Comparison · Data pipelines
Fivetran, Airbyte or pipelines you own? Many sources, little data: Fivetran. Few sources, lots of data: your own pipeline.
Managed ingestion is quick to set up and covers a lot of sources. This page uses the published consumption table to work out at what volume a pipeline of your own pays off.
As of August 2026, fivetran.com.
How we compare
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We sell the alternative
This is not a neutral review. That is why price date, assumptions and the maths sit openly next to it.
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Both outcomes are shown
Including the scenarios where the vendor wins. A comparison that always ends in our favour would be advertising.
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Only evidenced numbers
List prices with a source. Where a vendor does not publish, no invented total appears.
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Your numbers decide
The calculator takes your users, your volume and your term instead of our assumption.
In short
The price tracks monthly active rows, and the ladder is sub-linear: fifteen times the data does not cost fifteen times as much. Even so, a mid-sized volume sits well above a pipeline of your own, where only hosting remains. What Fivetran delivers for it is a very large connector catalogue and the maintenance of other people's APIs, which is exactly the part a build takes on.
Why there is no calculation here: There is no three-year total on this page. The only rate Fivetran publishes openly is the 5 USD base charge per connection up to one million active rows. The thresholds above that sit in a consumption table that cannot be retrieved freely. We do not put figures on a page we cannot evidence. Airbyte likewise publishes no per-unit rate for its Standard tier. Evidenced: the formula, base spend plus active rows above the threshold times the incremental rate. Evidenced: the 5 USD base charge per connection up to one million active rows. Not publicly evidenced: the thresholds and incremental rates above that.
In detail
Where the two routes differ
| Point | Fivetran | FW Delta |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | by monthly active rows, on a sub-linear ladder | one-time build plus hosting |
| Predictability | the bill follows data growth | the figure is known |
| Connectors | a very large ready-made catalogue | the sources built; more cost effort |
| Custom sources | not offered through self-service | possible, but you build them |
| Maintaining third-party APIs | handled by the vendor | yours, or covered by a maintenance agreement |
| Transformations | priced separately by model runs | in SQL, with no separate billing |
| After cancelling | ingestion stops, the target schema stays | code and configuration stay |
The decision
What speaks for which route.
A pipeline of your own pays off when
- row volume sits in the millions on a permanent basis
- few but stable sources are served
- a source is missing from the catalogue and will not be added
- transformations already run in SQL inside the warehouse
Stay with Fivetran when
- · many different standard sources need connecting
- · volume is low and stays low
- · nobody in-house can operate data pipelines
- · maintaining third-party APIs is deliberately outsourced
If you want to switch
What happens next
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30 minutes
Conversation
We walk through your starting point and say honestly whether a move pays off for you.
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within five working days
Fixed-price proposal
With scope, assumptions and what is explicitly not included.
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depending on scope
Build and handover
Code access from day one, manual at the end, no obligation to keep us.
Common questions
Why is there no cost calculation here?
Because the values needed are not public. Fivetran states the formula and the base charge; the thresholds and incremental rates sit in a consumption table that cannot be retrieved freely. We do not put amounts on a page we cannot evidence.
Do the costs rise exponentially?
No, and that is a common error. Fivetran states explicitly that the per-row cost decreases as volume rises, so the ladder is sub-linear. The problem is not the curve, it is the absolute level at high volume.
What counts as a monthly active row?
Inserts plus updates and deletes during the billing month. Unchanged rows and the initial sync do not count. A ten-million-row table that barely changes therefore costs far less than one rewritten daily.
Read on
Where to go next.
How these figures were produced
- Price as of
- August 2026
- Basis
- Publicly listed prices from Fivetran, together with the assumptions on this page for user count, volume and term.
- Not included
- Discounts, annual prepayment, enterprise terms, partner rates and country-specific pricing. Internal staff cost on either side is not counted.
- Limits
- Vendor pricing and packaging change. This calculation is a model, not a quote and not a general market price. Check the current vendor price list before deciding, and run the numbers with your own figures.
Next step
Run it with your own volume
The decision hangs on active rows. The calculator takes your number.
Reply within 24 hours. No obligation, confidential.