Top 6 Census Alternatives & Competitors in 2025
Census is a Reverse ETL platform that syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, and ad platforms.
What is Census?
Census
Census is a Reverse ETL tool designed to transfer data from your data warehouse to various SaaS applications, including Salesforce, Hubspot, and advertising platforms. This enables businesses to leverage their data more effectively by ensuring that critical information is consistently updated across all operational tools.
Key Features
- Sync from data warehouse to tools (Reverse ETL)
- Workspaces
- White-label API
Limitations
- Limited number of synced fields for Professional plan
- Pricing model not based on scale (per field pricing)
- Enterprise plan needed for syncs more frequent than 15 minutes
- Inability to sync to data warehouses (No ETL/ELT)
Pricing
Census offers three main pricing plans: the limited free plan, a Professional plan starting at $350/month, and custom Enterprise plans. The Enterprise plan is required for real-time sync capabilities and their “Audience Hub” features.
Why Consider Census Alternatives
While Census is a robust tool for data synchronization, there are several reasons why companies might seek alternatives:
- Cap on Number of Synced Fields: The Professional plan limits the number of fields you can sync, which can be restrictive for businesses with extensive data needs.
- Pricing Not Designed Per Scale: Census does not offer per-field pricing, which can be a disadvantage for companies looking for more granular control over their costs.
- Enterprise Plan Required for Frequent Syncs: If you need data syncs more frequent than every 15 minutes, you'll need to upgrade to the Enterprise plan, which can be cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses.
- Cannot Sync to Data Warehouses: Census does not support ETL/ELT processes, meaning you can't sync data to data warehouses, limiting its utility for comprehensive data management strategies.
Below is a table breaking down six alternatives to Census and their tradeoffs.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown: Alternatives & Competitors
Top 6 Census Alternatives & Competitors
Polytomic
All the features you need, on the platform that does it all
Replace multiple vendors
One platform for all syncs
Sync only what’s changed
Point and click
SQL query support
Pull from any API
Self-hosting available
Enterprise-ready
Move data between all of your favorite tools
Pricing begins at $500/month
Stitch Data
Stitch Data is a cloud-based ETL service designed to facilitate the transfer of data from more than 140 sources to a data warehouse. The platform aims to simplify the data migration process, requiring minimal IT expertise from its users. In 2018, the company was acquired by Qlik, a legacy data provider, which subsequently integrated Stitch Data with Talend.
Key Features
- Move data from sources to warehouse (ETL)
- No coding required
- SOC2 certified
Limitations
- Bugs and instability at scale
- Slow to update to connector API changes
- No Reverse ETL
- Lack of growth for new connector support
Pricing
Stitch Data offers three main pricing plans: the Standard Plan starting at $100 per month, the Advanced Plan at $1,250 per month billed annually, and the Premium Plan at $2,500 per month billed annually. Each plan is designed to cater to different user needs and data volumes, with features scaling accordingly.
Reviews
Stitch Data has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars based on 68 reviews. Users have reported concerns about the reliability of the product and the quality of customer support. Previous Stitch Data customers cite minimal new work on existing connectors, slow response times to outages, and unwillingness to build new connectors. Check out more of their reviews here.
Retool’s Director of RevOps switched from Stitch Data to Polytomic to consolidate all their bidirectional ETL jobs.
Fivetran
Fivetran is a popular ETL tool that moves data from SaaS apps, databases, and files into data warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, and Redshift.
Key Features
- Widely-known ETL vendor
- Large number of built-in connectors
- Plug-and-play syncing into data warehouses
- Simple to use for smaller businesses
Limitations
- Unable to sync back into SaaS applications (no Reverse ETL)
- Frequent price increases
- High cost at medium scale and beyond
- Limited and unreliable customer support
- Slow response to new connector requests
Pricing
Fivetran provides various pricing options, beginning with a Free Plan at no cost. The Standard Plan is priced at $500 per million monthly active rows (MAR), while the Enterprise Plan costs $667 per million MAR. For those requiring higher security and compliance, the Business Critical Plan is available at $1,067 per million MAR. As of March 2025, bulk sync discounts are applied on a per connector basis rather than across the entire workspace, leading to increased costs for numerous users.
Reviews
Fivetran has an overall rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars. Users have raised concerns about the pricing model, noting that it can become expensive as data volume increases. Additionally, there are complaints about the limited number of connectors and the lack of features in some existing connectors. Customer support has also been a point of contention, with users reporting below-average assistance for more complex issues.
Check out more of their reviews here.
Hevo Data
Hevo Data is a no-code ETL platform that enables users to ingest, transform, and load data from more than 150 sources. It offers a way to manage data workflows without requiring coding skills. The platform supports various data sources, including databases, cloud applications, and more, facilitating the movement and transformation of data across different systems.
