Fivetran vs. Airbyte: Features, pricing, services, and more

The right data integration solution can save engineering resources, costs, and time, but with more than 150 different tools on the market, finding the right one can be difficult. There’s an overwhelming number of considerations, from free open-source, self-hosted options to cloud-native commercial SaaS products — and everything in between.

Fivetran and Airbyte are both strong, capable products. Choosing one over the other can come down to a few key differences. Let’s take a look at both to help you make an informed decision.

Airbyte vs. Fivetran: At a glance

Airbyte is an open-source data integration engine for building ELT data pipelines that sync data from applications, APIs, and databases to analytical data destinations like data warehouses and data lakes. Airbyte was founded in January 2020 and provides 3 primary offerings:

• Airbyte Core: An open-source, self-hosted option for organizations that want to deploy and manage Airbyte themselves.
• Airbyte Cloud: A managed cloud offering with Standard, Plus, and Pro plans.
• Enterprise Flex: A hybrid deployment in which the data plane runs in the customer's cloud, VPC, or on-premises environment, while Airbyte manages the control plane.

Fivetran is an automated data movement platform that offers fully managed data connectors to sync data from SaaS applications, APIs, databases, and other structured data sources into analytical destinations like data warehouses and data lakes. Fivetran was founded in 2012 and has a variety of offerings, all of which are fully-managed, automated, and serve anyone from small startups to large, data-mature enterprises.

As of September 2026:

Data sources and destination connectors

The ability to connect to data sources and destinations is one of the first and most important considerations for selecting a data integration tool. But there’s more to a connector than meets the eye.

Though both platforms offer hundreds of connectors, “equivalent” connectors are not always truly equivalent. Because Airbyte is an open-source platform, many of its connectors are also open source and maintained by community contributors. Fivetran’s supported connectors are developed, maintained, and supported by Fivetran.

Airbyte offers more than 700 connectors across its Cloud plans. Airbyte uses a grading system to indicate what users can expect from individual connectors, including Airbyte Managed, Marketplace, and Custom connectors. Users can also develop connectors for unsupported sources using Airbyte's Connector Development Kit (CDK) or Connector Builder, a no-code UI for building source connectors. Connector Builder also includes an AI assistant in beta.

Fivetran offers connectors for the most popular data sources and destinations (see a complete list of connectors), including log-based change data capture (CDC) connectors for companies with high volume on-premises data processing databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, SAP HANA and DB2. Beyond log-based CDC, Fivetran provides necessary capture capabilities for SAP ERP, both ECC and S/4HANA. In addition, Fivetran enables customers to implement their own connectors using Fivetran Connector SDK. The Fivetran Connector SDK enables customers to quickly write Python-based data integration scripts while hosting the code in the Fivetran cloud to streamline development and maintenance for custom sources.

In early February 2023, Fivetran announced a new offering that brings more SaaS connectors to market at an accelerated pace, along with a program to deliver them to enterprises by request. Leveraging the latest in generative AI and natural language processing technologies, Fivetran Lite connectors can be built in as little as 30 days, and Fivetran has introduced hundreds of new connectors since its release, bringing the total number of fully-managed connectors to more than 700.

With the acquisition of Census (now Fivetran Activations), Fivetran customers gain access to an additional capability in the form of reverse ETL. By syncing enriched data back into operational tools such as CRMs, marketing platforms, support systems, and more, teams can act on insights immediately within tools they already use and automatically trigger workflows. 

In summary, though both platforms support hundreds of data sources and destinations, their connector development and maintenance models differ. Airbyte offers extensibility through its open-source ecosystem, CDK, and Connector Builder, while Fivetran develops and manages its supported connectors and offers Connector SDK for custom sources. When comparing the platforms, consider the specific connectors you need, who maintains them, and how much ongoing connector management your team wants to own.

For data engineers seeking robust and complete connectors that are fully supported, uniformly maintained and managed 24/7, Fivetran offers a more commercial experience with traditional support models and service level agreements. Customers can expect connectors to be developed in a standardized, non-crowdsourced fashion that follows consistent practices. Furthermore, Fivetran customers don’t have to make infrastructure decisions or concern themselves with resource provisioning, hosting and patching.

Because connector capabilities can differ by source, plan, and platform, we recommend comparing the connectors most important to your use case at the table and column level. It’s also worth reviewing Fivetran’s extensive entity relationship diagrams, or ERDs, to understand exactly which tables and columns are available. Security and governance capabilities should also be compared by plan: Both platforms offer controls for limiting or protecting sensitive data, although the specific features and availability differ.

Also consider that data sources may change their APIs, schemas, or extraction methods with new product releases. Fivetran manages and updates its fully managed connectors as these changes occur. With Airbyte, maintenance responsibility depends on the connector type and deployment model, so it’s important to understand who maintains the connectors your organization relies on.

