TL;DR Short answer: the best Fivetran alternatives in 2026 are Airbyte if you want open source, self-hosting and connectors you can build yourself; Hevo Data or Stitch if you want a managed tool on a simpler bill; Estuary for real-time CDC; Matillion if transformation matters as much as loading; and Informatica or Qlik Talend Cloud if governance comes first. Most teams start looking after a renewal quote: per-connection pricing tiers in 2025, then a $5 minimum per connection and billed deletes in 2026, made the Fivetran bill harder to forecast. The 12 Fivetran competitors compared:
Airbyte Hevo Data Matillion Estuary Stitch Informatica IDMC Qlik Talend Cloud Boomi Data Integration (formerly Rivery) AWS Glue Azure Data Factory Meltano Integrate.io Stay on Fivetran if its connectors cover your sources, your monthly active rows are stable, and the bill is small next to the engineering time it saves.Fivetran is still the default managed ELT tool, and for many teams it is the right one. But people searching for Fivetran alternatives usually have a specific trigger: a renewal quote, a missing connector, a data residency review or the dbt Labs merger. This guide tears Fivetran down first, so you know which weakness you are solving for, then compares 12 Fivetran competitors on where each one beats Fivetran, where Fivetran still wins, and what it costs. For a head-to-head on the most common switch, see Airbyte vs Fivetran .
Fivetran teardown: where it breaks and where it still wins Fivetran is a managed cloud ELT platform with 700+ vendor-built connectors, automatic schema handling and no infrastructure to run. Since June 2026 it has been part of Fivetran + dbt Labs, after an all-stock merger announced in October 2025. Its weaknesses are specific, and most of them show up on the invoice.
1. The MAR bill got harder to forecast Fivetran bills on monthly active rows (MAR): every distinct row inserted, updated or deleted in a month. Three changes since 2025 made that number harder to predict:
Per-connection tiering (March 2025): volume discounts now apply to each connection rather than across your account. Fivetran's own documentation says teams with many similar-sized connections pay more, while teams with one dominant connection pay less.A $5 minimum per connection (January 2026): every standard connection generating between 1 and 1 million MAR carries a minimum charge, so 40 small connections cost at least $200 a month before any volume is priced.Deletes and history mode billed (January 2026): deletes now count as paid MAR, and with history mode on, each repeated update to the same row in a month counts again.None of this makes Fivetran expensive for every team. It makes the bill depend on how often your data changes, which is hard to know in advance. Pay-as-you-go accounts got the 2026 changes in January, while annual contracts get them at renewal, which is why renewal quotes are the most common reason teams start comparing Fivetran competitors.
2. Connectors are Fivetran's to build Fivetran builds and maintains its own connectors, which is the point of the product until you need a source it does not cover or a field a connector does not sync. Your options are then the Connector SDK, where you write and host Python code against Fivetran's framework, or a second pipeline tool. Open platforms such as Airbyte let you build a connector in a no-code builder or fork and fix an existing one.
3. Data residency still runs through Fivetran's control plane Hybrid Deployment, on Fivetran's Enterprise and Business Critical plans, processes data inside your network, but the control plane stays managed by Fivetran and only a subset of connectors and destinations support it. If a security review requires that nothing, including pipeline metadata, leaves your environment, you need a tool you can run entirely yourself.
4. One vendor now owns more of your stack In 2025 Fivetran acquired Census, now Fivetran Activations, and Tobiko Data, the company behind SQLMesh, and in June 2026 it completed its merger with dbt Labs. Ingestion, transformation and reverse ETL can now all come from one vendor. That simplifies procurement, but it concentrates pricing power, and some teams are deliberately keeping their loader independent of their transformation layer. dbt Core remains open source and works with any loader, including Airbyte.
Where Fivetran still wins The largest vendor-maintained connector catalogue, with schema changes handled for you. Almost nothing to operate: no servers, no upgrades and no connector code. A free plan for up to 500,000 MAR a month, which covers many small teams. Ingestion, dbt transformation and reverse ETL on one contract, if consolidation is what you want. If those matter more to you than cost predictability or control, staying on Fivetran is a legitimate answer.
