Comparing Census with Fivetran and Weld
Carolina Russ6 min read
What is Census
Census is a leading Reverse ETL platform that syncs data from your data warehouse back into SaaS tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Marketo. It integrates deeply with dbt and modern warehouses, enabling no-code mapping, incremental upserts, and reliable syncs to operational systems in near real time.
Pros
- Warehouse-centric: works directly on tables or dbt models
- No-code field mapping with live previews
- Broad destination support: Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Google Sheets, etc.
- Incremental upserts ensure data consistency with no duplicates
- Deep dbt integration and “analytics-as-code” workflows (YAML config)
- Flexible scheduling and API triggers for near real-time use cases
Cons
- Focuses only on reverse ETL—requires a separate ELT tool for ingestion
- Pricing based on rows or syncs can be expensive at very large volumes
- Complex transformations must be done upstream in the warehouse/dbt
- Dependent on destination API rate limits, which can slow large syncs
- SaaS-only (no on-prem deployment)
Census Overview (G2):
What I like about Census
Census is the fastest and most reliable reverse ETL platform with 99.5% uptime and premium support for all plans. It delivers transformed data at time-of-use—fueling rapid data activation in operational tools without relying on leaky pipelines.
What I dislike about Census
What is Fivetran
Fivetran is a robust cloud-based Extract-Load-Transform (ELT) platform that automates the process of data integration from various sources into popular data warehouses such as Google BigQuery, Snowflake, and Amazon Redshift. Known for its reliability and ease of setup, Fivetran provides pre-built connectors that allow businesses to extract data from a wide range of applications, databases, and services. Fivetran’s key strength lies in its ability to handle the extraction and loading of data efficiently, with minimal configuration and maintenance. This makes it an attractive choice for organizations looking to quickly onboard a data integration solution without the need for extensive engineering resources.
Pros
- Wide variety of connectors
- Easy setup, low maintenance, and scalability with pre-built connectors
- Robust security protocols
- Detailed and helpful documentation
- Near real-time replication capabilities
Cons
- Complex and expensive pricing model
- Depends on external tools for data transformations (e.g., DBT)
- Doesn't support data transformations pre-load
- No AI assistant or advanced automation features
- Steep learning curve for DBT beginners
From a review on G2:
What I like about Fivetran
The pre-built connectors makes data integration super easy, without the need of an expensive data engineering team. If you are using DBT, there is a DBT package for most of the pre-built connectors that will provide configurable data marts/models.
What I dislike about Fivetran
New connectors are released infrequently, and pricing is somewhat opaque if you are not familiar. It is somewhat opinionated, so if you are not already using a modern data stack w. their preferred partners it's a bit harder to integrate.
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
Census
Census provides an intuitive UI for mapping warehouse fields to destination fields, with live previews—non-technical business users quickly adopt it for operational data syncs.
Fivetran
While Fivetran offers a comprehensive set of connectors, it requires more technical knowledge, especially for setting up and managing advanced data transformations, as it may rely on external tools like DBT. In other words, Fivetran is easy to use for data ingestion, but transformations demand proficiency with SQL or DBT.
Pricing & Affordability
Census
While there’s a free tier to get started, professional plans based on usage can add up for large enterprises. Still, ROI often justifies the investment by automating data activation in CRM/marketing tools.
Fivetran
Fivetran’s pricing can be quite complex and increases significantly with the volume of data, making it potentially expensive for growing companies or those with large datasets. This can be a disadvantage for teams looking for a cost-effective solution.
Feature Set
Census
Census focuses on reverse ETL: no-code mapping, incremental upserts keyed on primary keys, scheduling, and deep dbt integration. It provides monitoring dashboards, alerting, and a CLI/API for GitOps workflows.
Fivetran
Although Fivetran excels in ELT capabilities and offers near real-time data replication, it lacks advanced transformation features. Users must rely on DBT for advanced transformations, which introduces complexity but does not require a third-party platform if DBT Core is used.
Flexibility & Customization
Census
Mapping logic is as flexible as your SQL—any complex query can feed Census. Users can customize scheduling (cron or event triggers) and configure failure handling. It adapts well but relies on warehouse transformations for complex logic.
Fivetran
Fivetran relies on SQL-based transformations via DBT Core, which gives users power and flexibility but may not suit those needing quick, low-code manipulation.
Summary of Census vs Fivetran vs Weld
| Weld | Census | Fivetran | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectors | 200+ | 130+ | 700+ |
| Price | $79 / No data volume limits | Free tier; Pro ~$350/mo for 2 destinations | Usage-based, starting $500 for 1 million MARs (no fixed base) |
| Free tier | No | Yes | Yes |
| Location | EU | US | US |
| Extract data (ETL) | Yes | No | Yes |
| Sync data to HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, Excel etc. (reverse ETL) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transformations | Yes | No | No |
| AI Assistant | Yes | No | No |
| On-Premise | No | No | No |
| Orchestration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lineage | Yes | No | Yes |
| Version control | Yes | Yes | No |
| Load data to and from Excel | Yes | No | Yes |
| Load data to and from Google Sheets | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Two-Way Sync | Yes | No | No |
| dbt Core Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| dbt Cloud Integration | Yes | No | Yes |
| OpenAPI / Developer API | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| G2 Rating | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.2 |
Conclusion
You’re comparing Census, Fivetran, Weld. Each of these tools has its own strengths:
- Census: census focuses on reverse etl: no-code mapping, incremental upserts keyed on primary keys, scheduling, and deep dbt integration. it provides monitoring dashboards, alerting, and a cli/api for gitops workflows.. while there’s a free tier to get started, professional plans based on usage can add up for large enterprises. still, roi often justifies the investment by automating data activation in crm/marketing tools..
- Fivetran: although fivetran excels in elt capabilities and offers near real-time data replication, it lacks advanced transformation features. users must rely on dbt for advanced transformations, which introduces complexity but does not require a third-party platform if dbt core is used.. fivetran’s pricing can be quite complex and increases significantly with the volume of data, making it potentially expensive for growing companies or those with large datasets. this can be a disadvantage for teams looking for a cost-effective solution..
- 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..
