The Low-Cost and Valid Option of Many Stitchdata Alternatives

Stitch is probably a perfect ETL solution for data analysts, developers and other executives who export tons of data from dozens of sources to a data warehouse, such as Google BigQuery or Amazon Redshift. Starting with $100 per month, you can choose 10 sources and load up to 5 million rows. However, if your exporting needs are not that high, wouldn’t it be wise to go with a cheaper ETL solution? 

In this post, we’re introducing the Stitch data alternative that provides similar functionality and does not cost a fortune. Read on to find out more!

Stitchdata competitors

On the Stitch website, you can find a guide with some competing ETL software, including AWS Glue, Funnel, Xplenty, and many more.

Each option is provided with a comparison against Stitch in terms of features, sources & destinations, pricing, etc. The list of alternatives is big enough, but most of them are designed for enterprise data exporting tasks. Meanwhile, small to medium-sized businesses often look for less sophisticated tools that can meet their financial and functional requirements. Coupler.io is one of them.

An alternative to Stitch data for small businesses

Coupler.io is a solution for getting your raw data from different apps to BigQuery, as well as spreadsheet apps, Google Sheets, or Excel. The number of sources supported is almost 30 including Airtable, QuickBooks, Harvest, etc. 

People use Coupler.io mostly for reporting since it allows them to automate data exports on a custom schedule. In this regard, it’s often referred to one of the more flexible Hevodata alternatives.

At the same time, you can leverage this tool for building actionable dashboards, making backup copies, data sharing, and other purposes within your project which makes it a worthy Databox alternative.

Maybe this is what you’ve been looking for? Check out the following comparison table to see how good Coupler.io is vs. Stitch. 

Stitchdata vs Coupler.io comparison table

The total score 4-4 does not necessarily mean that both tools are equal. Coupler.io provides the most valuable benefits in terms of pricing and user orientation. Stitch undisputedly wins in the total number of integrations supported and the rows import size.

And what if you don’t need so many sources and destinations from Stitch and those provided by Coupler.io meet your needs? Then go ahead and try it out. If you need more information to make a decision, read on to learn about the benefits and features you can get with Coupler.io.

Benefits you get with Coupler.io compared to Stitch

Coupler.io benefits 

Refresh data every 15 minutes

Your dashboard, report, backup copy, or simply imported data can be updated as often as every 15 minutes. Coupler.io allows you to schedule data imports at a custom frequency. Other available options include every month, every day, every hour, and every 30 minutes.

Connect multiple BigQuery projects 

The Stitch Standard plan allows you to only connect one BigQuery project to load data to. With Coupler.io, you won’t have this issue, since you can add and remove multiple projects for your account.

Spreadsheets as the destination

Stitch users work with large datasets that are ETLed to data warehouses and lakes, such as Amazon S3, BigQuery, and others. Coupler.io is focused on smaller volumes of data. Therefore, in addition to BigQuery as a destination, it provides spreadsheet apps: Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel. Meanwhile, Coupler.io offers BigQuery both as source and destination.

Affordability

Coupler.io offers affordable pricing for different purposes starting from personal to business ones. You can gradually upgrade your subscription if your data import requirements grow. However, even the second paid plan, Squad, costs less than Stitch’s standard subscription if billed annually – $99 vs. $100.

Data consultancy

Coupler.io provides data analytics consulting services including data visualization, business analytics, data automation, etc. So, they can help you with building dashboards, tracking finances, analyzing customers, and many other things essential to making data-driven decisions.

Stitch benefits

Multiple sources and destinations

This is tremendous! With Stitch, you can load data from more than 130 source apps from AfterShip to Zuora. For specific sources, for example, Branch, Contentful, and others, Stitch offers webhook integrations. 

Stitch allows you to load data to 10 destinations, including data lakes, warehouses, and storage platforms.

• Amazon Redshift
• Amazon S3
• Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics 
• Delta Lake on Databricks
• data.world
• Google BigQuery
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Panoply
• PostgreSQL
• Snowflake

Coupler.io only offers BigQuery from this list.

Note: on a standard plan you can connect only one destination account, Coupler.io doesn’t have this limit. 

