PortablePortable Logo

Does Fivetran Connect to BigQuery?

Does Fivetran Connect to BigQuery? Find The Best BigQuery ETL Solution!

BigQuery is one of the premier data warehouses on the market, and Fivetran is a notable ETL tool to evaluate. Let's evaluate your options for BigQuery ETL and the capabilities of Fivetran specifically.

Need a BigQuery ETL Solution Today?

If you want to start moving data from 300+ business applications into BigQuery with no code, you can use Portable for free.

It takes only a few minutes to start syncing data to BigQuery with Portable.

  1. Create your Portable account
  2. Choose one of the 300+ data sources we support (or request a new source)
  3. Input your credentials using the instructions in the Portable application
  4. Create a BigQuery environment and authenticate with your credentials
  5. Connect your data source to BigQuery by creating a data flow
  6. Sync data to BigQuery to try things out
  7. Run your data flow on a cadence (daily, hourly, etc.)

Why do Companies Evaluate Fivetran for BigQuery ETL?

Fivetran was founded in , an ELT tool for hyper-growth companies. Fivetran was among the very first ETL tools available in the market. Its focus is on enterprise applications and the most popular data sources used by the largest companies.

When data teams evaluate SaaS ETL / ELT solutions, it is common for Fivetran to be on the list. As teams build out their Modern Data Stack, it's common to first pick a solution like BigQuery for data warehousing, and then to evaluate the best ETL solutions.

Let's walk through the pros and cons of using Fivetran for BigQuery ETL.

The Pros And Cons of Fivetran for BigQuery ETL?

When evaluating ETL tools for BigQuery, the goal is to automate the process of extracting data from APIs, databases, or files, and the data pipeline that loads the data into BigQuery.

Before the advent of cloud-hosted ETL / ELT solutions like Portable and Fivetran, it was common for data engineers to write Python code, deploy infrastructure, use an open source framework, or pay consultants to manage these data pipelines.

With no-code solutions, this process is now much simpler. Let's take a look at Fivetran's capabilities.

What functionality is included with Fivetran?

  1. 160+ data source connectors
  2. Change data capture support for databases
  3. Support for data warehouses and data lakes as destinations
  4. Pricing based on Monthly Active Rows
  5. Warehouse-native data transformation
  6. Professional services for enterprise use cases

Whether you're on AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform. Using a no-code solution can make the data syncing process extremely simple.

It's common for companies to use Fivetran connectors for the largest data sources and to use Portable for hard-to-find systems.

What functionality is included with Portable?

  1. 300+ data source connectors
  2. Support for the major data warehouses as destinations
  3. Unlimited data volumes
  4. Free development of new data sources
  5. Email and Slack notifications
  6. Hands-on support and maintenance

Now, let's take a look at the process of replicating data with Fivetran.

Extracting Data with Fivetran

Fivetran specializes in data integration. Extracting data from disparate data sources and then loading into destinations like BigQuery.

Can Fivetran Load Data to BigQuery?

Fivetran supports a number of destinations - Here are some of the destinations that Fivetran supports:

At Portable, we support BigQuery, and we support the most common data warehouses.

  • Snowflake
  • BigQuery
  • Redshift
  • PostgreSQL
  • MySQL

Now let's dig into the types of data sources that you will be able to connect to your data warehouse.

Which Data Sources Does Fivetran Support?

When you evaluate ETL tools, there are two main considerations when it comes to connectors. The prebuilt connectors that are already supported, and custom connector development.

Fivetran Prebuilt Connectors

Fivetran's connector catalog is just over 160 data sources.

These connectors are typically the largest databases, file-based sources, and business applications that are helpful when your team is first standing up your data stack. For example, Amazon Ads, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Portable Prebuilt Connectors

Portable provides access to 300+ data sources out-of-the-box. With a catalog larger than most other ETL tools, it's easy to connect the sources you need to your analytics environment of choice.

Uniquely, Portable focuses on long-tail business applications. This means that the connectors in Portable's catalog are hard-to-find and are great for augmenting your primary ELT vendor for the no-code connectors you need as your responsibilities expand.

Fivetran to BigQuery Pricing?

So, how much will it cost to connect your data sources to BigQuery? First, let's walk through Fivetran's pricing model.

Fivetran charges on Monthly Active Rows for data pipelines.

  1. You can try out the Fivetran platform for free for 14 days
  2. Monthly Active Rows can be cost effective at low volumes, but very expensive at high volumes
  3. It can be difficult to understand, forecast and predict pricing with Monthly Active Rows

If you need long-tail integrations that aren't supported by Fivetran, you should give Portable a try.

Portable's pricing model is focused on simplicity. It's easy to understand, easy to forecast, and easy to get started.

  1. Anyone can get started for free
  2. Manually synced data flows are free. You can try all of the connectors without paying a dime
  3. Scheduled data flows have simple to understand FIXED PRICES with UNLIMITED DATA VOLUMES
  4. You can pay monthly, or annually, and cancel any time

Now, let's talk about BigQuery.

BigQuery Data Ingestion

BigQuery is a serverless, scalable, fully managed cloud data warehouse that's part of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Data warehouses are great platforms on which to store information, build data models, and run compute to analyze your data; however, most data teams care less about the infrastructure and more about the value they can generate for the business with a tool like BigQuery.

BigQuery Use Cases

There are three main ways to create value with a data warehouse.

  1. Analytics – This is the most common use case for a tool like BigQuery. Data engineering teams will centralize all of their data into a warehouse to then write SQL and build dashboards. In most scenarios, the data being analyze is 1st party data, but at times, teams will use data sets from partners or third party data providers.
  2. Process Automation – Every organization has workflows that need to be streamlined. In most scenarios these use cases are closer to real-time, and business value is created by removing manual steps from the process.
  3. Product Development – Product development is the most concrete form of value creation, but also typically the largest investment. In these scenarios, data teams look a lot like product and engineering organizations. By using data transformation to convert raw data into products for clients, teams are able to generate direct revenue from their endeavors.

Your Options for BigQuery ETL

With the advent of cloud data warehousing (tools like BigQuery), and the decoupling of data replication (the EL in ELT) and data transformation (with tools like DBT Labs, Coalesce.io and Narrator), ETL is simpler than ever.

If you are just getting started with ETL and your need your product database, your CRM system, or your HRIS system connected to BigQuery, Fivetran can be a great choice.

When you need to connect business unit specific business applications to BigQuery, Portable offers over 300+ data connectors to make your life simple. We'll even build new data sources at no cost to you.

Ready to get started? Sign Up For Portable Today!

Pricing is simple, predictable, and based on connectors instead of data volume. Data is loaded into ready-to-query schemas so you can start building in minutes.

It's free to sign up and start moving data to BigQuery.