Reverse ETL tools: Choosing the right one

As previously stated on our blog, Reverse ETL tools are transforming the way data is managed by guaranteeing the synchronization of data across numerous business tools and applications. They accomplish this by pushing structured and segmented data from the data warehouse back into the daily operational systems, offering companies valuable insights into customer behavior and enhancing their personalization capabilities.

Choosing the right Reverse ETL platform is important for companies that want to make the most of their data. But with so many options out there, it's tough to know which one is the best fit.

In this article, we'll look more closely at the Reverse ETL tools available to enhance your Modern Data Stack. We'll also talk about what you should think about when picking the right Reverse ETL tool.

Reverse ETL refers to the technique of transferring data from a central database, which aggregates data from various sources, into SaaS tools that are utilized by departments such as marketing, sales, support, finance, and operations. This process ensures that business teams have access to up-to-date and comprehensive customer data directly within their operational tools, while also freeing up data teams from the time-consuming task of building and maintaining multiple data pipelines.

This approach supports a range of applications, from enhancing marketing campaigns and sales operations to improving customer support and finance management.

The rise of Reverse ETL has been notable over the past two years, driven by the widespread adoption of cloud data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery. As these platforms have become more prevalent, various tools, including CRMs, CDPs, and integration platforms, have begun to integrate with cloud data warehouses. Given this trend, it's important to carefully consider the specific use cases you aim to support with Reverse ETL and to understand the strengths and limitations of each tool available in the market.

When considering Reverse ETL tools, it's helpful to understand the different categories available, each tailored to distinct needs and operational contexts.

Tools like Rivery focus on simplifying data movement for engineering teams. They expand the capabilities of traditional ETL by integrating with data warehouses, supporting event tracking, and offering comprehensive integration solutions. These platforms enable engineers to manage all their data integrations in one place. However, their technical complexity means they require significant technical knowledge to operate and are mainly part of the engineering tech stack.

These tools are broader in scope, aimed at solving the challenges data teams face in building and maintaining data pipelines from the data warehouse. They support integration from any source to any destination, such as from a Google Sheet to a database. Examples include Hightouch and Census, ideal for centralized data teams in small to medium companies looking to save time on building connections from the data warehouse. However, the generalist nature of these tools may make them less accessible for non-technical teams due to the need for extensive configuration and understanding of the data model. No-code features, which simplify operation, are often only available in more expensive enterprise plans.

This category focuses on enabling non-technical business teams to use data more effectively, without depending on data teams or engineers. These tools may specialize by industry (e.g., SaaS B2B) or function (e.g., marketing teams), offering user-friendly interfaces and simplified user experiences. They support end-to-end implementation of use cases by business teams themselves, using Reverse ETL as a backend process and often providing specialized integrations for the specific teams or industries they serve.

DinMo is at the forefront of this category, specifically designed to empower marketing teams to independently manage customer data segmentation and activation.

DinMo is the Reverse ETL for business teams. While most of our competitors see the problem they solve as one of integration, we go one step further.

Once the configuration has been completed in just a few minutes by your data teams, business teams can prepare and segment customer data in our interface and push back insights in their operational systems in just one click (without any help from the data teams).

💡 DinMo is the only easy-to-implement data activation platform for non technical teams. At the crossroads of traditional CDPs and Reverse ETL. We combine the:

At DinMo, we are on a mission to democratize data access and usage for business users so they can help their companies perform better.

Compared to our competitors, we focus on features that can business teams:

Beyond these designed aspects for business teams, our Reverse ETL tool offers several benefits:

Hightouch is a generalist reverse ETL for data teams. It syncs data from the data sources to various tools and databases (with more than 200+ integrations).

That being said, DinMo outshines Hightouch in the data activation platform with its non-technical features (user-friendly interface, no-code segment builder, analytics, etc.), available for everyone. Hightouch still requires technical skills for source connection, data modeling, sync mapping, build segment, etc.

Their no-code features are available in a separate product called “Customer Studio” that is only available in Enterprise plans.

Hightouch quickly becomes costly for marketing teams if they want to cover all their use cases, using several integrations and no-code features.

Census is another reverse ETL tool designed for data teams. It is really similar to Hightouch and its no-code features are only available in Enterprise plans.

Census quickly becomes costly for marketing teams if they want to have a complete and self-serve access to their customer data.

Originating as a tool for tracking events, Segment has evolved into a Customer Data Platform under Twilio’s umbrella.

It excels in gathering and managing customer data using events collected with their SDK, and more recently, has added reverse ETL functionalities. These functionalities, however, are primarily limited to updating the customer profiles data model within Segment itself.

For pure reverse ETL tasks, the tool currently supports only a select number of destinations. This limitation means that while Segment can be a powerful tool for data integration, it might require additional engineering resources to fully leverage its capabilities in a reverse ETL context.

Segment is still perceived as a technical tool and need an engineer in the loop to be operated.

RudderStack simplifies the process of collecting and distributing customer data to the necessary tools and teams. It’s more a Customer Data Integration (CDI) platform than a Reverse ETL tool.

Rudderstack is purpose-built for technical data teams and engineers and only solve the integrations (ELT and Reverse ETL) problems.

If you're a data engineer and in need of integrating mission-critical event data from multiple sources to destinations, this might be your solution. However, if your goal is to give your business teams access to data, this option may not be the best choice (and in that case, we highly recommend you DinMo 🙂)

⚠️ There's little value in building and maintaining pipelines for Reverse ETL

💡 Most Reverse ETL tools have expanded their offering to compete with Traditional CDP vendors. These same CDP vendors have also built Reverse ETL capabilities to expand their product suites. The market for customer data activation platforms is evolving rapidly and adapting your data stack now becomes crucial.

When choosing Reverse ETL tools, several factors should be thoroughly evaluated to find the right fit for your data integration needs. Below is the recommended checklist for selecting your tool:

Reverse ETL is a key component of the Modern Data Stack, transforming how businesses utilize their centralized data for improved data activation. Its role in bridging the gap between data warehouse and business applications makes it an indispensable tool in the current data landscape.

When choosing a Reverse ETL solution for your company, consider the integrations, robustness, the ease of use and implementation, the observability, the security and the dedicated support.

DinMo is the perfect Reverse ETL solution for companies looking for a way to free up time for their data teams and to empower business teams for better overall performance.

Want to see why both marketing and data teams choose DinMo for Reverse ETL? Don’t hesitate to book a demo with us, we’ll be more than happy to discuss!