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Alation

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Company health

Employee growth
13% decrease in the last year
Web traffic
1% decrease in the last quarter
Financing
January 2023 - $315M

Ratings

G2
4.4/5
(65)
Glassdoor
3.6/5
(219)

Alation description

Alation is a data intelligence platform that helps you understand and manage your company's data. It's like a map for your data, showing you what you have, where it lives, and how it's used. This helps your team find the right data for projects, ensures data quality and compliance, and can even help build AI models you can trust. Alation is used by many large companies and integrates with many data tools you may already be using.


Who is Alation best for

Alation is an excellent choice for medium to large data-driven businesses seeking data governance, analytics, and AI solutions. We find that its user-friendly interface and robust search capabilities are particularly beneficial. Keep in mind that some users find the initial setup complex.

  • Perfect for mid-sized (101-1000 employees) and large enterprises (1001+ employees) seeking robust data governance.

  • Alation is versatile across industries, excelling in data-heavy sectors needing strong data governance, analytics, and AI solutions.


Alation features

Supported

Enable Data Governance: Alation enables data governance by weaving compliance guidance into workflows, supporting collaboration and innovation while reducing risk. It empowers everyone to make decisions with data.

Supported

Data Products Marketplace: Alation helps create a marketplace for trusted data products, giving teams instant access to reliable data products through a user-friendly marketplace, organized by category. This allows them to quickly find accurate, high-quality data tailored to their needs to speed up decision-making.

Supported

Trusted AI Models: Alation helps build AI models with confidence, ensuring data quality, transparency, and compliance. Users can document insights, track lineage, and collaborate across teams for ethical, compliant AI.

Supported

Seamless Cloud Transition: Alation facilitates seamless cloud transition with a winning data modernization plan, breaking down legacy silos. It helps prioritize what matters and migrate with confidence, while safeguarding quality and governance.

Supported

Active Metadata Management: Alation's Active Metadata Management helps manage data effectively. Metadata provides context for data, but grows increasingly complex, with more sources, formats, and pipelines. It allows data and analytics leaders to create a single source of truth that makes data easy to find, understand, and use.

Supported

Ensure Data Quality: With Alation, organizations can ensure data quality. They can quickly access trustworthy data and analytics. It helps create a virtuous cycle that drives continuous improvement and fosters data-driven insights.

Supported

Visualize Data Lineage: With Alation, organizations can visualize data lineage. They gain full visibility into where data comes from, how it’s transformed, and who is using it. This helps organizations to optimize pipelines, ensure data accuracy, and build trust.


Alation reviews

We've summarised 65 Alation reviews (Alation G2 reviews) and summarised the main points below.

Pros of Alation
  • User-friendly interface simplifies data discovery and access.
  • Robust search capabilities empower quick information retrieval.
  • Collaborative features foster effective communication and knowledge sharing.
  • Flexible and adaptable for organizations of all sizes.
  • Excellent customer support and onboarding experience.
Cons of Alation
  • Difficult setup and configuration, especially for data governance policies and external tool integrations.
  • Overwhelming documentation and navigation, making it hard to find specific information or troubleshoot.
  • Limited lineage capabilities, though improvements are planned.
  • Backend not user-friendly, requiring research for some tasks.
  • Limited data quality capabilities built-in.

Alation pricing

The commentary is based on 10 reviews from Alation G2 reviews.

We find that Alation's pricing model is generally perceived as complex and potentially costly, especially regarding data steward licenses and column-level lineage features. Some users have also noted the push towards the cloud version, which may incur additional costs. However, some also considered it cost-effective.

See the Alation pricing page.


Alation alternatives

  • Logo of Atlan
    alation vs Atlan
    Connects data tools, simplifying discovery, governance, and collaboration.
    Read more
  • Logo of Octopai
    Octopai
    Find, understand, and trust your data. Automated data discovery and lineage.
    Read more
  • Logo of Collibra
    Collibra
    Connect, govern, and trust your data for better decisions.
    Read more
  • Logo of Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog
    Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog
    Connects and catalogs data, simplifying discovery and understanding.
    Read more
  • Logo of Dataiku
    Dataiku
    Everyday AI, made simple, collaborative, and impactful.
    Read more
  • Logo of Monte Carlo
    Monte Carlo
    Finds data errors fast, keeping your data pipelines healthy.
    Read more

Alation FAQ

  • What is Alation and what does Alation do?

    We find that Alation is a data intelligence platform that helps organizations understand and manage their data. It provides a single source of truth, enabling data discovery, governance, and quality control, which helps in building trustworthy AI models. It's ideal for medium to large businesses in various industries.

  • How does Alation integrate with other tools?

    We find that Alation integrates with various data tools, enabling seamless data governance, a marketplace for trusted data products, and facilitates building trusted AI models. However, some users have mentioned difficulties with the setup and configuration, especially for external tool integrations.

  • What the main competitors of Alation?

    We find that Alation's main competitors include Atlan, Collibra, Octopai, Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, and Dataiku. These alternatives offer similar data governance, cataloging, and discovery features.

  • Is Alation legit?

    We find Alation to be a legitimate and helpful data intelligence platform. It's well-regarded by users for its user-friendly interface and powerful search capabilities, though setup can be complex. It's a good fit for medium to large businesses.

  • How much does Alation cost?

    I'm sorry, but Alation's pricing details are not publicly available. Contact their sales team directly for a customized quote based on your specific needs.

  • Is Alation customer service good?

    We find that Alation's customer service is generally viewed as positive. Users frequently praise the helpfulness and responsiveness of the support team, contributing to a great overall experience.


Reviewed by

MK
Michal Kaczor
CEO at Gralio

Michal has worked at startups for many years and writes about topics relating to software selection and IT management. As a former consultant for Bain, a business advisory company, he also knows how to understand needs of any business and find solutions to its problems.

TT
Tymon Terlikiewicz
CTO at Gralio

Tymon is a seasoned CTO who loves finding the perfect tools for any task. He recently headed up the tech department at Batmaid, a well-known Swiss company, where he managed about 60 software purchases, including CX, HR, Payroll, Marketing automation and various developer tools.

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