Pentaho vs. SAS Data Management

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pentaho
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Pentaho is a suite of open source business intelligence and analytics products, now offered and supported by Hitachi Data Systems since the June 2015 acquisition.N/A
SAS Data Management
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
A suite of solutions for data connectivity, enhanced transformations and robust governance. Solutions provide a unified view of data with access to data across databases, data warehouses and data lakes. Connects with cloud platforms, on-premises systems and multicloud data sources.N/A
Pricing
PentahoSAS Data Management
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
PentahoSAS Data Management
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Features
PentahoSAS Data Management
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.0
20 Ratings
9% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports8.718 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.818 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.618 Ratings00 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.7
19 Ratings
7% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Drill-down analysis7.718 Ratings00 Ratings
Formatting capabilities8.319 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages9.312 Ratings00 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.617 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.6
20 Ratings
14% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Publish to Web9.618 Ratings00 Ratings
Publish to PDF9.719 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Versioning9.613 Ratings00 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling9.917 Ratings00 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers9.210 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.2
17 Ratings
1% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.916 Ratings00 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization8.216 Ratings00 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.314 Ratings00 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
9.1
20 Ratings
6% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Multi-User Support (named login)9.320 Ratings00 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model9.519 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.918 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)7.710 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.3
11 Ratings
4% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
Responsive Design for Web Access9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Application7.07 Ratings00 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.711 Ratings00 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
8.6
10 Ratings
8% above category average
SAS Data Management
-
Ratings
REST API8.310 Ratings00 Ratings
Javascript API9.09 Ratings00 Ratings
iFrames7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
Java API8.69 Ratings00 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)8.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.610 Ratings00 Ratings
Data Source Connection
Comparison of Data Source Connection features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
-
Ratings
SAS Data Management
8.3
10 Ratings
1% above category average
Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings8.610 Ratings
Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings8.19 Ratings
Data Transformations
Comparison of Data Transformations features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
-
Ratings
SAS Data Management
6.7
8 Ratings
22% below category average
Simple transformations00 Ratings6.18 Ratings
Complex transformations00 Ratings7.48 Ratings
Data Modeling
Comparison of Data Modeling features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
-
Ratings
SAS Data Management
6.7
8 Ratings
20% below category average
Data model creation00 Ratings5.56 Ratings
Metadata management00 Ratings7.47 Ratings
Business rules and workflow00 Ratings6.67 Ratings
Collaboration00 Ratings7.07 Ratings
Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.17 Ratings
Data Governance
Comparison of Data Governance features of Product A and Product B
Pentaho
-
Ratings
SAS Data Management
7.9
9 Ratings
4% below category average
Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings7.69 Ratings
Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings8.27 Ratings
Best Alternatives
PentahoSAS Data Management
Small Businesses
BrightGauge
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Score 8.9 out of 10
Skyvia
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Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
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Score 9.9 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.2 out of 10
Enterprises
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
IBM InfoSphere Information Server
Score 8.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
PentahoSAS Data Management
Likelihood to Recommend
9.1
(31 ratings)
7.6
(11 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.8
(11 ratings)
9.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
9.3
(6 ratings)
6.0
(2 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.3
(7 ratings)
7.7
(6 ratings)
Online Training
9.5
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
PentahoSAS Data Management
Likelihood to Recommend
Hitachi Vantara
Pentaho is very well suited to perform data extraction & data mining from various cloud storage & transform that data using various available data models. However, the software struggles when it comes to visualizing the extracted data in an appealing manner & can be difficult for end-users to get an understanding of data tables created using those models.
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SAS
When data is in a system that needs a complex transformation to be usable for an average user. Such tasks as data residing in systems that have very different connection speeds. It can be integrated and used together after passing through the SAS Data Integration Studio removing timing issues from the users' worries. A part that is perhaps less appropriate is getting users who are not familiar with the source data to set up the load processes.
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Pros
Hitachi Vantara
  • Integrate and synchronize with big data easily
  • Import data from any sources and different databases
  • Managing data in on-premise, hybrid and cloud environments.
  • Compatibility and flexibility of the platform with any type of scenario and any business or industry
  • Various tools in the software suite to transformation of data
  • Simple interface appearance and creative UI graphics
Read full review
SAS
  • SAS/Access is great for manipulating large and complex databases.
  • SAS/Access makes it easy to format reports and graphics from your data.
  • Data Management and data storage using the Hadoop environment in SAS/Access allows for rapid analysis and simple programming language for all your data needs.
Read full review
Cons
Hitachi Vantara
  • I think the relative obscurity of the tool is a downside, not as many developers, consultants or peers you can tap into.