Fivetran alternatives compared at a glance Fivetran is the first row, so you can see what each alternative actually changes.
Tool Best for Pricing model Entry price Self-host Real-time CDC Fivetran (baseline) Hands-off managed ELT Monthly active rows, tiered per connection Free up to 500K MAR; $5 minimum per paid connection No; Hybrid Deployment on Enterprise plans Log-based CDC, scheduled syncs Airbyte Open source, self-hosting, custom connectors Data volume (Standard, Plus) or capacity (Pro, Enterprise Flex) Free self-hosted; Cloud from $20/month Yes, fully Log-based CDC for major databases Hevo Data No-code managed ELT Events per month Free plan; Starter $299/month No Yes, major databases Matillion Heavy in-warehouse transformation Credits in annual packages Quoted Agents in your cloud account Yes Estuary Real-time CDC and streaming Per GB moved plus connector instances Free 10 GB/month; then $0.50/GB Private and bring-your-own-cloud Yes, streaming Stitch Small, simple SaaS pipelines Row tiers $100/month for 5M rows No Log-based replication, scheduled Informatica IDMC Enterprise governance and MDM Informatica Processing Units Quoted Cloud, plus on-premises agents Yes Qlik Talend Cloud Governance and data quality Tiered editions Quoted Cloud or on-premises Yes Boomi Data Integration ELT plus orchestration and reverse ETL Credits $0.90 per credit No Yes, major databases AWS Glue AWS-native engineering teams DPU-hours of compute $0.44 per DPU-hour No, runs in AWS Only through jobs you build Azure Data Factory Azure-native teams Activity runs and data movement hours Pay as you go Self-hosted integration runtime Limited Meltano Code-first teams working in Git Free; you pay for infrastructure Free Yes, fully Depends on the Singer tap Integrate.io Low-code ETL on a flat bill Fixed fee Quoted No Yes, down to 60 seconds
The 12 best Fivetran alternatives and competitors Each entry covers where the tool beats Fivetran, where Fivetran still wins, what it costs and who it suits.
1. Airbyte Airbyte is the open-source data movement platform and the most direct Fivetran competitor: 700+ connectors, ELT into every major warehouse and lake, and log-based CDC for the major databases. The difference is control. You can run Airbyte Core yourself for free, use Airbyte Cloud, or keep the data plane in your own environment with Enterprise Flex, and when a connector is missing you build it with the no-code Connector Builder or the CDK instead of waiting on a vendor roadmap.
Key features 700+ connectors and a Connector Builder: build a missing source without code, with an AI assistant that reads the API docs, or use the low-code CDK.Log-based CDC: replicate inserts, updates and deletes from Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server, MongoDB and other databases.Data activation: sync modelled warehouse data back into CRMs and marketing tools, on every edition.Flexible deployment: self-hosted Core, Airbyte Cloud, or Enterprise Flex with the data plane in your own VPC.Where Airbyte beats Fivetran Pricing that does not track row churn: Standard and Plus are billed on data volume and Pro and Enterprise Flex on capacity, so a busy table that updates every row daily does not multiply the bill. Self-hosted Core has no licence fee.Connectors you control: build a missing source in the Connector Builder, with an AI assistant that reads the API docs, or fork and fix an existing connector. With Fivetran, a gap means the Connector SDK or a second tool.Full self-hosting: Airbyte Core runs entirely on your infrastructure with no vendor control plane, which meets residency rules that Fivetran's Hybrid Deployment cannot.AI and unstructured data: load documents into vector databases such as Pinecone, Weaviate and Milvus, with chunking and embedding in the same sync.Where Fivetran still wins Self-hosted Airbyte is yours to run, upgrade and monitor, while Fivetran has nothing to operate. Airbyte Cloud removes that work if you do not need self-hosting. Fivetran maintains every connector itself, while some of Airbyte's long-tail connectors are community-maintained, so check the support level of the ones you rely on. Pricing Airbyte Core is free to self-host. Airbyte Cloud Standard starts at $20 a month and Plus at $189 a month, both based on data volume, while Pro and Enterprise Flex are capacity-based and quoted. The free trial runs for 14 days and includes 400 credits.
