Top 6 Hightouch Alternatives & Competitors in 2025
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.
What is Hightouch?
Hightouch
Hightouch is a versatile reverse ETL and AI platform tailored for marketing and personalization, empowering businesses to extract insights, execute campaigns, and develop AI-driven agents using their data. It features an AI Decisioning Platform for lifecycle marketing and a Composable Customer Data Platform (CDP) that is adaptable, secure, and rapidly deployable, all 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 provides a Starter Plan that includes a free tier at no cost and a paid tier priced at $350 per month, billed annually with a 20% discount. For larger organizations, the Business Plan offers custom pricing designed to meet specific requirements, featuring unlimited user seats and advanced personalization options.
Why Consider Hightouch Alternatives
While Hightouch is a well-known player in the data integration space, it has its limitations that prompt users to seek alternatives. Here are some reasons why companies consider other options:
- Does Not Support Syncing to Data Warehouses: Hightouch focuses on Reverse ETL, which means it doesn't support moving data into your data warehouse. This limitation forces users to rely on additional tools for ETL processes.
- Excess Features and Pricing for Just Reverse ETL: Hightouch offers a range of features, but if your primary need is Reverse ETL, you might find yourself paying for functionalities you don't use. This can make it an expensive choice for specific use cases.
- Lack of Unlimited Workspaces: Hightouch does not offer unlimited workspaces, which can be a significant drawback for organizations with multiple teams or departments. This limitation can lead to increased complexity in managing data access and workflows.
Below is a table breaking down six alternatives to Hightouch and their tradeoffs.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown: Alternatives & Competitors
Top 6 Hightouch 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.
Census
Census is a Reverse ETL platform that syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, and ad platforms.
Key Features
- Sync from data warehouse to tools (Reverse ETL)
- Workspaces
- White-label API
Limitations
- Cap on number of synced fields for Professional plan
- Pricing not designed per scale (per field pricing)
- Enterprise plan required for syncs more frequent than 15 minutes
- Cannot 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.
Reviews
Census has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Some users find Census to be expensive, especially for medium-to-small companies. There are mentions of feature limitations and missing features. A few users noted that some functionalities, like on-the-fly transformations, are lacking in certain pricing tiers. One review mentioned that the tool is still young and has limited connections to SaaS tools. Check out more of their reviews here.
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.
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.
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.
Why customers are switching to Polytomic
Many organizations are making the switch to Polytomic for its comprehensive data integration capabilities and user-friendly features.
- ETL and Reverse ETL: Polytomic facilitates smooth data transfers to and from data warehouses, ensuring your data remains synchronized across all platforms.
- Direct SaaS application sync: Transfer data effortlessly between different SaaS applications, eliminating the need for intermediate storage and streamlining your data processes.
- Self-hosting capabilities: Host Polytomic on your private cloud to retain complete 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 boosting operational efficiency.
- Robust API: Polytomic provides a comprehensive standalone 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 personnel, enhancing both security and compliance.
