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Azure Data Factory vs dbt comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 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

Azure Data Factory
Ranking in Data Integration
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
91
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Warehouse (3rd)
dbt
Ranking in Data Integration
39th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 8.9%, down from 12.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of dbt is 1.6%. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Joy Maitra - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates seamless data pipeline creation with good analytics and and thorough monitoring
Azure Data Factory is a low code, no code platform, which is helpful. It provides many prebuilt functionalities that assist in building data pipelines. Also, it facilitates easy transformation with all required functionalities for analytics. Furthermore, it connects to different sources out-of-the-box, making integration much easier. The monitoring is very thorough, though a more readable version would be appreciable.
Ninad Magdum - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer-friendly and easy to use, but doesn't have many optimization options
We also use stored procedures and Talend. They are not replaced by dbt completely. We use dbt only for the transformation process. My recommendations would depend on an organization’s requirements and problems. I will recommend the tool to others. The product is developer-friendly. However, it is still dependent on the data warehouse for big data and optimization. It's just a SQL transformation tool. It doesn't have a lot of optimization options like Spark. It's a good tool for Snowflake. If it were only for Snowflake, I would have rated it an eight out of ten. However, there are other data platforms. Overall, I rate the tool a six and a half out of ten.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"An excellent tool for pipeline orchestration."
"ADF is another ETL tool similar to Informatica that can transform data or copy it from on-prem to the cloud or vice versa. Once we have the data, we can apply various transformations to it and schedule our pipeline according to our business needs. ADF integrates with Databricks. We can call our Databricks notebooks and schedule them via ADF."
"The interface of Azure Data Factory is very usable with a more interactive visual experience, making it easier for people who are not as experienced in coding to work with."
"The most valuable features of Azure Data Factory are the flexibility, ability to move data at scale, and the integrations with different Azure components."
"This solution has provided us with an easier, and more efficient way to carry out data migration tasks."
"The most valuable feature is the ease in which you can create an ETL pipeline."
"The function of the solution is great."
"The most valuable aspect is the copy capability."
"The product is developer-friendly."
 

Cons

"Azure Data Factory should be cheaper to move data to a data center abroad for calamities in case of disasters."
"The thing we missed most was data update, but this is now available as of two weeks ago."
"There aren't many third-party extensions or plugins available in the solution."
"The setup and configuration process could be simplified."
"When we initiated the cluster, it took some time to start the process."
"The support and the documentation can be improved."
"This solution is currently only useful for basic data movement and file extractions, which we would like to see developed to handle more complex data transformations."
"One area for improvement is documentation. At present, there isn't enough documentation on how to use Azure Data Factory in certain conditions. It would be good to have documentation on the various use cases."
"The solution must add more Python-based implementations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I would rate Data Factory's pricing nine out of ten."
"Product is priced at the market standard."
"It's not particularly expensive."
"I don't see a cost; it appears to be included in general support."
"The price you pay is determined by how much you use it."
"The licensing is a pay-as-you-go model, where you pay for what you consume."
"Azure products generally offer competitive pricing, suitable for diverse budget considerations."
"I would not say that this product is overly expensive."
"The solution’s pricing is affordable."
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851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
13%
Healthcare Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

How do you select the right cloud ETL tool?
AWS Glue and Azure Data factory for ELT best performance cloud services.
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica PowerCenter?
Azure Data Factory is flexible, modular, and works well. In terms of cost, it is not too pricey. It offers the stability and reliability I am looking for, good scalability, and is easy to set up an...
How does Azure Data Factory compare with Informatica Cloud Data Integration?
Azure Data Factory is a solid product offering many transformation functions; It has pre-load and post-load transformations, allowing users to apply transformations either in code by using Power Q...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for dbt?
It is cheap because dbt is open source. If you compare the pay-per-service of Dbt with the open source option you can manage. We are managing the solution, when we were acquiring service from them....
What needs improvement with dbt?
SQL statements that beyond DML, are not possible. Currently, they are not possible in Dbt. Having more features in SQL statements will support us. Another issue is the terms of data ingestion becau...
What is your primary use case for dbt?
We use the solution to deal with data transformations inside different organizations.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

1. Adobe 2. BMW 3. Coca-Cola 4. General Electric 5. Johnson & Johnson 6. LinkedIn 7. Mastercard 8. Nestle 9. Pfizer 10. Samsung 11. Siemens 12. Toyota 13. Unilever 14. Verizon 15. Walmart 16. Accenture 17. American Express 18. AT&T 19. Bank of America 20. Cisco 21. Deloitte 22. ExxonMobil 23. Ford 24. General Motors 25. IBM 26. JPMorgan Chase 27. Microsoft (Azure Data Factory is developed by Microsoft) 28. Oracle 29. Procter & Gamble 30. Salesforce 31. Shell 32. Visa
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. dbt and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.