Index › Data platform › September 2026 Edition

ETL and ELT

Asked as “ETL tool”, and as “data pipeline and ELT platform”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 47 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.

Standing

Airbyte and Fivetran

Contested

32% of first choices, contested.

ShowinginAll 67 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

Small business

Airbyte36%ContestedStanding →Mid-market

Airbyte32%ContestedThis page Enterprise

Fivetran49%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.

ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant

Airbyte4%50endorsed leader

Fivetran17%53endorsed leader

Integrate.io8%24accepted challenger

Hevo Data12%25accepted challenger

Stitch21%29accepted challenger

Talend40%30criticized challenger

Apache NiFi18%11accepted challenger

Show the seven products at 0%, ordered by negative rate

Informatica45%11criticized challenger

AWS Glue17%18accepted challenger

Matillion12%26accepted challenger

dbt0%39accepted challenger

Apache Airflow0%27accepted challenger

Azure Data Factory0%15accepted challenger

Skyvia0%10accepted challenger

Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.

Head to head

Airbyte vs Fivetran Airbyte vs Integrate.io Fivetran vs Integrate.io

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default

Negative label rate →

Accepted challengerEndorsed leader

0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%

Key

Airbyte32%

Fivetran32%

Integrate.io15%

Hevo Data6%

Stitch4%

Talend4%

Apache NiFi2%

dbt0%

Apache Airflow0%

Matillion0%

Azure Data Factory0%

AWS Glue0%

Skyvia0%

Informatica0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.

Talend

40%

12 of 30 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 6 hard negative

“Why to avoid: Any existing Talend Open Studio pipelines are running on frozen, unpatched 2023-era Java and JDBC drivers.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt

Fivetran

17%

9 of 53 labels negative · 7 of 12 models · 1 hard negative

“One of the most widely-cited cautionary examples right now... Users report bills jumping 35–70%” DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt

Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services

62%

5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 3 hard negative

“Why to avoid: Tightly coupled to Windows ecosystem, difficult to maintain, poor schema evolution support” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

Informatica PowerCenter

62%

5 of 8 labels negative · 5 of 12 models · 2 hard negative

“Why to avoid: Extremely steep learning curve, high licensing costs, difficult migrations and upgrades, vendor lock-in” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

61 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 5 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 718 links across 174 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

integrate.io

vendor site · Integrate.io40 answers · 66 citations · 10 models

hevodata.com

vendor site · Hevo Data30 answers · 51 citations · 10 models

airbyte.com

vendor site · Airbyte22 answers · 35 citations · 8 models

fivetran.com

vendor site · Fivetran21 answers · 27 citations · 8 models

datacamp.com

21 answers · 21 citations · 9 models

estuary.dev

vendor site · Estuary19 answers · 22 citations · 8 models

dataquest.io

18 answers · 18 citations · 9 models

sqream.com

17 answers · 17 citations · 7 models

skyvia.com

vendor site · Skyvia16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models

stacksync.com

vendor site · Stacksync13 answers · 14 citations · 8 models

reddit.com

10 answers · 28 citations · 8 models

g2.com

10 answers · 23 citations · 6 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

integrate.io/blog/top-7-etl-tools

25 answers · 10 models

datacamp.com/blog/a-list-of-the-16-best-etl-tools-and-why-to-choose-them

21 answers · 9 models

dataquest.io/blog/etl-tools-practical-guide-with-examples

18 answers · 9 models

sqream.com/blog/best-etl-tools

17 answers · 7 models

estuary.dev/blog/etl-tools-list

14 answers · 7 models

integrate.io/blog/best-ai-etl-tools-for-mid-market-teams

14 answers · 9 models

fivetran.com/learn/etl-tools

12 answers · 5 models

stacksync.com/blog/26-best-etl-tools-2025-curated-list

11 answers · 7 models

weld.app/blog/etl-tools-compared

9 answers · 6 models

coalesce.io/all-things-data/hidden-costs-of-etl-tools

8 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.