Airbyte pros and cons Pros Cons Open source, with no licence fee for self-hosted Core. Self-hosting means your team runs upgrades and monitoring. A connector catalogue as large as Fivetran's, plus a builder for any gaps. Some long-tail connectors are community-maintained. Pricing on data volume or capacity rather than rows changed. Transformation and orchestration come from dbt and a separate orchestrator.
Best for: teams that want predictable pricing, data residency or connectors they can build themselves. For a feature-by-feature comparison, read Airbyte vs Fivetran .
2. Hevo Data Hevo Data is a no-code managed ELT platform with 150+ connectors, transformations before load in Python or a drag-and-drop editor, and dbt support after load. It is the closest like-for-like swap for teams that like Fivetran's hands-off model but not its bill.
Key features Near real-time replication: log-based CDC for the major databases alongside 150+ SaaS and file sources.Transform before and after load: Python or drag-and-drop transformations in the pipeline, and dbt models in the warehouse.Automatic schema handling: maps source schemas to the destination and adapts when they change.Regional processing: choose a US, EU or APAC region to keep data in a jurisdiction.Where Hevo beats Fivetran Billing on events in published tiers, which is easier to estimate than per-connection MAR. Transformations before load as well as after, for data that has to be cleaned or masked before it lands. A free plan and a published Starter price, so you can prove it on real data before talking to sales. Where Fivetran still wins Far broader coverage: 700+ connectors against Hevo's 150+. Hevo is cloud-only, and Hevo Activate, its reverse ETL product, is closed to new users. Pricing A free plan covers small volumes. Starter is $299 a month billed monthly, with higher tiers above it; check current event limits on Hevo's pricing page.
Hevo Data pros and cons Pros Cons A free plan and published monthly tiers. Far fewer connectors than Fivetran or Airbyte. Quick, no-code setup for small teams. Cloud-only, with no self-hosted option. Transformations can run before data lands. Hevo Activate, its reverse ETL product, is closed to new users.
Best for: lean teams without data engineers who want a managed tool on a predictable bill. Also see our guide to Hevo alternatives .
3. Matillion Matillion is a cloud data integration and transformation platform that pushes work down into Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery or Redshift through a visual, code-optional designer. Where Fivetran loads data and leaves modelling to dbt, Matillion is built for teams that spend more time reshaping data than moving it.
Key features Visual pipeline designer: drag-and-drop components mixed with SQL, Python and dbt.Pushdown ELT: transformations run as SQL inside Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift or BigQuery.Maia AI: AI agents that help build and document pipelines from natural-language instructions.Hybrid agents: run the data plane in your own cloud account so data stays in your infrastructure.Where Matillion beats Fivetran Much deeper transformation: build multi-step pipelines visually or in SQL and Python, running inside your warehouse. Pipelines can run on agents in your own cloud account, so data stays in your environment. Billing on the compute credits pipelines use, not on how often rows change. Where Fivetran still wins A much larger connector library, so check long-tail SaaS sources before you commit. Matillion is a build tool rather than a set-and-forget loader, and pricing is sold through sales in annual packages. Pricing Credit-based and sold in annual packages; Matillion does not publish per-credit prices, so ask for a quote against your expected workload.
Matillion pros and cons Pros Cons The deepest visual transformation of any tool here. Sold in annual credit packages through sales, with no self-serve entry. Data can stay in your own cloud with hybrid agents. Warehouse compute is billed separately on top of Matillion credits. Works for both no-code users and engineers writing SQL or Python. A smaller connector library than Fivetran or Airbyte.
