Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

FME vs SSIS comparison

Safe Software and Microsoft are both solutions in the Data Integration category. Safe Software is ranked #24 with an average rating of 8.7, while Microsoft is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.8. Safe Software holds a 1.8% mindshare in DI, compared to Microsoft’s 7.9% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Safe Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 79% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.
FME
Read 6 FME reviews
  • 2,434 Views
  • 1,771 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
SSIS
Read 73 SSIS reviews
  • 11,569 Views
  • 8,414 Comparison Views
79% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

SSIS and FME are competing in the data integration tool category. FME appears to have the upper hand due to its advanced data transformation capabilities.

Features: SSIS offers seamless integration with Microsoft products, robust ETL capabilities, and user-friendly interface. FME supports extensive spatial data, handles a wide variety of data formats, and provides advanced data transformation features.

Room for Improvement: SSIS could improve in handling mixed environments, offering broader data format support, and simplifying its advanced features for new users. FME might enhance its affordability, extend its integration with Microsoft ecosystems, and streamline its interface for beginners.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SSIS benefits from easy deployment within Microsoft environments but may be complex in diverse settings. Its customer service includes traditional support options. FME demonstrates versatile deployment capabilities across various data environments and is known for excellent customer support with technical expertise.

Pricing and ROI: SSIS is budget-friendly, appealing to businesses using Microsoft technologies and providing a strong ROI. FME, despite its higher upfront costs, offers significant long-term value, particularly for organizations requiring advanced data transformation and spatial data management.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed FME vs. SSIS Report (Updated: May 2025).
Buyer's Guide
FME vs. SSIS
May 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 851,604 peers since 2012

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

FME
Ranking in Data Integration
24th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
SSIS
Ranking in Data Integration
4th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
73
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of FME is 1.8%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SSIS is 7.9%, up from 7.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Alan Bloor - PeerSpot reviewer
Great for handling large volumes of data, but it is priced a bit high
When I do coding, I think about every single function. Some of these functions can be very elementary, like doing a substring or some capitalization. But FME removes all that coding because it's a transformer, so the time to develop an application to get to a point where you're producing results is decreased massively. It used to take weeks and months to develop software, and now I can use something like FME, and within one day, we get results. We can look at and validate data. We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.
Read full review
BobAmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust and does a good job of handling overload conditions
We purchase an add-on called task factory primarily to allow bulk delete, update, and upsert capability. I'd like to see this be part of the standard package. I believe there are ways to build a model and set variables so that it can be a generic process. In my next system, I would like to have a generic process that would handle all the logging and processing in a model that can be modified and enhanced as the need for a better process, or different statistics to be logged is discovered. I'd want this in a way that the model can be changed and all the processes, with their unique parameters, could all be changed with the model upgraded. I believe they should add some features that help to create the code using a model. This would allow for continuous improvement of the model uses and easy replication of all the different programs that use the model.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"FME is spatially aware and understands how to deal with the conversion of spatial objects and their attributes."
"It has a very friendly user interface. You don't need to use a lot of code. For us that's the most important aspect about it. Also, it has a lot of connectors and few forms. It has a strong facial aspect. It can do a lot of facial analysis."
"The most valuable feature of FME is the graphical user interface. There is nothing better. It is very easy to debug because you can see all steps where there are failures. Overall the software is easy to optimize a process."
"It has standard plug-ins available for different data sources."
"All spatial features are unrivaled, and the possibility to execute them based on a scheduled trigger, manual, e-mail, Websocket, tweet, file/directory change or virtually any trigger is most valuable."
"We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else."
"The most valuables features are the relatively short learning curve, and the automation capabilities provided through the BIML add-in for SSDT."
"The most valuable features for our company are the flexibility and the quick turn around time in producing simple ETL solutions."
"The workflow features have been very valuable. You can have automated workflows and all the steps are controlled. The workflow functionality of integration services is excellent."
"The setup was easy. All Microsoft products are easy to set up."
"The performance and stability are good."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the fast insert and fuzzy logic matching."
"The solution is easy to use and developer friendly."
"The most important features are it works well and provides self-service BI."
More SSIS pros
 