ModelDirect“What is the best ETL tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data pipeline and ELT platform would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top ETL tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best ETL tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a ETL tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which ETL tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”

Claude Haiku 4.5MuleSoft, Talend

Three alternatives

AWS Glue, Apache Airflow, Azure Data Factory

against: Informaticano first choiceChangedWeld

Four alternatives

Airbyte, Estuary, Fivetran, Matillion

Airbyte

Three alternatives

Apache Airflow, Apache NiFi, Pentaho Data Integration

no first choiceagainst: AWS Glue, Apache Kafka, Fivetran, Pentaho Data Integration

GPT-5.4 miniAirbyte, Fivetran

One alternative

AWS Glue

FivetranChanged

Eight alternatives

Airbyte, Apache Airflow, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Google BigQuery, Rivery, Snowflake, dbt

Airbyte, Fivetran

Five alternatives

AWS Glue, Azure Data Factory, Informatica CDI, Matillion, Talend

Airbyte

Two alternatives

Apache NiFi, dbt

against: Fivetran, Talendno first choiceagainst: Fivetran, Informatica, Matillion, Talend

Gemini 3.5 FlashFivetran

Five alternatives

Airbyte, Estuary, Hevo Data, Integrate.io, dbt

AirbyteChanged

Five alternatives

Estuary Flow, Fivetran, Sling, dbt, dlt

Fivetran, dbt

Seven alternatives

AWS Glue, Airbyte, Azure Data Factory, Confluent Cloud, Estuary, Informatica, Integrate.io

Airbyte, Hevo Data

Three alternatives

Estuary Flow, Meltano, dbt

against: TalendFivetran, Stitch

Three alternatives

Airbyte, Meltano, Rivery

against: AWS Glue, Apache NiFi, Azure Data Factory (ADF) Mapping Data Flows, Fivetran, IBM DataStage, Informatica PowerCenter, Luigi, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Oracle Data Integrator, Stitch, Talend

Perplexity SonarIntegrate.io

Four alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Matillion, dbt

Integrate.ioHeld

Three alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Skyvia

Fivetran

Eight alternatives

AWS Glue, Airbyte, Apache Airflow, Azure Data Factory, Databricks, Informatica, Matillion, dbt

Airbyte

Three alternatives

Hevo Data, Skyvia, Stitch

no first choiceagainst: IBM DataStage, Informatica PowerCenter, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Talend

Grok 4.1 FastFivetran, Integrate.ioagainst: StitchFivetranChanged

Two alternatives

Airbyte, dbt

against: Hevo Data, Informatica, Integrate.io, Talendno first choiceAirbyte

Three alternatives

Hevo Data, Pentaho Data Integration, Skyvia

against: Apache NiFino first choice

Two alternatives

Fivetran, dbt

against: Airbyte, Alteryx, Databricks, Fivetran, Informatica PowerCenter, Matillion, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Talend

Mistral SmallFivetran

Three alternatives

Apache Airflow, Integrate.io, dbt

Fivetran, Hevo DataChanged

Two alternatives

Azure Data Factory, dbt

Integrate.io

Three alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Stitch

against: Oracle Data IntegratorAirbyte

Three alternatives

BladePipe, Hevo Data, Skyvia

no first choicenothing named

DeepSeek V4 FlashFivetran

Six alternatives

Airbyte, Apache Airflow, Hevo Data, Integrate.io, Matillion, dbt

AirbyteChanged

Two alternatives

Azure Data Factory, dbt

against: Fivetran, Hevo Data, Integrate.io, Stitchno first choice

Five alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Hevo Data, Integrate.io, dbt

Airbyte

Five alternatives

Apache Airflow, Apache NiFi, Fivetran, Talend, dbt

no first choiceagainst: AWS Glue, Databricks, Fivetran, Hevo Data, Informatica PowerCenter / IDMC, Matillion, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Talend

