Immuta and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.