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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Pentaho

    Score6 out of 10
    N/APentaho 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

    SSIS

    Score8 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft's SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) is a data integration solution.N/A
    Pricing
    PentahoSSIS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    PentahoSSIS
    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
    Community Pulse
    PentahoSSIS
    Considered Both Products
    Hitachi Vantara
    Chose Pentaho
    Pentaho is not as robust or as reputable as Microsoft ETL tools, but it is great for simpler ETL solutions. It has limitations and often lacks the ability for fine-tuning, but it gets the job done and is consistently reliable. Cheaper than other products, it's a great place to …
    Incentivized
    Chose Pentaho
    In terms of price, pentaho seems to be the clear winner for functionality that you get--especially with the community edition. If you don't need to license anything out, even the enterprise edition is fairly reasonably priced. With this in mind, it's a winner in the sense that …
    Incentivized
    Chose Pentaho
    We used the Pentaho community edition because we were looking for an open source solution. There is a good community involved with Pentaho. I often found Pentaho to be more flexible than Crystal Reports or SSIS but sometimes less polished in the user interface.
    Chose Pentaho
    I have seen several clients choose Pentaho Data Integration over SSIS for its simplicity to learn and use. I would have expected that the cost would also be a driving factor, however, once the company has invested into SQL server, they view SSIS as 'free' addition to the server …
    Microsoft
    Chose SSIS
    I used the Pentaho Data Integration (PDI) ETL tool. The PDI ETL tool does not have a public user collection like the SQL Server Integration Services(SSIS) ETL tool. Therefore, you may not be able to find instant solutions for your problems. But it has advantages over the SSIS …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    5 Answers
    84%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    5 Answers
    96%
    Delivers good value for the price
    24 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    5 Answers
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    22 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    10 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    80%
    Implementation went as expected
    4 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    19 Answers
    Features
    PentahoSSIS
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    9.0
    20 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Pixel Perfect reports8.618 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards9.918 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates8.718 Ratings00 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    8.7
    19 Ratings
    8% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Drill-down analysis7.618 Ratings00 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.319 Ratings00 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages9.312 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.717 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    9.7
    20 Ratings
    17% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Publish to Web9.618 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.819 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.713 Ratings00 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling9.917 Ratings00 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    8.1
    17 Ratings
    1% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    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 Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    9.1
    20 Ratings
    7% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.320 Ratings00 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.619 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.918 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign-On (SSO)7.610 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    8.3
    11 Ratings
    7% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    Responsive Design for Web Access9.710 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile Application6.97 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 Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    8.6
    10 Ratings
    10% above category average
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    -
    Ratings
    REST API8.310 Ratings00 Ratings
    Javascript API9.09 Ratings00 Ratings
    iFrames7.39 Ratings00 Ratings
    Java API8.79 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 Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.0
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Connect to traditional data sources00 Ratings9.056 Ratings
    Connecto to Big Data and NoSQL00 Ratings5.043 Ratings
    Data Transformations
    Comparison of Data Transformations features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    6.8
    56 Ratings
    18% below category average
    Simple transformations00 Ratings8.956 Ratings
    Complex transformations00 Ratings4.755 Ratings
    Data Modeling
    Comparison of Data Modeling features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    7.5
    54 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Data model creation00 Ratings9.028 Ratings
    Metadata management00 Ratings6.035 Ratings
    Business rules and workflow00 Ratings7.145 Ratings
    Collaboration00 Ratings9.140 Ratings
    Testing and debugging00 Ratings6.451 Ratings
    Data Governance
    Comparison of Data Governance features of Pentaho and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    Feature
    Pentaho
    -
    Ratings
    SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
    5.4
    43 Ratings
    40% below category average
    Integration with data quality tools00 Ratings6.238 Ratings
    Integration with MDM tools00 Ratings4.638 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    PentahoSSIS
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Skyvia
    Score10 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    IBM InfoSphere Information Server
    Score10 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Sisense
    Score6.9 out of 10
    SolarWinds Task Factory
    Score8.3 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    PentahoSSIS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (31 ratings)
    8.0
    (56 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.8
    (11 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    9.3
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (11 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.3
    (7 ratings)
    8.0
    (8 ratings)
    Online Training
    9.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.4
    (16 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.6
    (16 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    PentahoSSIS
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    As I mentioned earlier SQL Server Integration Services is suitable if you want to manage data from different applications. It really helps in fetching the data and generating reports. Its automation make it very easy and time efficient. It works well with large database as well. But it doesn't work well with real time data, it will take some time to gather the real time data. I would not recommend using it in a real time/fast-paced environment.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Microsoft
    • Standard ETL use cases for daily loads
    • Loading incoming data from Vendors which is placed on FTP and adding them to the SQL Warehouse
    • Creating outgoing data files and writing them to Vendor FTPs
    • Easy Active Directory integration for seamless connections to SQL Server
    • CI/CD by hosting the code on visualstudio.com
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Connection managers for online data sources can be tricky to configure.
    • Performance tuning is an art form and trialing different data flow task options can be cumbersome. SSIS can do a better job of providing performance data including historical for monitoring.
    • Mapping destination using OLE DB command is difficult as destination columns are unnamed.
    • Excel or flat file connections are limited by version and type.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    Some features should be revised or improved, some tools (using it with Visual Studio) of the toolbox should be less schematic and somewhat more flexible. Using for example, the CSV data import is still very old-fashioned and if the data format changes it requires a bit of manual labor to accept the new data structure
    Incentivized
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    SSIS is a great tool for most ETL needs. It has the 90% (or more) use cases covered and even in many of the use cases where it is not ideal SSIS can be extended via a .NET language to do the job well in a supportable way for almost any performance workload.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Hitachi Vantara
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    SQL Server Integration Services performance is dependent directly upon the resources provided to the system. In our environment, we allocated 6 nodes of 4 CPUs, 64GB each, running in parallel. Unfortunately, we had to ramp-up to such a robust environment to get the performance to where we needed it. Most of the reports are completed in a reasonable timeframe. However, in the case of slow running reports, it is often difficult if not impossible to cancel the report without killing the report instance or stopping the service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The support, when necessary, is excellent. But beyond that, it is very rarely necessary because the user community is so large, vibrant and knowledgable, a simple Google query or forum question can answer almost everything you want to know. You can also get prewritten script tasks with a variety of functionality that saves a lot of time.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    The implementation may be different in each case, it is important to properly analyze all the existing infrastructure to understand the kind of work needed, the type of software used and the compatibility between these, the features that you want to exploit, to understand what is possible and which ones require integration with third-party tools
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    I think SQL Server Integration Services is better suited for on-premises data movement and ADF is more suited for the cloud. Though ADF has more connectors, SQL Server Integration Services is more robust and has better functionality just because it has been around much longer
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • Without this, we would have to manually update a spreadsheet of our SQL Server inventory
    • We would also have poor alerting; if an instance was down we wouldn't know until it was reported by a user
    • We only have one other person who uses SQL Server Integration Services , he's the expert. It would fall to me without him and I would not enjoy being responsible for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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