Census vs Talend For ETL/ELT in 2025

Census vs Talend For ETL/ELT in 2025

Census syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce and Hubspot, while Talend combines ETL, quality, and governance in a single solution. In this article, we'll compare Census and Talend to see which one is the best ETL solution for your unified data warehouse.

What are Census and Talend?

Census logo

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.

Talend logo

Talend

Talend is an enterprise-grade platform that merges ETL, quality, and governance into a single solution.

It supports integration across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments, ensuring flexibility and scalability.

Compare Census and Talend

Census logo

Census

Talend logo

Talend

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)

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

  • Only supports ETL, lacks reverse ETL capabilities
  • Not dependable for large-scale operations
  • Complex GUI and lacks code compatibility
  • Costly legacy platform

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

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 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. Check out more of their reviews here.

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.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

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

Polytomic

Polytomic combines high-scale ETL, Reverse ETL, and CDC streaming in a single platform so you can move data to and from your data warehouses, databases, CRMs, finance applications, marketing tools, and APIs, without managing brittle pipelines or multiple vendors.

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.
Polytomic Platform
Trusted by Data and ops teams
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All the features you need, on the platform that does it all

Replace multiple vendors

Replace multiple vendors

Reduce costs and simplify workflows

One platform for all syncs

One platform for all syncs

ETL, Reverse ETL, CDC, iPaaS, APIs, and spreadsheets

Sync only what's changed

Sync only what's changed

Save on API limits and compute costs

Point and click

Point and click

Select and filter your data without writing code

SQL query support

SQL query support

Powerful transformations when you need them

Pull from any API

Pull from any API

No more glue code for custom integrations

Self-hosting available

Self-hosting available

Turnkey deployment to your private cloud

Enterprise-ready

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.

Snowflake logo
Salesforce logo
Hubspot logo
Marketo logo
Google sheets logo
Postgres logo
Airtable logo
MongoDB logo

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.

More ETL Vendor Comparisons

Frequently Asked Questions

ETL / ELT move data into a warehouse (ETL transforms first, ELT transforms after load). Reverse ETL sends modeled warehouse data back out to SaaS apps like Salesforce so teams can act on it. Think "data warehouse as a destination" vs. "data warehouse as a source."