dbt vs. Fivetran vs. Mode Analytics

The prerequisite is that you have a supported database/data warehouse and have already found a way to ingest your raw data. Then dbt is very well suited to manage your transformation logic if the people using it are familiar with SQL. If you want to benefit from bringing engineering practices to data, dbt is a great fit. It can bring CI/CD practices, version control, automated testing, documentation generation, etc. It is not so well suited if the people managing the transformation logic do not like to code (in SQL) but prefer graphical user interfaces.

Incentivized

Fivetran's business model justifies the use-case where we require data from a single source basically a lot of data but if the requirement is not on the heavier side, Fivetran comes to costly operation when compared to its peers. Otherwise, I'll recommend Fivetran for stability and update and seamless service provider.

Incentivized

Mode is a clear category winner for how it easy it is to go from interactive analysis to professional quality reporting. You can easily do all your SQL and quite a bit of R/Python. If you want to quickly go from your database to simple charts, this is your pick. If you need to do heavier data modeling, scheduling jobs, or ML, you'll need something else, like Databricks. In my opinion, the quality of visualizations and some developer/analyst features make Databricks an unacceptable substitute.

Incentivized

• dbt supports version control through GIT, this allows teams to collaborate and track the data transformation logic.
• dbt allows us to build data models which helps to break complex transformation logic into simple and smaller logic.
• dbt is completely based on SQL which allows data analyst and data engineers to build the transformation logic.
• dbt can be easily integrated with snowflake.

Incentivized

• Easily connects to source data using delivered connectors
• Transforms data into standard models and schemas
• Has very good documentation to help quickly setup connectors

Incentivized

• It allows me to undertake data visualization tasks by creating really insightful charts and dashboards
• It allows for easy sharing and work collaboration on data analysis tasks
• Mode has an easier to use SQL editor as well
• I love how it organizes all our SQL data tables into easy-to-view data we can draw insights on

Incentivized

• Field-level lineage (currently at table level)
• Documentation inheritance - if a field is documented the downstream field of the same name could inherit the doc info
• Adding python model support (in beta now)

Incentivized

• Very difficult to get connectors enhanced if a specific needed object is not supported by them
• Depending on the edition needed and the data volumes, can get quite expensive

Incentivized

• Date ranges aren't always the most intuitive to set, strangely
• Faster refresh rates would be ideal
• Would love more dynamic mobile device integration (alerts, etc)

Incentivized

dbt is very easy to use. Basically if you can write SQL, you will be able to use dbt to get what you need done. Of course more advanced users with more technical skills can do more things.

Incentivized

Very easy and intuitive to setup and maintain as there usually are not that many options. Very well documented (e.g. how to setup each connector, how the schema looks like, any specific features of this connector etc.). Also the operation is intuitive, e.g. you have status pages, log pages, configuration pages etc. for each connector.

Incentivized

For the advanced user already familiar with Python. It is just the same tool, already managed and connected to the data.

Incentivized

It runs pretty well and gets our data from point A to point cluster quickly enough. Honestly, it's not something I think about unless it breaks and that's pretty rare.

Incentivized

Mode has dedicated agents who are online in a chatroom, ready to take on any questions and provide helpful feedback.

Incentivized

I actually don't know what the alternative to dbt is. I'm sure one must exist other than more 'roll your own' options like Apache Airflow, say, bu tin terms of super easy managed/cloud data transforms, dbt really does seem to be THE tool to use. It's $50/month per dev, BUT there's a FREE version for 1 dev seat with no read-only access for anyone else, so you can always start with that and then buy yourself a seat later.

Incentivized

We never seriously considered using anything else. Our data engineers had used Fivetran extensively in previous roles so when it came time to make a decision, there wasn't much of a process. They gladly signed the contract with Fivetran pretty quickly.

Incentivized

We used both Qlik and Mode at our organization. The mode was used a quick analysis SQL tool while Qlik was our enterprise BI solution.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• It has been very positive in serving BI team with new source requests
• It has been OK at scaling to match as data volumes as source data size grows

Incentivized

• Extremely positive. It's a key feature in our application.
• Were it not for the account management bit, Mode would be hands-down our recommendation for anyone looking for cloud BI.

Incentivized