Llama 4 MaverickIntegrate.io

Three alternatives

Apache Airflow, Fivetran, dbt

RiveryChanged

Two alternatives

Integrate.io, Talend

no first choiceHevo Data

Five alternatives

Airbyte, Altova MapForce, Integrate.io, Stitch, dbt

no first choicenothing named

Qwen 3.7 FlashIntegrate.io

Four alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Skyvia, dbt

FivetranChanged

Four alternatives

Azure Data Factory, Matillion Data Orchestrator, Stitch, dbt

Airbyte, Fivetran

Two alternatives

Apache Airflow, Matillion

against: Informatica PowerCenter / Cloud Data Integration, MuleSoftAirbyte, Stitch

One alternative

AWS Glue

against: Fivetranno first choiceagainst: Boomi, IBM DataStage, Informatica PowerCenter, Microsoft Access, Oracle Forms / Reports, Pentaho Data Integration, Talend

Kimi K2Airbyte, Fivetran

Three alternatives

Integrate.io, Matillion, dbt

FivetranChanged

Five alternatives

Airbyte, Google BigQuery, Hevo Data, Snowflake, dbt

against: StitchAirbyte, Fivetran

One alternative

dbt

against: Informatica, TalendAirbyte

Three alternatives

Apache NiFi, Fivetran, Talend

Integrate.io

Three alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Matillion

against: Airbyte, Celigo, Databricks, Fivetran, IBM DataStage, Informatica, SAP Data Services, Stitch

GLM 4.7 FlashXIntegrate.io

Five alternatives

Airbyte, Fivetran, Matillion, Peliqan, Talend

FivetranChanged

Three alternatives

Airbyte, Snowflake, dbt

against: Stitchno first choice

Fourteen alternatives

Airbyte, Apache Airflow, Apache NiFi, Apache Spark, Fivetran, Hevo Data, Informatica PowerCenter, Integrate.io, Matillion, Meltano, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Stitch, Talend, dbt

Airbyte

Six alternatives

Apache NiFi, Estuary Flow, Fivetran, Meltano, Skyvia, dbt

no first choiceagainst: Informatica PowerCenter, Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services, Pentaho Data Integration, Talend

MiniMax M2.5Airbyte, Fivetran

One alternative

Integrate.io

FivetranChanged

Four alternatives

Airbyte, Azure Data Factory, Matillion, dbt

no first choiceApache NiFi, Talend

Eight alternatives

AWS Glue, Apache Airflow, Azure Data Factory, Fivetran, Google Cloud Dataflow, Hevo Data, Skyvia, Stitch

no first choicenothing named

Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record

Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.

