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Comparing Adverity with Azure Data Factory and Weld

Carolina Russ
Carolina Russ6 min read
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What is Adverity

Adverity is a standout data integration platform transforming siloed marketing data into actionable insights. With more than 600 marketing data connectors, it is designed for marketers to make better decisions and improve performance across all campaigns and channels.

Pros

  • Data extraction and loading
  • Flexibility and customization
  • Scalability
  • User-friendly interface
  • Unlimited data and connections

Cons

  • Expensive, especially for small businesses
  • Steep learning curve
  • Reporting capabilities could be improved
  • Initial setup complexity
  • Performance issues with large datasets

A reviewer on Capterra:

What I like about Adverity

Ease of use, various data connection points readily available for integration and extraction, ranging from Social platforms to various DSPs. Users can easily set up a frequent data update and even connect with other dashboards like Data Studio.

What I dislike about Adverity

Read full review

What is Azure Data Factory

Azure Data Factory (ADF) is Microsoft’s cloud-based data integration service for creating ETL/ELT pipelines. ADF supports a drag-and-drop pipeline designer, over 90 built-in connectors for Azure, on-premises, and SaaS data sources, and can execute transformations via Azure Databricks, U-SQL, or stored procedures. It also includes features for data orchestration, monitoring, and hybrid data integration scenarios.

Pros

  • 90+ built-in connectors (Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, etc.) and support for custom REST endpoints.
  • Visual pipeline orchestration with debug, parameterization, and Git integration for CI/CD.
  • Hybrid data integration via Self-hosted Integration Runtime for on-premises sources.
  • Integration with Azure Synapse, Databricks, and Azure Functions for flexible transformation and compute.

Cons

  • Complex pricing: charges per pipeline activity, per DIU for data flows, and for data movement across regions.
  • UI can be slow when working with large pipelines; error messages are often generic, requiring deeper investigation.
  • Steeper learning curve for advanced features (e.g., mapping data flows with Spark under the hood).

Azure Data Factory Documentation:

What I like about Azure Data Factory

ADF’s visual pipeline authoring and integration with other Azure services (Databricks, Synapse) make it easy to build end-to-end data workflows without managing infrastructure.

What I dislike about Azure Data Factory

Pricing is multifaceted (per activity run, data movement, SSIS integration), which can be hard to forecast. Debugging pipeline errors often requires sifting through activity logs.
Read full review

What is Weld

Weld is a powerful ETL platform that seamlessly integrates ELT, data transformations, reverse ETL, and AI-assisted features into one user-friendly solution. With its intuitive interface, Weld makes it easy for anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to build and manage data workflows. Known for its premium quality connectors, all built in-house, Weld ensures the highest quality and reliability for its users. It is designed to handle large datasets with near real-time data synchronization, making it ideal for modern data teams that require robust and efficient data integration solutions. Weld also leverages AI to automate repetitive tasks, optimize workflows, and enhance data transformation capabilities, ensuring maximum efficiency and productivity. Users can combine data from a wide variety of sources, including marketing platforms, CRMs, e-commerce platforms like Shopify, APIs, databases, Excel, Google Sheets, and more, providing a single source of truth for all their data.

Pros

  • Premium quality connectors and reliability
  • User-friendly and easy to set up
  • AI assistant
  • Very competitive and easy-to-understand pricing model
  • Reverse ETL option
  • Lineage, orchestration, and workflow features
  • Advanced transformation and SQL modeling capabilities
  • Ability to handle large datasets and near real-time data sync
  • Combines data from a wide range of sources for a single source of truth

Cons

  • Requires some technical knowledge around data warehousing and SQL
  • Limited features for advanced data teams

A reviewer on G2 said:

What I like about Weld

First and foremost, Weld is incredibly user-friendly. The graphical interface is intuitive, which makes it easy to build data workflows quickly and efficiently. Even with little experience in SQL and pipeline management, we found that Weld was straightforward and easy to use. What really impressed me, however, was Weld's flexibility. It was able to handle data from a wide variety of sources, including SQL databases, Google Sheets, and even APIs. The solution also allowed us to customize my data transformations in a way that best suited my needs. Whether I needed to clean data, join tables, or aggregate data, Weld had the necessary tools to accomplish the task. Weld's performance was also exceptional. I was able to run large-scale ETL jobs quickly and efficiently, with minimal downtime via a Snowflake instance and visualization via own-hosted Metabase. The solution's scalability meant that I could process more data without any issues. Another standout feature of Weld was its support. I never felt lost or unsure about how to use a particular feature, as the support team was always quick to respond to any questions or concerns that I had. Overall, I highly recommend Weld as an ETL solution. Its user-friendliness, flexibility, performance, and support make it an excellent choice for anyone looking to streamline their data integration processes. I will definitely be using Weld for all my ETL needs going forward.

