Airbyte vs Fivetran For ETL/ELT in 2025
Airbyte consolidates data in warehouses, lakes, and databases, while Fivetran moves data from SaaS apps, databases, and files into data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery. In this article, we'll compare Airbyte and Fivetran to see which one is the best ETL solution.
What are Airbyte and Fivetran?
Airbyte
Airbyte is an open-source ETL engine designed to consolidate data in data warehouses, lakes, and databases. It offers a range of solutions including Airbyte Cloud for quick setup, Airbyte Self-Managed Enterprise for secure data movement, and Airbyte Open Source, which is used by over 40,000 companies.
Fivetran
Fivetran is a widely-used ETL tool that transfers data from SaaS applications, databases, and files into data warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, and Redshift.
It simplifies the process of data movement, ensuring seamless integration and accessibility across various platforms.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown: Alternatives & Competitors
Compare Airbyte and Fivetran
Airbyte
Fivetran
Key Features
- Transfer data from various systems to data warehouses (ETL)
- Extensive range of built-in connectors
- Self-service capabilities
- Thriving open-source community
Key Features
- Renowned ETL provider
- Extensive array of built-in connectors
- Effortless syncing into data warehouses
- Ideal for smaller businesses due to its simplicity
Limitations
- Many connectors are only “community-supported.”
- Setup process is complex.
- Can be brittle and immature at scale.
- Cannot move data from warehouses to SaaS apps (No Reverse ETL).
Limitations
- Cannot sync back into SaaS applications (lacks Reverse ETL)
- Regular price hikes
- Expensive at medium scale and larger
- Customer support is limited and often unreliable
- Slow to respond to new connector requests
Pricing
Airbyte provides diverse pricing options, including a free Open Source plan for self-hosting, a volume-based Cloud plan, and capacity-based Team and Enterprise plans.
Each plan differs in hosting, sync frequency, and features, with the Cloud plan charging extra for frequent syncs and the Team and Enterprise plans offering various add-ons.
Pricing
Fivetran offers a variety of pricing plans, starting with a Free Plan at $0, a Standard Plan at $500 per million monthly active rows (MAR), an Enterprise Plan at $667 per million MAR, and a Business Critical Plan at $1,067 per million MAR.
As of March 2025, bulk sync discounts are applied on a per connector basis rather than workspace wide, which has led to increased prices for many users.
Reviews
Using Airbyte has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Users have reported issues with error reporting and poor documentation. There are also mentions of limited integrations and challenges with certain connectors, such as Google Sheets. Troubleshooting can be frustrating, especially for open-source users, and there are concerns about security when allowing Airbyte IPs to access databases. Check out more of their reviews here.
Polytomic customers that previously used Airbyte cite unreliability as they scale to millions of rows per month.
Reviews
Fivetran has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, reflecting a generally positive user experience. Users have expressed concerns about the pricing model, limited connectors, and customer support. Check out more of their reviews here.
While many appreciate the platform's ease of use and reliability, the cost can become prohibitive at scale, and some essential connectors are missing. Additionally, customer support has been criticized for its responsiveness and effectiveness. For more detailed feedback, visit the reviews here.
Why customers are switching to Polytomic
Polytomic unifies ETL/ELT, Reverse ETL, and database CDC into a single platform—so your data moves in and out of the data warehouse without relying on multiple vendors.
- Built for Data Teams: Consolidate your ETL and Reverse ETL needs with one solution. Polytomic handles high-throughput CDC streaming, full SQL transformations, and support for infrastructure-as-code.
- RevOps and Marketing-Friendly: Launch data pipelines to your CRM and ad platforms in minutes with an intuitive UI, plus advanced tools like live SOQL transformations on Salesforce data.
- API for AI & Product Teams: Deliver embedded customer integrations via our white-labeled native API. Polytomic supports seamless syncing into customer CRMs and data warehouses with built-in auth and integrations with the whole GTM stack.
- Enterprise-Grade: Deploy on-prem or in the cloud, manage complex orgs with multi-tenant workspaces and fine-grained RBAC permissions, and cut costs by 30–50% through platform consolidation. Backed by fast, responsive support from real data engineers.
What is Polytomic?
Polytomic
Data teams appreciate our single ETL platform with unified monitoring to centralize all data movement. We have full SQL support and first-class support for infrastructure-as-code.
RevOps and marketing teams use our no-code UI to quickly and independently set up syncs for product data to their CRM and ad platforms.
Built for enterprise scale, Polytomic can be self-hosted, handles billions of rows reliably, and has multi-tenant workspaces with fine-grained access controls.
All the features you need, on the platform that does it all
Replace multiple vendors
One platform for all syncs
Sync only what’s changed
Point and click
SQL query support
Pull from any API
Self-hosting available
Enterprise-ready
Move data between all of your favorite tools
Pricing begins at $500/month
