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SAP Data Services 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

dbt
Ranking in Data Integration
27th
Ranking in Data Quality
17th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SAP Data Services
Ranking in Data Integration
10th
Ranking in Data Quality
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
52
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of dbt is 1.7%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Data Services is 1.5%, down from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP Data Services1.5%
dbt1.7%
Other96.8%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Shubham-Agarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Projects at Cognizant
Incremental data models have cut full refresh time and support trusted executive reporting
I am not very familiar with dbt's version control system. I cannot identify any improvements in dbt because I am still exploring more functionality. I have been working with dbt for only three years, so I am exploring more functionalities and cannot see any limitations or improvement areas at this time. In the past, I used the seed functionality, which is used to load raw files, individual files, or static files into the database. Going forward, if dbt can improve or implement more features on the seed side, that would be beneficial, especially when we have large files available that take time to load the data into Snowflake database.
reviewer2686500 - PeerSpot reviewer
SAP BI Architect at a government with 10,001+ employees
Integration has become more robust and seamless
SAP Data Services is mainly used for extraction of data, and it works with all databases. The flows and everything are configured effectively. One of the most valuable features is that it is integrated. Compared to the past, it is much more robust and easier to use. The only issue is that documentation is not up to the mark. The data quality management features support our business because we can fetch anything based on the requirements. Before, we used to have a tough time getting data, but now, with HANA and all these tools, it is seamless.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There is operational efficiency achieved, and data quality and governance have also been achieved with modular SQL and version controlling, which reduced duplication of data and data errors."
"dbt has positively impacted my organization by allowing us to create our data pipelines much faster, going from ingestion of data to creating a data product in weeks instead of months, and we can do it in-house with the skillset we already have."
"The product is developer-friendly."
"Since we migrated from SSIS to dbt model architecture, it takes around four hours only to complete a full refresh, and the client is now happy because our downtime was drastically reduced when we perform a complete refresh of the data."
"The solution is easy to use since it's a graphical tool. It also requires only low-level coding."
"Technical support from SAP is awesome. If we have an issue, they give a good solution."
"The fact that it's built on SQL, it makes it easy to write code. The database and the connection are quite smooth."
"It's easy to understand and deploy. It's easy to create new applications, and depending on the complexity of the application, it is easy to deploy the new requirements."
"You can always manipulate a lot of things as long as you have the skill level."
"SAP Data Services has been around for a while and still performs its job well; it remains a fast data-moving tool, faster than most new ones."
"The BA reporting tools, such as Data Services, and ETL tool in SAP Data Services are the most valuable. When we had in-memory requirements, we used HANA. HANA is most preferably for most the customers for in-memory. SAP is the first company that created the in-memory concept."
"The solution offers very good integration capabilities."
 

Cons

"Since dbt has a license cost, if a company is small and does not have much budget, they can explore other tools because there are other tools that provide the same functionality at a lower cost."
"The solution must add more Python-based implementations."
"Dbt is not as stable as preferred, as it has had a few outages in the current year itself, so improvement should be made in the outages section as it is not stable."
"dbt can be improved as I find the co-pilot in dbt is not very good, and my team has tried using it but opted to move off it and use other co-pilots such as GitHub."
"In the future, Data Services should offer a cloud version."
"Newer feature integration is lagging behind the company acquisitions and the product could do more to service a broader range of devices."
"An area for improvement in SAP Data Services could involve making the product more accessible to non-technical end-users."
"The migration of the solution between different environments is quite complex."
"Regarding the pricing for SAP Data Services, I think it's on the higher side. Now, they are coming up with many pricing options, which is tricky; they offer one thing for free, but charge for nine others."
"It will work fine only in an SAP environment. It could be said that the integration with other vendors could be better."
"The solution should offer more machine learning and automation."
"The solution should improve connectivity with more source systems and target systems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing is affordable."
"The product’s on-premise version is expensive for a medium-sized company."
"The license price is expensive but medium to large-scale companies, should be able to afford it. Other solutions, such as Talend are easier to afford for smaller companies. Depending on the sources of the data where you are receiving your data you could be paying for more than one license."
"Speaking about prices, Oracle and SAP are market leaders. So, the prices are more."
"The price of SAP Data Services is a little high when compared to other solutions. Due to the pricing and capabilities, many clients are switching to other solutions."
"The price is very reasonable."
"The pricing is a little high to make the product more competetive in the marketplace."
"It's relatively expensive compared to other vendors, but it is competitive."
"I rate the product price as one or two on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Government
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise36
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for dbt?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was simple enough.
What needs improvement with dbt?
dbt can be improved as I find the co-pilot in dbt is not very good, and my team has tried using it but opted to move off it and use other co-pilots such as GitHub. Additionally, the debugging capab...
What is your primary use case for dbt?
My main use case for dbt is for data transformation and data engineering.A specific example of how I use dbt for data transformation and engineering is that we use it to connect and ingest data fro...
How do you evaluate the ratio of price to quality for SAP Data Services?
I believe the license for the product is fair, even though some competitors offer similar services at lower prices. The difference between the Edge edition and the next one up is significant in pr...
Would you recommend SAP Data Services to complete beginners?
I think after some preparation, a beginner will be able to use SAP Data Services, however, if you are completely unprepared, you may have some issues. I think that in particular you will need a mo...
How has SAP Data Services helped your organization?
SAP Data Services has helped our whole staff understand the data across various sources and systems within the company. Not everyone who works at my organization is an IT expert - most just have av...
 

Also Known As

No data available
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator, BusinessObjects Data Integrator
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
EMC Corporation, LivePerson, Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Migros Group
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Data Services vs. dbt and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.