Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs SAS Data Integration Server comparison

Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs. SAS Data Integration Server

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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

Pentaho Data Integration an...

Ranking in Data Integration

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

SAS Data Integration Server

Ranking in Data Integration

41st

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Data Integration category, the mindshare of Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics is 1.7%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAS Data Integration Server is 0.9%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Integration Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics	1.7%
SAS Data Integration Server	0.9%
Other	97.4%

Data Integration

Featured Reviews

Michelle Lawson

Principal Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

Streamlines complex data workflows and has supported automated customer payment notifications

I haven't used Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics in a couple of years, so I don't know how it can be improved. I was pretty pleased with it and was self-taught on it, working a lot with their team at various times, but they were surprised that I was able to learn it all by myself. The documentation is not bad, and documentation is the main thing that any product can do to make themselves better because the easier it is to find examples of what you're trying to do improves the learning curve. I think it took me the longest to learn how to do the asynchronous processing and have things wait for other things to finish processing before continuing on in the workflow. I choose 8 out of 10 because the one reason that it's been rejected at T-Mobile is that everything has to go through a provisioning process and has to get approved, meaning the actual code base has to be investigated by T-Mobile before they'll allow us to use tools of that nature. For whatever reason, we just haven't been able to get that approval; I don't know if it's on Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics' side or if it's on our side. The more you can make it easier for companies to feel comfortable that your product is secure, robustly tested and bug-free, and free of any other kind of negative hacks, the more quickly it will get accepted.

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reviewer2937544

Works at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Offloads processes on the server side but needs better installation syntax

One area for improvement is the installation process. Another point could be the syntax, as it sometimes involves using syntax names that are not intuitive. For example, to calculate the difference between two dates, the general syntax in SAS is called the data difference or data net function. However, another name is used, such as NF and INK. Without knowledge of SAS programming, it becomes unclear what these functions mean. It is not good to define function names this way.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We have seen at least 30% savings in terms of effort, which has helped us to price our service and products more aggressively in the market and win more clients."

"It is a very good open source ETL tool that's capable of connecting to most databases."

"The graphical nature of the development interface is most useful because we've got people with quite mixed skills in the team. We've got some very junior, apprentice-level people, and we've got support analysts who don't have an IT background. It allows us to have quite complicated data flows and embed logic in them. Rather than having to troll through lines and lines of code and try and work out what it's doing, you get a visual representation, which makes it quite easy for people with mixed skills to support and maintain the product. That's one side of it."

"It allows for very quick development due to the intuitive interface."

"All you need is a balance of experienced users and new trainees to get going."

"I would say this is the best ETL tool in the market, considering this is open source and ease to use, very nice GUI."

"I love the fact that we haven't come up with a problem yet that we haven't been able to address with this tool."

"It is a very good tool if you need to work with data."

More Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics pros

"The solution offers very good data manipulation and loading."

"The solution is very stable."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is its amazing capabilities in regard to data handling."

"A key feature allows us to enhance job performance by offloading processing to the server side, rather than processing on the server itself."

Cons

"The stability is not great, especially when you start patching it a lot because things get broken."

"The reporting definitely needs improvement. There are a lot of general, basic features that it doesn't have. A simple feature you would expect a reporting tool to have is the ability to search the repository for a report. It doesn't even have that capability. That's been a feature that we've been asking for since the beginning and it hasn't been implemented yet."

"I work with the Community Edition, therefore I do not have support. There was an issue that I could not resolve with community support."

"Its UI is probably a bit too confusing for that level of user, so it doesn't allow us to get the tool as widely distributed across the organization to non-technical users as much as we would like."

"In terms of improvements, while creating on a remote service, we face challenges related to limited memory, which calls for optimization."

"I'm still in the very recent stage concerning Pentaho Data Integration, but it can't really handle what I describe as "extreme data processing" i.e. when there is a huge amount of data to process. That is one area where Pentaho is still lacking."

"The rule executor step can be improved."

"Its basic functionality doesn't need a whole lot of change. There could be some improvement in the consistency of the behavior of different transformation steps. The software did start as open-source and a lot of the fundamental, everyday transformation steps that you use when building ETL jobs were developed by different people. It is not a seamless paradigm. A table input step has a different way of thinking than a data merge step."

More Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics cons

"The transform tool has limited access. They should make it more flexible."

"The initial setup of SAS Data Integration Server was complex."

"The initial setup had issues, and even after using it for about one year, it was still not fixed."

"So I would like to see improved integration with other software."

"Something that could improve is writing SQL to integration studio because it is not that straightforward. There should be better integration with other software."

"One area for improvement is the installation process."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If a company is looking for an ETL solution and wants to integrate it with their tech stack but doesn't want to spend a bunch of money, Pentaho is a good solution"

"We did a two or three-year deal the last time we did it. As compared to other solutions, at least so far in our experience, it has been very affordable. The licensing is by component. So, you need to make sure you only license the components that you really intend to use. I am not sure if we have relicensed after the Hitachi acquisition, but previously, multi-year renewals resulted in a good discount. I'm not sure if this is still the case. We've had the full suite for a lot of years, and there is just the initial cost. I am not aware of any additional costs."

"The price of the regular version is not reasonable and it should be lower."

"There was a cost analysis done and Pentaho did favorably in terms of cost."

"I think Lumada's price is fair compared to some of the others, like BusinessObjects, which is was the other thing that I used at my previous job. BusinessObject's price was more reasonable before SAP acquired it. They jacked the price up significantly. Oracle's OBIEE tool was also prohibitively expensive."