Setup and scalability

Setup and scalability options have direct implications on the speed of implementation and the security of data within your organization. Different deployment options offer different tradeoffs in terms of ease of use and security. 

Airbyte offers self-hosted, managed cloud, and hybrid deployment options. Airbyte Core is open source and self-hosted; Airbyte Cloud is a managed cloud offering; and Enterprise Flex uses a hybrid architecture in which the data plane runs in the customer's cloud, VPC, or on-premises environment while Airbyte manages the control plane.

For the self-hosted Airbyte Core experience, you would start by:

• Installing Airbyte
• Configuring the infrastructure required to run the Airbyte instance
• Accessing the Airbyte UI through your host environment
• Mapping your source and destination
• Confirming the connections
• Syncing data

The self-hosted offering requires more than infrastructure — it also requires expertise in areas such as DevOps, network administration, and application security. For organizations that want control over their deployment and are comfortable managing the underlying infrastructure, that flexibility can be an advantage. Organizations that don't want to manage the platform themselves can instead consider Airbyte Cloud or Enterprise Flex.

Airbyte’s Cloud setup provides a web-based, cloud-hosted user experience that is clean, simple to use, and can be completed within five minutes:

• Connect to your source
• Connect to your destination
• Select your source data
• Sync data to your destination

Fivetran has two deployment options: an entirely web-based SaaS deployment and a hybrid deployment that combines cloud-based and on-premises data sources while using the web-based Fivetran UI as a control layer. The initial setup for our SaaS deployment can be completed within five minutes:

• Connect to your destination
• Choose your data source(s)
• Select your source data
• Sync data to your destination

Fivetran’s hybrid deployment option blends our easy to use SaaS UI with the security of local data processing. The hybrid agent is installed similarly to the Airbyte self-hosted solution, however the Fivetran Hybrid Agent automatically updates itself whenever a new version is released and will always pull the latest version of our Fivetran built connectors for your data whenever a sync is started.

In summary, both Fivetran and Airbyte offer managed cloud experiences designed to simplify data integration, and both offer options for organizations that need data processing within their own environments. Fivetran offers fully managed SaaS and Hybrid Deployment, while Airbyte offers Airbyte Core, managed Airbyte Cloud plans, and Enterprise Flex for hybrid deployments. When comparing the platforms, consider not only where data is processed, but also how much infrastructure, connector maintenance, configuration, and ongoing platform management your team wants to own.

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Mission-critical work

As organizations become more sophisticated with data and use it to make business decisions, the importance of reliability will grow. Questions of support, uptime, and service level agreements matter less for customers early in the data integration process. However, the more an organization comes to depend on its data, the more important its data integration pipelines become.

Whether self-hosting Airbyte Core, using a hybrid deployment such as Airbyte Enterprise Flex or Fivetran Hybrid Deployment, or using a fully managed cloud offering, it’s never too early to think about what may be mission critical for your business months or even years into the future.

Airbyte's support and service levels vary by plan. Airbyte Cloud plans include access to support through its support portal, while Pro and Enterprise Flex include premium support with additional response-time commitments. Connector support and service levels can also vary, so organizations evaluating Airbyte for mission-critical workloads should review the coverage for the specific plan and connectors they intend to use.

Fivetran is a cloud-hosted, enterprise-ready platform built to support mission-critical systems and data flows. The level of support provided depends on the plan selected, with SLA details published on the Fivetran website. All platform-provided, non-custom connectors are fully supported and maintained by Fivetran, including connectors used with Fivetran Hybrid Deployment.

Both platforms offer support for production data workloads, but their support models, service levels, connector coverage, and deployment responsibilities differ. Organizations should compare these details based on the specific connectors and workloads they consider mission critical.

Security and privacy

Data integration tools are powerful and can ingest data from a wide variety of sources, including those with sensitive information (PII, classified, proprietary, or competitive). Data access is an important necessity for modern companies, but it must be done responsibly so as to protect one of a business’s most important assets: its data.

According to an IBM study, the average data breach cost in 2024 rose to $4.9 million. Data security must be a critical priority in your search for a data integration solution.

Airbyte offers thorough technical documentation for securing its Open Source and Cloud products. They provide a secure environment for customers following industry standard practices. Airbyte completed the SOC2 Type 2 data compliance certification and plans to undergo an independent review annually. Most Airbyte connectors require keys, secrets, or passwords. Airbyte Cloud encrypts all data using HTTPS. Encryption features vary between platforms.

Fivetran adheres to industry-leading security standards and protocols following an extensive list of compliance and regulatory assurances, including SOC 2 Type 2, PCI-DSS, ISO27001, HIPAA, and GDPR. Fivetran uses two-factor authentication for all user accounts, with strong password controls. In addition, Fivetran allows for Single Sign-On with SAML 2.0 and a list of industry-standard identity providers. Role-based access controls are available to manage user access to connectors and more. Data is encrypted at rest and in transit. These certifications and features extend also to the Hybrid Deployment solution that is offered by Fivetran.

