With our usage-based pricing model, you only pay for what you use — it’s direct price to value. 

But with usage-based pricing, we understand that it’s important for you to:

1. Predict usage
2. Forecast what increased usage will cost
3. Ensure your data volumes fit within your budget
4. Only pay for what you need

That’s why we’ve ensured that you can do this (and more) within Fivetran. 

This article walks through six tips to help you understand and optimize your usage.

Tip 1: Add all your sources to take advantage of economies of scale

Did you know that the more you use Fivetran, the more you save? Fivetran's unit cost decreases automatically as your volumes increase. In fact, if you 10x your volume, your cost will only increase 2-4x.

If your goal is to optimize your unit cost, simply adding sources will do the trick.

For example, let’s say you set up one connector that’s moving 2.7 million monthly active rows (MAR) each month. This costs $1,236 on our Standard Plan. At face value, this looks like $1,236 to connect just one source.

Then, you connect four more sources, which ends up doubling your volume, but this only costs $1,947. Even though you increased your sources by 5x and your volume by 2x, your price increased only 1.5x. Now, your price per connector is much lower - $1,236 each.

In fact, if you 10x your volume to 27 million MAR, this only increases your price by 3.6x. Plus, your monthly price per connector drops to just $221. 

*This table shows example pay-as-you-go pricing on our most popular plan, our Standard Plan. 

**We do not price per connector, but showing this view helps illustrate how connecting more sources generally lowers your cost per source.

At this point on the pricing curve, if you increase your volume an additional 2.7 million MAR (the same as what you started with), your price increases just $202, not $1,236.

Since you can take advantage of economies of scale, this makes it more efficient to connect additional sources. Most businesses have dozens — if not hundreds — of applications and data sources across marketing, CRM, finance and more. It’s likely we support your use case; if we don’t, we can build it.

Instead of using a burdensome combination of Fivetran + DIY pipelines + other tools, you can minimize vendor fatigue, support multiple business needs and benefit from economies of scale by connecting multiple sources through Fivetran.

Tip 2: Remove schemas (tables) that aren’t bringing value to your business

It's important to evaluate which schemas you’re moving to ensure that you're only paying for what you need.

That’s why it makes sense to remove schemas that aren't bringing value to your business. This will help you save money and reduce the complexity of your data pipeline. You can easily turn off schemas on the schema tab for any connector that supports this feature.

Alternatively, you can also select which tables you need when you initially set up your connector, instead of syncing all data. While the former takes more time, it does ensure you’re thoughtfully selecting which data matters most to your business and stakeholders from the get-go.

Tip 3: Use our Usage Estimator to plan your usage and costs

Fivetran’s Usage Estimator is a great way for you to dive into your estimate and see how changing usage or pricing plans impact your price.

How it works:

• If you’re in your Fivetran trial, your estimate is based on the first 7 days of usage for each connector. 
• If you’re a customer, the pricing estimate is based on the previous full month’s usage and shows any 14-day connector trials estimates. 

Understand your estimate

First, start by viewing where your current volume sits on the pricing curve for your desired pricing plan. In the example below, my usage is about 4.4 million MAR per month.

Then, dig into the usage for each connector. If your MAR estimate isn’t ready, we’ll tell you when we’ll have enough data. 

See the impact of removing connectors or tables on your pricing estimate

You can view how each table contributes to your usage and see how deselecting tables impacts your price. This can help you estimate costs before making changes to your setup for eligible connectors. In the example below, we removed a couple of tables from our estimate, decreasing our planned monthly cost by 5 percent.

*Removing tables in the usage estimator does not impact your usage. If you want to turn off a table, you need to go to the Schema tab for that connector to make changes to your setup.

See how increasing usage impacts your pricing estimate

Did you know that every new connector includes an initial free, historical sync plus 14 days of free usage? This is the most accurate and risk-free way to estimate the usage and cost of adding a new connector. Seven days after your first initial sync, you can view the usage estimate in your usage estimator and billing page.

But, if you are looking for a ballpark estimate, input total MAR directly, or scroll along the curve to view pricing below and above your usage estimate. 

Tip 4: Evaluate usage as a part of total cost of ownership

You might wonder…how much will it cost if I chose to build a data pipeline myself? Or, perhaps you need to present to business leaders at your company the ROI of automating pipelines with Fivetran versus building yourself.

Use our Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator to see how much money and time it costs to build the connector yourself. Evaluating usage as a part of total cost of ownership will help you make an informed decision.

Tip 5: Monitor your usage with alerts

We understand that you have a budget and a limit you can't exceed. That's why we've made it easy for you to monitor your usage with our spend tracker and alerts. View your monthly spend and set up alerts in your account when you reach certain spend thresholds so you can take action.

Want to reach pro status? Add Fivetran’s free Log Connector and Quickstart data model — this only takes a few minutes, it’s completely free (use of either will not charge you MAR), plus you get logs and account metadata delivered to your destination, including:

• Active volume
• Usage cost
• When new schemas or tables are created
• And much, much more

Tip 6: Set up new data notifications for new tables or columns

Changes at the source level happen all the time. Maybe someone added a new object in Salesforce, and now there’s a ton of new data flowing through Fivetran. 

To ensure you have complete visibility, set up alerts for new data so you can monitor impact to your usage and evaluate value to your business. You can easily set up notifications in the Schema tab for each connector.

Conclusion: Everything you need for cost-effective pipelines

Use these six tips to accomplish cost-effective data management and gain full visibility into your usage, so you only pay for what you need. With Fivetran, you can streamline your data pipelines while still managing your costs. That way,you can focus on what matters most — gaining valuable insights from your data. So, what are you waiting for? After all, it’s free to get started! 

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