  • Lack of a solid user community held us back, looking at Power BI and Qlik, they have huge user communities that help each other out. Would have liked that here.
  • Smaller company means smaller sales force, and the lack of a local presence made it hard to only interact online with the account rep. Other companies have someone local who often stops by with pre-sales developers to just pitch in free of charge when they have time.
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SAS
  • Requires third-party drivers to connect to common data sources like SFDC, MS SQL, Postgres.
  • Debugging errors from the logs is a complicated process.
  • E-mail alert system is very primitive and needs customization to make it more modern,
  • Cannot send SMS alerts for jobs.
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Likelihood to Renew
Hitachi Vantara
I will use Pentaho until I find a better tool with a better, easier to use report designer client. For now, Pentaho has been the most powerful reporting tool for our clients because of its ability to connect to Odoo, integrate in Odoo (reports are accessible in Odoo) and the flexibility in report design and parameter integration
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SAS
We are happy with the software and its functionality. As a SAS-shop, DataFlux is a logical choice for complex data integration.
Read full review
Usability
Hitachi Vantara
The Pentaho tools are designed so you can start playing around on your own. Of course, you will need guidance at some point, but the training teams are good at guiding new users, and the online documentation is usually pretty up-to-date.
Some of the tools, such as the Pentaho Data Integration tool and the Pentaho Server, are pretty self-explanatory. The other tools maybe are not so quickly and obvious to use, but again, with some documentation and some customer support, you can find your way around them.
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SAS
The main negative point is the use of a non-standard language for customizations, as well as the poor integration with non-SAS systems. However, there is no doubt that it is a high-performance and powerful product capable of responding optimally to certain requirements.
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Performance
Hitachi Vantara
No answers on this topic
SAS
It worked as expected.
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Support Rating
Hitachi Vantara
They were responsive to our questions when we raised issues. They gave us workarounds when required. They were quite knowledgeable when it came to issue analysis and providing fixes. They were forthright in informing us if a bug was not due for release soon.
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SAS
With SAS, you pay a license fee annually to use this product. Support is incredible. You get what you pay for, whether it's SAS forums on the SAS support site, technical support tickets via email or phone calls, or example documentation. It's not open source. It's documented thoroughly, and it works.
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Online Training
Hitachi Vantara
Course Taken: DI1000 Pentaho Data Integration Fundamentals Setup A week before your class started, the instructor will start sending out class material and lab setup instructions. This is helpful so that you understand how the environment is laid out and can start reviewing the content. Ultimately it saved about a 1/2 day trying to setup with 10 other people online which was great! The Course The 3-day course was laid out like many other technical classes with 15-30 minutes instruction and 15-60 minutes of lab exercises. The instructor was very knowledgeable with the functionality from version to version and answered questions as we went along. I was amazed at some of the functionality that was available that I was not using at the time and quickly implemented changes to many existing transformations and jobs. The novice users seemed to catch on quickly and more experienced users explained how some of the functionality was used in their home environments. Towards the end there was enough time so that we were able to ask very directed questions about our own environments. Overall, I really found the class to be informative and deliver enough information to be dangerous. My skills improved and I was able to design better and efficient transformations for the HIE. Course Description: https://training.pentaho.com/instructor-led-training/pentaho-data-integration-fundamentals-di1000
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SAS
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Hitachi Vantara
Get the right people in before starting implementation. Start small and build as you go approach is time consuming and involves lot of rework. Evangalize within the organization the capabilities and limitations equally so that correct delivery expectations are set. Set expectations with the Customer that the tool cannot replace proprietary software in terms of stability/usability and that timelines could change given the new ness of the product.
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SAS
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Hitachi Vantara
Since the Pentaho platform offers a range of broad functionality across data preparation and advanced analytics, it also can be easily integrated to support many data sources and machine-learning frameworks. Based on that fact, we selected Pentaho to be used in our internal department. It also supports many of our BI use cases as required by company management or the business user. Last but not least, the Pentaho license is cheaper than their competitor.
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SAS
Because of ease of using SAS DI and data processing speed. There were lots of issues with AWS Redshift on cloud environment in terms of making connections with the data sources and while fetching the data we need to write complex queries.
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Return on Investment
Hitachi Vantara
  • Pentaho has improved our overall business process.
  • Pentaho has helped the Managers and Directors to analyze the numbers going up and down from time to time.
  • We have a started a big project using Pentaho that is going to include all the business processes in the organization.
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SAS
  • We have more users who can connect to the many different data sources.
  • Our users do have existing SAS programming knowledge and that can carry over.
  • Business functions are starting to rely on SAS Data Integration Studio work product shortly after introduction.
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