Happy Valley

Fivetran

Automated data pipelines to your warehouse

Fivetran is a data integration & ETL tool for Enterprise and Small businesses, offered as freemium. Founded in United States in 2012. Popular alternatives include Airbyte, Estuary Flow, Stitch.

About Fivetran

Fivetran is a managed ELT service founded in 2012 in the United States and the most widely used tool for moving data into cloud warehouses without building pipelines. It provides hundreds of pre-built, vendor-maintained connectors that replicate data from SaaS applications, databases, files and event streams into Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift and data lakes.

Connectors handle authentication, incremental syncs, API changes and schema drift automatically, so new columns and tables appear in the destination without manual work. Database replication uses change data capture, including the HVR technology Fivetran acquired in 2021. Transformations run with dbt. In 2025 Fivetran added reverse ETL by acquiring Census, and its all-stock merger with dbt Labs, announced in October 2025, closed in June 2026. Pricing is usage-based on monthly active rows (MAR), with a free plan for low volumes and higher tiers adding faster syncs, private networking, HIPAA and other compliance options.

Fivetran fits lean data teams that value reliability and want to spend time on modeling rather than pipeline maintenance. The trade-off is cost: MAR pricing can rise sharply with high-churn tables and is hard to forecast, and you have less control than with code-based tools. Airbyte is the main open-source alternative with self-hosting, Stitch and Hevo are cheaper managed options for smaller volumes, and dlt suits engineers who want pipelines in Python.

Key features of Fivetran

  • 700+ managed connectors
  • Automatic schema migration and incremental sync
  • Database replication with CDC
  • dbt transformations and orchestration
  • Data lake destinations and governance
  • Private networking and compliance options

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Set and forget reliability
  • Broad, well-maintained connectors
  • Excellent for lean data teams
  • Strong security and compliance

Cons

  • MAR pricing can spike
  • Less control than open-source tools
  • Costs grow with data volume
  • Custom connectors require SDK work

Fivetran pricing

Fivetran uses a freemium model. A 14-day free trial is available.

PlanPriceIncludes
Free$0500,000 MAR, 5,000 model runs/mo
StandardUsage-basedPer-MAR spend rate; $5 base charge per connection
EnterpriseUsage-basedHigher spend rate, enterprise features
Business CriticalUsage-basedHighest security tier

Source: www.fivetran.com · checked on Oct 20, 2026

How Fivetran compares in Data integration & ETL

Rank by votes
#1 / 16

0 votes from members

Starting price
$0

Category median is $100/mo

Free alternatives
2

Free or open-source tools in Data integration & ETL

Fivetran ranks #1 of 16 data integration & etl tools by community votes and is not directly comparable on price.

Common use cases

  1. 1Centralizing SaaS data into Snowflake
  2. 2Replicating production databases to BigQuery
  3. 3Feeding dbt models for analytics
  4. 4Building a data stack without data engineers

Best for

Data teams who value reliability over cost control.

Not ideal for

Budget-conscious teams with engineering capacity (Airbyte).

Integrations

  • 700+ connectors
  • Snowflake
  • BigQuery
  • Databricks
  • Redshift
  • dbt
  • Census
  • Hightouch

Our take

Fivetran is the easiest way to get data into a warehouse reliably. Monitor MAR closely and compare Airbyte on cost.

FAQ

What is Fivetran?
Fivetran is a Data integration & ETL tool: Automated data pipelines to your warehouse.
How much does Fivetran cost?
Fivetran uses a Freemium model; see the vendor's pricing page for current plans.
What are the best alternatives to Fivetran?
Community-listed alternatives to Fivetran include Airbyte, Estuary Flow, Stitch, Hevo Data.
Does Fivetran have a free trial?
Yes, Fivetran offers a 14-day free trial.
What does Fivetran integrate with?
Fivetran integrates with 700+ connectors, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, dbt and more.
Which platforms does Fivetran support?
Fivetran is available on web.
Who is Fivetran for?
Data teams who value reliability over cost control.

Alternatives to Fivetran

See all 8
  • Airbyte

    ▲ 0

    Open-source data movement with 600+ connectors

    Open source · $20DevelopersSmall businesses
  • Real-time ETL and CDC pipelines

    FreemiumDevelopers
  • Stitch

    ▲ 0

    Simple ELT for small data teams

    Paid · $100Small businesses
  • No-code ELT pipelines that load SaaS and database data to warehouses

    Freemium · $299Small businessesEnterprise
  • Cloud ELT and pipeline platform with Maia AI data engineering agents

    PaidEnterpriseDevelopers
  • No-code data sync from 400+ apps into Sheets, BI tools and AI

    Freemium · $32Small businessesAgencies

More Data integration & ETL tools

See all 16
  • Open-source developer platform for scripts, flows and apps

    Open source · $10Developers
  • Census

    ▲ 0

    Operational analytics from the warehouse

    FreemiumEnterprise
  • dbt

    ▲ 0

    Transform data in the warehouse with SQL

    Freemium · $100Developers
  • Reverse ETL and composable CDP

    FreemiumEnterpriseSmall businesses
  • Warehouse-native customer data pipelines, a Segment alternative

    Freemium · $265DevelopersSmall businesses
  • Customer data platform and event routing

    Freemium · $120DevelopersEnterprise

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