As companies continue to grow and rely on data to make business decisions, it is more important than ever for them to implement a strategy for their data management.

Organizations today can’t afford downtime caused by ineffective data governance strategies. With so much on the line, businesses must use appropriate data governance tools and software to maintain control of their company’s most valuable asset: data.

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Top data governance software comparison

The right data governance tools enable companies to meet their regulatory requirements while making it easy for employees to work efficiently. Below are some top-rated data governance tools and software solutions for enterprises to consider:

SoftwareBest forBusiness glossaryData lineageMetadata managementPricing
Ataccama ONEAll-encompassing data management and governanceYesYesYes$90,000 for 12 months
Collibra Data GovernanceComplex data landscapesYesYesYes$170,000 for 12 months
IBM Data GovernanceStrict regulatory compliance requirementsYesYesYes$18,720 per month
erwin by QuestVisibility into enterprise dataYesYesYesUnavailable
Precisely Data360 GovernData analyticsYesYesYesUnavailable
Informatica Data GovernanceDigital transformationYesYesYesUnavailable
OneTrust Data GovernanceData risk managementYesYesYesUnavailable
SAP Master Data GovernanceCentralized management of master dataYesYesYesStarts at €53 per 5,000 objects per month
Oracle Enterprise Metadata ManagementBusinesses that rely on business intelligence toolsYesYesYesUnavailable
AtlanAutomated data lineageYesYesYes$120,000 for 12 months
AlationData governance workflow automationYesYesYesStarts at $60,000

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Ataccama ONE: Best for overall data management and governance

The Ataccama logo.
Image: Ataccama

Ataccama ONE is an AI-powered, enterprise-class, self-driven data management and governance platform that provides users with a single source of truth for all company data. It enables companies to drive digital transformation initiatives by providing insights into their data.

The software comes in on-premises, cloud and hybrid formats to help make processes more efficient, effective and consistent while customizing them to specific business infrastructures. It automates workflows to reduce manual processes and make them more effective for data professionals. Data stewards, data governance professionals, data analysts, data scientists and data engineers can all benefit from this tool.

Pricing

Ataccama ONE doesn’t advertise its product pricing on its website. It encourages buyers to contact the company for pricing. Publicly available pricing details show that Ataccama ONE Unified Data Management Cloud Platform costs $90,000 for 12 months, while Ataccama Upgrade Unit costs $10,000 per unit.

Key differentiators

  • The tool offers various workflows for discovery, indexing, classification, cataloging, metadata management and self-service.
  • MDM capabilities reference data management and data integration requirements.
  • Role-based security is available to administrators.
  • Automation features include anomaly detection and business rule assignment.

Pros

  • Low-code/no-code customization for data quality rules.
  • Strong, varied automation capabilities.
  • Collaborative data stewardship.

Cons

  • Software setup is complex.
  • Error messages are sometimes unclear to users.

Collibra Data Governance: Best for complex data landscapes

The Collibra logo.
Image: Collibra

Collibra Data Governance software helps organizations maintain their data quality and security. It is an all-in-one solution that includes a business glossary, stewardship management, reference data management, centralized policy management, a data dictionary and intuitive workflows. It also provides necessary insights for ensuring compliance with regulatory mandates such as GDPR.

Pricing

Collibra doesn’t advertise its rates on its website. It encourages buyers to speak with a Collibra expert and get a personalized demo of the Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud. Publicly available information shows that the tool costs for various durations are as follows:

  • 12-month subscription to Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud: $170,000.
  • 24-month subscription to Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud: $340,000.
  • 36-month subscription to Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud: $510,000.

Key differentiators

  • Its data help desk capabilities enable users to raise, manage and resolve issues by engaging the appropriate stakeholders to increase data trust.
  • Its data lineage automatically maps data connections to explain how data flows from system to system and how data sets are produced, aggregated, sourced and used.
  • Its business glossary ensures no gaps in language or understanding of an organization’s data strategy.
  • It offers complete visibility into business-critical data assets, such as key metrics, reports, APIs, models, data products and technology assets.
  • Collibra’s native lineage harvesters seamlessly extract and maintain lineage from source systems, SQL dialects, ETL tools and BI tools.

