Your evaluation guide to navigating
the top data catalogs
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:
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Secoda has no limits on viewers. Everyone who needs to see your data will be able to get access.
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.
Easily share charts, data, and graphs with your customers and other teams with links and invitations.
Secoda is a workspace made specifically with data teams in mind. Get comprehensive analytics on the metrics that matter to your business.
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.
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.
Documentation has never been easier. Collaborate with your team, update them on changes, and much more.
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.
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.
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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.
Book a demoThere 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.
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.
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.
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.
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