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Enterprises run on a complex web of specialized applications. Your CRM, ERP, and production databases are the operational backbone of your business, yet keeping them perfectly synchronized is a persistent engineering challenge. When data in Salesforce becomes inconsistent with your backend database, or when NetSuite and your customer portal are out of sync, the consequences are immediate: broken workflows, poor customer experiences, and flawed decision-making.
The market offers a range of data integration tools, but they often fall short for mission-critical, operational synchronization. Platforms like Fivetran and Airbyte excel at one-way data replication for analytics, while enterprise automation platforms like Workato provide powerful but often overly complex and expensive solutions for what should be a straightforward sync. This forces engineering teams into a difficult choice: misuse an ETL tool, overpay for an iPaaS, or build and maintain brittle, time-consuming custom integrations.
This article analyzes the limitations of common data integration platforms for operational sync and presents a purpose-built alternative designed for real-time, bi-directional data consistency across enterprise systems.
For many organizations, the data integration conversation begins with ETL/ELT tools, with Fivetran and Airbyte as the leading contenders. Their primary function is to extract data from source systems and load it into a central data warehouse for analytics. While effective for this purpose, their architecture presents fundamental limitations for operational synchronization.
A primary driver in the Fivetran vs. Airbyte debate is cost. Fivetran’s pricing is based on Monthly Active Rows (MAR), which can become prohibitively expensive and difficult to predict as data volumes fluctuate. Costs can range from $400 to $900 per million MAR, and minimum annual contracts often start at $12,000 [1].
In contrast, Airbyte is positioned as a more cost-effective alternative. Its open-source version is free aside from hosting costs, and its cloud offering uses a more transparent pay-as-you-go model, charging around $2.50 per credit (which translates to significantly lower costs than Fivetran for most use cases).
Despite the cost and flexibility differences, both Fivetran and Airbyte are fundamentally designed for one-way data pipelines. They are not architected for the low-latency, bi-directional synchronization required to keep operational systems consistent. Using them for this purpose results in:
Recognizing the limitations of ETL tools, some teams turn to enterprise automation platforms like Workato. As a powerful iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service), Workato can connect almost any application and automate complex business workflows.
However, using Workato for what is primarily a data synchronization task presents its own set of challenges:
The core technical challenge is not simply moving data; it is maintaining a consistent state between two or more active, operational systems. This requires a platform architected from the ground up for real-time, bi-directional data flow with built-in mechanisms for reliability and conflict resolution.
This is the domain of operational sync platforms like Stacksync. Instead of repurposing an ETL tool or an iPaaS, Stacksync provides a solution engineered specifically to eliminate the "dirty API plumbing" between systems like Salesforce, NetSuite, HubSpot, and databases like PostgreSQL or Snowflake.
It addresses the shortcomings of other platforms by focusing on a different paradigm:
Choosing the right tool depends on the job. A direct comparison highlights the distinct value proposition of a purpose-built sync platform.
While Stacksync's pricing is value-based and reflects its enterprise-grade capabilities, it provides a more cost-effective solution for its intended use case by delivering functionality that alternatives cannot match without significant custom engineering or excessive licensing fees.
Adopting a platform designed for operational synchronization delivers immediate and measurable technical and business benefits.
Choosing a data integration tool requires a clear understanding of the technical problem you are solving. For populating data warehouses for analytics, ETL platforms like Fivetran and Airbyte offer powerful solutions with a trade-off between cost and flexibility. For orchestrating complex, multi-step business processes, an iPaaS like Workato is a capable, albeit expensive, choice.
However, for the critical task of maintaining real-time data consistency between operational systems, these tools are a fundamental mismatch. The challenge of enterprise sync demands a purpose-built solution. A platform like Stacksync provides the real-time, bi-directional capabilities, reliability, and security required to power modern business operations, offering a more efficient, reliable, and ultimately more cost-effective solution than misapplied ETL tools or overpriced iPaaS platforms.
