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Does Segment Connect to Redshift?

Does Segment Connect to Redshift? Find The Best Redshift ETL Solution!

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

Need a Redshift ETL Solution Today?

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

It takes only a few minutes to start syncing data to Redshift 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 Redshift environment and authenticate with your credentials
  5. Connect your data source to Redshift by creating a data flow
  6. Sync data to Redshift to try things out
  7. Run your data flow on a cadence (daily, hourly, etc.)

Why do Companies Evaluate Segment for Redshift ETL?

Segment was founded in , a data integration solution for customer data. Segment is a Customer Data Platform (CDP) built for marketing teams and engineering teams; however, the platform is commonly used to ETL customer data into data warehouses for analytics.

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

Let's walk through the pros and cons of using Segment for Redshift ETL.

The Pros And Cons of Segment for Redshift ETL?

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

Before the advent of cloud-hosted ETL / ELT solutions like Portable and Segment, 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 Segment's capabilities.

What functionality is included with Segment?

  1. 75+ data sources
  2. Native data collection from websites and mobile apps
  3. Real-time data routing to destinations like Facebook, Google, and Amplitude
  4. Audience building and customer journey tooling for marketing teams

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 Segment 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 Segment.

Extracting Data with Segment

Segment specializes in data integration. Extracting data from disparate data sources and then loading into destinations like Redshift.

Can Segment Load Data to Redshift?

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

At Portable, we support Redshift, 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 Segment 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.

Segment Prebuilt Connectors

Segment offers 75+ prebuilt connectors to data sources, and hundreds of destinations. Because Segment is a CDP built for marketers, the prebuilt connectors are primarily focused on sources that manage and store customer data.

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.

Segment to Redshift Pricing?

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

Segment charges primarily on the number of visitors per month.

  1. Free: Includes 1,000 visitors/month and 2 sources
  2. Team: Starts at $120/month and includes 10,000 visitors/month, unlimited sources, and 1 data warehouse destination
  3. Business: Custom pricing and includes custom volumes, marketing tooling, data governance, roles & permissions, personalized customer experiences, and HIPAA-eligibility

If you need long-tail integrations that aren't supported by Segment, 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 Redshift.

Redshift Data Ingestion

Redshift is a fully managed cloud-based data warehouse. It is part of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and offers essentially unlimited scaling for big data at an affordable price.

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 Redshift.

Redshift 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 Redshift. 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 Redshift ETL

With the advent of cloud data warehousing (tools like Redshift), 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 Redshift, Segment can be a great choice.

When you need to connect business unit specific business applications to Redshift, 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 Redshift.