Best for: enterprise teams that transform heavily inside the warehouse. See Matillion vs Airbyte .
4. Estuary Estuary is a real-time data integration platform that combines change data capture, streaming and batch in one pipeline, and can send one source to several destinations at once. It competes with Fivetran mainly where scheduled syncs are too slow.
Key features Streaming CDC with backfill: loads history first, then streams every change with sub-second latency.One capture, many destinations: durable collections feed a warehouse, a lake and an operational store from the same source.Streaming transformations: reshape data in flight with SQL or TypeScript derivations.Flexible deployment: public SaaS, private deployment or bring your own cloud.Where Estuary beats Fivetran Streaming CDC with sub-second latency rather than scheduled syncs, for operational analytics and event-driven use cases. Pricing per GB moved, which is easier to forecast than MAR for high-churn tables. Private and bring-your-own-cloud deployment options. Where Fivetran still wins A much larger catalogue of SaaS connectors and a longer track record with large enterprises. If hourly data is good enough, real-time streaming adds complexity you do not need. Pricing A free tier includes 10 GB a month and two connector instances. Paid usage is $0.50 per GB moved plus a charge per connector instance.
Estuary pros and cons Pros Cons Real-time data with sub-second CDC latency. Streaming adds complexity if hourly batches are enough. Simple per-GB pricing with a free tier. Connector instance fees are charged on top of data moved. Private and bring-your-own-cloud deployment. A younger vendor with a smaller SaaS connector catalogue.
Best for: teams that need streaming or sub-minute CDC into the warehouse. For more options, see our guide to CDC tools .
5. Stitch Stitch is a simple hosted extract-and-load service with 140+ connectors built on the open Singer specification. Qlik owns it through its acquisition of Talend and publishes a migration path from Stitch to Qlik Talend Cloud, so the product is being consolidated rather than expanded.
Key features Singer-based connectors: 140+ sources for SaaS apps and databases.Flexible replication: key-based incremental, full-table and log-based replication for the major databases.Import API and webhooks: push data from sources Stitch does not cover.Compliance on every plan: SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001, including Standard.Where Stitch beats Fivetran Published, tiered pricing from $100 a month, so the bill does not move when your source data does. Quick to set up for standard SaaS-to-warehouse pipelines, with no minimum per connection. Where Fivetran still wins Far more connectors, and Stitch has almost no transformation layer. Schema changes on log-replicated tables need manual work, and the product's future sits inside Qlik's roadmap. Pricing Standard starts at $100 a month for 5 million rows, with Advanced and Premium tiers above it.
Stitch pros and cons Pros Cons A low, published entry price of $100 a month. Standard is capped at one destination, 10 standard sources and 30-minute syncs. Very quick to set up. No transformation layer. A predictable bill within each tier. Qlik is consolidating Stitch into Qlik Talend Cloud.
Best for: small teams with a handful of standard sources. Also see our guide to Stitch alternatives .
Why Chance chose Airbyte "We conducted a market study on Fivetran, Stitch and Airbyte and fell in love with Airbyte's vision and community. Using Airbyte gives you the freedom to self-host and do whatever you want with it." Arnaud Coutin, Growth Lead at Chance
Read the Chance story
6. Informatica IDMC Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) combines integration with data quality, master data management and governance. Salesforce completed its acquisition of Informatica in November 2025, and Informatica is moving PowerCenter customers onto IDMC: standard support for PowerCenter 10.5 ended on 31 March 2026.
Key features One cloud for data management: integration, data quality, MDM and data governance and catalog services in IDMC.CLAIRE AI: metadata-driven AI that suggests mappings, classifies data and automates routine work.Mass ingestion and CDC: bulk and change-based loading, including SAP and mainframe sources.Hybrid runtime: Secure Agents run jobs inside your network while IDMC manages them from the cloud.Where Informatica beats Fivetran Data quality, master data management, lineage and cataloguing in the same platform as integration. Built for complex enterprise and on-premises sources, with agents that run inside your network. Where Fivetran still wins Far simpler to adopt and run; IDMC projects usually need specialists. IDMC bills in Informatica Processing Units, which is at least as hard to forecast as MAR, and its roadmap now follows Salesforce's priorities. Pricing Consumption-based in Informatica Processing Units (IPUs), quoted by sales.
