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Engineering and operations teams face a persistent challenge: keeping data consistent across a sprawling landscape of specialized SaaS applications, databases, and ERPs. The tools chosen to solve this problem often become part of the problem itself—brittle, expensive, and ill-suited for the task. Traditional integration platforms (iPaaS) can be prohibitively expensive and complex for core synchronization tasks. Niche solutions like Heroku Connect solve one problem well but create vendor lock-in. Meanwhile, ELT tools are built for one-way data warehousing, not for powering live, operational business processes.
This creates a significant drain on technical resources, forcing engineers to spend time on "dirty API plumbing" instead of building features that create a competitive advantage. The core issue is a mismatch between the tool and the job. A new approach, focused on real-time, bi-directional operational sync, is required to ensure data integrity without the associated cost and complexity.
The data integration market is crowded, yet many platforms fall into distinct categories with specific limitations, especially when applied to operational use cases that demand real-time, two-way data flow.
Tools commonly used for populating data warehouses excel at extracting data from source systems and loading it into destinations like Snowflake or BigQuery for business intelligence and analytics. However, their architecture is fundamentally unsuited for operational sync.
One-Way Data Flow: These are primarily Extract, Load, (Transform) tools. They are not designed for bi-directional synchronization or writing data back to source systems (Reverse ETL), a feature many still lack.
High Latency: ELT pipelines operate on a batch schedule, with data freshness often measured in minutes or hours. This latency is unacceptable for operational workflows that depend on real-time information, such as updating a customer's status in a CRM and a billing system simultaneously.
Complexity and Reliability: Open-source options offer flexibility but require significant technical expertise to deploy and maintain. Furthermore, many connectors are community-supported or in early stages, lacking the production-ready reliability needed for mission-critical syncs.
Feature | Fivetran | Airbyte | Stitch |
|---|---|---|---|
Primary Use Case | Automated ELT for Analytics | Open-Source ELT/ETL | Simple ELT for Analytics |
Sync Direction | One-way | One-way | One-way |
Key Strength | Simplicity, reliability, large number of pre-built connectors | Open-source, highly customizable, large connector library | Ease of use, Singer protocol integration |
Key Weakness | Expensive at scale, no Reverse ETL, limited flexibility | Complex setup, connector quality varies, requires technical expertise | Can be unreliable and expensive at scale, limited transformations |
Pricing Model | Volume-based, known to be expensive | Free open-source, volume-based cloud, capacity-based enterprise | Volume-based, affordable for small volumes |
Enterprise iPaaS solutions are powerful platforms for enterprise-wide workflow automation. However, for the common and critical need of keeping data synchronized between two or more systems, they are often overly complex, expensive, and inefficient.
Searching for alternatives to these platforms is common because they carry a high total cost of ownership, factoring in licensing, specialized developer talent, and long implementation cycles. While they can perform synchronization, it is not their core design principle. This often results in building two separate one-way "recipes" or workflows that mimic bi-directional sync, a brittle approach that fails to handle conflicts, race conditions, and error recovery gracefully.
Heroku Connect is a point solution for its specific purpose: bi-directional synchronization between Salesforce and a Heroku Postgres database. For teams already committed to the Heroku ecosystem, it provides a straightforward way to work with Salesforce data using familiar SQL.
The problem arises when business needs evolve. Heroku Connect creates lock-in:
Platform Dependency: It is tied to the Heroku platform.
Limited Connectivity: It only connects Salesforce and Postgres, offering no path to integrate with other ERPs, databases, or SaaS tools.
Cost: It can become a significant and inflexible expense for a single integration point.
Teams inevitably outgrow this niche and require a more scalable, flexible solution, leading them to search for alternatives that can support a broader, multi-system data strategy.
The limitations of traditional tools highlight the need for a platform designed specifically for operational data integration. This means enabling real-time, reliable, and truly bi-directional data flow between the systems that run your business.
Stacksync is an operational sync platform engineered to solve this exact problem. It provides the real-time, two-way synchronization necessary to maintain data consistency across CRMs, ERPs, and databases without the complexity of an iPaaS or the limitations of an ELT tool.
It is built on a modern, event-driven architecture that delivers key technical advantages:
True Bi-Directional Sync: Stacksync manages data flow as a single, cohesive process. It is not two one-way syncs cobbled together. This allows for sophisticated conflict resolution and guarantees data consistency between systems.
Real-Time Performance: The platform is event-driven, not batch-oriented. Changes are detected and propagated in milliseconds, enabling real-time workflows and eliminating data latency.
Automated Reliability: Stacksync is designed to prevent silent sync failures. It includes comprehensive issue management dashboards, real-time monitoring, and the ability to replay failed events, ensuring that engineers are alerted to issues and can resolve them without data loss.
Effortless Scalability: The platform is architected to handle millions of records, with smart API rate limit management and efficient processing that scales with your data volume.
No-Code Setup, High-Ceiling Control: Integrations can be configured in minutes through a no-code UI. For teams that require more control, Stacksync also supports configuration-as-code, enabling version control and integration into CI/CD pipelines.
By focusing exclusively on operational sync, Stacksync provides a more efficient, reliable, and cost-effective solution for specific, high-value use cases.
For teams looking to break free from the Heroku ecosystem, Stacksync is a direct and superior replacement.
Connect Anything: Sync Salesforce with any Postgres, MySQL, or Snowflake database, regardless of where it's hosted. Expand to connect NetSuite, HubSpot, and a wide range of other operational systems.
Greater Control: Get granular control over field mappings, including support for both standard and custom objects and fields, with robust error handling.
Cost-Efficiency: Move away from a rigid, single-purpose tool to a flexible platform that provides more value and often at a lower total cost.
For organizations whose primary need is data synchronization rather than complex, multi-step workflow orchestration, Stacksync offers a more direct and affordable solution.
Purpose-Built for Sync: Where an iPaaS is a general-purpose tool, Stacksync is a specialist. It performs bi-directional sync with higher reliability and performance because that is its core function.
Faster Time-to-Value: Set up and deploy a production-ready, bi-directional sync in minutes or hours, not the weeks or months often required for an iPaaS implementation.
Transparent, Scalable Pricing: Avoid the complex pricing tiers and hidden costs of enterprise iPaaS. Stacksync's pricing is designed to scale predictably with your data volume.
When the goal is to power a live application or keep two operational systems perfectly aligned, ELT tools are the wrong choice.
Powering Live Use Cases: Stacksync is designed for use cases where data latency matters. This includes powering internal tools, enabling real-time 360° customer views, and ensuring sales and finance teams are always working from the same data.
Beyond ETL and Reverse ETL: Bi-directional sync is more than just a combination of ETL and Reverse ETL. It is a continuous, stateful process that ensures consistency across systems, something batch-oriented pipelines cannot achieve.
Choosing the right integration tool is a critical architectural decision. For analytics, ELT tools have their place. For massive, enterprise-wide process automation, a heavy iPaaS may be required.
However, for the foundational task of ensuring data is consistent, reliable, and available in real-time across your most critical business systems, a purpose-built operational sync platform is the superior technical and financial choice. Stacksync provides a direct path to eliminating data silos, reducing engineering overhead, and empowering your teams to operate with confidence on a single source of truth.