"When we first started with it, it was much cheaper. It has gone up drastically, especially since Hitachi bought out Pentaho."

"You need to go through the paid version to have Hitachi Lumada specialized support. However, if you are using the free version, then you will have only the community support. You will depend on the releases from Hitachi to solve some problem or questions that you have, such as bug fixes. You will need to wait for the newest versions or releases to solve these types of problems."

"The cost of these types of solutions are expensive. So, we really appreciate what we get for our money. Though, we don't think of the solution as a top-of-the-line solution or anything like that."

More Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics pricing and cost advice

"It is an expensive program."

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913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

13%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Construction Company

Educational Organization

Financial Services Firm

23%

Comms Service Provider

14%

Construction Company

13%

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	18
Midsize Enterprise	17
Large Enterprise	32

No data available

Questions from the Community

Which ETL tool would you recommend to populate data from OLTP to OLAP?

Hi Rajneesh, yes here is the feature comparison between the community and enterprise edition : https://www.hitachivantara.com/en-us/pdf/brochure/leverage-open-source-benefits-with-assurance-of-hita...

What do you think can be improved with Hitachi Lumada Data Integrations?

In my opinion, the reporting side of this tool needs serious improvements. In my previous company, we worked with Hitachi Lumada Data Integration and while it does a good job for what it’s worth, ...

What do you use Hitachi Lumada Data Integrations for most frequently?

My company has used this product to transform data from databases, CSV files, and flat files. It really does a good job. We were most satisfied with the results in terms of how many people could us...

What needs improvement with SAS Data Integration Server?

What is your primary use case for SAS Data Integration Server?

I am involved in the ETR job. My role is focused on executing the ETR job.

What advice do you have for others considering SAS Data Integration Server?

I use it without further details. For example, if I use SAS to connect to a NetEazt database or purchase a shared asset to ODBC, I can connect to any database with ODBC connection support. The over...

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Product Reports

Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics

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Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics report

Data Integration

Download SAS Data Integration Server product report

Also Known As

Hitachi Lumada Data Integration, Kettle, Pentaho Data Integration

SAS Enterprise Data Integration Server, Enterprise Data Integration Server

Overview

Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics offers an intuitive platform for data workflows, enabling users to easily manage ETL processes across diverse data formats, ensuring seamless automation and development.

With its drag-and-drop interface, Pentaho allows for efficient ETL workflows without extensive coding. It supports a multitude of data formats and sources such as SQL, NoSQL, Hadoop, CSV, and JSON. Advanced features like metadata injection and API integration enable seamless automation. However, improvements in big data performance, better cloud service integration, and enhanced real-time processing capabilities can enhance user experience. Additional connectors and improved documentation are sought after by many. Providing support for more programming languages and optimizing memory usage also presents opportunities for enhancement.

What are the key features of Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics?

Drag-and-Drop Interface: Simplifies building workflows without coding.
Broad Data Support: Accommodates SQL, NoSQL, Hadoop, CSV, and JSON.
Advanced Automation: Leverages metadata injection and API integration.
Cost-Effectiveness: Offers value with comprehensive big data support.

What benefits should be evaluated in Pentaho reviews?

Versatility: Supports both on-premises and cloud solutions.
Data Integration: Facilitates seamless connection of disparate data sources.
Transparency: Enhances data management and reporting.
Scalability: Adapts to the growing data needs of organizations.

Pentaho is employed across finance, healthcare, and retail industries for ETL processes. It's instrumental in integrating data from ERP, SAP systems, Excel, and APIs to develop comprehensive reports and data models. Companies rely on its capabilities for both on-premises and cloud deployments, improving data transparency and management.

Hitachi Vantara

SAS Data Integration Server automates and manages data integration processes, enabling efficient data management, transformation, and migration in enterprises. It provides a comprehensive suite for data-driven solutions.

Designed for extensive data management needs, SAS Data Integration Server supports seamless data integration, allowing users to access, run, and monitor data transformation processes. It is tailored to enhance data quality and streamline processes, serving industries reliant on precise data interpretation and utilization. With robust functionalities, it simplifies complex data environments, promoting productivity and reliability in data handling.

What are the key features of SAS Data Integration Server?

Data Profiling: Ensures data accuracy and quality through thorough analysis.
ETL Capabilities: Extracts, transforms, and loads data efficiently.
Metadata Management: Centralized control over data definitions and usage.
Data Lineage: Tracks data source origins and transformations for transparency.

What benefits and ROI should reviewers look for?

Improved Data Accuracy: Enhances decision-making with high-quality data.
Increased Efficiency: Reduces time and effort in data-related tasks.
Scalability: Adapts to growing business data demands seamlessly.
Reduced Costs: Optimizes resources, minimizing unnecessary expenditures.

SAS Data Integration Server finds applications across numerous industries, like finance and healthcare, where data integration and quality are critical. In finance, it helps manage vast amounts of transaction data, while in healthcare, it ensures accurate patient information management and reporting.

SAS

Sample Customers

66Controls, Providential Revenue Agency of Ro Negro, NOAA Information Systems, Swiss Real Estate Institute

Credit Guarantee Corporation, Cr_dito y Cauci‹n, Delaware State Police, Deutsche Lufthansa, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, DSM, Livzon Pharmaceutical Group, Los Angeles County, Miami Herald Media Company, Netherlands Enterprise Agency, New Zealand Ministry of Health, Nippon Paper, West Midlands Police, XS Inc., Zenith Insurance

Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics vs. SAS Data Integration Server