Fivetran offers advanced security features like column blocking and column hashing, which means that specific columns can be blocked or hashed so as not to be stored insecurely or inappropriately in a data destination. These and other features have implications for GDPR and other PII-related compliance requirements.

All in all, both Fivetran and Airbyte provide security controls for protecting data in transit and at rest, along with options for organizations with more advanced security and deployment requirements. Specific capabilities vary by plan and deployment model, so organizations should compare features such as private networking, column-level controls, encryption, hashing, access management, and compliance certifications against their requirements.

Advanced features

Depending on the connectors and your company’s specific use case, you might benefit from advanced features in your data integration solution. In this section, we compare Fivetran and Airbyte’s advanced features using the Salesforce data connector as a reference.

Summary: Both platforms offer advanced capabilities for schema management, transformations, and protecting sensitive data, although feature availability and implementation differ by platform and plan. When comparing the 2, evaluate the specific connector and security capabilities required for your use case.

Support and documentation

Ongoing vendor support and access to extensive and consistent documentation are essential areas to consider when choosing a data integration solution. These help teams set up faster and resolve issues quickly.

All Fivetran customers have 24/7 access to a team of technical specialists. They work with customers to troubleshoot technical issues as quickly as possible via emails, calls or through its live chat support feature. Fivetran also has extensive documentation to help users answer their questions.

Airbyte Cloud customers have access to support through Airbyte's support portal. Pro and Enterprise Flex include premium support, including 24/5 coverage and first-response SLAs for critical and general issues. Airbyte also provides documentation and community resources for users.

In summary, both Fivetran and Airbyte offer support and documentation, with the level and structure of support varying by plan.

Pricing and costs

Airbyte and Fivetran take different approaches to pricing, so it’s important to understand how each model works and how costs could scale for your organization.

Airbyte pricing varies by plan. Airbyte Cloud Standard and Plus use consumption-based pricing tied to data volume, while Pro and Enterprise Flex use capacity-based pricing with fixed annual commitments. For its consumption-based plans, costs vary based on the volume of rows or GBs of data moved. Customers are not charged for data normalization, canceled jobs, or writes to databases or destinations.

While we’re on the topic of pricing and costs, it’s worth noting that Airbyte is not entirely free open-source software. According to its License FAQ page, connectors are licensed under a standard MIT license, and the Core product is licensed under an ELv2 license, which notably restricts Airbyte customers from providing Airbyte directly to others as a managed service. Premium Cloud and Enterprise features are closed source, but you can stay apprised of updates on its public roadmap.

Fivetran uses a consumption-based pricing model based on the number of rows you sync. Each month’s consumption is calculated based on monthly active rows (MAR) across all connectors and destinations in your account. MAR is the number of distinct primary keys synced from the source system to your destination in a given calendar month. Unit costs decrease as usage increases. Transformations and platform connectors are free of charge, and each connector includes a 14-day trial, even after your initial free trial period has expired. You can use Fivetran’s pricing calculator to get a sense of how costs scale.

There are 5 pricing options suited to different use cases, including a Free Plan for smaller companies that can use Fivetran up to 500,000 MAR at no cost. With 1 million monthly active rows on the Enterprise Plan, the estimated cost is $1,000 per month.

Both Airbyte and Fivetran offer multiple pricing options designed for different usage patterns and organizational needs. Because the platforms measure and price usage differently — and Airbyte's pricing model also varies by plan — compare expected costs using your own workloads, data volumes, deployment requirements, and anticipated growth before choosing a data integration solution.

Conclusion

Between Airbyte and Fivetran, Fivetran stands out for the product’s maturity, reliability, and ease of use.

Both Airbyte and Fivetran offer options for organizations that need greater control over where data is processed. Airbyte Enterprise Flex uses a hybrid architecture in which the data plane runs in the customer's environment while Airbyte manages the control plane. Fivetran Hybrid Deployment similarly enables local data processing while Fivetran manages the platform and its supported connectors. The right approach depends on your infrastructure, security, data residency, and operational requirements.

When comparing Airbyte and Fivetran, there are several key considerations beyond headline pricing. Consider how each pricing model applies to your expected workload, how much platform and connector maintenance your team wants to own, which deployment model meets your security and data residency requirements, and whether the connectors you rely on provide the depth, reliability, governance, and support your workloads require. Features such as schema management, column-level controls, private networking, transformations, and support are available across both platforms in different forms and, in some cases, on different plans.

In the end, you must choose a solution that best meets your organization’s needs and your use case. 

If your organization prioritizes a fully managed experience with standardized connectors, minimal infrastructure management, and centralized vendor support, those factors should weigh heavily in your evaluation. If extensibility, open-source tooling, or greater control over how connectors and infrastructure are deployed are priorities, consider those alongside the operational resources they require. Ultimately, compare both platforms against the specific sources, destinations, security requirements, service levels, and workloads that matter most to your organization.

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