What is Alteryx?

Alteryx claims to be an Analytics Automation Platform that integrates the whole data ecosystem end to end. Originally designed for data scientists with a low-code approach, Alteryx has expanded to focus on self-service capabilities for business users to accelerate digital transformation.

What is Datagran?

Datagran is an integrated, self-service cloud data platform that enables data teams and business teams to work better together - streamlining the path from data to decisions. Our mission is to speed up the process of data workflows without the need of engineering resources, grow data adoption and company-wide trust in data by empowering business teams to access and analyze data, whenever and however they need it. Our robust modeling layer is also user-friendly enough for data-savvy business users to participate.

TL;DR

A good cloud data platform should be accessible and beneficial to everyone. These factors are vital for business teams to make informed, timely decisions. As such, things like learning curve, lengthy training time, implementation time, and limitations for non-technical business users are red flags.

While Alteryx is a robust, powerful cloud data solution that equally plays in the self-service space, there are certain downsides that negatively impact the ongoing accessibility of data for all users. In this comparison, we’re considering the perspective of a large tech and data saavy company that’s mature in their data journey, with teams embedded in business units. The main downsides include data engineering resources, overall learning curve and complexity, and cost.

Datagran, on the other hand, is fast to implement, learn, and load, doesn’t require any engineering resources. Plus, we’re significantly cheaper with free viewer licenses.

At a glance

Feature	Alteryx	Datagran
Pricing	Pricing is product based and negotiated per customer. It is extremly costly having products like the Alteryx server going as high as $70k per year.	Pricing is usage based and meassured via a propietary metric called Data Units. Datagran does not have differential pricing between products. Each Data Unit is $1 dollar and translates into one hoy of machine time. On average our enterprise clients spend around $300 in Data Units per month which translates in 300 hours of machine time.
Other than that all of our plans start at free forever or Enterprise at $5,000 per month and include 150 data units, 5 users and 50 million data rows.
Learning curve	Steep - Although Alteryx is mostly a low-code tool it is highly complex taking in mind its extended functionality.	Easy - Datagran provides code and low-code tools. It even provides an AI code assistant that understands plain english. No engineering required.
Average roll-out time	6-12 months.	2 weeks.
Data connectors	Some major data bases and warehouses are available at an additional cost.	Included
Destinations	Not included. Clients must pay the Alteryx Server to deploy models which runs locally and requires technical knowledge.	Provides multiples destinations like for example Intercom, Salesforce, Snowflake and many more.
Iterface	In-browser; no desktop install. Mobile version is limited.	In-browser; no desktop install. Mobile version is limited.
Software updates	Updates are completed per customer and not globally for all customers, which can be a pain when migrating your deployment.	Datagran updates all customer deployments at all times and makes sure nothing is broken and no one is left behind.
User permission management	Yes	Yes
Modeling layer	Mostly low-code. If you want to code in Python or R clients will need to download packages with specific Alteryx commands which require training.	Hosted VSCode IDE that runs with or without Spark. Datagran also provides multiple low code tools as well as an AI code assistant.
Customer Service	Expect long delays in terms of responsiveness and resolution	Highly reactive with SLAs in place; quick problem-solving

Cautions for Alteryx:

There’s a super steep learning curve to using Alteryx, which will slow down the total time you need to get up and running, and for Alteryx to start adding value.
- Engineering Resources: Alteryx is highly technical although it is mostly low-code and requires Data Engineers to setup and scale machines to run models. This process requires the installation of the Alteryx Server with must be installed locally. Any business unit wanting to deploy models will need assistant for this type of specialists. Also, although Alteryx is low code, it is not appropiate for business profiles which is a particular duality.
- Roll-out time: 6-18 months including training and implementation.
- Set-up: Once training is complete, it could take up to 30 minutes to run an analysis.
Alteryx is complex, and is more suited for core data teams serving the organization horizontally.
- Oftentimes, the complexity requires companies leverage a consulting firm or third party to help with Alteryx. In this case, you don’t own the tool and you won’t get the ongoing data visibility with the consulting firm in the middle.
- Maintenance requires a lot of time and resources on an ongoing basis
Expensive with enterprise-level pricing. This may be suitable for horizontal core data teams, but most business units and mid-market companies would get a better bang for their buck with a more affordable solution, that is more suited to their needs and where they’re at in their data journey.

Datagran benefits

Whaly is much simpler and faster to learn and set up. It doesn’t demand a massive amount of time, resources, or upfront investment to start getting value from your data.
- No language requirements.
- Faster roll-out time by 5 months minimum (only 1-3 weeks)
- Once trained, it takes 1 hour to get explorations set up.
- Implementation takes under an hour
Datagran bridges the gap between data teams and business teams, providing them with the same framework of communication. Datagran enables collaboration and streamlines the path from data to decisions.
Datagran adapts to your current data team size / status on data journey - not the other way around.
Datagran is self-service beyond the surface level. Datagran’s easy drag & drop interface empowers non-technical business teams to do more with the data.
- Data-savvy business users can even participate in our modeling layer
- Non-technical business users can explore, run queries, and drill down to get deeper insights from the data, autonomously going beyond the dashboards. No need for back and forth with the data teams.