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IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs Talend Open Studio 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

IBM Cloud Pak for Data
Ranking in Data Integration
24th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Data Virtualization (3rd)
Talend Open Studio
Ranking in Data Integration
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
50
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Data Integration (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is 2.0%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Talend Open Studio is 4.3%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Michelle Leslie - PeerSpot reviewer
Starts strong with data management capabilities but needs a demo database
What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data management, and more often than not, people understand one thing really well. They may understand DataStage and how to move data around, but they do not see the impact of moving data incorrectly. They also do not see the impact of everyone understanding a piece of data in the same way. I would love Cloud Pak to come with a demo database that illustrates the different components of data management in a logical way, so I can see the whole picture instead of just the area I'm specializing in. It would be great if Cloud Pak, from a data modeling point of view, allowed us to import our PDMs, for example. It would be ideal to import and create business terms in Cloud Pak. The PEA would be great to create the technical data. The association between the business and the technical metadata could then be automated by pulling it through from your ACE models. The data modeling component is available in Cloud Pak. Additionally, when it comes to Cloud Pak, even though it has the NextGen DataStage built into it, there is Cloud Pak for data integration as well. Currently, I do not think we have a full enough understanding of how CP4D and CP4I can enhance each other.
Costin Marzea - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows you to develop your own components and can be used as an OEM
Sometimes, scalability is part of planning. It depends on what you mean by scalability. People talk a lot about it, but scalability is not always about system functionality. Sometimes, it may be planning the job you're doing. If you want to split it into several jobs or servers, you don't actually have to have it built in as a functionality. You can create a job using a loop, which runs and controls several jobs in a loop that may be controlled. Scaling should not always be part of the infrastructure based on whether the engine can scale or not. I think it's your plan or project that should scale and split, and you can define these parameters. These parameters include how many servers you want to run or how many executions you want to do on different parts of the data. It's not always an issue of the engine running. Sometimes, your database should be configured to support partitioning. The product may scale very well without partitioning, but if the basic response is very slow, you didn't solve the problem. You should solve the problems at a higher level, not just at the execution level. They should be solved at the database level and communication level, and you should have firewalls. We are trying to add to the open source the ability to generate code for containers and Kubernetes that exist in the subscription version. Once you do this, Kubernetes will take care of the scaling, so there is no problem.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources."
"The most valuable features are data virtualization and reporting."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine or ten out of ten."
"One of Cloud Pak's best features is the Watson Knowledge Catalog, which helps you implement data governance."
"I love the way that I can start at a very basic level with my data management journey by capturing my policies, justifying my data, and putting them into different categories to say this is data relating to individuals, for example, or data relating to geography."
"You can model the data there, connect the data models with the business processes and create data lineage processes."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cloud Pak for Data is the Modeler flows. The ability to develop models using a graphical approach and the capability to connect to various sources, as well as the data virtualization capabilities, allow me to easily access and utilize data that is dispersed across different sources."
"IBM Watson Catalog and data pipelines are the most valuable features of the solution."
"You can use Talend as a stand-alone application without customization to collect data and generate reports over dashboards. It's got great functionality."
"It is user-friendly and the interface is good."
"Talend is significantly easier to use."
"Talend lets you do everything — mapping, workflow, and orchestration — in a single place."
"We have contacted their technical support. They are great. They offer very professional help. If I need some technical answer, they are very professional. They are quick, professional, and very accurate."
"The initial setup was quite straightforward. The deployment took between two and three days."
"The product is easy to install and configure. It is one of the best tools for data integration."
"The drag-and-drop feature in the interface is very good."
 