Pros

  • Connectivity options for business and IT teams.
  • Automated compliance features.
  • Automated data retrieval.
  • Flexible and easy-to-use interface.

Cons

  • Technical support can be improved.
  • The software has a steep learning curve.
  • Some users complain that the UI is difficult to use.

IBM Data Governance: Best for strict regulatory compliance

The IBM logo.
Image: IBM

IBM Data Governance offers a solution that protects data confidentiality, integrity and availability by integrating with existing systems. This helps businesses ensure their data is reliable while meeting regulatory requirements.

The solution works with structured and unstructured data and can be customized based on your organization’s needs. With this software, companies can communicate in one unified business language, keep records, create rules and policies and track their data sources.

Pricing

Pricing for the IBM data governance solution isn’t publicly listed on IBM’s website. However, publicly available data on AWS Marketplace shows the pricing of IBM Cloud Pak for Data, which is the parent product for the data governance solution, is as follows:

  • Cloud Pak for Data Standard Option: 48 VPCs cost $18,720 per month and $224,640 for 12 months.
  • Cloud Pak for Data Enterprise Option: 72 VPCs cost $56,016 per month and $672,192 for 12 months.

Key differentiators

  • This tool improves governance processes with standardization rules.
  • Users can monitor and report metrics related to governance adoption.
  • The platform helps administrators enforce policies, manage compliance and promote audit readiness.
  • Machine learning algorithms are available for task automation.

Pros

  • Works with structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.
  • AI-driven solution.
  • Mitigates compliance risks.
  • Offers end-to-end policy management.

Cons

  • Steep learning curve.
  • Integration with other software can be improved.

For more information, read the in-depth IBM Data Governance tools review.

erwin by Quest: Best for visibility into enterprise data

The erwin logo.
Image: erwin

erwin Data Intelligence by Quest is a data governance solution that helps businesses run smoothly by giving them visibility into their data assets. The solution allows companies to track the data they are collecting and how it’s being used. They can also use different metrics to ensure that data policies and best practices are followed.

The software combines data catalog and literacy capabilities with built-in automation to view enterprise metadata landscapes comprehensively. In addition, the software’s data profiling capability allows organizations to identify sensitive data assets and monitor data quality.

Pricing

erwin by Quest doesn’t advertise pricing on its websites. Interested buyers are required to request for pricing to get a custom quote. A user stated on one review site that they spend about $150,000 per year on the solution. Your actual cost may be less or more depending on your company’s use case, number of stewards and other factors unique to your organization.

Key differentiators

  • This tool automates metadata gathering and aggregation from disparate data management silos into a single source.
  • Professionals with roles in business strategy, data management, compliance, information management and technical operations can leverage the system’s dashboard and analytics to identify problem areas that require urgent attention.
  • ​​Users can visualize structured and unstructured enterprise data on a single interface, regardless of location; relational or NoSQL databases, data warehouses, on-premises and cloud are all compatible.
  • With built-in interfaces, users can turn the technical format of the key cloud and on-premises database platforms into graphical metadata models.
  • It offers a real-time data pipeline for making informed decisions.

Pros

  • Automated metadata management.
  • Data collection and organization into multiple catalogs.
  • Business glossary, data lineage and metadata repositories features.
  • Strong data policy enforcement capabilities.

Cons

  • The user interface can be improved to make it more intuitive.
  • Some users consider the solution expensive.
  • Business support can be improved.

Precisely Data360 Govern: Best for data analytics

The Precisely logo.
Image: Precisely

Precisely Data360 Govern is an enterprise-grade data governance, catalog and metadata management solution. Users can collect, organize, store and analyze information about their enterprise’s digital assets.

The tool automates governance and stewardship tasks to answer data source, usage, meaning, ownership and quality questions. In addition, it facilitates collaborative discovery, reporting and auditing activities that drive compliance with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR.

Pricing

Interested buyers are required to request a demo to get a better understanding of the tool, and custom quote is generated afterward based on their needs.

