Top 10 ETL Tools

This will allow you to avoid data silos and increase information sharing organizations often turn to extract, transform, and load (ETL) for data formatting, parsing, and storage between systems.

What are ETL Tools?

ETL tools are software that supports ETL processes. They extract data from different sources, scrub data for consistency and quality, then consolidate this information in data warehouses. ETL tools can simplify data management strategies and improve data quality if implemented correctly. They provide a standardized approach to storage, sharing, and intake.

ETL tools are useful for data-driven platforms and organizations. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) platforms‘ central advantage is that all business activities are conducted through the same interface. This makes CRM data more accessible to all teams and allows for a better understanding of the business’s performance and progress toward goals.

Types of ETL tools

ETL tools can be divided into four groups based on the infrastructure they use and their support organization. Below are the categories: enterprise-grade, open-source, cloud-based, and custom ETL tools

1. Enterprise Software ETL Tools

Commercial organizations develop and support enterprise software ETL tools. Since these companies are the pioneers of ETL tools, they tend to be the most reliable and mature solutions on the market. These include GUIs for designing ETL pipelines, support of most relational and nonrelational databases, extensive documentation, and user groups.

Enterprise software ETL tools offer more functionality but will cost more and require more integration services and training.

2. Open-Source ETL Tools

Open-source ETL tools are no surprise given the popularity of the open-source movement. ETL tools are available for free today and provide GUIs to help you design data-sharing processes or monitor the flow of information. Open-source solutions offer organizations the opportunity to access the source code and explore the tool’s capabilities.

Open-source ETL tools are often not supported by commercial companies and can be difficult to maintain, document, use, and function.

3. Cloud-Based ETL Tools

Following the widespread adoption of cloud and integration-platform-as-a-service technologies, cloud service providers (CSPs) now offer ETL tools built on their infrastructure.

Cloud-based ETL tools offer efficiency as a distinct advantage. Cloud technology offers high availability, latency, and flexibility so that computing resources can scale to meet data processing requirements. The pipeline can be further optimized if the company also uses the same CSP to store its data. All processes are performed within the same infrastructure.

Cloud-based ETL tools are limited to the CSP’s environment. They cannot support data stored on-premises or in cloud storage without being moved to the provider’s cloud storage.

4. Custom ETL Tools

Companies that have development resources can create their own ETL tools by using common programming languages. This approach has the advantage of being able to create a customized solution that meets the company’s needs and workflows. SQL and Python are the most popular languages for creating ETL tools.

This approach has the biggest drawback: it requires internal resources to create a custom ETL tool. Another consideration is how to train and document new developers and users who will all be new to this platform.

Also read: What Reverse ETL can Lighten Your Data Load

Top 10 ETL Tools

Let’s now discuss what ETL tools are, and which types of ETL tools you have. Now let’s look at how to assess these tools for the best fit for your organization’s data practices and use case.

1. Integrate.io

Integrate.io is a leader in low-code data integration that offers a robust offering (ETL and ELT, API Generations, Observability, and Data Warehouse Insights), and hundreds of connectors that allow you to quickly build and manage secure, automated pipelines. You will receive constantly updated data that can help you deliver actionable data-backed insights to lower your CAC and increase your ROAS to drive success in the market.

It can scale with any data volume and use case. You can also easily combine data into warehouses, data stores, operational systems, and databases.

2. IBM DataStage

IBM DataStage is a data integration tool that is built around a client/server model, is IBM DataStage. Tasks are created from a Windows client and executed against a central database on a server. This tool supports ETL and extracts load, transform (ELT) models. It also supports data integration across multiple sources and applications, while maintaining high performance.

IBM DataStage was designed for on-premise deployment. It is also available as a cloud-enabled version, DataStage for IBM Cloud Pak For Data.

3. Oracle Data Integrator

Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is a platform that allows you to create, manage and maintain data integration workflows within your organization, is designed to do this. ODI can handle all types of data integration requests, from large batch loads to data services with service-oriented architecture. It supports parallel task execution to speed up data processing and integrates with Oracle Warehouse Builder and Oracle GoldenGate.

The Oracle Enterprise Manager allows you to monitor ODI and other Oracle solutions for greater visibility.

4. Fivetran

Fivetran’s platform of useful tools is designed to make data management easier. Easy-to-use software automatically updates APIs and pulls the most recent data from your database within minutes.

Fivetran also offers ETL tools and data security services. They also offer database replication and support 24/7. Fivetran is known for its near-perfect uptime and allows you to reach its engineers 24/7.

5. Coupler.io

Coupler.io is a data analytics and automation platform that enables businesses to maximize their data. It helps you to collect, transform, analyze, and report data flows. The platform’s foundation is an easy-to-use, no-code ETL solution. Data can be exported and merged from different business applications to data warehouses, spreadsheets, or other formats. You can automate your reporting by refreshing data according to a set schedule. This tool can be used by organizations to track and streamline business metrics through the creation of live dashboards.

Coupler.io also offers data analytics and can create custom connectors upon request. Coupler.io also offers integration to HubSpot, which allows you to export data from HubSpot to Google Sheets and Excel to Google BigQuery and other destinations according to a schedule.

6. SAS Data Management

SAS Data Management is a data integration platform, that connects with data anywhere it is available, including legacy systems and the cloud. These integrations give a complete view of an organization’s business processes. The tool optimizes workflows through the reuse of data management rules. It also empowers non-IT stakeholders to pull information from the platform and analyze it.

SAS Data Management can be used in many computing environments and databases. It can also integrate with third-party data modeling tools to create compelling visualizations.

7. Talend Open Studio

Talend Open Studio is an open-source tool that allows you to quickly build data pipelines, is available from Talend. Open Studio’s drag-and-drop GUI allows data components to be connected to run jobs from Excel, Salesforce, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and other data sources. Talend Open Studio has built-in connectors to pull information from diverse environments, including relational database management systems, software-as-a-service platforms, and packaged applications.

8. Pentaho Data Integration

Pentaho Data Integration manages data integration processes. This includes capturing, cleansing and storing data in a consistent and standard format. This tool allows users to share this information for analysis and supports data access for IoT technology to enable machine learning.

Spoon is a desktop client that PDI offers to help with scheduling jobs and building transformations. It can also be used to manually initiate processing tasks when necessary.

Also read: Top 10 Data Warehouse Tools

9. Hadoop

Apache Hadoop is a software library that supports large data sets. It distributes the computational load among clusters of computers. This library detects and handles failures at both the application layer and the hardware layer. It provides high availability while combining multiple machines’ computing power. The framework supports job scheduling as well as cluster resource administration through the Hadoop YARN module.

10. AWS Glue

AWS Glue is a cloud-based service for data integration that supports both visual and code-based clients. It can be used to support technical and nontechnical business users. Multiple functions are available on the serverless platform, including the AWS Data Catalog to find data within the organization, and the AWS Studio to visually design, execute, and maintain ETL pipelines.

AWS Glue supports custom SQL queries to facilitate data interaction.

Last Line — Use ETL tools to power data pipelines

ETL is an essential practice that allows organizations to build data pipelines to connect their stakeholders and leaders with the information they need to be more efficient and to inform their decisions. ETL tools can help teams standardize their data regardless of how complicated or dispersed it may be.