Database migration and synchronization

What we do love Stitch for is that you can easily migrate or synchronize an entire source database with your destination database. For example, to export all the data entities from HubSpot with Coupler.io, you’ll need to set up a separate importer for each of the data categories. Stitch, in turn, can extract all the data as a bulk and load it to your BigQuery or another destination supported. 

Billing for replicated rows

Stitch users can choose from two options for their data update: rewrite an entire dataset or update only changed rows. They will be billed accordingly to the chosen option. For the second option, only the total number of replicated rows will count as billable. This means that each data refresh takes into account only the updated rows, new rows, new sub-rows, or copies of existing rows. So, if from 100 rows in your source only 10 rows have changed, you will be billed for these 10 replicated rows. 

Transparency and control to your data pipeline

Stitch provides you with full control of the ETL pipeline for your data from the source app to the destination. You can monitor the progress with detailed reports. If any errors arise, you’ll get a corresponding notification. Some errors are resolved automatically if possible. Regarding the unresolved ones, you’ll get a report with your input required. 

Let’s say, the set of integrations provided by Coupler.io matches your needs, and you’re even considering giving it a shot, but you’re now wondering whether it matches your budget. Well, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. 🙂 

Coupler.io vs. Stitchdata pricing

Coupler.io billing plans

Coupler.io offers three paid subscription plans depending on the integrations, data volume, and refresh frequency you need. The cheapest one, Personal for $49 per month, will let you pull 10,000 rows per import. The most expensive plan, Business for $249 per month, increases this number to 100,000 rows per import. You’ll also be able to schedule data refresh every 15 minutes!

Note: These prices are for annual billing which allows you to save 25%. 

Stitchdata billing plans

Stitch pricing starts at $100 per month and you are able to pay either monthly or annually. However, the annual subscription will give you 2 month free which is definitely a bargain! The cheapest plan, Stitch Standard, gives you fixed 5 users, fixed 10 sources, and one destination. However, it is customizable in terms of rows per month. So you can either go with 5 million for $100 or increase it to 300 million for $1,250 per month. 

As for the Enterprise plans, Stitch Unlimited and Stitch Unlimited Plus, their pricing is available upon request. They will give you unlimited sources, users, and rows. Destinations as well? Stitch provides the flexibility to load data into any combination of the five destination options available.

How Coupler.io works 

You can sign up to Coupler.io with your Google or Microsoft account. Click + Add new importer, name it, select the source and destination apps, and set up the ETL pipeline: 

Configure the source settings

• Connect the source account. 
• Configure the query for the import depending on the chosen source. This may include some basic and optional filter parameters, choosing data entities for export, and so on.

Configure the destination settings

• Connect the destination account. 
• If you use BigQuery as the destination, enter the name of a dataset and a table where the data will be loaded. For Google Sheets or Excel, you’ll need to select a file and a sheet on Google Drive or OneDrive, respectively. 

Those settings are enough to pull data on demand. However, for automatic data refresh, you’ll need to enable this feature and configure the schedule settings. 

For example, here is what the Xero to BigQuery importer looks like:

And also check out some features available with Coupler.io.

Coupler.io features

Custom data refresh schedule

All subscription plans allow you to schedule monthly, daily, and hourly intervals for data refresh. It can be reduced to every 30 or even 15 minutes at Squad and Business subscriptions, respectively. You can also customize the schedule by selecting days of the week, time preferences, and the time zone.

Selectable import mode

Replace is the default import mode at Coupler.io. With it, the importer will extract the entire dataset from the source and load it to the destination replacing existing data. Another option is to choose the append mode. In this case, the entire dataset will be extracted as well but placed below the previously imported rows. 

When should I go with the alternative to Stitchdata?

To make the right decision, you need to consider the following essential criteria:

• Sources you need to extract data from
• Destination(s) you need to load data to
• Number of rows for export

The following dependency graph should help you to decide whether you opt for Stitch or its alternative, Coupler.io.

At first glance, the thought of switching from Stitch to Coupler.io may not be that appealing. However, for specific ETL tasks, Coupler.io is the best solution. If you have those, consider this option for your project or business, and you won’t regret it. Good luck with your data!