Beyond Fivetran: How to Cut Costs and Boost Efficiency

Introduction

Put Your Data to Work! Reactor onboards your data – cleans it, well-defines it, and models it for generative AI, analytics, and activation.

Are your Fivetran costs “eating up your budget” as your business grows? You're not alone. Many organizations are grappling with the financial burden of scaling their data pipelines. But what if there was a more cost-effective solution that doesn't compromise functionality?

Are you open to exploring how to migrate from Fivetran to lower your costs for your data pipeline and ETL management needs?

The Hidden Costs of Fivetran: What You're Paying For

Fivetran's pricing model, based on Monthly Active Rows (MARs) and their newly updated Model-Run add-on pricing (aka data transformation), can become a financial burden for scaling businesses. As your data volume increases, so does your bill—often at an alarming rate. Reactor bundles these into a single MARs price at a deep discount. We have a few incremental add-ons, but we can work with you to avoid costly monthly or annual surprises.

Imagine this: A mid-sized company processing 10 million monthly rows starts with a manageable fee, maybe $3000 monthly. However, as it scales to 50 million records, it wants to add more user seats, move from 15-minute to 1-minute syncs, and add a premium Database connector; its costs could increase by 300% or more to $12,000 monthly. This rapid growth in expenses can quickly outpace budget allocations.

What to consider:

• More connector endpoints may add significant costs depending on the source.
• Each transformation incurs a cost using Fivetran's Quickstart or dbt core library data transformation models. Reactor lets you create unlimited standardizations, transformations, custom semantic entity models, and the ability to leverage dbt core library models at no additional expense.
• More sophisticated data processes in Fivetran could lead to higher expenses.
• Businesses are paying more to extract and produce more value from their source data and send it to many different types of consumers, not just traditional data warehouses. Consider more flexibility without additional cost to send it to those consumers.

Compared to other ETL/ELT or Hybrid data pipeline integration solutions in the industry, Fivetran's long-term costs often exceed these alternatives. While there are no formal independent 3rd party studies, many of our clients have expressed that their experience with Fivetran has cost up to 3-5 times more than other similar solutions. Reactor believes we can offer comparable and more advanced features for 20-40% less than the experience Fivetran promotes.

In contrast, Reactor offers a more predictable and scalable pricing model, allowing businesses to grow without fearing escalating costs. How much could your organization save by making a change?

Why Businesses are Seeking Fivetran Alternatives

The shift away from Fivetran isn't solely about costs. Businesses are increasingly frustrated by several key factors:

1. Lack of pricing transparency, complicating budgeting
2. The need for multiple tools to manage different pipeline stages
3. Limited customization options for unique business needs
4. Complex interfaces that require specialized skills

There is a growing demand for comprehensive solutions that offer more than data movement. Companies want tools that can ingest, prepare, and transform data in a single, user-friendly interface.

This trend toward low-code interfaces is gaining significant momentum. Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity. Is your organization prepared for this shift in data management?

Reactor believes low-code tools and features will help small—to medium-sized businesses become more efficient. As data engineers, data scientists, and other data analysts become more in demand, it will be imperative to simplify the data movement process with simpler abstractions for the everyday business generalist so they can move data more quickly and nimbly. Eventually eliminating the need for data movement.

Reactor: A Cost-Effective Fivetran Alternative

Reactor's Intelligent Pipeline tool addresses the limitations of Fivetran head-on:

• Low-code interface: Empowers non-engineers to manage data flows, reducing dependency on specialized staff. It's still not 100%, but it is getting closer to support.
• An All-in-one platform handles ingestion, preparation, and transformation in one place, eliminating the need for multiple tools.
• Fixed pricing: Offers predictable costs, regardless of data volume
• Retail focus: Pre-built models tailored for retail analytics, accelerating implementation for businesses in this sector

Leveraging Reactor's Unique Features

1. Data Standardization: Reactor's customizable advanced semantic entity mapping ensures consistency across various data sources. For example, it can harmonize order data from your e-commerce platform, point-of-sale system, and marketplace channels, creating a unified view of your sales revenue attribute within a standard Order Entity specific to your organization.
2. Low-Code Transformations: Create complex data transformations without writing code but still having the option. Transformation features allow business analysts to directly contribute to data pipeline development, reducing bottlenecks and accelerating insights. Reactor believes transformation models should not cost extra.
3. Real-Time Data Visibility: A canvas-type UI provides instant visibility into your entire data pipeline. This transparency allows quick troubleshooting and ensures all team members understand data flows clearly.

Reactor's approach can lead to significant cost savings and operational efficiencies. After switching from Fivetran, one client reported significantly reduced data pipeline expenses and improved data processing speed. Discover how Reactor can transform your data strategy.

Comparing Fivetran and Reactor: Feature by Feature

Steps to Migrate from Fivetran to Reactor

1. Audit current setup: Document existing pipelines, transformations, and data flows.
2. Plan the migration: Map Fivetran connectors to Reactor equivalents and identify gaps.
3. Set up Reactor: Configure connections to your data warehouse (e.g., Snowflake, Google BigQuery).
4. Migrate incrementally: Begin with non-critical data sources to minimize disruption.
5. Recreate transformations: Use Reactor's low-code interface to rebuild your data transformation logic.
6. Create Output Data Entity Models: Use Reactor to create and manage your customized data model via entities you define vs being defined for you. Tailor them to the shapes you have organized and stored in your Data Warehouse. Reduce your DBT dependency.
7. Validate and Test thoroughly: Validate the data by checking with the sources and running parallel pipelines to ensure data integrity and accuracy.
8. Cut over gradually: Shift workloads in phases, starting with less critical processes.
9. Optimize and scale: Fine-tune for performance and explore advanced features like custom entity mapping.

During migration, take advantage of Reactor's documentation and support resources. Many businesses find the transition smoother than anticipated, thanks to Reactor's intuitive design and helpful 1:1 client services team to support the onboarding process. We call this team IDQ for Implementation Data Quality.

Conclusion: Embracing Cost-Effective Data Management

Migrating from Fivetran to Reactor offers more than cost savings—it's a step towards more efficient, transparent, and scalable data management. By switching, you'll reduce expenses and invest in a solution that grows with your business without compromising functionality.

Don't let rising data costs hold you back. Evaluate your pipeline expenses and consider how Reactor could transform your data strategy.

Ready to take the next step?

Book a demo with Reactor to see firsthand how their Intelligent Pipeline tool can improve your data management approach.

FAQs About Migrating from Fivetran to Reactor

• How long does the migration process typically take? The timeline varies, but most businesses complete the migration within 4-12 weeks, depending on the complexity of the data pipelines.
• Will I lose any data during the migration? No, with proper planning and Reactor's support, you can ensure a smooth transition without data loss in your data warehouse destination.
• Can Reactor handle the same data volume as Fivetran? Yes, we designed Reactor to scale efficiently, often handling large volumes more cost-effectively than Fivetran. We built Reactor's backbone on Kafka, which can consume real-time event streams or batch with millions of records per second.
• What kind of support does Reactor offer during and after migration? Reactor provides comprehensive support, including dedicated migration specialists who are skilled experts in implementation, Data quality, and ongoing technical assistance.
• How does Reactor ensure data security and compliance? It adheres to industry-standard security protocols and offers features to help maintain compliance with regulations such as SOC-2, GDPR, and CCPA.