The 7 best data migration tools in 2023

Different types of data migration tools

Data migration tools fall into three general categories based on their key features:

1. Application migration. When you provide a SaaS app for your clients you have to migrate its database (SQL Server, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or MySQL) because of app updates, re-architecting your app into a distributed design to serve users with lower latency, or correct bugs. This migration project requires that you try to minimize or even eliminate any downtime during migration. Some tools specialize in real-time data migration while providing high availability and low data losses.
2. Data replication. Database migration service tools use data replication technologies such as CDC (change data capture) to efficiently copy data from existing storage systems (database, data lake, or data warehouse) to a new system.
3. Data integration. We can transfer data via ETL data pipelines that extract data from the source systems, transform data, and load data into a data storage system. ETL tools are extremely powerful solutions for data migration that get often overlooked, despite being able to handle big data workloads when transferring data.

The same data migration software can cover multiple data transfer use cases, or specialize in just one. You should choose the data migration solution that best suits your business needs. 

Let’s look at the best candidates for your data migration projects.

The best data migration tools on the market today

1. Keboola

Keboola is a data platform as a service that helps you automate all your data operations. 

Keboola offers data migration solutions for all use cases:

• application migration,
• data integration,
• and data replication.

Pros:

• Automated pipelines end-to-end. 250+ pre-built connectors help you automate data integration between various data sources (Microsoft Excel, JSON, CSV, Oracle database, Salesforce, CRM, REST API, … you name it!) and data storages (Snowflake data warehouse, SQL server, AWS Redshift, Microsoft Azure, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Google BigQuery, …).
• Efficient data replication. Supports data replication via CDC (change data capture).
• Powerful transformations. From low-code, CLI (command-line interface), to no-code, unlock the transformation you need to reshape your data during data transfer. Data transformations help you increase data quality by migrating only those data assets that have passed validations.
• Scalable. Keboola’s platform is built to scale. Use the dynamic backend and unlock automated scalability for high-performance big data workflows.
• Traceable by design. Keboola allows you to follow the data lineage across all the data migration pipelines you build from a single location. 
• Extensible. Keboola offers features that cover many data use cases beyond data migration: enterprise data security for every business size, data governance and master data management, DataOps (development branches and versioning, Change Data Capture to speed up replication, CLI), Data Catalog for data sharing, and machine learning toolbox.
• Users’ #1 choice. Keboola is a crowd-pleaser. But don’t just take our word for it. Check the G2 crowd reviews and awards.

“We used Keboola for customer data migration from old to new system. We had automated process in Keboola to take data from storage - clean-add other data-save to another storage.” Jana S., Data Analyst

Cons: 

• Keboola offers near real-time data migration via its Orchestration engine, but it’s not great for real-time data migrations. Orchestrators can trigger data extraction from the source database every 1 minute and webhooks can be used for almost instantaneous data collection from different sources. 

Best for: Teams of technical data experts (scientists, engineers, analysts) and data-driven business experts who would like an all-in-one solution for all their data migration projects.

2. Integrate.io 

Integrate.io launched in 2022 when Xplenty, FlyData, Intermix.io, and Dreamfactory were consolidated to create the Integrate.io ETL platform.

Integrate.io is a low-code ETL tool that allows you to migrate data assets between your sources and into your apps and data warehousing solutions via APIs, webhooks, or natively within their cloud-based platform.

Pros:

• Can handle ETL, ELT, and reverse ETL.
• Offers no-code solutions.
• Great technical support staff.

Cons:

• Expect a steep learning curve to learn how to use the product and all its features.
• Cloud platform, no on-premise solution.
• Cannot be used for data replication.
• Lacks real-time data synchronization features between the source database and the target database.
• Logs (especially when the ETL workflows fail) are extremely hard to read and debug.

Best for: The technically savvy engineer who needs an easy-to-code ETL platform to move data between owned assets, but doesn’t want to dive deeper into the ETL process.

3. Stitch

Stitch (by Talend) is an open-source ETL tool that focuses on data extraction and loading data to a data warehouse or data lake.

It’s a powerful ETL tool that can be used for many data migration use cases. 

Pros:

• Can extract data from multiple sources. Sources not covered out-of-the-box by Stitch can still be extracted using the company’s extensibility framework.
• Very intuitive to use.
• Great for data replication of relational databases. 
• Very polished product, with little to no bugs.

Cons:

• No freemium model, the cheapest tier costs $100/month.
• Users are charged by the number of rows processed by the tool. Multiple passes of the same datasets (e.g. once for extract, once for load) are counted at each pass.
• The out-of-the-box data sources and data destinations covered by the tool are quite limited. Expect a lot of manual coding. 
• A lot of the best-working parts of Stitch (advanced scheduling, monitoring, …) are only available on the highest-paid tier. In general, Stitch is on the higher end of pricing for data migration tools.

Best for: The data engineer at a startup who needs easy-to-configure data migration software and doesn’t expect a lot of complex data transformations. 

4. Hevo

Hevo Data Platform offers CDC data replication out of the box through no-code data pipelines. It’s a great candidate for data migration pipelines whose main use case is data replication between the source database and the target database.

