Comparing Alooma with Mozart Data and Weld
Carolina Russ6 min read
What is Alooma
Alooma (acquired by Google Cloud in 2019) was a streaming ETL platform that enabled real-time ingestion of data from various sources into BigQuery. It provided a visual pipeline editor to map, transform, and route data with minimal code, automatically handling schema changes and ensuring exactly-once delivery. While Alooma as a standalone product is retired, many of its features have been integrated into Google Cloud’s Dataflow and Pub/Sub pipelines.
Pros
- Real-time streaming ETL with automatic schema drift handling.
- Minimal coding: visual pipeline UI with built-in connectors to databases, Kafka, APIs, and SaaS apps.
- Exactly-once delivery guarantees to BigQuery, eliminating duplicate data.
Cons
- Standalone Alooma product is discontinued—functionality now lives in GCP services (e.g., Dataflow, Data Fusion).
- Migrating legacy Alooma pipelines to GCP-native services requires rework, as UI and features differ from original Alooma.
Google Cloud’s Dataflow (Alooma integration):
What I like about Alooma
Alooma’s ease of connecting live streaming data sources directly into BigQuery with automated schema management was revolutionary for our real-time analytics.
What I dislike about Alooma
Since Google integrated Alooma into its native services, the standalone product no longer exists, so new users must migrate to Dataflow or Data Fusion.
What is Mozart Data
Mozart Data is a managed data stack provider that bundles ETL (using embedded Fivetran/Portable connectors), a fully managed Snowflake warehouse, and dbt-based transformations under one subscription—aiming to get teams from zero to insights in under an hour without coding.
Pros
- Out-of-the-box Snowflake data warehouse with connectors and dbt transforms in one package.
- 150+ connectors (via embedded Fivetran + Portable) configured behind the scenes so you don’t manage separate tools.
- Very fast onboarding—your data stack is live in under an hour without any code.
- Dedicated customer support and onboarding assistance (Mozart Assist) helps users set up and maintain pipelines.
Cons
- Pricing includes both warehouse usage and data volume (Monthly Active Rows), so costs rise with scale—often more expensive than self-managed ELT at high volumes.
- Less flexibility for bespoke connector logic—if a connector is missing, you must submit a request and wait for their team.
- Smaller community and fewer third-party tutorials compared to standalone tools like Airbyte or dbt.
Mozart Data Reviews (G2):
What I like about Mozart Data
Mozart Data gave us a turnkey stack with Snowflake, connectors, and transformations all configured. We were running dashboards in under a week without DevOps overhead.
What I dislike about Mozart Data
Costs can escalate quickly with high data volumes, and adding niche connectors often requires a request to their team (no self-serve).
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.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
Ease of Use & Interface
Alooma
Alooma’s web-based pipeline builder allowed users to drag-and-drop connectors for streaming or batch data, apply transformations, and route data to BigQuery with just a few clicks. The interface auto-generated SQL when possible.
Mozart Data
Mozart Data abstracts away infrastructure: users pick sources via a web UI, configure destinations, and their warehouse and pipelines spin up automatically. Minimal learning curve for non-technical teams.
Pricing & Affordability
Alooma
No longer available as a separate product. Users adopt equivalent GCP services (Dataflow, Data Fusion) which have pay-as-you-go pricing under the GCP pricing model.
Mozart Data
Mozart’s bundled pricing (data volume + warehouse compute) starts at ~$1,000/month for small usage, which can be competitive for teams that value time saved over cost. However, high-volume users may find it pricier than DIY stacks.
Feature Set
Alooma
Alooma supported real-time ingestion from Kafka, databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL), logs, REST APIs, and SaaS apps, with built-in transformations (masking, enrichment). It automatically handled schema changes, and could write to BigQuery partitions.
Mozart Data
Includes managed Snowflake, automated ETL connectors (via Fivetran + Portable), a dbt transformation layer, and monitoring dashboards. Supports scheduling, incremental loads, and basic orchestrations without separate tools.
Flexibility & Customization
Alooma
Users could write custom JavaScript transforms or Python UDFs for complex logic. The platform managed infrastructure, but custom connectors required Eloqua code or support.
Mozart Data
While Mozart Data handles most common use cases seamlessly, it limits custom code in pipelines. Advanced users can still bring their own SQL or dbt models, but building new connectors requires raising a request—no self-serve SDK.
Summary of Alooma vs Mozart Data vs Weld
| Weld | Alooma | Mozart Data | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectors | 200+ | 100+ | 150+ |
| Price | $79 / No data volume limits | N/A (product retired; GCP service pricing applies) | Starts around $1,000/mo (includes Snowflake + ETL up to 250k MAR) |
| Free tier | No | No | Yes |
| Location | EU | Sunnyvale, CA, USA (pre-acquisition) | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| Extract data (ETL) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sync data to HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, Excel etc. (reverse ETL) | Yes | No | No |
| Transformations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| AI Assistant | Yes | No | No |
| On-Premise | No | No | No |
| Orchestration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lineage | Yes | No | No |
| Version control | Yes | No | No |
| Load data to and from Excel | Yes | No | Yes |
| Load data to and from Google Sheets | Yes | No | Yes |
| Two-Way Sync | Yes | No | No |
| dbt Core Integration | Yes | No | Yes |
| dbt Cloud Integration | Yes | No | No |
| OpenAPI / Developer API | Yes | No | No |
| G2 Rating | 4.8 | 4.6 |
Conclusion
You’re comparing Alooma, Mozart Data, Weld. Each of these tools has its own strengths:
- Alooma: alooma supported real-time ingestion from kafka, databases (mysql, postgresql), logs, rest apis, and saas apps, with built-in transformations (masking, enrichment). it automatically handled schema changes, and could write to bigquery partitions. . no longer available as a separate product. users adopt equivalent gcp services (dataflow, data fusion) which have pay-as-you-go pricing under the gcp pricing model. .
- Mozart Data: includes managed snowflake, automated etl connectors (via fivetran + portable), a dbt transformation layer, and monitoring dashboards. supports scheduling, incremental loads, and basic orchestrations without separate tools. . mozart’s bundled pricing (data volume + warehouse compute) starts at ~$1,000/month for small usage, which can be competitive for teams that value time saved over cost. however, high-volume users may find it pricier than diy stacks. .
- Weld: weld 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..
