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Alation Data Catalog vs SAS Data Governance comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.8
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (3rd)
SAS Data Governance
Ranking in Data Governance
44th
Average Rating
10.0
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of Alation Data Catalog is 3.1%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Data Governance is 0.6%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Governance Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Alation Data Catalog3.1%
SAS Data Governance0.6%
Other96.3%
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.
Adbul Samad Gabru - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Analyst at Look Alive Investment Pvt. Ltd.
An exceptionally stable and scalable product that helps businesses in the area of data integrity
I am kind of not at the forefront of anything anymore in my company. I kind of don't want to give a point of view on what needs improvement when I feel I am not adequately in a position to give it. In today's time, to be competitive, the solution's price should be lowered.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The tool's metadata cataloging is the most valuable feature."
"We do see a return on investment, though I cannot share exact numbers."
"Alation Data Catalog was very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform."
"We had nothing before, so we can't compare anything we used before with what we've got now, but what we've got now is infinitely better."
"Alation Data Catalog positively impacts my organization by improving data efficiency, data quality, and collaboration, allowing analysts to spend more time on analysis instead of searching and preparing, so they can just start their analysis."
"The most valuable feature is cloud integration."
"The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature."
"Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by improving the data marketplace section, the data utilization section, and the quality of the data."
"It is a very professional product. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
 

Cons

"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."
"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 needs to develop a lot in terms of data governance and would be improved with a built-in interactive data quality solution."
"The product's data governance features need improvement."
"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."
"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."
"Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement."
"Data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges"
"In today's time, to be competitive, the solution's price should be lowered."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected."
"The solution is a little expensive."
"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 platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market."
"It is an expensive product. In a company, you need to employ additional people to take care of the product, which can be considered as a part of the sundry expenses when it comes to the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Outsourcing Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise15
No data available
 

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...
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Also Known As

Alation
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Salesforce, Snowflake, Citrix, eBay, TripAdvisor, Albertsons, Nasdaq, Pfizer, LinkedIn, Finnair.
Canada Post, Ceska pojistovna, Chantecler, Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, iJET, Invacare, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Transitions Optical, Triad Analytic Solutions, UNIQA, US Census Bureau
Find out what your peers are saying about Collibra, Microsoft, Informatica and others in Data Governance. Updated: September 2026.
913,806 professionals have used our research since 2012.