Fivetran
Managed pipelines that land source data in your warehouse
Fivetran moves data out of the systems a business runs on and into its warehouse, and takes responsibility for keeping the pipeline working. Hundreds of prebuilt connectors handle the schema, the incremental syncs and the breakages when a source changes its API, so the work is picking sources rather than writing extraction code. Landed data can be modelled in place with dbt Core integration and Quickstart models, and Activations push results back out to the tools that act on them. Pricing is consumption-based on every plan and counted in monthly active rows - rows inserted, updated or deleted in a month rather than rows stored - so the bill follows how much actually changed. The free plan covers 500,000 monthly active rows, 5,000 model runs and 3,500 activation rows; paid tiers add faster syncs, granular access control, hybrid deployment and customer-managed encryption keys, and an annual contract saves up to 22 percent.
- Hundreds of prebuilt connectors, kept working for you
- Schema changes handled without touching the pipeline
- Billed on monthly active rows, not rows stored
- 5,000 model runs free each month on every plan
- dbt Core integration and Quickstart data models
- Activations push data back to operational tools
- 1-minute syncs and RBAC on higher tiers
- Hybrid deployment and customer-managed keys
Based on what people have said
Every answer links back to the mentions it came fromWhat are the primary benefits of using Fivetran?
Users highlight that Fivetran provides a reliable, hands-off, and low-maintenance solution for data ingestion. It is particularly valued for its extensive library of pre-built connectors, which save significant engineering time by handling schema changes and API complexities automatically. For smaller teams or single engineers, it is often seen as a way to deliver data to stakeholders quickly without needing to build and maintain custom pipelines.
10 mentions · r/dataengineering · r/databricks · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · Mar 2023 – Sep 2026
What are the common complaints regarding Fivetran's pricing?
Many users describe the pricing as expensive, opaque, and difficult to predict. The consumption-based model, specifically the Monthly Active Rows (MAR) metric, is frequently criticized for being a poor proxy for actual value, with some users noting that costs can escalate rapidly as data volumes grow. Several users have reported feeling misled by sales teams or pressured into expensive contracts, leading some to seek more predictable or affordable alternatives.
16 mentions · r/databricks · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · and 4 more · Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
How does Fivetran compare to open-source or self-hosted alternatives?
While Fivetran is praised for its ease of use and managed service, alternatives like Airbyte, dlt, and Estuary are often cited for being more cost-effective, flexible, or developer-centric. Some users prefer these alternatives because they allow for self-hosting, provide more control over the pipeline, or avoid the vendor lock-in associated with Fivetran. However, others note that these alternatives may require more setup, maintenance, and engineering effort compared to Fivetran's plug-and-play approach.
14 mentions · r/databricks · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · and 3 more · Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
What are the concerns regarding Fivetran's reliability and support?
Opinions on reliability are mixed; while some users find the service rock-solid, others report frequent connector failures, silent data drops, and frustration with the quality of support. Some users have noted that support response times can be slow, particularly for those not on premium tiers, and that troubleshooting complex issues can be difficult.
11 mentions · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · Hacker News · r/dataengineering · and 2 more · Aug 2022 – Sep 2026
Are there specific limitations to Fivetran's features?
Users have pointed out limitations such as the lack of support for mutable data (everything is append-only), the inability to ingest calculated fields, and the fact that transformations occur post-load, which can complicate compliance requirements like PII masking. Additionally, some users find the lack of control over sync timing and the inability to easily backfill data after certain failures to be significant drawbacks.
6 mentions · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · r/dataengineering · Mar 2023 – Jun 2026
These summarise counts and dates only. Read the quotes themselves under what people are saying.
What people are saying about Fivetran
49% negative“Without knowing the platforms beyond fivetran it's tough to say .”
“Compare Estuary, Confluent, Fivetran, and more to find the right fit for your data.”
“There is room even with Fivetran and Airbyte out there, the gap is usually schema drift handling and how cleanly the tool recovers from a source changing shape mid-sync without dropping columns. Stress test idempotency, what happens on a replay after a failed load, duplicate rows from a bad retry are the top complaint about EL tools in production.”
“Any workload that is an ELT pattern we leverage Fivetran for the EL part then DBT for transforms.”
“If licencing cost is not an issue, then also checkout Fivetrans HVR”
“Generally speaking, it works very well, cheaper than Fivetran, and much cleaner than using ADF's connectors. I have not heard of a single fire our team has had to deal with because of it, so I think that's good.”
“Fivetran connectors work. Its an accelerator for projects because it's easy to setup and it just works, as long as there is a connector for your source. And if you know what you're doing, initial loads are free.”
“We have few SQL servers on prem we are planning to onboard Fivetran but looking at this thread i am thinking maybe i should explore Lakeflow Connect .”
“* How does the total cost compare to dedicated ingestion tools like Fivetran or Qlik?”
“At long last, Fivetran has a CLI app that humans and AI can use to easily orchestrate the platform with a quick install and an api key. It can do (most) everything possible on the platform without ever touching the web UI!”
“* Experience building or maintaining ETL/ELT pipelines and working with technologies such as dbt, Fivetran, or similar tools.”
“Yeah the pricing is completely extortionist and stupid. We switched to Airbyte on prem and saved 90%+ of the costs, when the sales team at Fivetran misled us into a contract where our costs for one client were equivalent to the costs of 250 clients off of it.”
“We use Fivetran for simplicity’s sake. It’s not the cheapest but it’s rock solid reliable and does exactly what we needed it to do.”
“Hi George, I'm a senior data engineer and from a developer perspective I really love fivetran. It is my preferred tool when a new usecase comes up. But I guess the comments about the price makes sense.”
“What does fivetran give you -- a nice UI ? I have everything there full blown observability. Not sure why people pay five tran matillion, when you can generate code with free ChatGpt Gemini and move and process several hundred GBs per day. If you have cloud, you can even shut down the VM, when not using.”
“I moved our sf ingestion out of fivetran. It was too expensive. A simple API read plus insert rows into BQ worked efficiently for 40+ SF objects.”
“Every org I've worked at has used Fivetran or equivalent for SF.”
“Building one connector is easy enough. Building hundreds and hundreds of them and keeping them working is hard. APIs change.”
“A bit dramatic, nothing has changed with the Fivetran partnership!”
“Nothing has changed with regards to Fivetran and Databricks, customers can still use it and connect it using Marketplace and Partner Connect just like they used to. It's a simple UI change as we consolidate our partner offerings in Marketplace.”
“I do not think Lakeflow is production worthy”
“Fivetran is expensive, but it's a lot cheaper than more engineers or custom ingestion pipelines.”
“Delivery lead on high-visibility projects here -> I highly recommend migrating the monthly GL balances to NetSuite and keeping the detail in Xero with a limited view-only seat for as long as you need that data.”
“George, you’re an absolute legend and I think Fivetran is quite helpful.”
“I think you have a great product but the Fivetran sales team has heavily misled multiple of my clients in the past. They are currently pressuring one of my clients to move to a much more expensive contract without much of an increase in value.”