Informatica pros and cons Pros Cons The most complete governance and MDM suite on this list. Prepaid IPU pricing is hard to forecast. Deep coverage of SAP, mainframe and other enterprise sources. Long implementations that usually need specialists. Hybrid deployment through Secure Agents. Its roadmap now follows Salesforce's priorities.
Best for: large enterprises where governance and MDM matter as much as moving data. Also see our guide to Informatica alternatives .
7. Qlik Talend Cloud Qlik Talend Cloud combines Talend's integration, data quality and governance with Qlik's replication technology. Qlik acquired Talend in 2023, and Talend Open Studio, the free edition, has been retired, so there is no longer a free way in.
Key features Log-based CDC: real-time replication from Qlik's Replicate technology, including SAP and mainframe sources.Talend Studio: a visual designer for complex transformation jobs in the Premium and Enterprise editions.Data quality: profiling, cleansing and a trust score for datasets used in analytics and AI.Hybrid deployment: client-managed and hybrid options from the Standard edition up.Where Qlik Talend beats Fivetran Data quality, profiling and governance built into the same product. Runs in the cloud or on-premises, which suits hybrid estates and strict data residency. Where Fivetran still wins A much shorter time to first pipeline; Talend implementations are typically longer and more engineering-heavy. No self-serve or free entry point since Open Studio was retired. Pricing Tiered editions, priced on request from Qlik.
Qlik Talend Cloud pros and cons Pros Cons Integration, data quality and governance from one vendor. Three capacity meters: data moved, job executions and job duration. Strong real-time CDC, including SAP and mainframe. Starter costs $6,000 a year; higher editions are quoted. Cloud, hybrid or client-managed deployment. A steep learning curve, and the free Open Studio has been retired.
Best for: enterprises that need governance and hybrid deployment. Also see our guide to Talend alternatives .
8. Boomi Data Integration (formerly Rivery) Boomi acquired Rivery in December 2024 and now sells it as Boomi Data Integration. It combines ELT across 200+ connectors, transformations in SQL or Python, orchestration and reverse ETL in one platform.
Key features Managed connectors and CDC: 200+ connectors, with change data capture and high-frequency API replication.SQL and Python logic: transform data inside the platform after it lands.Orchestration: chain ingestion, transformation and activation steps with dependencies.Reverse ETL on every plan: push warehouse data back into business apps.Where Boomi Data Integration beats Fivetran Orchestration and reverse ETL in the same tool, so activation can run as soon as the models it depends on finish. Credit billing tied to the work pipelines do rather than to row churn. Where Fivetran still wins A far larger connector catalogue, and a roadmap that is not being folded into a wider integration portfolio. Pricing Credit-based, at $0.90 per credit at the time of writing; enterprise terms are quoted.
Boomi Data Integration pros and cons Pros Cons ELT, transformation, orchestration and reverse ETL in one tool. Credit-based pricing is hard to forecast. Serverless, with no infrastructure to manage. Cloud-only, with no self-hosted option. A pay-as-you-go way to start. Its roadmap now sits inside Boomi's wider portfolio.
Best for: teams that want ingestion, orchestration and activation in one tool. Also see our guide to Rivery alternatives .
9. AWS Glue AWS Glue is AWS's serverless ETL service, with a data catalog, crawlers and Spark-based jobs that connect to AWS services and JDBC sources. It replaces Fivetran only if you are willing to write and maintain the extraction logic yourself.
