Fivetran vs Matillion: Which is Better in 2026?
Fivetran and Matillion are both ETL & ELT tools, made for different people. Fivetran is for data teams that want managed connectors into a warehouse and would rather pay by usage than maintain sync code. Matillion is for warehouse teams on Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery or Redshift who want a visual pipeline canvas that still accepts SQL and Python.
Quick verdict
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose Fivetran if you want connectors that someone else keeps working when source APIs change. Choose Matillion if your team mixes analysts who like a canvas with engineers who write SQL.
Fivetran vs Matillion: Side by Side
| Fivetran | Matillion | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | ETL & ELT | ETL & ELT |
| What it is | Managed ELT connectors | Cloud ETL/ELT platform |
| How you pay | Monthly active rows per connection; monthly, yearly or pay-as-you-go | Credits for task hours and extra users |
| Free access | Free plan with 500,000 MAR a month | Free trial (length not stated) |
| Where it runs | Fivetran’s cloud | Matillion’s cloud, or hybrid on Scale |
| Connectors | Managed connector catalogue (count not stated on the pricing page) | Pre-built connectors (count not stated on the pricing page) |
| Pricing | Free · then usage-based | Usage-based |
| Starting price | Free tier available | Pay-as-you-go |
| Free tier | — | |
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.3 |
| Best for | ETL & ELT: managed connectors, MAR billing, warehouse loading | ETL & ELT: visual pipelines, Snowflake, low-code ETL |
Ratings are App Stack Builder’s editorial score out of 5, not an average of user reviews.
Pros & Cons
- Widest managed connector catalog
- Schema drift handled for you
- Free tier covers small pipelines
- Rate declines with volume
- MAR billing is hard to forecast
- Costs escalate fast on chatty tables
- Little control over sync internals
- Visual canvas and SQL/Python in the same pipeline
- Git built into every project
- Validation and sampling runs are not billed
- Streaming CDC on the Scale plan
- No published prices on any plan
- Credit billing needs forecasting
- Aimed at warehouse teams, not one-off scripts
Key Features Compared
Fivetran
- Free plan: 500,000 monthly active rows (MAR) for connections, 3,500 MAR for activations and 5,000 model runs a month
- Standard, Enterprise and Business Critical have no list price on the page; connection rates depend on volume and plan
- A $5 base charge applies to each Standard connection with 1 to 1 million MAR in a month
- Model runs above 5,000 cost $0.01 each, falling to $0.002 above 100,000
- Activations (reverse ETL, formerly Census syncs) are billed on MAR too
- 14-day trial, and every new connection gets 14 free days
Matillion
- Developer: 1 developer user, unlimited projects, pre-built connectors, built-in Git repository
- Teams: 5 developer users, audit log, standard support with an SLA
- Scale: custom SSO, hybrid cloud deployment, data lineage, streaming CDC and 180+ days of logs
- Consumption-based: credits for pipeline task hours and for extra developer users; no prices on the page
- Validation and sampling runs are not billed
Choose Fivetran if…
- You want to start free. Fivetran has a free tier and Matillion does not.
- You want connectors that someone else keeps working when source APIs change.
- Your pipelines are mostly SaaS apps and databases loading into one warehouse.
- You want ingestion, dbt transformations and reverse ETL from one vendor.
Choose Matillion if…
- Your team mixes analysts who like a canvas with engineers who write SQL.
- You want load and transform designed in the same tool.
- You need hybrid deployment or streaming CDC from one vendor.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fivetran better than Matillion?⌄
There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose Fivetran if you want connectors that someone else keeps working when source APIs change. Choose Matillion if your team mixes analysts who like a canvas with engineers who write SQL.
What is the difference between Fivetran and Matillion?⌄
What it is. Fivetran: Managed ELT connectors. Matillion: Cloud ETL/ELT platform. How you pay. Fivetran: Monthly active rows per connection; monthly, yearly or pay-as-you-go. Matillion: Credits for task hours and extra users. Free access. Fivetran: Free plan with 500,000 MAR a month. Matillion: Free trial (length not stated). Where it runs. Fivetran: Fivetran’s cloud. Matillion: Matillion’s cloud, or hybrid on Scale. Connectors. Fivetran: Managed connector catalogue (count not stated on the pricing page). Matillion: Pre-built connectors (count not stated on the pricing page).
Fivetran vs Matillion: which is cheaper?⌄
Fivetran pricing: Free · then usage-based. Matillion pricing: Usage-based. Confirm current pricing on each tool's official site, as plans change.
Which is rated higher, Fivetran or Matillion?⌄
On our editorial score, Fivetran is 4.4 out of 5 and Matillion is 4.3 out of 5, so Fivetran is slightly ahead. This is our own score, not an average of user reviews.
When should I skip both Fivetran and Matillion?⌄
Skip Fivetran if you need to forecast the bill exactly. MAR pricing moves with how often rows change; Airbyte sells fixed credit packs. Skip Matillion if you want a published price before talking to sales. Airbyte and Estuary list theirs.
Sources · tool facts checked November 2026
See more options in our guide to the best etl & elt tools for startups.
Still not sure which to pick?
Get a free, AI-powered tech stack, including the best etl & elt pick for your budget and team, in 60 seconds.