Comparison Guide

Atlan vs. Secoda:
What are the differences?

Your evaluation guide to navigating
the top data catalogs

Evaluation Criteria

Data management has become increasingly difficult with the growing complexities of modern data stacks. With so many disparate data sources, it can be challenging for data teams to keep track of data lineage, metadata, and other important information. The right data catalog can help solve these challenges by providing an automated, central source of truth for data discovery, documentation, and governance.

We’ll compare Secoda to Atlan against six key criteria that modern data teams should be considering during their data catalog evaluation process:

  1. Automation
  2. Ease of Use
  3. Data Governance & Security
  4. System Maintenance & Innovation
  5. Customizability
  6. Price

1. Automation

It is essential for a data catalog to be able to reduce the amount of time spent discovering data and creating documentation. Secoda automatically visualizes lineage from all data sources in your data stack. You also have the flexibility to add manual lineage nodes through a user friendly drag-and-drop interface. Secoda’s lineage feature works on both column and table levels and provides notifications for changes to owners downstream via Slack.

While Atlan is a great tool that can also automates schema and metadata ingestion, Secoda’s open API  unlocks customizable automations so you can upgrade your existing workflows without disrupting them. Secoda also has a dedicated request management component built for data teams to streamline the requests they receive from business teams. Another key differentiator is the ability to automatically generate documentation from metadata descriptions- one of the most popular features used by our clients who want to ensure seamless system migrations. Read the case study
here


1. Automation
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
Automatically ingest metadata
Yes
Yes
Automatically ingest table and column level lineage
Yes
Yes
Dedicated data request management workflow
Yes
No
Ability to automatically generate documentation from metadata
Yes
No
Ability to run live queries in documents
Yes
Yes
Automated impact analysis
Yes
Yes

2. Ease of Use

Data catalogs need to be designed with both technical and non-technical users in mind in order to be valuable. To make them easy to use, they should feature a powerful and intuitive search function powered by LLM. Secoda’s search function helps users more accurately and quickly locate information. Secoda is able to take into account the context and meaning of search terms and suggests related search terms in order to provide comprehensive results.

Even through Secoda is built for data professionals, it is designed for everyone across the organization to be enabled with the data they need to move quickly. Based on the type of user (ie data analyst vs head of sales), Secoda enables personalized user journeys and views to simplify how data is accessed.

The platform is designed to be a delight to use. For example, Secoda promotes collaboration by allowing multiple collaborators at once like a Google Doc or Miro Board. You are also able to use nested folder structures so you can establish hierarchies and relationships between your documents.

2. Ease of Use
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
LLM powered search functionality
Yes
No
Semantic search
Yes
Yes
Search by customizable tags
Yes
No
Dedicated business user portal
Yes
No
Slack integration
Yes
Yes
Multiplayer editing
Yes
No
Dedicated data dictionary component
Yes
No
Modern UI
Yes
Yes
Ability to create nested documents and establish folder hierarchy
Yes
No
Ability to implement immediately
Yes
No
Access to live support and training
Yes
No
Advanced editing and markdown support
Yes
No

3. Data Governance & Security

It is critical for enterprise data catalogs to be able to support data governance workflows such as version control, version history, publishing workflow, role-based permissions and assignments, as well as access controls. Secoda supports all of the above with the added functionality of allowing non-data team users access tailored experiences based on their role within the organization. For example, the head of finance will be able to see and access different reports than a director of marketing.

3. Data Governance & Security
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
Ability to assign unique roles and access permissions per role
Yes
No
Ability to automatically identify and tag PII data
Yes
Yes
Ability to require documents to be approved before publishing
Yes
No
Version history
Yes
No
Version control with Git
Yes
No
SOC 2 Compliance
Yes
Yes
SSH Tunnelling
Yes
Yes
Included SAML, SSO, and MFA
Yes
Yes
Self-hosted Deployment
Yes
Yes
Private Cloud Deployment
Yes
Yes

4. System Maintenance & Innovation

Secoda is built on modern infrastructure and integrates with both modern and legacy data stacks. New features are released on a weekly basis and are supported with on-demand training if required. Secoda employs an open feedback structure where we listen closely to the needs and requests of our customers. This is a product built for data professionals so they can enable teams across their organizations with data.

4. System Maintenance & Innovation
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
Weekly feature releases
Yes
No
High feature development velocity
Yes
Yes
Public roadmap
Yes
Yes
Ability to implement immediately
Yes
No
Open product feedback cycle
Yes
No

5. Customizability

Customizability is integral to the adoption of a data catalog and data products in general. If a data catalog does not fit into existing workflows, it will be rejected. A data catalog needs to complement workflows rather than disrupt them. Secoda is highly customizable between the ability to set granular user permissions and using the API to create custom integrations. With Secoda, data teams can create customizable alerts to notify stakeholders when a change impacts all downstream assets. Additionally, Secoda provides the option to use Terraform - Atlan does not.