Key differentiators

  • Data360 Govern works with several data quality solutions, including Data360 DQ+, Spectrum Quality and Trillium Quality.
  • Its 3D Data Lineage visually integrates data lineage, impact analysis and process diagrams to help organizations make sense of their data.
  • This tool assigns data assets roles and responsibilities, so all data assets have accountable owners.
  • AI tools are used to automatically tag data for classification or to link data.
  • Data360 Govern gathers metadata, makes business and technical metadata searchable, aggregates data quality and offers asset-based data governance ratings.

Pros

  • Uses statistical, predictive and machine learning methodologies to make predictions.
  • Offers business users self-service options.
  • Contextual automation capabilities.

Cons

  • The data lineage feature can be improved.
  • The user interface can be improved. Some customers say it’s too difficult for new users.

Informatica Data Governance: Best for digital transformation

The Informatica logo.
Image: Informatica

Informatica provides a data governance solution via Axon Data Governance, which integrates all elements of the enterprise on a single, streamlined platform. It uses AI-driven automation to aid stewards with data discovery, quality evaluation and communication.

The software allows users to manage their company’s metadata and identify who is responsible for any specific asset. It also allows users to monitor change and data quality and become more aware of what is happening in their environment.

Pricing

Buyers should contact the Informatica sales team for custom quotes. You can also buy the solution on Azure or AWS Marketplace. Your rate on the marketplace will vary based on your region.

Key differentiators

  • This technology allows users to monitor data quality, show data lineage and ensure data privacy.
  • It defines connections organically and quickly, detects gaps and connects policies to the assets they influence.
  • Data lineage visualization creates end-to-end business processes that illustrate coverage and duplication while exposing impacts.

Pros

  • Dictionary, search and rating features.
  • Customization options available.
  • Integration with EDC and other metadata tools.

Cons

  • The software has a steep learning curve.
  • Automation can be improved.

OneTrust Data Governance: Best for data risks management

The OneTrust logo.
Image: OneTrust

OneTrust data governance software enables users to define data policies such as user access, data retention and residency, data minimization and data protection. Collaborating across business functions can reduce the risk of data breaches or flag violations.

OneTrust combines the capabilities of automated data discovery and classification to classify personal and non-personal data so they meet regulatory requirements. The solution also provides a centralized management console that easily identifies any privacy risks using visual dashboards and reports.

Pricing

OneTrust doesn’t advertise its price on its website. Interested buyers are required to book a demo to speak with an expert. Pricing will be provided based on your unique use case.

Key differentiators

  • It includes hundreds of pre-built connectors and the option to create custom connectors using a drag-and-drop workflow builder in OneTrust Athena.
  • Users can assess risky data and implement policy and technical controls for encryption, masking and access.
  • Using OCR capabilities, users can access personal, sensitive and other data from various file types, including text, CSV, PDF, ZIP and images.
  • Users can automate each manual process in handling requests with adaptive integration workflows.

Pros

  • Comprehensive data discovery for structured, semi-structured and unstructured data.
  • Simplified management of personal data.
  • Strong risk management, compliance, privacy and role-based capabilities.
  • Data portability and access controls.

Cons

  • Integration with other tools can be improved.
  • Some users infrequently experience ​​issues with online assessments during the Data Protection Impact Assessment.
  • The software has a steep learning curve.

SAP Master Data Governance: Best for centralized data management

The SAP logo.
Image: SAP

SAP Master Data Governance is a data management solution that nurtures enterprise-wide insight into an organization’s data and other key business information. The solution integrates an organization’s various information sources into one centralized environment. According to SAP, its application helps you pull together master data and manage it centrally using a master data management layer based on the SAP Business Technology Platform.

The Master Data Governance application comprises several integrated modules, including change management, data quality management and metadata management. These modules work together seamlessly to maintain consistency across your systems while providing insights into your organization’s master data assets.

Pricing

SAP Master Data Governance pricing starts at €53 per 5,000 objects per month. Your actual rate depends on your needs. Contact the SAP sales team for personalized quotes.

