Census vs Matillion For ETL/ELT in 2025
Census syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce and Hubspot (Reverse ETL), while Matillion enables data teams to build and manage pipelines across cloud data platforms like Snowflake and Redshift (ETL/ELT). In this article, we'll compare Census and Matillion to see which one is the best ETL solution for your needs.
What are Census and Matillion?
Census
Census is a Reverse ETL platform that syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, and ad platforms.
It ensures that your business tools are always up-to-date with the latest information from your data warehouse.
Matillion
Matillion is a cloud-native ETL/ELT platform that empowers data teams to construct and oversee pipelines across cloud data platforms like Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, and Azure Synapse.
It features a low-code interface and push-down transformations for streamlined data processing.
Compare Census and Matillion
Census
Matillion
Key Features
- Sync data from your warehouse to various tools (Reverse ETL)
- Utilize workspaces for better organization
- Leverage a white-label API for seamless integration
Key Features
- Sync to Warehouse (ETL/ELT)
- Contemporary User Experience
Limitations
- There is a cap on the number of synced fields for the Professional plan.
- Pricing is not designed to scale, as it is based on a per-field pricing model.
- Syncs more frequent than every 15 minutes require the Enterprise plan.
- Syncing to data warehouses is not supported.
Limitations
- Challenging version control and visibility of change logs
- Outdated point-and-click interface
- Supports only ETL, lacks Reverse ETL capabilities
- Expensive for the features offered
Pricing
Census provides three primary pricing options: a limited free plan, a Professional plan beginning at $350 per month, and customizable Enterprise plans. For real-time sync capabilities and access to their "Audience Hub" features, the Enterprise plan is necessary.
Pricing
Matillion's pricing model is consumption-based, where users buy credits that can be used for both Matillion ETL and Data Loader services, with costs influenced by virtual core hours for ETL processing and the volume of data rows for loading.
Pricing is also affected by deployment size, execution runtime, and support needs, making it flexible to accommodate different business requirements.
Reviews
Using Census has a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars. Some users find Census to be expensive, especially for scaling 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.
Reviews
Using Matillion has a rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars. Users have reported challenges with version control, particularly when merging branches, and have noted that certain components are less versatile, leading to reliance on custom SQL scripts.
Some reviews mention a steep learning curve for advanced features and limitations in testing capabilities. Check out more of their reviews here.
Why customers are switching to Polytomic
Polytomic combines ETL, Reverse ETL, and CDC streaming in a single platform so you can move data to and from your data warehouse without managing multiple ETL tools.
- Loved by Data Teams: One single vendor for all ETL and Reverse ETL, covering high-scale CDC streaming, full SQL support, and Terraform integration.
- Easy for RevOps and Marketing: Point-and-click pipelines with power-user features like real-time SOQL transformations on Salesforce and native integrations with ad platforms.
- Integrations Powering AI Agents: White-label API with native clients for unified ETL; deep integrations with your customers’ GTM stack, finance tools, and data warehouses with fully managed authentication.
- Enterprise-ready: Self-hosting option, multi-tenant workspaces, fine-grained RBAC permissions, high scalability, and 30–50% cost savings from platform consolidation. Plus, support from engineers—in minutes, not days.
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.