Pros:

• Ease of use. It is simple to set up, maintenance is minimal, and its user-friendly interface makes it easy to use.
• Schema automation and control. Hevo automatically detects source and target schema and allows you to preconfigure it manually before data migration begins.  

Cons:

• Inferior monitoring abilities. 
• Little to no customization features - what you see is what you get.

Best for: The data practitioner at a startup who needs a low-hassle data migration tool for general data migration tasks without building complicated pipelines.

5. Fivetran

Fivetran is a cloud-based ETL tool primarily focused on the extraction and loading part of the ELT process. However, Fivetran is also very powerful on the data replication side.

Pros:

• Offers functionality for database and SaaS data replication. Fivetran offers three different replication technologies: CDC, teleport sync, and a high-volume agent database (proprietary technology). Combined with the data extraction and data loading capabilities, Fivetran is a great tool for embedding customer data processing into your application and for application migration.
• Excellent near real-time data replication capabilities. 

Cons:

• No native transformation ability. Fivetran relies on dbt Core for transformation, and you’ll have to integrate dbt into your data architecture to transform data. If your main use case is for processing a lot of unstructured data or model data during data migration, Fivetran might not be the best data migration solution for you.
• No on-premise solution, only cloud.

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Best for: The cloud data engineer who is looking for an out-of-the-box application migration solution that also offers some ETL and data embedding capabilities. 

Recommended read: Check this detailed comparison of Fivetran and Keboola on 10 different crucial questions. 

6. Matillion

Matillion is a data integration solution that can build ETL data processes through a simple no-code or low-code drag-and-drop user interface (UI). 

Pros:

• High-scalability. Single data operations scale well with Change Data Capture (CDC) for data replication and batch processing for ETL data migration ingrained in Matillion features. 
• Full support for ETL, ELT, and reverse ETL. The number and types of connectors covered by Matillion are extensive enough to cover the vast majority of use cases.

Cons: 

• Data migration is limited to data warehousing destinations. You can connect your business intelligence/data analytics tool to the data warehouse of your choice, but Matillion will not ingest data directly into your data visualization software.

Best for: Database engineers at startups, who would like to migrate their data assets between their data sources and their data warehouse.

7. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Amazon Web Services offers its Database Migration Service (DMS) as a managed migration and replication solution to move your database and analytic workloads to AWS.

Pros:

• High-performance. Data migration and replication are done with high availability and minimal-to-no downtime while transferring terabytes of data from your database to AWS at a fraction of the usual migration costs.
• Supports migration between homogeneous and heterogeneous databases, for example,  Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL-Compatible Edition, MongoDB to Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility), or Oracle to Amazon Redshift.

Cons: 

• The target storage systems are all AWS-based. But since AWS is the largest cloud provider, this tool might be the solution to a lot of organizations’ business needs.

Best for: Enterprises and startups looking to migrate their existing data assets to AWS cloud. 

Further reading: Looking to migrate your on-premise data assets to the cloud? Check the guide we prepared, so you don’t miss any crucial steps.

What to consider when choosing your data migration tool

With so many options for the best data migration tool, which one do you pick? 

These are the key features you should look for to make your decision easier:

1. Automated features and ease of use. Every data migration solution will make your life easier. But some tools will make it easier than others. Look for automated features that speed up and streamline your data migration projects.
2. On-premise vs cloud-based. Cloud-based data migration tools will be useless if your data management policy states you need to keep your assets in on-premise data centers. Pick a tool that covers your on-premise or cloud needs. Or select a tool like Keboola that works on all levels.
3. Connector coverage. Data migration tools offer connectors that automate data extraction from data sources and loading into data destinations covered (e.g., data warehouse or database). But not all tools offer the same out-of-the-box connectors. When you create your data migration plan, check the data sources and data destinations against the connectors your data migration tool offers. Or check whether the tool offer Generic Extractors and Generic Writers that help you extract data and load data to any API endpoint.
4. Latency and scalability. If you have a lot of data, make sure the data migration tool can scale its workflows to cover big data needs while guaranteeing low system latency during migration. 
5. Pricing model. Open-source data migration software is usually cheaper than vendor solutions but causes more maintenance down the line. Balance the lower initial costs against the latter maintenance and customization costs to determine the optimal price. Or pick the best of both worlds. For example, Keboola offers a fremium pricing model, where you get to play with the fully-maintained platform with 120 free compute minutes monthly. Check the free tier.
6. Extra features. The key feature of a data migration tool is to move data assets from A to B. But sometimes you get so many extra features that the tool becomes a wonderful solution to work with. Look for those CDC optimizations, data lineage, monitoring, automated scaling, and other features that make your data migration project a breeze before you even begin. 

Migrate your data with Keboola 

Keboola is the best tool for your data migration projects. 

Its wide range of features covers all the data migration business needs and adds on top of it powerful features like automated lineage tracing, CDC optimizations during data replication, automated backend scaling, and many more.

The combination of powerful features and intuitive design allows Keboola’s customers to automate their data migration pipelines and spend more time building data products. For example, the Czech e-commerce Unicorn Rohlik uses Keboola to automate over 3500 data migration workflows - daily.

Did we mention it’s free? Keboola offers a free tier, so you can start migrating data today without even swiping your credit card.

Try Keboola for free.