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Fivetran vs IBM InfoSphere DataStage 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.6
Fivetran offers significant time and cost-saving benefits, simplifying data integration and maintenance while reducing reliance on data engineers.
Sentiment score
5.9
IBM InfoSphere DataStage increases ROI with improved performance, reduced maintenance, efficient management, and ongoing developer support despite some manual needs.
Fivetran provides time savings, cost reductions, and improvements in data quality.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
It saves us the effort of having one to two data engineers managing the tasks that Fivetran handles.
Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.0
Fivetran customer support is efficient yet sometimes slow, rated 7-9, with calls for improved critical issue communication.
Sentiment score
6.2
IBM InfoSphere DataStage support is generally well-rated for availability and responsiveness, but some report regional and efficiency issues.
If they could provide support more quickly, that would be great.
Manager at InfoCepts
The technical support provided by Fivetran has generally been good, with a response time and competence that I would rate as good.
Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
Customer support from Fivetran is quite good; it's really nice and responsive.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
We also have the flexibility to submit a feature request to be included as part of the wishlist, potentially becoming a product feature in subsequent releases.
Sr Product Manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
I rate their support as nine on a scale from one to ten.
Senior Data Warehouse Developer at itcinfotech
IBM tech support has allocated dedicated resources, making it satisfactory.
Senior Officer at State Bank of India
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Fivetran scales well for various businesses, accommodating data needs but can be costly and complex for smaller enterprises.
Sentiment score
7.5
IBM InfoSphere DataStage scales well but may require hardware adjustments under heavy loads, with ratings between 7-9.
Fivetran's scalability has been tested effectively, and it has been working well for our organization's growing data needs.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
If the job provided suggestions about running this kind of parallel processing and how many virtual nodes are required, it would help.
Senior Data Warehouse Developer at itcinfotech
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
8.0
Users generally express high satisfaction with Fivetran's stable reliability, despite occasional issues with API connections and custom setups.
Sentiment score
7.6
IBM InfoSphere DataStage is stable, especially on Linux, but experiences some instability on Windows due to memory issues.
They have 99.9% accuracy on the data load and they maintain transparency.
Manager at InfoCepts
In my experience, Fivetran is stable with very few instances of downtime or reliability issues.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
During the duration of the time that we used Fivetran, it was highly stable.
Founder at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
 

Room For Improvement

Fivetran needs improvements in connectors, real-time processing, user interface, pricing, support, documentation, and integration capabilities.
IBM InfoSphere DataStage requires enhanced interfaces, modern integration, better support, user-friendliness, and adaptability with improved performance and cloud capabilities.
From a cost perspective, if the number of connectors is lesser, then Fivetran is not the most cost-efficient option.
Founder at a marketing services firm with 1-10 employees
When we tried to use a built-in Oracle connector, it didn't allow for the tweaks we needed, which led us to the SDK connector route and caused delays in development.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
Fivetran could improve by adapting more for technical users and by providing more options for such users.
Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
An additional feature I would want to see in the next release is the ability to work on logs, especially machine logs or artificial logs, to pull semi-structured or unstructured data without having to write extensive code in Python and integrate it.
Senior Data Warehouse Developer at itcinfotech
The solution needs improvement in connectivity with big data technologies such as Spark.
Senior Officer at State Bank of India
I wonder if it supports other areas, such as cloud environments with open source support, or EdgeShift.
Sr Product Manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Setup Cost

Fivetran's pricing is high, favoring larger enterprises with discounts available; smaller companies may find it prohibitive.
IBM InfoSphere DataStage pricing varies widely and can be costly, particularly for small businesses, despite being cheaper than competitors.
Our current yearly contract for Fivetran is approximately $70,000.
Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
Pricing for IBM InfoSphere DataStage is moderate and not much expensive.
Senior Officer at State Bank of India
 