Key features Serverless Spark jobs: Python or Scala jobs that scale automatically and are billed per second.Data Catalog and crawlers: discover schemas and share metadata with Athena, Redshift and EMR.Glue Studio: a visual job editor, plus notebooks for interactive development.Data quality rules: define and monitor rules on datasets and inside pipelines.Where AWS Glue beats Fivetran No per-row billing: you pay for job compute in DPU-hours, on your existing AWS bill. Native fit with S3, Redshift, Athena and Lake Formation, and data never leaves your AWS account. Where Fivetran still wins Few pre-built SaaS connectors, so engineers comfortable with Spark or Python write and maintain most pipelines. Pricing $0.44 per DPU-hour for standard ETL jobs, billed per second, plus charges for the data catalog and crawlers.
AWS Glue pros and cons Pros Cons No servers to manage, and you pay per second of compute. Few pre-built SaaS connectors. Native integration with S3, Redshift, Athena and Lake Formation. Runs only in AWS. The full flexibility of Spark for complex logic. Needs engineers comfortable with Spark or Python.
Best for: AWS-native teams with engineers to own the jobs. See Airbyte vs AWS Glue .
10. Azure Data Factory Azure Data Factory is Microsoft's cloud pipeline service, with 90+ built-in connectors, a visual pipeline designer, mapping data flows for transformation and a self-hosted integration runtime for sources behind your firewall. Microsoft is steering new data integration work toward Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric.
Key features Copy activity: bulk data movement across 90+ built-in connectors.Mapping data flows: visual transformations that run on managed Spark.Self-hosted integration runtime: reach on-premises databases and private networks.Azure-SSIS runtime: run existing SSIS packages in the cloud.Where Azure Data Factory beats Fivetran Pay-per-activity pricing inside your existing Azure agreement. Orchestration, transformation and on-premises connectivity in one service. Where Fivetran still wins Far fewer SaaS connectors and less automatic schema handling, so pipelines take more engineering to build and maintain. Pricing Pay as you go for pipeline orchestration runs, data movement hours and data flow compute.
Azure Data Factory pros and cons Pros Cons Pay-as-you-go pricing inside your Azure agreement. Fewer SaaS connectors and less automatic schema handling. Hybrid connectivity to on-premises systems. Microsoft is steering new work toward Fabric. Orchestration and transformation in one service. Best suited to Azure-centric stacks.
Best for: Azure-centric teams. See Airbyte vs Azure Data Factory .
11. Meltano Meltano is an open-source, CLI-first ELT framework built on Singer taps and targets, with pipelines defined in configuration files and version-controlled in Git. After Arch, the company behind it, shut down, Matatika acquired the Meltano project in December 2025.
Key features Pipelines as code: projects are defined in YAML and version-controlled in Git, with environments for dev and production.Meltano Hub: hundreds of Singer taps and targets, plus the Singer SDK for writing your own.Plugin ecosystem: run dbt, Airflow, Dagster and other tools as plugins in the same project.State management: tracks incremental replication state so pipelines resume where they stopped.Where Meltano beats Fivetran Free and fully self-hosted, with every pipeline defined as code. Hundreds of Singer taps on Meltano Hub, plus an SDK to write your own. Where Fivetran still wins No UI for non-engineers, and Singer tap quality varies widely, with many taps community-maintained. Pricing Free and open source; you pay for infrastructure and engineering time.
Meltano pros and cons Pros Cons Free and fully self-hosted. No UI for non-engineers. Everything as code, reviewed in Git. Singer tap quality varies widely. Runs dbt and orchestrators as plugins. A small company maintains it since the Matatika acquisition.
Best for: engineering teams that want a code-first, Git-based workflow. For more options, see our guide to open source ETL tools .
12. Integrate.io Integrate.io, formerly Xplenty, is a low-code ETL and ELT platform with a drag-and-drop transformation builder, CDC replication and reverse ETL, aimed at teams without dedicated data engineers.
