Tool Overview
Hevo
Hevo data is a closed-source, managed ELT, ETL and reverse ETL data integration tool with hundreds of connectors out-of-the-box. Founded in 2017, Hevo’s main offerings are Hevo Pipeline and Hevo Activate. Hevo Pipeline is the ETL / ELT product that centralizes all data in a company into one single repository — your data warehouse. Hevo Activate is a reverse ETL product that pulls data out of your warehouse, such as Snowflake, into SaaS tools like Salesforce.
Hevo has 2 separate one-way syncing solutions, it is does not offer bidirectional syncs. If you are looking to sync Postgres and Salesforce, for example, in real-time so that the same data is reflected in both — accounting for merge conflicts and data inconsistency issues — Bracket is the more suitable solution.
Airbyte
Airbyte is an open-source ELT tool with hundreds of connectors available. Founded in 2020, Airbyte has grown quickly to become a tech unicorn for their differentiated philosophy on data pipelines as a product: notably on being open-source, its customizability, and pricing structure. The company does also offer a managed solution, usually selected by enterprises. Airbyte also has acquired a reverse ETL company, Grouparoo, but that product offering has yet to be fully released.
Feature Comparison Overview
Connectors
The difference sources a product supports is one of the most important criteria when selecting among ETL tools. If only one of the products supports a connector that you want, it may be worth going with that product straight away.
Hevo
Hevo does have over 150 sources and over 15 destinations. The major data warehouses, databases, and data lakes are supported. Because Hevo is closed-source, only Hevo can build additional integrations. New connectors can be built at customer request, though Hevo can choose not to prioritize it. It’s more likely that they will if you are an enterprise customer with a high willingness to pay.
Airbyte
Airbyte has over 300 sources, many of which are in alpha or beta. Airbyte also supports major warehouses, lakes, and databases but has over twice the number that Hevo supports.
Airbyte offers a CDK (Cloud Development Kit) which allows you to build custom connectors. The CDK also makes it simpler to edit existing connectors so that it is tailored to your company’s use case. Custom connectors will have to be maintained by you or, if enough others use it, maintained by the Airbyte community.
Transformation
Hevo
There are a variety of data transformations options with Hevo. Both pre-load and post-load transformations are available. Hevo supports Python-based, drag-and-drop, and automatic transformations. For the more technical user, Python-based transformations would work well and can be built to be bespoke to your business use-case compared to the drag-and-drop option. The automatic transformations are for common sanitizing and normalizations of data.
Airbyte
Airbyte works with SQL or dbt for post-load transformations. Airbyte’s pairing with dbt allows for transformations that meet specific use case requirements. There’s no drag-and-drop optionality.
Security
Hevo
As a Series B company, Hevo has the major data security compliance certifications: SOC II, GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA. Hevo has role-based access to limit capabilities of different people within a company. Individuals can be assigned as a member or an owner but Hevo currently has more granular role-based permissions in beta.
As far as the actual data goes, data is encrypted both in transit and at rest.
Airbyte
Airbyte also meets the same major security compliance certifications that Hevo does. Because Airbyte is an open-source, self-hosted product, the security is actually dependent on your company’s data infrastructure.
Support and Documentation
Hevo
Hevo has 24/7 support but the speed of reply depends on which pricing tier you select. ON the free tier there is 24/7 email support while on the Starter plan there is 24/7 live chat support available. The most expensive pricing tier (with custom pricing) has premium support which a team dedicated to helping you when you run into issues. Documentation and video guides are also available.
Airbyte
As an open source product, support is handled much differently. When you go with Airbyte, you will need to use documentation, community discourse, and GitHub project board to figure out solutions when blocked on issues. Sometimes when there is a problem with a connector, someone in the community may fix it but you should not rely on this. Airbyte’s Cloud customers have chat support too.
Sync Direction
Hevo
With Hevo’s Pipeline and Activate products, it can sync in multiple directions. If your business needs a one-way sync to your warehouse or a one-way sync from your warehouse to a SaaS tool, then Hevo can do that. Hevo cannot do bidirectional syncs.
Airbyte
Airbyte can only sync in one direction, from SaaS tools to your warehouse. Airbyte is set to offer reverse ETL after it’s acquisition of Grouparoo, but it has not just yet. Even once it does, it will still be an additional one-way sync option and will not have bidirectional syncing capabilities.
Bracket
For bidirectional syncs between tools like Salesforce and Postgres, use Bracket. Bracket has unified logging, handles merge conflicts, eliminates data duplication issues, and syncs data as fast as real-time.
Pricing
Hevo
Hevo charges based on the number of events. There is a free plan that includes up to 1 million free events. The Starter plan is a sliding scale that starts at $299 / month at 5 million events to $1449 / month at 100 million events. Above 100 million events, only custom pricing is available and you will have to talk to Hevo’s sales team. Hevo has a 14 day free trial.
Airbyte
The open-source offering is free. The cost comes from managing the infrastructure for the pipelines. The Cloud product has credit-based pricing. Airbyte charges $2.50 / credit. A credit is a data operations unit. Depending on the operation, it can be measured in millions of rows or in GBs. Alpha and beta connectors are free on Airbyte Cloud. They also offer a 14 day free trial.
Which data pipeline tool should you select?
Both Hevo and Airbyte are leading options in the modern data stack to meet your data integration needs. What you are looking for depends on your use case and what is important to your company.
For a managed data syncing solution for data teams that syncs in multiple directions with reliable support, choose Hevo.
For an open-source, customizable and more affordable solution that requires more technical teams, choose Airbyte.
For a two-way syncing solution with real time refreshes and predictable pricing, choose Bracket.
Why Bracket?
Databases and SaaS applications collect different customer data. Sync data from your web app to SaaS tools to trigger workflows that market, sell, and support customers to drive more revenue. Sync data from these business tools back to your web app for a personalized UX that converts.
For example, we have enterprise customers syncing Salesforce and Postgres in real time so that when users onboard, sales teams gets notified to close users, risk teams get notified to approve users, support teams intervene proactively when needed — the list goes on. Once the business team completes their workflow, that information is sent back to the web app so the user can continue on in the product workflow and become a paying customer or buy additional products if they are an existing customer.
Interested in learning more about Bracket? Go to our website here for info or our web app and get started!