Valuable Features

Fivetran is valued for seamless data replication, user-friendly interface, scalability, and minimal coding, enabling efficient data handling.
IBM InfoSphere DataStage offers robust ETL capabilities, scalability, excellent integration, user-friendly design, and strong performance for large data volumes.
The most valuable feature of Fivetran is its built-in connectors for a wide range of data sources.
Lead Data Engineer at Sensilab
The real-time data replication is what I see best in the market where it reduces the overhead of customers needing to maintain the pipeline.
Manager at InfoCepts
Fivetran not only has built-in connectors but also provides SDK connectors, allowing us to develop our own connectors in an easy manner.
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
IBM InfoSphere DataStage is very scalable, allowing us to extend it according to our processing needs.
Senior Officer at State Bank of India
I have leveraged IBM InfoSphere DataStage's integration with IBM's Information Server suite, and it is indeed beneficial.
Senior Data Warehouse Developer at itcinfotech
The failure detection has been very useful for us, as well as the load balancing feature.
Sr Product Manager at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Fivetran
Ranking in Data Integration
13th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Data Replication (3rd), Cloud Data Integration (8th)
IBM InfoSphere DataStage
Ranking in Data Integration
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Fivetran is 1.8%, down from 2.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM InfoSphere DataStage is 2.0%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM InfoSphere DataStage2.0%
Fivetran1.8%
Other96.2%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Hafiz Usman - PeerSpot reviewer
Team Lead Data Engineer at Data Pilot
Has accelerated data integration workflows and supports seamless development of custom connectors
I've worked extensively with Fivetran, mainly used for extraction purposes, and I've worked with the transformation element in it as well. Fivetran not only has built-in connectors but also provides SDK connectors, allowing us to develop our own connectors in an easy manner. I don't have to write raw Python scripts or dumping scripts; it offers straightforward examples and guidelines, making it much simpler to develop custom connectors inside Fivetran. We've been able to develop many custom connectors as well, which is unique and beneficial for having everything centralized instead of having those connectors located elsewhere. One of the best features by Fivetran is its clean, simple, and intuitive UI. It includes a transformation section where I can deploy my DBT queries and scripts. It also supplies good tracking capabilities for billing estimates and user permissions, allowing for customization to the desired level. The number of connectors it has remains a standout feature, and within connectors, the options available are very helpful. Although it sometimes appears static due to its built-in nature, it offers good flexibility for data transformation and caching, which I appreciate because it saves us extensive script-writing time.
Prasad Bodduluri - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Data Warehouse Developer at itcinfotech
Has required complex workarounds for scripts and struggles with unstructured data processing
There is no issue with IBM InfoSphere DataStage's graphical interface for designing data flows, but I will provide feedback that we are gathering the source from the Oracle database mainly, as well as from some spreadsheets. With respect to the Oracle DB Connector, if you write any PL/SQL or SQL with the connectors, there aren't many options, such as executing procedures in the PL/SQL, executing functions, or executing packages. The Oracle connector doesn't have many features and needs improvement. Nowadays many people are writing programs in Python or in PL/SQL with respect to Oracle, so especially in IBM InfoSphere DataStage, there are no features to call programs directly instead of calling them as a script. What I am facing, especially with parallel processing, is that a developer and admin have to sit together. They have to run the job multiple times with different combinations of parallel processing to get the best performance. Instead of that, if the job itself gave some guidance, such as running this parallel processing with this many nodes, it would help; I think that is missing. An additional feature I would want to see in the next release is the ability to work on logs, especially machine logs or artificial logs, to pull semi-structured or unstructured data without having to write extensive code in Python and integrate it. If IBM InfoSphere DataStage provided some feature for this, it would help.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise16
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise26
 

Questions from the Community

What's the deal with the HVR software acquisition?
As a user of HVR Software I followed this deal closely. Fivetran is apparently trying to establish more in its sector and by buying an already established data replication software, they become som...
Does HVR Software provide reliable insights?
I honestly can't think of another data replication software that can give you better statistics and insight than HVR Software. There's the feature for topology and statistics and both of them can ...
How much traffic can HVR Software handle?
As someone who works at a company where a high volume of information is replicated and has tried several data replication softwares, I can tell you that you're looking at the right one. HVR Softwar...
Would you upgrade to more premium versions of IBM InfoSphere DataStage?
My company currently uses the free version of the product, and we are definitely switching to a paid one. We needed a tool that can help us not only integrate our data but use it effectively. For ...
Is IBM InfoSphere DataStage more difficult to use compared to other tools in the field?
I think the tool may cause some difficulties if you have not used other data integration solutions before. I have worked at companies that used different tools for data integration, and they work ...
Do you rely on IBM Cloud Paks for your data? Have you utilized this product, or do you use IBM InfoSphere DataStage without it?
IBM Cloud Paks makes a big difference in your data integration. My company has been using it alongside IBM InfoSphere DataStage and while the main product is good on its own, this one truly expands...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Autodesk, Condé Nast, JetBlue, Morgan Stanley, OpenAI, LVMH, Pfizer, Verizon, SpotifyNational Australia Bank, Saks, Cemex, Okta, Dropbox, Pitney Bowes, World Fuel Services,Lufthansa, AutoZone, ASICS, ASOS, Coupa, Databricks, Hermes, New Relic, Intercom,Canva, Honeywell, Square, DocuSign, Nandos, Oldcastle Infrastructure
Dubai Statistics Center, Etisalat Egypt
Find out what your peers are saying about Fivetran vs. IBM InfoSphere DataStage and other solutions. Updated: January 2026.
881,733 professionals have used our research since 2012.