Key features Low-code transformation: a drag-and-drop designer with a large library of built-in transformations.Fast CDC: database replication as often as every 60 seconds.Reverse ETL and APIs: push warehouse data back into business apps, and connect any REST API.Security: field-level encryption and SOC 2 compliance, with GDPR and HIPAA support.Where Integrate.io beats Fivetran Fixed-fee pricing that does not change with row volume. Transformations inside the pipeline before data lands, and CDC replication as often as every 60 seconds. Where Fivetran still wins A larger connector library, and a better fit for engineering teams that want code-first control. Pricing Fixed-fee plans, quoted by Integrate.io.
Integrate.io pros and cons Pros Cons Fixed-fee pricing that does not move with data volume. Plans are quoted rather than published. Transformations run before data lands. A smaller connector library than the largest platforms. ETL, CDC and reverse ETL in one tool. Less code-first control for engineering teams.
Best for: teams that want a flat monthly bill and visual transformations. Also see our guide to Integrate.io alternatives .
Also worth a look for narrower needs: dlt, an open-source Python library for code-first ingestion; Debezium, for self-managed CDC into Kafka; and Skyvia, for low-cost no-code syncs and backups.
Who are Fivetran's main competitors? Fivetran competes with five kinds of tools, and the right category depends on what you want to change:
Open source and self-hosted: Airbyte, Meltano and dlt, for control, data residency and connectors you can build.Managed no-code ELT: Hevo Data, Stitch and Integrate.io, for a hands-off tool on a different pricing basis.Real-time CDC and streaming: Estuary, Debezium and Qlik Replicate, when scheduled syncs are too slow.Transformation-first platforms: Matillion and Boomi Data Integration, when modelling and orchestration matter as much as loading.Enterprise suites and cloud-native services: Informatica IDMC and Qlik Talend Cloud for governance, and AWS Glue or Azure Data Factory for teams committed to one cloud.Fivetran pricing vs the alternatives Fivetran bills on monthly active rows per connection, with a free plan for up to 500,000 MAR a month and a $5 monthly minimum for every standard connection that generates between 1 and 1 million MAR. Because the bill follows rows changed, backfills, seasonal spikes and high-churn tables all move it. Most alternatives charge on a different basis, which changes how predictable the bill is, not just its size.
Pricing basis Tools What drives the bill Forecasting risk Monthly active rows Fivetran Rows inserted, updated or deleted per connection each month, including backfills High for volatile or high-churn tables Data volume (credits) Airbyte Standard (from $20/month) and Plus (from $189/month) Volume of data moved Moderate, and no per-connection minimum Dedicated capacity Airbyte Pro and Enterprise Flex Data Workers provisioned Low, volume spikes do not change the bill Events Hevo (Starter from $299/month) Events processed per month Moderate Data moved (GB) Estuary ($0.50/GB) Gigabytes moved plus connector instances Moderate Row tiers or fixed fee Stitch (from $100/month), Integrate.io The tier or plan you buy Low until you outgrow the tier Consumption credits Matillion, Boomi Data Integration, Informatica IDMC Credits or IPUs used by pipeline compute Moderate, depends on how much work jobs do Compute time AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory DPU-hours, activity runs and data movement hours Depends on job runtime Your own infrastructure Airbyte Core, Meltano Servers and engineering time, with no licence fee Low licence cost, higher operations cost
To compare fairly, export three months of MAR by connection from Fivetran's usage dashboard, including the month with your largest backfill, and model each alternative against the same data. Prices checked in November 2026, so confirm with each vendor before you decide.
Which Fivetran alternative fits your use case? Your situation Best-fit alternative Why Your renewal quote went up and MAR is volatile Airbyte, Hevo Data, Estuary Volume, event or GB-based pricing does not multiply with row churn A source you need is missing or incomplete Airbyte, Meltano Build or fork the connector yourself Nothing can leave your network Airbyte Core, Meltano Fully self-hosted, with no vendor control plane You need sub-minute latency Estuary Streaming CDC rather than scheduled syncs Most work is transformation in the warehouse Matillion Pushdown transformation designer Governance, data quality and MDM come first Informatica IDMC, Qlik Talend Cloud Quality and governance built into the platform You are all-in on AWS or Azure AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory Native services billed on your cloud account Small team, few sources, flat bill Stitch, Hevo Data, Integrate.io Published or fixed tiers
How to migrate from Fivetran to another tool A migration is mostly a reconciliation exercise. Run the new tool next to Fivetran, prove the data matches, then switch one source at a time.
