Fivetran Data Analytics Tools

 “What is Fivetran?” is a common question in the context of data integration. Fivetran is chiefly a low-code data integration platform that automates the connection process, ensuring users can extract and load transformed data from different sources to their chosen destination. It takes a zero-maintenance approach to data integration while automatically adjusting to schema changes. 

Since Fivetran deals with data management, it’s vital to address the issue of whether the difference between discrete and continuous data affects its functionality. Luckily, it doesn’t. The tool handles both data types seamlessly, enabling easy reporting and decision-making. Looking forward to using Fivetran for your data integration needs? Learn about the platform’s functionality, pricing, pros and cons, and user feedback here.  

Fivetran Functionality

Fivetran automates most parts of the ELT process to ensure your data engineering team can focus more on data analytics and higher-impact projects. Key features include:

• Data integration: Fivetran automatically moves data from sources like social media platforms, CRM, Google Analytics, etc., into selected data warehouses, analytics tools, and data lakes. Notably, the platform doesn’t discriminate between discrete vs continuous data.
• Pre-built connectors: More than 500 fully managed connectors are available to facilitate data transfer in just a few clicks.
• Data transformation: The platform allows in-warehouse transformations through SQL after data loading, leading to faster analysis and querying.
• Data governance: This feature enables Fivetran users to view data pipelines in real-time, track data sources, and ensure compliance with security policies.

Fivetran Data Transfer

Data transfer with Fivetran is made easy with its pre-built connectors. To begin the data transfer process:

1. Select a connector, which can include Amazon Web Services, Google Analytics, MySQL, Facebook, or Salesforce, depending on your needs.
2. Supply all the credentials and settings needed to make a connection.
3. Fivetran derives data from the indicated source (from the Cloud, On-prem, or hybrid) using your defined filters and schema. One of the data collection methods used in this case is incremental data extraction, where only new or changed data is pulled. Change data capture (CDC) and API-based extractions are also supported for real-time updates and SaaS applications, respectively.
4. The data is transformed into a standardized format that matches the structure of your chosen destination.
5. Fivetran moves the converted data to the selected destination.

Fivetran Reporting

Fivetran claims to enrich your reporting with out-of-the-box analytics via its Transformations feature and a History mode. 

Fivetran triggers “Transformations” once your data is loaded into a data warehouse like Snowflake and BigQuery. This optimizes your data for a process like visualization, ensuring it’s ready for analysis without needing manual intervention. With the platform, you have access to BI and analytics tools like Power BI, Looker Studio, and Tableau, where you can create custom dashboards and reports highlighting your desired metrics. It’s also possible to generate search engine ranking reports, thanks to integrated tools like Google Search Console.

In the “History mode,” you can analyze historical data to discover changes in data patterns over time and identify inefficiencies in the pipeline. To activate the “History mode,” locate the table or data source you want to focus on in the connector dashboard. Toggle on “History mode” in the table settings. Fivetran then stores all the historical data, making it easy to query and analyze everything. 

Fivetran Customer Support

Fivetran customer support is diverse. You can contact its support team through the following means:

• Ticket submission: This is ideal, especially if you need assistance with technical issues.
• Live chat: You can converse with support representatives in real-time through the live chat box to have your concerns addressed immediately.
• Email: For comprehensive inquiries and support requests, emailing may be necessary.
• Resource center: This includes articles that offer answers to common questions.
• FAQs: Tackles common questions and concerns. 

Customer reviews on customer support are generally positive. Many of them praise Fivetran for the team’s responsiveness and ability to solve their issues on time. 

Fivetran Price Breakdown

With Fivetran pricing, you have the flexibility to come up with a personalized quote by contacting sales. That’s because pricing isn’t fixed; it’s mainly based on the volume of data processed and number of rows used. You only pay for what you use. 

Fivetran Free Trial

This free trial is for individuals who desire to automate the ELT process for small data volumes. Designed to last 14 days, the package supports 1-hour syncs, integration for dbt core, role-based access control, 10 users, automatic schema migrations, and 500+ connectors. It also allows you to use up to 500,000 monthly active rows (MAR), which isn’t much if you are dealing with lots of data.

Using the free trial is pretty straightforward. Just visit Fivetran official page and press the “pricing” tab on the home page. Once the pricing structures are displayed select the free trial option and fill the data collection form with the needed information to sign up.  

Fivetran Price Packages

There are four pricing structures, but don’t expect any price quotations (Pricing is volume-based on MAR). See the pricing structure below: 

• Starter: This plan lets you attain modern ELT for your business apps and file sources. It offers features similar to those in the free option. The main difference is that you enjoy the features for an entire month.
• Standard: Fivetran indicates the Standard plan is the most popular. It’s a lot like the Starter package with no limit to active rows and number of users. The data is also refreshed every 15 minutes, and you will get access to database connectors and Fivetran’s REST API.
• Enterprise: In case you want data syncs every 1 minute, priority support, advanced data governance, and a hybrid deployment option, the Enterprise option may be perfect. This package gives you access to advanced security and data residency options and all the Standard package features.
• Business critical: This specifically targets enterprise companies with stringent data protection and compliance requirements. Available features include private networking options, local data processing, and customer-managed keys for encryption.  

Fivetran Customer Reviews

To get a real-life perspective of how Fivetran works and its efficiency, we provide sample testimonials from G2, a popular software review website:

The user appreciates how Fivetran makes her team’s data processes simple and fast without requiring coding. This is true. By automating ETL processes and handling schema changes on your behalf, Fivetran accelerates data workflows, enabling you to focus on data analysis and insights. However, the pricing model can be quite confusing, and this user also highlights this concern. 

This client praises Fivetran for its user-friendliness. They comment about the super simple setup and the alerting system that notifies users about any impending issues or outages. These claims are well-founded. Fivetran’s interface is intuitive, and you can get everything done with several clicks. Moreover, Fivetran requires you to subscribe to get alerts about schema changes, sync issues, and connector-specific delays to help you act on time.

Pros	Cons
Numerous connectors: Fivetran offers access to more than 500 connectors, including SaaS apps and databases. Moreover, you can send data to multiple destinations, such as marketing analytics tools, SQL Server, etc.	Costly: The cost can be high in the long run, especially for businesses handling large data volumes.
Great customer support: Customers acknowledge that the platform offers helpful and responsive customer support.	Learning curve: First-time users may experience challenges installing the software and configuring connectors.
Minimal maintenance: After the set up, Fivetran needs a little ongoing maintenance. This decreases the burden on the IT team.	Data limitations: Despite integrating multiple connectors, the platform may not support data from some niches.

Verdict

Fivetran is a reliable data loader for small and big businesses alike. It automates the ETL process to help save time and minimize errors in reporting. The platform is easy to install and provides many connectors for pushing data where you want it. New users can face a learning curve, but this shouldn’t be a problem, as support is ready to help.

Unfortunately, Fivetran doesn’t disclose the prices of its services publicly. This shouldn’t be a big deal, though. Contacting the sales team is enough to get you the needed pricing information.