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Azure Data Factory vs SAS Data Integration Server 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 (2nd)
SAS Data Integration Server
Ranking in Data Integration
37th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Azure Data Factory is 7.9%, down from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Data Integration Server is 0.6%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. 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.
NN
Offloads processes on the server side but needs better installation syntax
One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference between two dates, the general syntax in SAS is called the data difference or data net function. However, another name is used, such as NF and INK. Without knowledge of SAS programming, it becomes unclear what these functions mean. It is not good to define function names this way.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"From my experience so far, the best feature is the ability to copy data to any environment. We have 100 connects and we can connect them to the system and copy the data from its respective system to any environment. That is the best feature."
"We haven't had any issues connecting it to other products."
"Data Factory allows you to pull data from multiple systems, transform it according to your business needs, and load it into a data warehouse or data lake."
"The platform excels in data transformation with its user-friendly interface and robust monitoring capabilities, making ETL processes seamless."
"The solution handles large volumes of data very well. One of its best features is its ability to integrate data end-to-end, from pulling data from the source to accessing Databricks. This makes it quite useful for our needs."
"The solution includes a feature that increases the number of processors used which makes it very powerful and adds to the scalability."
"This solution will allow the organisation to improve its existing data offerings over time by adding predictive analytics, data sharing via APIs and other enhancements readily."
"It is very modular. It works well. We've used Data Factory and then made calls to libraries outside of Data Factory to do things that it wasn't optimized to do, and it worked really well. It is obviously proprietary in regards to Microsoft created it, but it is pretty easy and direct to bring in outside capabilities into Data Factory."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
"The solution is very stable."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling."
"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."
"The solution offers very good data manipulation and loading."
 

Cons

"A room for improvement in Azure Data Factory is its speed. Parallelization also needs improvement."
"There should be a way that it can do switches, so if at any point in time I want to do some hybrid mode of making any data collections or ingestions, I can just click on a button."
"There's space for improvement in the development process of the data pipelines."
"There is always room to improve. There should be good examples of use that, of course, customers aren't always willing to share. It is Catch-22. It would help the user base if everybody had really good examples of deployments that worked, but when you ask people to put out their good deployments, which also includes me, you usually got, "No, I'm not going to do that." They don't have enough good examples. Microsoft probably just needs to pay one of their partners to build 20 or 30 examples of functional Data Factories and then share them as a user base."
"There is a problem with the integration with third-party solutions, particularly with SAP."
"Data Factory's monitorability could be better."
"I rate Azure Data Factory six out of 10 for stability. ADF is stable now, but we had problems recently with indexing on an SQL database. It's slow when dealing with a huge volume of data. It depends on whether the database is configured as general purpose or hyperscale."
"The need to work more on developing out-of-the-box connectors for other products like Oracle, AWS, and others."
"So I would like to see improved integration with other software."
"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."
"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."
"One area for improvement is the installation process."
"The initial setup of SAS Data Integration Server was complex."
"The transform tool has limited access. They should make it more flexible."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Product is priced at the market standard."
"The licensing cost is included in the Synapse."
"For our use case, it is not expensive. We take into the picture everything: resources, learning curve, and maintenance."
"Azure Data Factory gives better value for the price than other solutions such as Informatica."
"I don't see a cost; it appears to be included in general support."
"I rate the product price as six on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price and ten is high price."
"I would rate Data Factory's pricing nine out of ten."
"Azure products generally offer competitive pricing, suitable for diverse budget considerations."
"It is an expensive program."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Computer Software Company
12%
Insurance Company
7%
Government
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 do you like most about SAS Data Integration Server?
The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAS Data Integration Server?
I don't handle the cost and budget part. From the tool's perspective, I can say that it is an amazing product.
What needs improvement with SAS Data Integration Server?
One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server, Enterprise Data Integration Server
 

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
Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance
Find out what your peers are saying about Azure Data Factory vs. SAS Data Integration Server and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
860,592 professionals have used our research since 2012.