Talend vs Pentaho

Difference Between Talend vs Pentaho

Data is always huge and it is vital for any industry to store this ‘Data’ as it carries immense information which leads to their strategic planning. Just as one needs a house to feel secured, data also has to be secured. This home for data is technically referred to as Data warehouse.

Also, not all data is true data. The growth of a business is directly proportional to the growth of data. And this growth might take a hit on the efficiency of data. To eliminate this, data has to be free from duplicates and errors as such data do not yield the desired results. This is where data integration is important. When the data turns to accessible data, it makes the job of employee much easier letting him to concentrate on effective planning and forecasting.

Once you have this data, it is important for that data to be extracted from the system and further analyzed in an environment through a various set of tools to meet business needs. These tools are generally referred as ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tools and Talend & Pentaho are two such ETL tools which are widely used across industries.

Before going deep, let us get the basics right here.

Below is a simple illustration of what ETL tool actually means:

• Extract: Data is generally collected from compound databases. The function of ‘E’ is to read the data from sources.
• Transform: The ‘T’ function is quite challenging compared to ‘E’ however not that complicated. It follows a simple process where the extracted data is adapted from its original form to the form it needs to be in (target) so that it can be engaged to another database. Though the process seems simple, the procedure involves rules or lookup tables by merging and synchronizing from multiple databases
• Load: The ‘L’ function follows just one route. To write the data into the target database.

It is a hard task for an administrator to associate different databases without the help of any tool. Hence, these tools not only make job easy but also save time and money.

Head to Head Comparison Between Talend and Pentaho (Infographics)

Below is the 8 comparison  between Talend and Pentaho:

Key Differences Between Talend and Pentaho

Some key differences are explained below between Talend and Pentaho

Talend and Pentaho Kettle are impeccable tools in their own market, below are noticeable differences:

Talend:

• Talend is an open-source data integration tool whereas Pentaho Kettle is a commercial open-source data integration tool
• Talend offers limited connectivity to concurrent databases, and other forms of data but has a dependency factor of Java drivers to connect to the data sources whereas Pentaho offers a wide range of connectivity to extensive databases, and other forms of data
• Talend has its support which exists majorly in the US whereas Pentaho its support which not only exists in the US, and also targets the UK, Asia Pacific markets

Although both Talend and Pentaho tools carry similar characteristics, here one needs to understand the GUI which Pentaho Kettle holds a slight advantage.

Below we see the salient characteristics and prominent offerings of the Pentaho Kettle to Talend:

• Pentaho kettle is twice faster when compared to Talend
• Pentaho kettle’s GUI is easier to run when compared to Talend’s GUI
• Adapts well to the system
• Can easily deal with different data clusters
• Can be used as a slave server on many machines while transformation processing
• Cost of ownership

Talend is more useful when there is an existing system where a Java program is already running/being implemented.

Listed below are the advantages of Talend code generation approach

• Easy deployment (for standalone Java application)
• Saves time
• Cost-effective

Anyone would agree to that fact that the entire purpose of implementing ETL tools is to help the entity making use of data integration to plan their strategies using various deployment models, infrastructures. These tools need to be flexible to both existing and target systems, as well as deliver a wide-range of delivery capabilities. Though Talend is an open source data integration tool, one can benefit more from the tool if they do avail its subscription which offers much more additional features.

Talend and Pentaho Comparison Table

Comparing Talend vs Pentaho Kettle is a challenging task. Not because of the challenges one toss to another but simply due to the similarities both the tools offer among each other.

Talend and Pentaho Kettle can be compared to two different individuals who offer desired results to society through their strengths, capacities, and capabilities.

Hence, one should pay importance to understand that it is not what these two tools offer stands out as vital, instead; depends on what approach the syndicate/business desires in return with respect to their strategic requirements, and planning methodologies.

The comparison table gives a detailed design of how these 2 tools function in general.

Comparison	Talend	Pentaho Kettle
Approach	Code generating approach	Meta-driven approach
Deployment	The java file, Perl file can run on any external machine	A stand-alone java engine that runs on a machine which runs Java
Speed	Sluggish when compared to Pentaho	Runs briskly when compared to Talend
Risk	Risk level is equal when compared to Pentaho	Risk level is equal when compared to Talend
Data Quality (DQ)	Equips DQ features in Graphical User Interface (GUI)	Equips DQ features in GUI and also contains additional features
Monitoring	Comprises of adequate monitoring tools and logging	Comprises of adequate monitoring tools and logging
Community Support	Strong	Strong
Interface	Moderate	Moderate

*Pentaho is a BI suite and uses a product called Kettle for ETL purposes

Talend is following code generator approach which deals with Data management network

Pentaho Kettle follows meta-driven approach and also is an interpreter within the network

Conclusion

Both Talend vs Pentaho Kettle are robust, user-friendly, and reliable open source tools.

Talend is more like an answer to all the complex challenges we encounter with respect to data integration, data quality, and data management platform

Pentaho Kettle is more like a think pad Business Intelligence suite which is easy to use

As mentioned while illustrating a head-head comparison of both the tools, the outcome depends on what sort of approach the end customer desires.

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