Airbyte and AWS Glue are two data integration / ETL platforms. Compare supported data sources and destinations, features, pricing, and more. Understand their differences along with key pros and cons.
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Airbyte is the open standard in data movement, and can be deployed self-hosted, cloud, or hybrid. Airbyte is used by 18% of the F500 and has over 25,000 community members.
AWS Glue is Amazon's serverless ETL service for data integration. Glue provides managed services but is primarily optimized for AWS-centric architectures with limited flexibility outside AWS.
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Airbyte gives you complete control over your data infrastructure with flexible deployment options that adapt to your security and compliance requirements. Whether you need to keep sensitive data on-premise for sovereignty requirements, leverage cloud scalability, or implement a hybrid approach, Airbyte's single codebase architecture ensures consistent functionality across all deployment models. This flexibility helps organizations meet strict compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA while maintaining full ownership of their data pipeline infrastructure.
With over 600 pre-built connectors and an AI-powered connector builder, Airbyte removes the traditional barriers to data integration. The platform's extensive connector library covers everything from modern SaaS applications to legacy databases and unstructured data sources. When you need a custom connector, the no-code Connector Builder and low-code CDK enable rapid development in hours instead of weeks. This is amplified by a vibrant community of over 1000 contributors who continuously expand the ecosystem, ensuring you're never blocked by connector availability.
Airbyte's predictable capacity-based pricing model means you can scale your data operations without worrying about surprise bills or budget overruns. Unlike consumption-based models that penalize growth, Airbyte's transparent pricing grows predictably with your infrastructure needs. Combined with enterprise-grade reliability featuring 99.9% uptime SLAs and the freedom to choose between deployment options, organizations can confidently scale their data operations without vendor lock-in concerns.
AWS Glue operates exclusively within the AWS ecosystem, creating complete platform dependency that limits architectural flexibility. Organizations cannot deploy Glue on-premise, in other cloud providers, or in hybrid configurations, forcing all data processing through AWS infrastructure. While Glue integrates seamlessly with AWS services, it struggles with non-AWS resources, often requiring complex networking configurations or data movement into AWS before processing. This lock-in extends to pricing and contract negotiations, as organizations lose leverage when their entire data infrastructure depends on a single cloud provider. Companies with multi-cloud strategies or those seeking to avoid vendor lock-in find Glue's AWS-only nature a significant constraint.
With only 70+ native connectors, AWS Glue has one of the smallest connector libraries among enterprise ETL platforms. The connector gap is particularly pronounced for non-AWS services, SaaS applications, and specialized data sources. While Glue can connect to standard databases and AWS services easily, organizations with diverse data sources often find critical connectors missing. Creating custom connectors requires writing Python or Scala code, eliminating the low-code benefits and requiring specialized expertise. This limited connectivity forces teams to build and maintain custom integrations or implement complex workarounds for data sources that other platforms support natively.
AWS Glue's DPU-hour pricing model creates significant complexity in cost prediction and budget management. Organizations must estimate data processing units, job duration, crawler runtime, and development endpoint usage to forecast costs. Charges accumulate from multiple sources including the data catalog, ETL jobs, development endpoints, and interactive sessions, making it difficult to understand the true cost of data integration. Development and testing activities can generate unexpected costs, as can failed jobs that consume DPUs without producing value. Many teams report that Glue's actual costs exceed initial estimates by significant margins, forcing them to optimize for cost rather than performance or functionality.
How difficult is it to migrate from my current data integration platform to Airbyte?
Migration is straightforward. Airbyte supports the same sources and destinations as other platforms, so you can recreate your pipelines quickly. Our team provides migration assistance for Enterprise customers, and our community has created guides for switching from specific competitors. Most customers complete migration in days, not weeks.
Will I lose my custom connectors when switching to Airbyte?
No. If you've built custom connectors on platforms like Singer (used by Stitch), they'll work with Airbyte. For proprietary connectors, our AI-powered Connector Builder lets you recreate them in hours. Plus, with 600+ pre-built connectors, you may find we already support your custom sources.
How does Airbyte's open source model affect security and reliability?
Open source enhances security through transparency - you can audit every line of code. Airbyte maintains SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and HIPAA compliance. Enterprise customers get SLAs, dedicated support, and the option to self-host for maximum control. Our code is battle-tested by thousands of companies worldwide.
What happens to my costs when switching from row-based or consumption pricing?
Most customers see significant cost savings with our predictable capacity-based pricing. No more surprise bills from data spikes or seasonal variations. You'll know exactly what you'll pay each month, and you can scale without fear.
Can Airbyte handle near real-time data syncs or is it limited like some batch-only platforms?
Airbyte excels at high-frequency batch workloads. We support log-based CDC for database replication and can sync as frequently as every 5 minutes for APIs. While we're optimized for reliable batch processing rather than streaming, our performance meets the freshness requirements of most modern analytics and AI applications.
Do I need engineering resources to manage Airbyte, or can my analysts handle it?
Airbyte is designed for both technical and non-technical users. Our UI makes pipeline creation point-and-click simple. The Connector Builder requires little coding knowledge. However, having technical resources unlocks advanced features like custom transformations, API deployment, and infrastructure optimization.
