Azure Data Factory vs Fivetran
ETL & data extraction head-to-head for ERP teams: evidenced capabilities, published pricing, and which ERPs each actually integrates with.
| Starting price | Consumption-based, no seat licence | Consumption (Monthly Active Rows), not per user |
| Deployment | Cloud, Hybrid | Cloud, Hybrid |
| Company size | — | SMB, Mid-market, Enterprise |
| Stated ERP integrations | SAP, Oracle Fusion Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365 | SAP, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Oracle Fusion Cloud, Workday |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Fivetran, Inc. |
Our take
Where Azure Data Factory leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 17 of the 33 capabilities where they differ (led by visual, no-code transformation builder and visual pipeline/workflow builder).
Where Fivetran leads
- Stronger evidenced coverage on 16 of the 33 capabilities where they differ (led by managed dbt integration and data lake / lakehouse destinations).
- Stated NetSuite, Workday integration the alternative doesn't list.
Where they differ
The 33 capabilities (of 52 in the ETL & data extraction taxonomy) where the evidence separates them, biggest gaps first. “Not evidenced” means our research found no public documentation of this capability — the vendor may still offer it. Confirm on a demo.
| Capability | ||
|---|---|---|
| Visual, no-code transformation builderTransformation & Modeling | Core strength Mapping Data Flows: code-free canvas on Azure-managed Spark clusters | Not evidenced |
| Managed dbt integrationTransformation & Modeling | Not evidenced | Core strength Managed orchestration of dbt Core and dbt Cloud, including a prebuilt SAP dbt data model |
| Visual pipeline/workflow builderOrchestration & Scheduling | Core strength Visual, code-free pipeline designer | Not evidenced |
| Conditional & branching pipeline logicOrchestration & Scheduling | Core strength ForEach, If Condition, Until, Execute Pipeline, Lookup, Wait, Web/Webhook activities | Not evidenced |
| Data lake / lakehouse destinationsDestinations & Activation | Not evidenced | Core strength Managed Data Lake Service writes into Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake Storage and Google Cloud Storage |
| Reverse ETL / operational activationDestinations & Activation | Not evidenced | Core strength Activations: 200+ supported destination applications for pushing warehouse data back into CRM/marketing/support tools |
| Third-party compliance certificationsGovernance, Security & Compliance | Not evidenced | Core strength SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports, ISO 27001, PCI DSS Level 1, HITRUST and HIPAA BAA |
| Pipeline monitoring dashboardMonitoring & Operations | Core strength Visual pipeline and activity-run monitoring with list and Gantt views | Not evidenced |
| Custom connector SDK / builderConnector Catalog & Source Coverage | Not evidenced | Supported Connector SDK for code-based custom connectors; AI Connector Agent (beta) |
| Generic database & API accessConnector Catalog & Source Coverage | Supported Generic HTTP, OData, ODBC and REST connectors | Not evidenced |
| Full refresh syncExtraction & Replication | Not evidenced | Supported |
| Incremental syncExtraction & Replication | Not evidenced | Supported |
| Table & column-level sync controlExtraction & Replication | Not evidenced | Supported Table- and column-level sync control (include/exclude, sync mode) |
| Code-based transforms (SQL/Python scripting)Transformation & Modeling | Not evidenced | Supported Managed dbt Core / dbt Cloud project orchestration |
| Parameterized, reusable pipelinesOrchestration & Scheduling | Supported Parameters and variables for reusable, parameterised pipelines | Not evidenced |
| CI/CD & infrastructure-as-codeOrchestration & Scheduling | Supported Full CI/CD support via Azure DevOps and GitHub source control | Not evidenced |
| Database & flat-file destinationsDestinations & Activation | Supported SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Teradata, DB2 and more | Not evidenced |
| Role-based access controlGovernance, Security & Compliance | Supported Microsoft Entra ID authentication, managed identities and role-based access control | Not evidenced |
| SSO / SAML authenticationGovernance, Security & Compliance | Supported Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD) authentication | Not evidenced |
| Encryption at rest & in transitGovernance, Security & Compliance | Supported Microsoft-managed or customer-managed keys at rest; TLS in transit | Not evidenced |
| PII masking / column-level blockingGovernance, Security & Compliance | Not evidenced | Supported Column blocking and column hashing for sensitive fields |
| Failure & anomaly alertingMonitoring & Operations | Supported Alerts on pipeline, activity, trigger and integration-runtime metrics | Not evidenced |
| Run history & activity logsMonitoring & Operations | Supported Per-run consumption reporting and rerun/rerun-from-failure support | Not evidenced |
| Schema-change notificationsMonitoring & Operations | Not evidenced | Supported Schema change review workflow with a dedicated Schema tab |
| Log-based Change Data CaptureExtraction & Replication | Supported Named SAP CDC connector; general CDC not detailed for other sources | Core strength SAP ECC on Oracle/SQL Server replicated via HVR log-based CDC; log-based sync mode across supported connectors |
| Schema drift detection & propagationExtraction & Replication | Supported In Mapping Data Flows | Core strength Automatic schema detection plus a dedicated schema change review workflow |
| Checkpointing & resumable syncsExtraction & Replication | Partial Rerun / rerun-from-failure activity support, not automatic mid-sync checkpointing | Not evidenced |
| SQL / ELT pushdown transformsTransformation & Modeling | Not evidenced | Partial Transformations run via managed dbt inside the destination warehouse, not a dedicated SQL-pushdown engine |
| Cloud data warehouse destinationsDestinations & Activation | Supported Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery connectors; Azure Synapse as a Mapping Data Flows target | Core strength |
| Hybrid deployment / on-prem execution agentDeployment & Runtime Architecture | Core strength Self-hosted integration runtime, Azure-SSIS IR and VNet injection for on-premises/private-network sources | Supported Hybrid Deployment: data processing runs inside the customer's own cloud environment |
| Write-back through the ERP's own application layerEnterprise ERP Depth & AI Automation | Partial SAP and Oracle connectors documented as bi-directional; specific write-back objects/mechanism not detailed | Not evidenced |
| Real-time, synchronous request-reply integrationEnterprise ERP Depth & AI Automation | Partial Web/Webhook activities support synchronous calls within a pipeline; not a dedicated request-reply broker | Not evidenced |
| AI-assisted pipeline/connector buildingEnterprise ERP Depth & AI Automation | Not evidenced | Partial AI Connector Agent (beta), scoped to generating custom connectors |
Both grade identically on the other 19 capabilities — see each product's full profile: Azure Data Factory, Fivetran.
Azure Data Factory vs Fivetran — FAQs
Is Azure Data Factory or Fivetran better for ERP integration?
Both state integrations with SAP, Oracle Fusion Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics 365. Fivetran additionally lists NetSuite, Workday. Always verify the connector against your ERP version with a reference customer.
Which is cheaper, Azure Data Factory or Fivetran?
Neither publishes a list price — both quote. Ask each for the all-in first-year cost at your seat count, as one number, and compare those.
Get pricing for both
Tell us your ERP, seat count and must-haves and we'll come back with an independent view of what Azure Data Factory and Fivetran should each cost you — and whether a third option belongs on your shortlist.