Key Features
- ETL data integration for syncing to data warehouses
- Works well at sub 5 million rows/month
- 150+ data sources
- Free tier available at small scale
Limitations
- Issues with scalability even at 5 million rows/month
- Slow support (even the Enterprise plan only offers 1hr support SLA)
- Unreliable for critical infrastructure
- No Reverse ETL offered
Pricing
Hevo Data's pricing structure is well-suited for companies with modest data requirements. They provide a generous free tier that allows up to 1 million events to be synced each month. For those needing more, their starter plan ranges from $299 to $949 per month, accommodating between 5 to 50 million monthly synced events. Additionally, Hevo offers Professional and Business Critical plans, which come with enhanced features for more demanding data needs.
Reviews
Hevo Data has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Users have enjoyed the low cost, especially for smaller companies. They often mention issues with data inaccuracy, unreliability at scale, and limitations in advanced transformations. Check out more of their reviews here.
Customers who switch from Hevo Data to Polytomic often do so from frustration with sync failures and missing records in the Hevo platform as they scale the amount of data synced.
Airbyte
Airbyte is an open-source data integration engine designed to consolidate data in data warehouses, lakes, and databases. It offers a range of solutions including Airbyte Cloud for quick setup, Airbyte Self-Managed Enterprise for secure data movement, and Airbyte Open Source, which is used by over 40,000 companies.
Key Features
- Move data from systems to data warehouses (ETL)
- Large number of included connectors
- Self-serve option
- Large open-source community
Limitations
- Many connectors are only “community-supported”
- Complicated setup procedure
- Fragile and underdeveloped at scale
- Incapable of transferring data from warehouses to SaaS applications (No Reverse ETL)
Pricing
Airbyte offers a range of pricing options, including a free Open Source plan for self-hosting, a volume-based Cloud plan, and capacity-based Team and Enterprise plans. Each plan varies in terms of hosting, sync frequency, and additional features, with the Cloud plan incurring extra costs for more frequent syncs and the Team and Enterprise plans offering multiple add-ons.
Reviews
Airbyte has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars based on 49 reviews. Users have reported issues with error reporting and poor documentation. There are also mentions of limited integrations and challenges with certain connectors, such as Google Sheets. Troubleshooting can be frustrating, especially for open-source users, and there are concerns about security when allowing Airbyte IPs to access databases. Check out more of their reviews here.
Polytomic customers that previously used Airbyte cite unreliability as they scale to millions of rows per month.
Hightouch
Hightouch is a reverse ETL and AI platform designed for marketing and personalization, enabling companies to find insights, run campaigns, and build AI agents using their data. It offers an AI Decisioning Platform for lifecycle marketing and a Composable Customer Data Platform (CDP) that is flexible, secure, and quick to deploy, built on top of a data warehouse.
Key Features
- Sync data with Reverse ETL
- Emphasis on AI features and marketing personalization
- Free tier to get started
Limitations
- Does not support syncing to data warehouses (No ETL)
- Excess features and pricing for just Reverse ETL
- Lack of unlimited workspaces
Pricing
Hightouch offers a Starter Plan with a free tier at $0 and a paid tier at $350 per month, billed annually with a 20% discount. For larger teams, the Business Plan features custom pricing tailored to specific needs, including unlimited user seats and advanced personalization features.
Reviews
Hightouch has a rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars. Some users mentioned that Hightouch can be expensive, especially for startups or when using the paid solution extensively. There are comments about the learning curve and the need for better error handling and debugging processes. The UI is sometimes described as confusing and not very intuitive. Error reporting, especially for large batches, needs improvement. Check out more of their reviews here.
Why customers are switching to Polytomic
Many organizations are turning to Polytomic for its comprehensive data integration capabilities, which streamline complex data workflows.
- ETL and Reverse ETL: Polytomic facilitates effortless data synchronization between your data warehouse and other applications, ensuring data consistency across your tech stack.
- Direct SaaS application sync: Transfer data directly between SaaS platforms without the need for intermediary storage solutions, simplifying your data management processes.
- Self-hosting capabilities: Host Polytomic on your private cloud infrastructure to retain full control over your data and meet rigorous security standards.
- Efficient database CDC: Capture and sync only the changes in your database, minimizing system load and enhancing operational efficiency.
- Robust API support: Polytomic provides a comprehensive API with native clients in multiple programming languages, including TypeScript, Python, and Go.
- Granular RBAC permissions: Implement detailed user permissions to ensure that sensitive data is accessible only to authorized users, bolstering security and compliance.
