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SAP Data Services vs SAP Information Steward comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 6, 2025

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

SAP Data Services
Ranking in Data Quality
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
51
Ranking in other categories
Data Integration (10th)
SAP Information Steward
Ranking in Data Quality
9th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Data Quality category, the mindshare of SAP Data Services is 7.0%, down from 14.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP Information Steward is 2.8%, down from 3.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Data Quality Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
SAP Data Services7.0%
SAP Information Steward2.8%
Other90.2%
Data Quality
 

Featured Reviews

Ramesh Pampana - PeerSpot reviewer
Has consistently provided impressive data handling capabilities and robust security features
Some of the most valuable features of SAP Data Services include data extraction where SAP is the best in that perspective, but when it comes to analytics or the reporting tool, I prefer to connect with Microsoft Power BI, which is a fantastic tool. Typically, from an end-user perspective, SAP has a huge amount of data, in terms of terabytes of data, but when you analyze that, the best form of visualization is always through Microsoft Power BI. SAP Data Services provides a best-in-class return on investment, as SAP's vision and forecast are absolutely amazing. They are ahead of technology, building an ecosystem that meets the standards of the fast-changing digital economy. SAP is indeed good at all this now, with so many components such as SAP Signavio, SAP EINS, SAP Work Zone, SAP ALM, Cloud ALM, SAP public cloud, SAP private cloud, and BTP, all of which are essential to meet the latest cutting-edge technologies.
FranciscoSantos - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides accurate data that is validated against a personalized reference tool
For most SAP customers, Information Steward is enough because it is able to build quality data rules to detect issues in the source systems like SAP HANA, Business Warehouse, or other systems. A business user can first organize their data into several data domains. For example, procurement, human resources, and logistics setup. The domains can build data quality dimensions where you can describe the kind of rule that you are going to use. The user then can immediately see if something is wrong with their data using traffic lights. Another great feature of SAP Information Steward is the accuracy that the content is followed by validating against the reference tool. With the solution, you are creating data quality dimensions. Within these dimensions, you are creating business data quality rules that are looking for specific fields. From these rules, you can create a scorecard. The scorecard will highlight the percentage of good data and ensure the user can feel confident that the data is accurate within predetermined limits. SAP tables have field names that are very cryptic, making them hard to understand the meaning of the fields. Metapedia helps describe these fields in business terms.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can always manipulate a lot of things as long as you have the skill level."
"SAP Data Services provides a best-in-class return on investment, as SAP's vision and forecast are absolutely amazing."
"I like how SAP Data Services links reporting and data integration. That's what's most interesting. You also have the opportunity to leverage the power of the Data Services server."
"The solution has good connectivity with SAP."
"The feature of SAP Data Services has enhanced our company's business processes because we are able to run around 800 jobs in areas like data extraction and transaction objects."
"The fact that it's built on SQL, it makes it easy to write code. The database and the connection are quite smooth."
"We can extract data at a table level, extract data at the ETL level, and we can extract data at an ODP level."
"The API tool in this product is very valuable; it is very easy to onboard and use."
"The scorecard will highlight the percentage of good data and ensure the user can feel confident that the data is accurate within predetermined limits."
"The solution is very fast."
"The data profiling was excellent, as was the ease of generating the dashboards."
"The most valuable features are data quality insight, metadata management, and metadata dictionary."
"Initial setup was straightforward."
"The Data Cleansing and the scorecard dashboard are very valuable. Additionally, the financial aspect of SAP Information Steward is very good. When a rule is incorrect then it will show how much is it costing the business. These features are very valuable."
"Ability to collect information, monitor user access and to plan storage capacity."
"Data insight is the most valuable feature."
 

Cons

"The interface is not quite user-friendly and is in need of improvement."
"There should be some kind of enhancement that can be done on the admin side of certain sites where we can assign the roles and responsibilities. We should be able to control who is using the tool and how."
"Newer feature integration is lagging behind the company acquisitions and the product could do more to service a broader range of devices."
"It would be nice if this solution was a bit easier to move from development to production."
"The initial setup is complex."
"At the integration level, there could be certain set of improvement to connect to various other systems."
"The description of error messages isn't extensive, although they point to the problem. With other solutions, like Talend, I was able to use the debugger to get directly to the problem, but with SAP Data Services the debugger is not working. I'm not sure if it's a problem with the version specifically, but I'm using it in an enterprise environment and I can't do an upgrade."
"The execution engines and processing engines have shortcomings and need improvements."
"The solution could improve by incorporating other applications, such as Power BI to show more visualization. More interaction with other solutions would be a good benefit."
"The user experience of metapedia could be improved."
"SAP Information Steward could be improved by offering a cloud version of the product."
"The support team is not very responsive."
"A problem with the solution is that it does not allow us to review the results of Information Stewards for other analogies."
"We'd like to see some manipulation techniques included in SAP Information Steward."
"Performance could be improved."
"Granularity could be reduced from an application level to the object level."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a one time purchase fee plus annual maintenance."
"It's relatively expensive compared to other vendors, but it is competitive."
"The enterprise version of SAP Data Services is free."
"I rate the product price as one or two on a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."
"The price is very reasonable."
"Its pricing is as per the enterprise agreement and not a concern for us."
"The product’s on-premise version is expensive for a medium-sized company."
"Speaking about prices, Oracle and SAP are market leaders. So, the prices are more."
"A bit pricey, and better tools are available for a lower price."
"Smaller-sized organizations may not be able to invest in SAP Information Steward because of the cost."
"I do not know if there were additional costs beyond the standard licensing fees."
"SAP Information Steward is an expensive solution compared to others."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
22%
Government
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise36
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business1
Large Enterprise7
 

Questions from the Community

How do you evaluate the ratio of price to quality for SAP Data Services?
I believe the license for the product is fair, even though some competitors offer similar services at lower prices. The difference between the Edge edition and the next one up is significant in pr...
Would you recommend SAP Data Services to complete beginners?
I think after some preparation, a beginner will be able to use SAP Data Services, however, if you are completely unprepared, you may have some issues. I think that in particular you will need a mo...
How has SAP Data Services helped your organization?
SAP Data Services has helped our whole staff understand the data across various sources and systems within the company. Not everyone who works at my organization is an IT expert - most just have av...
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Also Known As

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, SAP BusinessObjects Data Integrator, BusinessObjects Data Integrator
Information Steward, SAP Data Insight
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

EMC Corporation, LivePerson, Eldorado, Mozzart, The VELUX Group, AOK Bundesverband, Hilti Group, Nissha Printing Company Ltd., Asian Paints, Aareal Bank Group, Migros Group
American Water, Graphic Packaging International, OSRAM Licht AG, Maxim Integrated
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Data Services vs. SAP Information Steward and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,759 professionals have used our research since 2012.