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Informatica PowerCenter vs SAS Access comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

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

Informatica PowerCenter
Ranking in Data Integration
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
85
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (13th)
SAS Access
Ranking in Data Integration
60th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Informatica PowerCenter is 3.7%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Access is 0.9%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Informatica PowerCenter3.7%
SAS Access0.9%
Other95.4%
Data Integration
 

Featured Reviews

Hemanthreddy Vakiti - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Streamlined daily sales workflows have reduced team size and enabled earlier, accurate reporting
One of the best features I appreciate about Informatica PowerCenter is that anyone with minimal knowledge of ETL can easily use it. It has four different interfaces: Monitor, Repository, Designer, and Workflow Manager. With our use case, we can easily go to that particular interface and use it. Another valuable feature is the use of Mapplets; if we have one mapping created that we want to use again and again for other workflows, we can create a Mapplet and save it so that we can reuse the mapping, reducing our workload. Informatica PowerCenter has positively impacted my organization because, as I mentioned previously, the development team has been reduced to half since we moved to it due to its easy interface and the reusability of Mapplets. It has also saved us a lot of time; for example, it has saved nearly one hour per day on monitoring and workflow tasks. Saving one hour a day is key because it has led us to report the data to business users one hour earlier than the usual time. If there are any anomalies or defects in the data, we can easily rectify them within that hour, which reduces the chance of errors in the data. Regarding cost, the number of people working on the project has been reduced to half, thus significantly decreasing costs for our organization since we moved to Informatica PowerCenter.
Robert Heck - PeerSpot reviewer
Co Owner at Hecht und Heck GmbH
The solution is stable, scalable, and flexible
I rate the solution eight out of ten. The number of people required to maintain the solution is dependent on the other applications running. The solution in itself does not require a lot of maintenance. The solution is flexible and I recommend it when you have more complex applications with special requirements.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When compared with other ETL or ELP tools, Informatica PowerCenter is the best for connecting to multiple sources, which is better when you have large loads."
"The most valuable feature of Informatica PowerCenter is the flow designer functionally. It is the best out of any ETL tool. Additionally, the solution is reliable and trustable in dealing with large data sources anytime. When we're using billions of data transactions, it's smooth."
"I like the automated scheduling feature."
"What I like most about Informatica PowerCenter is that it's the best tool in the market for data integration. Currently, I work in L'Oréal, where a new system from SAP is used. Informatica PowerCenter integration with SAP is very, very fast and very, very simple, so you have the server flow from SAP, and through Informatica PowerCenter, you can ingest the data and make that data available for the business more quickly."
"The technical support is excellent."
"The solution provides good performance with an easy to use interface and reasonable documentation."
"The technical design developed in Excel can be directly imported into Powercenter using Powercenter Repository Manager and the corresponding mapping is automatically created."
"The technical support for Informatica PowerCenter is good."
"The most valuable part of SAS/ACCESS is what it is made for: connecting to remote systems that are not part of your physical SAS environment."
"The SAS/ACCESS ability to connect creates an elegant simplicity."
"The most valuable feature is you have native access to the external databases."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution is the ease of access to the data in those databases."
 

Cons

"Support could be better. Technical support's friendly, but we should be able to get responses from them more quickly."
"The only problem with this product is the level of complexity with the number of levels of transformation that you have to go through."
"I found it is kind of weird that not all of the mapping changes are treated as true changes."
"The multiple interfaces in Informatica PowerCenter are not great for the user experience. Because of this, I think it can cause confusion for any beginner developer."
"The only problem is that it is moderately expensive, which is essential to emphasize."
"Its interface can be modernized. It is an old product. I have been working with it for 14 years, and it still looks the same. It hasn't been modernized much. It also needs to handle more modern formats, such as JSON files. It works with the old text files and databases, but it does not always work with the newer, modern stuff. You need to make your own programs to support that kind of stuff. Support is also a kind of difficult with Informatica. They don't do direct support and rely on using their distributors around the globe for support, which means that you kind of have to go through this layer of different companies before you get help."
"What I didn't like about it is that the platform itself is not great at distributed processing. When you need high parallel processing, it has some inherent issues. We had to use Java transformation, and it did not go very well. I have heard that it is going to the cloud, but we haven't tried that."
"There is some room for improvement in terms of pricing."
"The solution can provide access to the newer databases that come out sooner."
"I can't really recall any missing feature or general improvement that is needed. We don't really add too many new kinds of databases and therefore our needs are already met."
"The primary way that this product can be improved is by adjusting their pricing model."
"The solution's pricing and licensing are expensive."
"The pricing model needs to be reconsidered and adjusted."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's much more expensive, almost three times more expensive than most other solutions."
"I rate the product's price a ten on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The pricing is a little expensive, but in the same range as IBM and other competitors."
"We have found the pricing very cost-effective. The licensing is CPU and data source-based."
"We are using an annual license for Informatica PowerCenter."
"According to what I've heard and read on various blogs, it's quite expensive when compared to similar competitive products."
"The pricing for Informatica PowerCenter is expensive. Some clients have simple needs and only want to integrate and store data. Some clients have small needs, while some clients have bigger needs and focus more on performance and time. The licensing cost for Informatica PowerCenter isn't good. In my project, if I remember correctly, the company pays €20,000 per year for the Informatica PowerCenter license. I'm not aware of additional costs that you need to pay for some features of the solution. On a scale of one to five, I'm rating its price a three."
"Our client has purchased the license, and we are using it."
"The pricing model is complex and is based on modular packages as well as the size of the applicable environment."
"The solution's pricing and licensing are expensive."
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Comparison Review

it_user90069 - PeerSpot reviewer
BI Expert at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
6%
Construction Company
18%
Comms Service Provider
18%
Outsourcing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business14
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise76
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
Which Informatica product would you choose - PowerCenter or Cloud Data Integration?
Complex transformations can easily be achieved using PowerCenter, which has all the features and tools to establish a real data governance strategy. Additionally, PowerCenter is able to manage huge...
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Also Known As

PowerCenter
SAS/Access
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, LexisNexis, Rabobank
Los Angeles County, West Midlands Police, Credit Guarantee Corporation, Canada Post, Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty
Find out what your peers are saying about Informatica PowerCenter vs. SAS Access and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.