Cons

"The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point."
"Improvements could be made to mapping presentations."
"We are looking at the possibility of using Glue instead of FME, using the native AWS product."
"FME can improve the geographical transformation. I've had some problems with the geographical transformations, but it's probably mostly because I'm not the most skilled geographer in-house. The solution requires some in-depth knowledge to perform some functions."
"FME's price needs improvement for the African market."
"To get a higher rating, it would have to improve the price and the associated scalability. These are the main issues."
"There were some issues when we tried to connect it to data storage. It was a connection issue."
"There was also not enough instructions from Microsoft in regards to this application or this technology, which can easily be improved upon."
"Performance could be better."
"A change in the metadata source cripples the whole ETL process, requiring each module to be manually reopened."
"Sometimes when we want to publish to other types of databases it's not easy to publish to those databases. For example, the Jet Database Engine. Before the SSIS supported Jet Database Engine but nowadays it doesn't support the Jet Database Engine. We connect to many databases such as Access database, SparkPros databases and the other types of databases using Jet Database Engines now and SSIS now doesn't seem to support it in our databases."
"It's difficult to refactor SSIS. It gets cumbersome to reuse the solution."
"We would like the solution to be expanded so that it is available for other platforms than just Microsoft."
"It needs more integration tools, so you can connect to different sources."
More SSIS cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product's price is reasonable."
"FME Server used to cost £10,000; now it can cost over £100,000."
"We used the standard licensing for our use of FME. The cost was approximately €15,000 annually. We always welcome less expensive solutions, if the solution could be less expensive it would be helpful."
"The solution is economical. You don't have to worry about the pricing as long as you're installing both services on the same server."
"My advice is to look at what your configuration will be because most companies have their own deals with Microsoft."
"This solution has provided an inexpensive tool, and it is easy to find experienced developers."
"We purchased the standard edition of SQL Server and SSIS came with it free of charge."
"Our license with SSIS is annual."
"Based on my experience and understanding, Talend comes out to be a little bit expensive as compared to SSIS. The average cost of having Talend with Talend Management Console is around 72K per region, which is much higher than SSIS. SSIS works very well with Microsoft technologies, and if you have Microsoft technologies, it is not really expensive to have SSIS. If you have SQL Server, SSIS is free."
"This solution is included with the MSSQL server package."
"It would be beneficial if the solution had a less costly cloud offering."
More SSIS pricing and cost advice
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Data Integration solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 20, 2014
Informatica PowerCenter vs. Microsoft SSIS - each technology has its advantages but also have similarities
Technology has made it easier for businesses to organize and manipulate data to get a clearer picture of what’s going on with their business. Notably, ETL tools have made managing huge amounts of data significantly easier and faster, boosting many organizations’ business intelligence operations…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Government
30%
Energy/Utilities Company
13%
Computer Software Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about FME?
We make minor subtle changes to the workbenches to improve it. We can share the workbenches. We don't have to use GitHub or anything else.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for FME?
The pricing is really bad. Last year, they rebranded the whole pricing structure. It used to be moderately priced at about £400 per user per year. Now they've changed the whole thing, and it's expe...
See all answers
What needs improvement with FME?
The one thing that always appears in the community is the ability to make really easy loops to loop through data efficiently. That needs to be added at some point. There must be a technical or comm...
See all answers
Which is better - SSIS or Informatica PowerCenter?
SSIS PowerPack is a group of drag and drop connectors for Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, commonly called SSIS. The collection helps organizations boost productivity with code-free compo...
See all answers
What do you like most about SSIS?
The product's deployment phase is easy.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SSIS?
Utilizing SSIS involves no extra charges beyond the SQL Server license. It's an economical choice for my clients.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Azure Data Factory vs FME Logo
Azure Data Factory vs FME
Compared 25% of the time
Talend Open Studio vs FME Logo
Talend Open Studio vs FME
Compared 12% of the time
Alteryx Designer vs FME Logo
Alteryx Designer vs FME
Compared 9% of the time
Fivetran vs FME Logo
Fivetran vs FME
Compared 6% of the time
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs FME Logo
MuleSoft Anypoint Platform vs FME
Compared 6% of the time
More FME Competitors
Informatica PowerCenter vs SSIS Logo
Informatica PowerCenter vs SSIS
Compared 18% of the time
Talend Open Studio vs SSIS Logo
Talend Open Studio vs SSIS
Compared 12% of the time
IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs SSIS Logo
IBM InfoSphere DataStage vs SSIS
Compared 7% of the time
Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs SSIS Logo
Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) vs SSIS
Compared 7% of the time
dbt vs SSIS Logo
dbt vs SSIS
Compared 6% of the time
More SSIS Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
FME
May 2025
FME reportDownload FME product report
Buyer's Guide
SSIS
April 2025
SSIS reportDownload SSIS product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
SQL Server Integration Services
 

Overview

FME is the data integration platform with the best support for spatial data. Run workflows on the desktop or deploy them in a server or cloud environment.

Safe Software

SSIS is a versatile tool for data integration tasks like ETL processes, data migration, and real-time data processing. Users appreciate its ease of use, data transformation tools, scheduling capabilities, and extensive connectivity options. It enhances productivity and efficiency within organizations by streamlining data-related processes and improving data quality and consistency.

Microsoft
 

Sample Customers

Shell, US Department of Commerce, PG&E, BC Hydro, City of Vancouver, Enel, Iowa DoT, San Antonio Water System
1. Amazon.com 2. Bank of America 3. Capital One 4. Coca-Cola 5. Dell 6. E*TRADE 7. FedEx 8. Ford Motor Company 9. Google 10. Home Depot 11. IBM 12. Intel 13. JPMorgan Chase 14. Kraft Foods 15. Lockheed Martin 16. McDonald's 17. Microsoft 18. Morgan Stanley 19. Nike 20. Oracle 21. PepsiCo 22. Procter & Gamble 23. Prudential Financial 24. RBC Capital Markets 25. SAP 26. Siemens 27. Sony 28. Toyota 29. UnitedHealth Group 30. Visa 31. Walmart 32. Wells Fargo
Buyer's Guide
FME vs. SSIS
May 2025
Free Report: FME vs. SSIS
Find out what your peers are saying about FME vs. SSIS and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our FME vs. SSIS report.
See our list of best Data Integration vendors.

We monitor all Data Integration reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.