5. Customizability
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
Out of the box integrations with modern cloud warehouses
Yes
Yes
Out of the box integrations with modern data stack tooling
Yes
Yes
API access to create custom integrations
Yes
No
API access to build data discovery process into existing workflows
Yes
No
Customizable broadcasts from changes to documents
Yes
No

6. Price

Atlan is magnitudes more expensive than Secoda for less functionality. It’s easy to get started right away with Secoda without talking to a salesperson - something Atlan is unable to offer. The intuitive user experience is designed to quickly onboard new users and get them familiar with the platform. Our success is your success. Secoda users have access to live support and training - an expensive add-on feature that Atlan only provides at their Enterprise tier.

6. Price
Secoda
Modern
Atlan
Modern
All-in-one pricing
Yes
No
Public, transparent pricing
Yes
No
Under $1000/month for base plan
Yes
No
Implementation fees
No
Yes
Unlimited viewer roles
Yes
No
Unlimited data assets
Yes
No

Why People Choose Secoda versus Competitors Like Atlan?

When comparing Secoda to Atlan, there are several clear advantages. Why choose Secoda over Atlan? We’re glad you asked. Here are just a few reasons people go with Secoda:

Simple pricing

Secoda makes pricing simple and straightforward. With Secoda, you can easily scale our tool to fit your business and get an affordable tool that provides you with an intuitive way to search, discover, and collaborate with data.

Charting

Secoda provides intuitive tools for charting that you can’t do with Atlan. Secoda has built-in charts to document queries and additional knowledge your team creates.

Unlimited Viewers

Secoda has no limits on viewers. Everyone who needs to see your data will be able to get access.

No code set up

Secoda is one of the easiest tools to set up in your current data stack. You can seamlessly integrate Secoda without code and get up and running in minutes.

Customer links and invitations

Easily share charts, data, and graphs with your customers and other teams with links and invitations.

Workspace analytics

Secoda is a workspace made specifically with data teams in mind. Get comprehensive analytics on the metrics that matter to your business.

Version control with Git

Secoda easily integrates with Git and provides you with version control, in case you need to merge or roll back changes in Github or Gitlab.

Data Q&A and data requests

Easily manage data requests. No more jumping between tools and having questions asked twice. Data requests can easily be searched where all your data lives.

Flexible, notion like docs

Documentation has never been easier. Collaborate with your team, update them on changes, and much more.

Discover and Understand All of Your Data in One Place

Secoda is designed to be easy for any of your users to discover, understand, and search for the data they need. Our searchable platform provides you with a data catalog, data documentation, data dictionary, and data management all from one tool. No more data silos or errors – everything you need is on Secoda.

Collaborate With Your Team and Document Changes

Secoda is a holistic platform that is collaborative and searchable. All of your data knowledge is easily accessible to your team members. Any document changes and updates are processed throughout your data catalog, so everyone is on the same page.

With the Secoda data catalog, your team can see metadata, lineage, data usage, and much more. Teams can share and connect data automatically, search and collaborate without having to rely on the data team, and even share with customers when needed.

Make Your Data Easily Searchable

Secoda is designed to make it as intuitive as possible to search for data. Discover and manage your data easily and quickly. Create data documents with insights from the data team, reduce data requests by increasing employee data literacy, and increase data discovery.

All of your team members will have everything they need to make data-driven decisions quickly and without being delayed by data team bottlenecks. Plus, your data team gets more time in their day since they’re not constantly responding to requests and they can more easily find the data they need too.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of using Secoda?

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There are numerous benefits of using Secoda. Here are some of the key benefits you’ll get when you add Secoda to your software stack: “Searchable company data” is our name and it shows. We make it extremely easy to search data and make it accessible to the users in your company who need it.

Our holistic platform is collaborative and searchable for all the data knowledge you need, not just technical metadata.

Secoda easily integrates with the important tools that you’re already using.

Secoda is easy to set up and use. We don’t charge for extra viewers and you’ll know exactly what you’re getting at our price point. In short, if you’re looking for a way to manage your data catalog, lineage, docs, dictionary, analysis, and data requests in one platform, Secoda is your solution.

How is Secoda different from Atlan?

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Secoda is different from Atlan in quite a few key categories. Some ways that Secoda really sets itself apart from Atlan is by providing unlimited viewers, charting, and a simple setup. Of course, that’s not all.

Here are some other features that Secoda offers that you can’t get with Atlan:
Simple pricing - No extra charges for viewers.
Customer links and invitations - Easily collaborate with your customers and send them the data they need.
Workspace analytics - Get comprehensive and in-depth data analytics.
Version control with Git - Easily merge or rollback changes in Git.
Data Q&A and Requests - Search, manage, and access data requests quickly and easily.
Flexible, notion-like docs - Collaborate and share information with flexible, notion-like docs straight from our platform.

What makes Secoda a better alternative to Atlan?

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Secoda is a better alternative to Atlan because it is more full-featured, easier to use, and has more straightforward pricing and setup. If you’re looking for the best data catalog platform built for business users first, Secoda is the answer.

What metadata does Secoda extract?

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Secoda does not pull in your data. Instead, Secoda pulls in metadata about your data. For a majority of the integrations connected to Secoda, this means Secoda pulls in resource names, popularity, lineage, queries, descriptions and frequent usage. For more information about our integration, you can visit our integration docs.