Cloud Elements (discontinued) vs. frends eiPaaS by HiQ

Cloud Elements shines when you want to offer multiple options to the user on a type of system, such as supporting integration to CRM and wanting to offer Dynamics, Salesforce, and HubSpot on equal footing. If you only have a single integration with a single system, using Cloud Elements adds an unnecessary layer of abstraction.

Incentivized

Hybrid Integrations: Organizations operating with a combination of on-premises and cloud applications will find frends particularly valuable. Its hybrid integration capabilities ensure seamless data flow between these diverse environments. Both for scheduled integrations that are triggered regularly or for event and API-based integrations. High volume of simple integrations: the pricing model is not tied to the number of integrations like in many competing products.

Incentivized

• The API itself is very robust and easy to use, being a standard REST interface, standard HTTP response codes, well-packaged error messages, etc.
• Their uptime is great! I think I've seen one (short) 5-minute' blip' the entire time we've been connected for any type of primary function.
• Their support is top notch, they respond quickly, and the team that works with you is communicative and knowledgable.

Incentivized

• It has been very stable and reliable over time
• The developer tools are simple to use
• It offers out of the box tasks/activities for typical routine tasks

Incentivized

• The only thing I can think of that they could improve is the quality of the assets they produce in the go-to-market process. This is a huge value add service, but the quality of what was produced was lower than what we would have produced internally. We spent more time going back and forth on the assets than it would have taken us to build them from scratch.

Incentivized

• The recently renewed user interface has not been as clear as the previous version
• Sometimes the performance or capacity has been at limits with more complex integrations

Incentivized

At the time we found Cloud Elements we found no other option that had a Unified API for cloud storage providers.

Incentivized

frends does not have as broad functionality but it's lightweight and easy to use and has enough features for most integration needs. For example the frends API Management exists but it does not offer lot of options. frends might not be the choice for the largest enterprises but for small and mid sized organizations it does everything you will probably need. They have also recently improved their training materials to help new developers get on board.

Incentivized

• Not my area of expertise, but it made my job as an implementer much easier, especially after finishing the first integration.

Incentivized

• Pricing model suites us very well as it is not tied to number of integrations or users. It's much more economic than most well-known competitors
• The stability of the service is crucial and has served as well. We run hundreds of processes on the platform daily and they are really important for other operations.

Incentivized