Airbyte vs Talend For ETL/ELT in 2025
Airbyte consolidates data in warehouses, lakes, and databases, while Talend combines integration, quality, and governance across environments. In this article, we'll compare Airbyte and Talend to see which one is the best ETL solution.
What are Airbyte and Talend?
Airbyte
Airbyte is an open-source ETL 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.
Talend
Talend is a top-tier platform designed for enterprise-level ETL, quality, and governance, all within a unified solution.
It facilitates integration across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, providing both flexibility and scalability.
Compare Airbyte and Talend
Airbyte
Talend
Key Features
- Transfer data from various systems to data warehouses (ETL)
- Extensive range of built-in connectors
- Self-service capabilities
- Thriving open-source community
Key Features
- Sync to Warehouse (ETL/ELT)
Limitations
- Numerous connectors are only “community-supported”.
- Setup process is complex.
- Fragile and underdeveloped at scale.
- Incapable of transferring data from warehouses to SaaS applications (No Reverse ETL).
Limitations
- Only supports ETL, lacks reverse ETL capabilities
- Not dependable for large-scale operations
- Complex GUI and lacks code compatibility
- Costly legacy platform
Pricing
Airbyte provides diverse 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 differs in hosting, sync frequency, and features, with the Cloud plan charging extra for frequent syncs and the Team and Enterprise plans offering various add-ons.
Pricing
Talend's pricing is customized based on the specific data integration products and services required, with detailed information available upon request.
As part of Qlik, Talend offers various solutions, including Talend Data Fabric and Qlik Replicate, with pricing tailored to the deployment scale, data volume, and support needs.
Reviews
Using Airbyte has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. 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.
Reviews
Talend Data Integration has a rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars. Users have expressed concerns about the Java-based application's performance, particularly its speed and handling of large data volumes.
Some reviews highlight challenges with the interface and the need for better scalability. Check out more of their reviews here.
Why customers are switching to Polytomic
Polytomic unifies ETL/ELT, Reverse ETL, and database CDC into a single platform—so your data moves in and out of the data warehouse without relying on multiple vendors.
- Built for Data Teams: Consolidate your ETL and Reverse ETL needs with one solution. Polytomic handles high-throughput CDC streaming, full SQL transformations, and support for infrastructure-as-code.
- RevOps and Marketing-Friendly: Launch data pipelines to your CRM and ad platforms in minutes with an intuitive UI, plus advanced tools like live SOQL transformations on Salesforce data.
- API for AI & Product Teams: Deliver embedded customer integrations via our white-labeled native API. Polytomic supports seamless syncing into customer CRMs and data warehouses with built-in auth and integrations with the whole GTM stack.
- Enterprise-Grade: Deploy on-prem or in the cloud, manage complex orgs with multi-tenant workspaces and fine-grained RBAC permissions, and cut costs by 30–50% through platform consolidation. Backed by fast, responsive support from real data engineers.
What is Polytomic?
Polytomic
Data teams appreciate our single ETL platform with unified monitoring to centralize all data movement. We have full SQL support and first-class support for infrastructure-as-code.
RevOps and marketing teams use our no-code UI to quickly and independently set up syncs for product data to their CRM and ad platforms.
Built for enterprise scale, Polytomic can be self-hosted, handles billions of rows reliably, and has multi-tenant workspaces with fine-grained access controls.
All the features you need, on the platform that does it all
Replace multiple vendors
Reduce costs and simplify workflows
One platform for all syncs
ETL, Reverse ETL, CDC, iPaaS, APIs, and spreadsheets
Sync only what's changed
Save on API limits and compute costs
Point and click
Select and filter your data without writing code
SQL query support
Powerful transformations when you need them
Pull from any API
No more glue code for custom integrations
Self-hosting available
Turnkey deployment to your private cloud
Enterprise-ready
SOC 2, GDPR, permissions, and audit logs
Integrated with your favorite tools
Sync any of your proprietary data from databases, data warehouses, and spreadsheets to the business systems you use.
Pricing begins at $500/month
Standard
Everything in Basic, plus:
- Sync to and from databases, warehouses, spreadsheets, apps, and APIs
- Unlimited users and connections
- Multiple sync destinations
- Live chat support with engineers
Enterprise
Everything in Standard, plus:
- On-prem deployment
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Dedicated engineer
- Phone support
Get hands-on with Polytomic
See how easy it is to sync data to the tools your team actually uses—no code, no waiting.