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Comparing Census with Improvado and Weld

Carolina Russ
Carolina Russ5 min read
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improvado logo
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census logo

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

Read full review

What is Improvado

Improvado is a cloud-based data platform that helps businesses automate their data management and reporting. It connects to a wide range of data sources, including marketing platforms, CRM systems, and e-commerce platforms, and allows users to blend and transform their data to create a single source of truth.

Pros

  • Easy to use
  • Great support and onboarding
  • Automation features
  • Flexibility
  • Great for agencies with multiple accounts

Cons

  • Expensive, especially for large data volumes
  • Learning curve
  • Limited features
  • Limited integrations

A reviewer on G2:

What I like about Improvado

Improvado has been surprisingly easy to use. Within just a few clicks we have been able to integrate all our media platforms into our datalake. The numerous in-depth guides make this process very easy.

What I dislike about Improvado

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

Census vs Improvado: Ease of Use and User 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.

Improvado

Improvado is known for its ease of use and strong support, making it a good choice for businesses looking to integrate multiple media platforms with minimal effort.

Census vs Improvado: Pricing Transparency and 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.

Improvado

Improvado's pricing is custom, which can be expensive depending on data volumes, making it less accessible for small businesses but valuable for larger enterprises with extensive data needs.

Census vs Improvado: Comprehensive 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.

Improvado

Improvado offers automation features and flexibility in data management and reporting, catering well to agencies handling multiple accounts.

Census vs Improvado: Flexibility and 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.

Improvado

Improvado provides flexibility in data integration and transformation, but has limited features compared to more comprehensive platforms, which might require additional customization for some use cases.

Summary of Census vs Improvado vs Weld

WeldCensusImprovado
Connectors200++130+500+
Price€99 / Unlimited usageFree tier; Pro ~$350/mo for 2 destinationsCustom
Free tierNoYesNo
LocationEUUSUS
Extract data (ETL)YesNoYes
Sync data to HubSpot, Salesforce, Klaviyo, Excel etc. (reverse ETL)YesYesNo
TransformationsYesNoYes
AI AssistantYesNoNo
On-PremiseNoNoNo
OrchestrationYesYesNo
LineageYesNoNo
Version controlYesYesNo
Load data to and from ExcelYesNoNo
Load data to and from Google SheetsYesYesNo
Two-Way SyncYesNoNo
dbt Core IntegrationYesYesNo
dbt Cloud IntegrationYesNoNo
OpenAPI / Developer APIYesYesNo
G2 Rating4.84.54.5

Conclusion

You’re comparing Census, Improvado, Weld. Each of these tools has its own strengths:

  • Censuscensus 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..
  • Improvadoimprovado offers automation features and flexibility in data management and reporting, catering well to agencies handling multiple accounts.improvado's pricing is custom, which can be expensive depending on data volumes, making it less accessible for small businesses but valuable for larger enterprises with extensive data needs..
  • 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.

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