What I dislike about Weld

Weld is still limited to a certain number of integrations - although the team is super interested to hear if you need custom integrations.
Read full review

Adverity vs Azure Data Factory: Ease of Use and User Interface

Adverity

Adverity offers a user-friendly interface but has a steeper learning curve due to its broad feature set, which might be overwhelming for beginners.

Azure Data Factory

ADF’s UI provides a canvas for building pipelines and data flows. Basic data movement is intuitive, but advanced mapping data flows (visual Spark transformations) require understanding Spark concepts. Integration with Git makes collaboration easier.

Adverity vs Azure Data Factory: Pricing Transparency and Affordability

Adverity

Adverity’s pricing is on the higher side, especially for small businesses, which may find the cost prohibitive. It is ideal for larger enterprises that need extensive data integration capabilities.

Azure Data Factory

ADF charges per pipeline activity (at least $0.25/activity), per DIU-hour for data flows, plus data movement costs (e.g., $0.25/GB). Estimating costs can be tricky due to these components, but pay-as-you-go avoids upfront fees.

Adverity vs Azure Data Factory: Comprehensive Feature Set

Adverity

Adverity supports a wide range of connectors and provides robust data extraction, transformation, and loading capabilities. However, the platform's comprehensive feature set can be a double-edged sword, offering great functionality but also requiring significant effort to master.

Azure Data Factory

Features include: pipeline orchestration, mapping data flows (visual Spark jobs), hybrid integration via self-hosted runtime, triggers (schedule, event, tumbling window), monitoring & alerting, and integration with Azure Monitor. Also supports SSIS lift-and-shift for on-prem ETL workloads.

Adverity vs Azure Data Factory: Flexibility and Customization

Adverity

Adverity is highly customizable, offering flexibility to adapt to various data needs and integration scenarios, making it a strong choice for businesses that require tailored data solutions.

Azure Data Factory

ADF allows custom .NET activities, Azure Functions, and Databricks notebooks within pipelines. It supports parameterized templates, branching, and custom Azure ML scoring steps. However, customization often requires familiarity with other Azure services.

Summary of Adverity vs Azure Data Factory vs Weld

WeldAdverityAzure Data Factory
Connectors200+600+90+
Price€99 / 2 connectors€500 / monthPay per activity run + data movement; starts ~$0.25 per DIU-hour for data flows
Free tierNoNoYes
LocationEUITAzure Global (multi-region)
Extract data (ETL)YesYesYes
Sync data to HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, Excel etc. (reverse ETL)YesNoNo
TransformationsYesYesYes
AI AssistantYesNoNo
On-PremiseNoNoNo
OrchestrationYesNoYes
LineageYesNoYes
Version controlYesNoYes
Load data to and from ExcelYesNoYes
Load data to and from Google SheetsYesNoNo
Two-Way SyncYesNoNo
dbt Core IntegrationYesNoNo
dbt Cloud IntegrationYesNoNo
OpenAPI / Developer APIYesNoNo
G2 Rating4.84.54.4

Conclusion

You’re comparing Adverity, Azure Data Factory, Weld. Each of these tools has its own strengths:

  • Adverityadverity supports a wide range of connectors and provides robust data extraction, transformation, and loading capabilities. however, the platform's comprehensive feature set can be a double-edged sword, offering great functionality but also requiring significant effort to master.adverity’s pricing is on the higher side, especially for small businesses, which may find the cost prohibitive. it is ideal for larger enterprises that need extensive data integration capabilities..
  • Azure Data Factoryfeatures include: pipeline orchestration, mapping data flows (visual spark jobs), hybrid integration via self-hosted runtime, triggers (schedule, event, tumbling window), monitoring & alerting, and integration with azure monitor. also supports ssis lift-and-shift for on-prem etl workloads. adf charges per pipeline activity (at least $0.25/activity), per diu-hour for data flows, plus data movement costs (e.g., $0.25/gb). estimating costs can be tricky due to these components, but pay-as-you-go avoids upfront fees. .
  • Weldweld integrates elt, data transformations, and reverse etl all within one platform. it also provides advanced features such as data lineage, orchestration, workflow management, and an ai assistant, which helps in automating repetitive tasks and optimizing workflows.weld offers a straightforward and competitive pricing model, starting at €99 for 2 million active rows, making it more affordable and predictable, especially for small to medium-sized enterprises..
Review the detailed sections above—connectors, pricing, feature set, and integrations—and choose the one that best matches your technical expertise, budget, and use cases.

Want to try a better alternative? Try Weld for free today.