Inventory your connections. List every Fivetran connection with its destination schema, sync frequency, monthly MAR and the downstream models that read each table.Check connector coverage. Match each source against the new catalogue and flag gaps. For missing sources, plan to build the connector, for example with the Airbyte Connector Builder.Run both in parallel. Point the new tool at a separate schema in the same warehouse while Fivetran keeps syncing. Plan for a fresh historical load, because sync state does not transfer between tools.Reconcile the data. Compare row counts, primary keys and a few key aggregates between the two schemas, and note differences in column names, types and metadata columns.Repoint downstream models. Update dbt sources and BI models to the new schema one source at a time, so a problem affects one pipeline rather than all of them.Cut over and pause Fivetran. Pause each Fivetran connection once its downstream models are stable, and keep the old tables for a billing cycle as a rollback. Time the cutover against your contract renewal date.Which Fivetran alternative should you choose? Start with why you are leaving. If it is the bill, change the pricing basis rather than just the vendor: Airbyte, Hevo Data and Estuary each decouple cost from row churn in a different way. If it is a missing connector, Airbyte lets you build it. If it is data residency, self-hosted Airbyte or Meltano keep everything in your own network. If it is latency, look at Estuary, and if it is governance, Informatica or Qlik Talend Cloud. If none of these applies, staying on Fivetran is a legitimate answer. Whichever you shortlist, run it next to Fivetran on your three highest-MAR connections before you commit.
For a wider view of the market, see our guide to the top data integration tools .
Frequently asked questions What is the best alternative to Fivetran? It depends on why you are switching. Airbyte is the most common choice for open source, self-hosting and pricing that does not track row churn; Hevo Data is the closest managed, no-code swap; Estuary is best for real-time CDC; and Matillion suits teams that transform heavily in the warehouse.
Who are Fivetran's competitors? Fivetran's main competitors are Airbyte, Hevo Data, Matillion, Estuary, Stitch, Informatica, Qlik Talend Cloud, Boomi Data Integration (formerly Rivery), AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory, Meltano and Integrate.io.
What is the best open-source alternative to Fivetran? Airbyte. It is open source with 700+ connectors, supports log-based change data capture, can be self-hosted with no vendor control plane, and lets you build missing connectors with its Connector Builder and CDK. Meltano and dlt are code-first open-source options for teams that want everything in Git or Python.
What is the cheapest Fivetran alternative? Self-hosted Airbyte Core and Meltano have no licence fee, though you pay for infrastructure and engineering time. Among managed tools, Airbyte Cloud Standard starts at $20 a month and Stitch at $100 a month. Which is cheapest for you depends on how much your data changes, so model each option against your own volumes.
What changed in Fivetran pricing in 2026? From January 2026, every standard connection generating between 1 and 1 million MAR carries a $5 monthly minimum, deletes count as paid MAR, and repeated updates in history mode are billed. Pay-as-you-go accounts got the changes on 1 January 2026, and annual contracts get them at renewal. They followed the March 2025 move from account-level to connection-level pricing tiers.
Is Airbyte better than Fivetran? For teams that want open source, self-hosting, custom connectors or pricing that does not depend on row churn, yes. For teams that want nothing to operate and are happy with MAR billing, Fivetran remains a strong choice.
What happened between Fivetran and dbt Labs? Fivetran and dbt Labs announced an all-stock merger on 13 October 2025 and completed it on 1 June 2026. The combined company operates as Fivetran + dbt Labs, with George Fraser as CEO and Tristan Handy as president. dbt Core remains open source and works with any loader, including Airbyte.
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