Key differentiators

  • It allows different teams to manage their unique master data attributes and enforce validated values for particular data points through collaborative workflow routing and notifications.
  • To ensure master data readiness and analyze master data management performance, it uses data quality and process analytics to define, validate and monitor pre-existing business rules.
  • SAP Master Data Governance is a data management system that creates enterprise-wide insights into customers, suppliers and products.
  • With bulk change procedures, master data stewards can conduct bulk changes for business partner, customer, supplier and product data.

Pros

  • Prebuilt data models, business rules, workflows and user interfaces.
  • Flexible support for record standardization.
  • Helpful search and upload functions.
  • Security features for authorization and authentication.

Cons

  • The user interface could be improved.
  • Some users say data interpretation can be difficult.
  • Some users infrequently experience issues with business partner replication.

Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management: Best for BI requirements

The Oracle logo.
Image: Oracle

Oracle Enterprise Metadata Management is a metadata management platform that can harvest and catalog metadata from various metadata providers, including BI, ETL, Hadoop, relational and data modeling. OEMM offers features that help the data governance process, including annotations and tagging; multimedia attachments (documents, videos, presentation, code, etc.); and linking URLs for email, blogging and social networking.

It allows for interactive searching and browsing of the metadata as well as providing data lineage, impact analysis, semantic definition and semantic usage analysis for any metadata asset within the catalog.

Pricing

Pricing for this solution is available on request.

Key differentiators

  • Data flow and lineage analyzer capabilities.
  • Versioning and model compare capability.
  • Business glossary and semantic lineage capabilities.

Pros

  • Improves Data Governance and Data Standardization through Metadata Standards support.
  • Annotations and tagging.
  • Import third-party business intelligence metadata, ETL metadata and database metadata.

Cons

  • The reporting functionality of the platform is still limited.
  • The user experience can be improved.

Atlan: Best for automated data lineage

The Atlan logo.
Image: Atlan

Atlan is a data workspace designed to help data teams discover, collaborate and automate data assets. It provides features such as data cataloging and discovery, data exploration, data profiling, data lineage and data governance capabilities. Atlan integrates with popular tools like Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks, Looker and Power BI.

Pricing

Atlan requires buyers to contact the company for custom quotes. Publicly available data shows the tool’s costs for one to three years:

  • Atlan Active Metadata Platform plus five admins and five members: $120,000 for 12 months.
  • Atlan Active Metadata Platform plus five admins and five members: $220,000 for 24 months.
  • Atlan Active Metadata Platform plus five admins and five members: $340,000 for 36 months.

Key differentiators

  • Custom classifications.
  • Masking and hashing policies.
  • Column-level lineage.
  • Data discovery and catalog.

Pros

  • Intelligent automation.
  • Clean, modern and interactive user interface.
  • Quality support.

Cons

  • Some users reported a steep learning curve.
  • Some users reported that they experienced issues with search results.

Alation: Best for data governance workflow automation

The Alation logo.
Image: Alation

Alation started as a data catalog platform to help businesses inventory and access their data. It is now a platform for several data intelligence products, including data search and discovery, data governance, data stewardship, analytics and digital transformation.

According to Alation, its data governance app centrally automates and manages policies, workflow and stewardship activities. In addition, this tool provides deep insights into the state of an organization’s data and identifies risk areas early on to mitigate those risks.

Pricing

Alation doesn’t advertise its rates on its website. You can book a demo to speak with an expert about your needs and learn more about the platform. Custom quotes will be sent to you based on your needs. To get an idea of the product cost, the Alation Data Catalog tool has a $60,000 one-time payment per year.

Key differentiators

  • Alation provides unique insight into business data assets by inventorying, classifying and curating data and knowledge.
  • Alation allows agile approval of governance policies, processes and publications.
  • Alation provides governance teams with analytics and dashboards to monitor and track curation progress.
  • The solution automates data stewardship, classification, business glossary and quality documentation.

Pros

  • Automated stewardship processes.
  • Policy and control enforcement.
  • Ease of use.

Cons

  • Data visualization and analytics can be improved.
  • Some users experience issues when processing large amounts of data.

What is data governance?

Data governance refers to the administration of data across an organization. The process ensures data integrity, availability, scalability, usability, security and regulatory compliance while making sure that all changes are well-communicated, documented and verified.

