My experience has been overall good regarding the price, implementation costs, and licenses for Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics because the company covered it and they had no problem paying for it because they saw that it was cost-effective in terms of performance afterwards.
Data engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Dec 12, 2025
The setup cost was minimal, and the pricing experience was pretty good, as the free version is good enough to provide many features that a small to medium company needs.
Learn what your peers think about Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2026.
System Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Sep 4, 2022
We are using the Community Edition. We have been trying to use and sell the Enterprise version, but that hasn't been possible due to the budget required for it.
Solution Integration Consultant II at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
Consultant
May 25, 2022
For most development tasks, the Enterprise edition should be sufficient. It depends on the type of support that you require for your production environment.
Data Architect at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Reseller
May 11, 2022
You don't need the Enterprise Edition, you can go with the Community Edition. That way you can use it for free and, for free, it's a pretty good tool to use. If you pay for licenses, the only thing that you're getting, in addition, is customer support, which is pretty much nonexistent in any case. I would recommend going with the Community Edition.
CDE & BI Delivery Manager at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
May 2, 2022
I use it because it is free. I download from their page for free. I don't have to pay for a license. With other tools, I have to pay for the licenses. That is why I use Pentaho. I used to work with the complete suite of Pentaho, not only Data Integration. I used to build some solutions from scratch. I used to work with the Community version and Enterprise versions. With the Enterprise version, it is more than building cubes. I am building a BI solution that I can explore. Every time that I use Pentaho Data Integration, I never spend any money because it comes free with the tool. If you pay for the Enterprise license, Pentaho Data Integration is included. If you don't pay for it and use the Community version, Data Integration is included for free.
Data Engineer at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
MSP
Apr 11, 2022
There are more types of connectors, but you need to pay. 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.
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. SSIS cores were $10,000 a piece. Although I don't know what they cost nowadays, they're expensive. Pentaho is a nice option without having to pay an arm and a leg. We even had a complicated data set and Pentaho was able to handle pretty much every type of scenario, if we thought about it creatively enough. I would recommend it for a company in that position.
Project Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Mar 6, 2022
I didn't purchase Pentaho. There is a business version but I used only the open source. I was fully satisfied and very happy with it. It's a very good open-source solution. The communication channels, the updates, the patches, et cetera are all good.
The pricing has been pretty good. I'm used to using everything open-source or freeware-based. I understand that organizations need to make sure that the solutions are secure, and that's basically where I hit a roadblock in my current organization. They needed to ensure that we had a license and we had a secure way of accessing it so that no outside parties could get access to our data, but in terms of pricing, considering how much other teams are spending on cloud solutions or even their existing solutions, its price point is pretty good. At this time, there are no additional costs. We just have the licensing fees.
Systems Analyst at a university with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Dec 22, 2021
We renew our license every two years. When I spoke to the project manager, he indicated that the pricing has been going up every two years. It's going to reach a point where, eventually, we're going to have to look at alternative solutions because of the price. When we first started with it, it was much cheaper. It has gone up drastically, especially since Hitachi bought out Pentaho. When they bought it, the price shot up. They said the increase is because of all the improvements they put into the product and the support that they're providing. From our point of view, their improvements are mostly on the data integration part of it, instead of the reporting part of it, and we aren't particularly happy with that.
Enterprise Data Architect at a manufacturing company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Dec 14, 2021
I think Lumada's price is fair compared to some of the others, like BusinessObjects, which is was the other solution 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. We felt the value was much greater than the cost, and the value for the money was much better than if we had gone with other solutions.
Senior Engineer at a comms service provider with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Dec 13, 2021
It does seem a bit expensive compared to the serverless product offering. Tools such as Server Integration Services are "almost" free with a database engine. It is comparable to products like Alteryx, which is also very expensive. It would be great if we could use our enterprise license and distribute that to analysts and people around the business to use in place of Tableau Prep, etc, but 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.
Technical Manager at a computer software company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Feb 22, 2021
Sometimes we provide the licenses or the customer can procure their own licenses. Previously, we had an enterprise license. Currently, we are on a community license as this is adequate for our needs.
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....
