CloverDX vs. dbt

CloverDX designer as a standalone is well suited for fairly straightforward transformations of data. If you want to do large scale data integrations, then their server edition adds an extra level of automation and job control.

Incentivized

If you can load your data first into your warehouse, dbt is excellent. It does the T(ransformation) part of ELT brilliantly but does not do the E(xtract) or L(oad) part. If you know SQL or your development team knows SQL, it's a framework and extension around that. So, it's easy to learn and easy to hire people with that technical skill (as opposed to specific Informatica, SnapLogic, etc. experience). dbt uses plain text files and integrates with GitHub. You can easily see the changes made between versions. In GUI-based UIs it was always hard to tell what someone had changed. Each "model" is essentially a "SELECT" statement. You never need to do a "CREATE TABLE" or "CREATE VIEW" - it's all done for you, leaving you to work on the business logic. Instead of saying "FROM specific_db.schema.table" you indicate "FROM ref('my_other_model')". It creates an internal dependency diagram you can view in a DAG. When you deploy, the dependencies work like magic in your various environments. They also have great documentation, an active slack community, training, and support. I like the enhancements they have been making and I believe they are headed in a good direction.

Incentivized

• Connects with Salesforce very well
• The graphical view of the transformations allows for easy creations and maintenance
• Support has always been eager to assist with any graph creation difficulties I run into

Incentivized

• user experience makes it easy to work with SQL and version control
• customer success team and the dbt (data build tool) community help establish best practices
• thorough and clear documentation

• The initial learning curve is a little steep. Not very steep or super steep, just a little steep.
• Having enough memory for large multi-step problems can be an issue if the graph isn't designed well.

Incentivized

• Slow load times of the dbt cloud environment (they're working on it via a new UI though)
• More out-of-the-box solutions for managing procedures, functions, etc would be nice to have, but honestly, it's pretty easy to figure out how to adapt dbt macros

Incentivized

While CloverDX has an active forum for users to submit questions and assist with answers, their in house support team is incredibly responsive when I've contacted them for assistance. This seems almost at odds with most other software companies who try to save money on tech support by promoting a forum or knowledge base.

Incentivized

CloverDX was a less expensive alternative to Talend and had a more intuitive interface from what I could see during the evaluation.

Incentivized

Most ETL pipeline products have a T layer, but dbt just does it better. The transformation is on steroids compared to the others. Also, just allows much more Adhoc solutions for very specific projects. Those ETL tools are probably better on the T part if you don't need too many transforms - also dbt is pretty much free dependent on how you work it, also extremely scalable.

Incentivized

• Work that use to take multiple people 20 to 30 hours a week to complete each has now been fully automated to where only 1 or 2 hours a week for maintenance is required.

Incentivized

• Simplified our BI layer for faster load times
• Increased the quality of data reaching our end users
• Makes complex transformations manageable

Incentivized