Prompt	Model	Version string	Time (UTC)	Searched	Sources	Latency
Direct recommendation	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 13:36	no	0	5 s
Direct recommendation	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 11:53	yes	3	7 s
Direct recommendation	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 09:23	yes	12	25 s
Direct recommendation	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 14:13	yes	20	5 s
Direct recommendation	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 10:32	yes	40	25 s
Direct recommendation	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:57	yes	5	4 s
Direct recommendation	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 11:41	yes	13	17 s
Direct recommendation	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:09	yes	6	3 s
Direct recommendation	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 13:28	yes	10	30 s
Direct recommendation	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:10	yes	9	20 s
Direct recommendation	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 10:22	yes	12	35 s
Direct recommendation	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 09:40	yes	5	17 s
Paraphrase	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 10:09	no	0	4 s
Paraphrase	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 09:26	no	0	3 s
Paraphrase	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:16	yes	10	24 s
Paraphrase	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 10:08	yes	20	4 s
Paraphrase	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 12:40	yes	25	13 s
Paraphrase	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 11:49	yes	5	7 s
Paraphrase	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra`	2026-09-17 13:22	yes	25	49 s
Paraphrase	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:52	yes	5	3 s
Paraphrase	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 13:01	yes	5	32 s
Paraphrase	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 10:21	yes	15	26 s
Paraphrase	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 11:11	yes	15	97 s
Paraphrase	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 11:55	yes	5	26 s
Comparative	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 12:40	yes	9	9 s
Comparative	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 12:29	yes	4	10 s
Comparative	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 13:07	yes	20	31 s
Comparative	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 12:09	yes	20	9 s
Comparative	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 12:07	yes	23	13 s
Comparative	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 09:29	yes	5	7 s
Comparative	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 11:09	yes	8	17 s
Comparative	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 12:53	yes	5	2 s
Comparative	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:17	yes	5	28 s
Comparative	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:07	yes	10	27 s
Comparative	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 11:44	yes	19	43 s
Comparative	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 10:15	yes	5	68 s
Budget constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 10:13	yes	9	8 s
Budget constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 10:22	no	0	3 s
Budget constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 13:50	yes	13	19 s
Budget constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 14:04	yes	20	5 s
Budget constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 09:27	yes	31	13 s
Budget constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 12:50	yes	5	5 s
Budget constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 13:11	yes	10	16 s
Budget constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 10:53	yes	5	3 s
Budget constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 11:29	yes	18	56 s
Budget constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 12:43	yes	5	17 s
Budget constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 12:14	yes	13	123 s
Budget constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 11:15	no	0	49 s
Scale constrained	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 12:49	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 11:27	no	0	6 s
Scale constrained	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:02	no	0	17 s
Scale constrained	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 11:25	yes	20	9 s
Scale constrained	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 14:12	yes	19	13 s
Scale constrained	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 10:11	no	0	7 s
Scale constrained	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 09:34	yes	9	15 s
Scale constrained	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 10:08	yes	5	3 s
Scale constrained	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 09:49	yes	5	40 s
Scale constrained	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 13:33	yes	13	30 s
Scale constrained	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 11:00	no	0	75 s
Scale constrained	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 10:45	yes	5	14 s
Negative framing	Claude Haiku 4.5	`claude-haiku-4-5-20251001`	2026-09-17 13:28	yes	17	10 s
Negative framing	GPT-5.4 mini	`gpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-17`	2026-09-17 11:37	yes	6	6 s
Negative framing	Gemini 3.5 Flash	`gemini-3.5-flash`	2026-09-17 12:34	yes	12	26 s
Negative framing	Perplexity Sonar	`sonar`	2026-09-17 11:31	yes	20	11 s
Negative framing	Grok 4.1 Fast	`spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex`	2026-09-17 11:56	yes	32	19 s
Negative framing	Mistral Small	`mistral/mistral-small via mistral`	2026-09-17 12:57	yes	5	6 s
Negative framing	DeepSeek V4 Flash	`deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks`	2026-09-17 10:10	yes	29	21 s
Negative framing	Llama 4 Maverick	`meta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock`	2026-09-17 10:43	yes	5	2 s
Negative framing	Qwen 3.7 Flash	`alibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba`	2026-09-17 10:41	no	0	39 s
Negative framing	Kimi K2	`moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita`	2026-09-17 12:58	yes	14	28 s
Negative framing	GLM 4.7 FlashX	`zai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai`	2026-09-17 12:51	yes	28	67 s
Negative framing	MiniMax M2.5	`minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax`	2026-09-17 13:09	yes	14	39 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings

Hevo read as Hevo Data

Pentaho read as Pentaho Data Integration

Unresolved, counted raw

Altova MapForce

Azure Data Factory (ADF) Mapping Data Flows

Databricks Lakeflow

Informatica CDI

Informatica PowerCenter / Cloud Data Integration (CDI)

Kadence

Matillion Data Orchestrator

Microsoft Access (Jet Engine)

Oracle Forms / Reports (for Data Migration)

Peliqan

SQLMesh

Sling

Discontinued, still offered

No shut-down product was recommended here.

ETL and ELT

By buyer segment

01The standing

Recommended versus criticized

02What they warned about

03What they cite

Sites the answers cite

Pages the answers cite

04How they answered

05The record

Normalization in this category

Also in data platform