My experience has been overall good regarding the price, implementation costs, and licenses for Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics because the company covered it and they had no problem paying for it because they saw that it was cost-effective in terms of performance afterwards.
The setup cost was minimal, and the pricing experience was pretty good, as the free version is good enough to provide many features that a small to medium company needs.
I use the community version of Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics, and I do not need additional costs.
Pentaho Data Integration is low-priced, especially since it is free of cost.
Pentaho is cheaper than other solutions. The relationship between price and functionality means it provides good value for money.
The product is quite cheap.
I believe the pricing of the solution is more affordable than the competitors.
We are using the Community Edition. We have been trying to use and sell the Enterprise version, but that hasn't been possible due to the budget required for it.
I'm not really sure what the price for the product is. I don't handle that aspect of the solution.
For most development tasks, the Enterprise edition should be sufficient. It depends on the type of support that you require for your production environment.
You don't need the Enterprise Edition, you can go with the Community Edition. That way you can use it for free and, for free, it's a pretty good tool to use. If you pay for licenses, the only thing that you're getting, in addition, is customer support, which is pretty much nonexistent in any case. I would recommend going with the Community Edition.
I mostly used the open-source version. I didn't work with a license.
I use it because it is free. I download from their page for free. I don't have to pay for a license. With other tools, I have to pay for the licenses. That is why I use Pentaho. I used to work with the complete suite of Pentaho, not only Data Integration. I used to build some solutions from scratch. I used to work with the Community version and Enterprise versions. With the Enterprise version, it is more than building cubes. I am building a BI solution that I can explore. Every time that I use Pentaho Data Integration, I never spend any money because it comes free with the tool. If you pay for the Enterprise license, Pentaho Data Integration is included. If you don't pay for it and use the Community version, Data Integration is included for free.
There are more types of connectors, but you need to pay. 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.
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. SSIS cores were $10,000 a piece. Although I don't know what they cost nowadays, they're expensive. Pentaho is a nice option without having to pay an arm and a leg. We even had a complicated data set and Pentaho was able to handle pretty much every type of scenario, if we thought about it creatively enough. I would recommend it for a company in that position.
I didn't purchase Pentaho. There is a business version but I used only the open source. I was fully satisfied and very happy with it. It's a very good open-source solution. The communication channels, the updates, the patches, et cetera are all good.
The pricing has been pretty good. I'm used to using everything open-source or freeware-based. I understand that organizations need to make sure that the solutions are secure, and that's basically where I hit a roadblock in my current organization. They needed to ensure that we had a license and we had a secure way of accessing it so that no outside parties could get access to our data, but in terms of pricing, considering how much other teams are spending on cloud solutions or even their existing solutions, its price point is pretty good. At this time, there are no additional costs. We just have the licensing fees.
We renew our license every two years. When I spoke to the project manager, he indicated that the pricing has been going up every two years. It's going to reach a point where, eventually, we're going to have to look at alternative solutions because of the price. When we first started with it, it was much cheaper. It has gone up drastically, especially since Hitachi bought out Pentaho. When they bought it, the price shot up. They said the increase is because of all the improvements they put into the product and the support that they're providing. From our point of view, their improvements are mostly on the data integration part of it, instead of the reporting part of it, and we aren't particularly happy with that.
I think Lumada's price is fair compared to some of the others, like BusinessObjects, which is was the other solution 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. We felt the value was much greater than the cost, and the value for the money was much better than if we had gone with other solutions.
It does seem a bit expensive compared to the serverless product offering. Tools such as Server Integration Services are "almost" free with a database engine. It is comparable to products like Alteryx, which is also very expensive. It would be great if we could use our enterprise license and distribute that to analysts and people around the business to use in place of Tableau Prep, etc, but 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.
We do not pay any license costs. We use a free version of the product.
Sometimes we provide the licenses or the customer can procure their own licenses. Previously, we had an enterprise license. Currently, we are on a community license as this is adequate for our needs.
We are using the Community Version, which is available free of charge. The price of the regular version is not reasonable and it should be lower.
We're using the community edition, which is free to use. I'm not sure how much their paid services cost. We haven't purchased any licensing.