Hevo vs Census For ETL/ELT in 2025

Hevo vs Census For ETL/ELT in 2025

Hevo is a no-code ETL tool allowing users to ingest, transform, and load data from over 150 sources, and Census is a Reverse ETL platform that syncs data from your data warehouse to SaaS apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, and ad platforms. In this article, we'll compare Hevo and Census to see which one is the best ETL solution.

What are Hevo and Census?

Hevo logo

Hevo

Hevo is a no-code ETL tool that allows users to ingest, transform, and load data from over 150 sources.

It simplifies the process of managing data workflows without the need for coding expertise.

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 enables seamless data flow, ensuring your business tools are always up-to-date with the latest information from your data warehouse.

Compare Hevo and Census

Hevo logo

Hevo

Census logo

Census

Key Features

  • ETL data integration for syncing to data warehouses
  • Optimized for under 5 million rows per month
  • Supports over 150 data sources
  • Free tier available for small-scale usage

Key Features

  • Sync data from your warehouse to various tools (Reverse ETL)
  • Utilize workspaces for better organization
  • Access a white-label API for seamless integration

Limitations

  • Scalability issues, even with 5 million rows per month.
  • Support is slow, with the Enterprise plan offering only a 1-hour support SLA.
  • Unreliable for critical infrastructure needs.
  • Lacks Reverse ETL capabilities.

Limitations

  • Limit on the number of synced fields for the Professional plan
  • Pricing structure not based on scale (per field pricing)
  • Enterprise plan needed for syncs more frequent than every 15 minutes
  • Unable to sync to data warehouses

Pricing

Hevo Data’s pricing is ideal for companies with smaller data needs, offering a generous free tier that allows up to 1 million events to be synced per month. Their starter plan ranges from $299 to $949 per month, accommodating between 5 to 50 million monthly synced events, with Professional and Business Critical plans available for more advanced features.

Pricing

Census offers three main pricing plans: a limited free plan, a Professional plan starting at $350 per month, and custom Enterprise plans. The Enterprise plan is necessary for accessing real-time sync capabilities and the “Audience Hub” features.

With Census, users can choose from a free plan, a Professional plan beginning at $350 monthly, or tailored Enterprise plans. To utilize real-time sync and “Audience Hub” functionalities, the Enterprise plan is required.

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.

Reviews

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.

WHICH ONE SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

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

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.

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."