Cons

"One thing that bugs me is how much infrastructure Cloud Pak requires for the initial deployment. It doesn't allow you to start small. The smallest permitted deployment is too big. It's a huge problem that prevents us from implementing the solution in many scenarios."
"There is a solution that is part of IBM Cloud Pak for Data called Watson OpenScale. It is used to monitor the deployed models for the quality and fairness of the results. This is one area that needs a lot of improvement."
"One challenge I'm facing with IBM Cloud Pak for Data is native features have been decommissioned, such as XML input and output. Too many changes have been made, and my company has around one hundred thousand mappings, so my team has been putting more effort into alternative ways to do things. Another area for improvement in IBM Cloud Pak for Data is that it's more complicated to shift from on-premise to the cloud. Other vendors provide secure agents that easily connect with your existing setup. Still, with IBM Cloud Pak for Data, you have to perform connection migration steps, upgrade to the latest version, etc., which makes it more complicated, especially as my company has XML-based mappings. Still, the XML input and output capabilities of IBM Cloud Pak for Data have been discontinued, so I'd like IBM to bring that back."
"The product must improve its performance."
"The tool depends on the control plane, an OpenShift container platform utilized as an orchestration layer...So, we have communicated this issue to IBM and asked if it is feasible to adapt the solution to work on a Kubernetes platform that we support."
"The solution's catalog searching or map search needs to be improved."
"The interface could improve because sometimes it becomes slow. Sometimes there is a delay between clicks when using the software, which can make the development process slow. It can take a few seconds to complete one action, and then a few more seconds to do the next one."
"The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem."
"Talend should improve the log and error handling to better track the errors you find during development. Sometimes it's challenging to see what's causing an issue, and tracking that on Talend is complicated."
"The solution should integrate with a version control system in the subscription versions to make it easy to work with and manage the version control."
"The price for Talend Data Integration should be less expensive."
"In terms of what can be improved, the scheduling is not there in the sister version, while it is there in the cloud one, which is a paid version. If all kinds of scheduling could be available on the Open Studio that we generally use and practice on, that would be great. The scheduling of the data migration is currently not available in the sister version of Talend Open Studio that we are working on. It is available in the advanced version of the Talend. This is the one thing that can be improvised."
"I rate Talend Open Studio's stability an eight out of ten. Talend has some problems sometimes."
"The server-side should be completely revamped."
"In terms of features, it has all the features that I need. However, it consumes a lot of resources. It is using a lot of RAM, and they need to fix the issue related to resource consumption. It currently requires more than 24 gigabytes of RAM, which is a big amount of RAM."
"There used to be many Youtube channels that offered Talend training, but now there don't seem to be any. The solution should offer more online training resources."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's pricing is competitive with that of other vendors."
"The solution is expensive."
"IBM Cloud Pak for Data is expensive. If we include the training time and the machine learning, it's expensive. The cost of the execution is more reasonable."
"I don't have the exact licensing cost for IBM Cloud Pak for Data, as my company is still finalizing requirements, including monthly, yearly, and three-year licensing fees. Still, on a scale of one to five, I'd rate it a three because, compared to other vendors, it's more complicated."
"It's quite expensive."
"For the licensing of the solution, there is a yearly payment that needs to be made. Also, since it is expensive, cost-wise, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten."
"I think that this product is too expensive for smaller companies."
"Cloud Pak's cost is a little high."
"The solution will be more expensive if you have a low data volume and a large number of developers."
"Pricing and licensing are fairly straightforward. It is reasonably priced and managed."
"Talend Open Studio costs about 11,000 a year."
"It is an open-source tool which means it is a free solution."
"I am using the open-source version and it is free."
"Open Studio has a basic license and additional costs for services, including customer support and technical assistance."
"Price could be lower. It is getting too expensive when compared to some other solutions, which is actually a little bit concerning."
"The cost for one year for the ETL tools, not for the big data, is 6K per year. It is a good price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
5%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
DataStage allows me to connect to different data sources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
The setup cost is very expensive. The cost depends on the pieces of the solution I'm using, how much data I have, and whether it's on the cloud or on-prem.
What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Pak for Data?
What I would love to see is an end-to-end, almost a training demo database of some sort, where one of the biggest problems with data management is demonstrated. There are so many components to data...
How does Talend Open Studio compare with AWS Glue?
We reviewed AWS Glue before choosing Talend Open Studio. AWS Glue is the managed ETL (extract, transform, and load) from Amazon Web Services. AWS Glue enables AWS users to create and manage jobs in...
What do you like most about Talend Open Studio?
It is easy to use and covers most of the functions needed. We can use the code without any extra effort. The open source is very good. They have the same commercials with additional connectors. The...
 

Also Known As

Cloud Pak for Data
Open Studio
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Qatar Development Bank, GuideWell, Skanderborg Music Festival
Almerys, BF&M, Findus
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cloud Pak for Data vs. Talend Open Studio and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.