How Snowplow compares to ETL tools

Transactional, CRM and ads data is not enough

An ETL tool integrates with many ‘static’ data sources, however more advanced use cases are impossible to deliver or much less effective without access to rich, behavioral event data.

The behavioral data your users generate offer amazing opportunities to get closer to your current and potential customers, and to drive growth in your business.

Snowplow and ETL tools are complementary

We often recommend our customers invest in an ETL tool alongside Snowplow so they can join their behavioral data with their transactional data in the data warehouse for a complete understanding of their customers and business performance.

ETL or ELT is not enough

Without access to your rich, behavioral event data you don’t have the insight you need to power your data use cases. CRM and transactional data provides you half the picture and if you truly want to understand how people interact with your product so you can optimize their experience, your behavioral event stream is paramount. Snowplow is the best-in-class behavioral data delivery platform empowering you to truly understand and improve your user experience.
Don’t ETL your data out of analytics tools

It might seem easy to extract your data from Google Analytics and load it into your data warehouse, but you’ll be greatly limited by sampled data and a rigid data structure that will require extensive cleaning and structuring before data is usable. With Snowplow you get your raw, unopinionated data set and the flexibility to define your own data structure and modeling logic for complete data and better insights.
ETL + Snowplow = <3

Leverage Snowplow for behavioral data collection, processing and delivery and an ETL tool to load your CRM data, ads data, transactional data and other non-event data into your data warehouse. Join your data sets in the data warehouse to build a single customer view, get a complete picture into marketing attribution or optimize the user experience with better product recommendations.

Should we invest in Snowplow or an ETL tool?

Transactional, CRM and ads data is not enough

Snowplow and ETL tools are complementary

ETL or ELT is not enough

Don’t ETL your data out of analytics tools

ETL + Snowplow = <3

Learn more about our unique approach to data collection and delivery with a Snowplow demo.