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Data governance is an organization-wide task that often falls under the purview of IT departments or data management teams. Companies that do not have a formalized system for data governance will often suffer from problems such as duplicate or lost records or noncompliance with industry regulations, which can be detrimental to an organization’s goals and objectives.

Key features of data governance platforms

Data governance platforms offer several features that ensure your enterprise is running smoothly. Here are some capabilities you should look for in a data governance platform:

Data ownership and stewardship

Data ownership is a key element of the data governance framework. It defines and establishes roles and responsibility and decision-making authority over data and determines how data is collected, stored, processed and shared.

Data owners are responsible for approving data glossaries and definitions, supervising operations that are directly relevant to data quality and evaluating and approving the master data management strategy.

Stewardship relates to the responsible management and care of data. It includes the activities and practices that ensure the protection, integrity and appropriate use of data. A data steward is a subject matter expert with a good understanding of a particular data set.

Business glossary

To maintain terminology uniformity and consistency across your company, your data governance tool should have the ability to create a business glossary. A business glossary is a comprehensive list of terms and definitions that are specific to your organization. The glossary includes terms, acronyms, abbreviations and jargon that are commonly used in the business context.

Automated data lineage

With automated data lineage capability, data flow within a system or across multiple systems is automatically tracked and captured. It involves identifying the origin, transformation and destination of data as it moves through different processes, applications and databases.

Data discovery

Data discovery is often used to understand trends and patterns in the data as it involves the collection and evaluation of data from various sources, such as databases, spreadsheets and data warehouses, to identify relationships, outliers and patterns that may not be immediately apparent. It aims to identify and extract valuable information from the data that can be used for decision-making, problem-solving and business intelligence purposes.

Metadata management

Metadata management is a crucial component of data governance as it enables users to derive value from the data they have at their disposal. It involves the management and organization of metadata, which refers to the information about the data itself. Metadata provides context and describes the characteristics, location, lineage and usage of data.

What are the benefits of using data governance solutions?

A data governance solution ensures that all company data syncs with the organization’s objectives. It also ensures that all relevant data is available for decision-making, analytics, reporting, compliance, governance, security and risk management. Benefits of using data governance solutions include:

Higher data quality

Good data is accurate, relevant, timely, complete, consistent and relevant to the purpose for which it was collected. Conversely, insufficient data leads to bad decisions, increased costs and time spent fixing errors that could have been avoided using better data. Data governance tools are designed to increase data quality and overall organization of data assets.

Improved regulatory compliance

Depending on your industry, adhering to regulatory compliance standards can be difficult without the proper tools and resources. Data governance tools help organizations balance the needs of customers, employees, partners and shareholders with regulatory requirements.

Increased revenue

Data governance solutions will help you increase revenue by generating insights about your business. These insights can be used to make more educated marketing and product decisions, improve customer service by understanding customers’ needs and provide more personalized experiences.

Better decision-making

With access to all of the information they need in one centralized location, managers can make faster and smarter decisions that lead to improved business performance across departments.

Optimized business performance

Without any obstacles in the way of analyzing and gaining insights from data, leaders can take charge and guide their teams toward truly data-driven goals.

How to select a data governance tool

Selecting a data governance tool for your enterprise requires an understanding of what you need it to do for you. The following steps can help you narrow down your options and make an informed decision:

  • Determine the goals of your organization’s data governance strategy.
  • Research vendors.
  • Compare prices.
  • Evaluate their contract language.
  • Test, test, test.

Be sure to test the product before deciding. You don’t want to buy a tool that doesn’t work or isn’t compatible with your technology stack.

Review methodology

We analyzed and evaluated various data governance tools based on the following criteria: features and functionalities, scalability and integration, data governance maturity, flexibility and customization and the vendor’s reputation and customer satisfaction.

We collected primary data about features, functionality and use cases from each software provider’s websites and gathered customer experience, customization and flexibility information from user feedback review sites to learn about each solution’s usability.

Ready to commit to a vendor and sign a contract? Take a look at our service-level agreement policy template to ensure your contract is comprehensive.

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