Looking for the Best Alation Alternative? Discover 5 Reasons Data Teams Prefer Atlan

Updated February 26th, 2025

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Why choose Atlan over Alation #

If you’re seeking a strong Alation alternative, Atlan stands out as the top choice for data teams worldwide. With active metadata, easy setup, and exceptional customer success, Atlan consistently outperforms competitors like Alation. Here’s why teams choose Atlan:

  • #1 in Forrester Wave report for Current Offering and Strategy
  • Only active metadata platform, pioneering a new category
  • DIY setup in weeks, not months
  • Custom UX for diverse data users, driving faster adoption
  • Dedicated customer success for high-impact business initiatives

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Alation alternative is Atlan - here are 5 reasons why

5 Reasons why Atlan is the best alternative to Alation

Gartner’s Inaugural Magic Quadrant for D&A Governance is Here #


In a post-ChatGPT world where AI is reshaping businesses, data governance has become a cornerstone of success. The inaugural report provides a detailed evaluation of top platforms and the key trends shaping data and AI governance.

Read the Magic Quadrant for D&A Governance

Table of contents #

  1. Why choose Atlan over Alation
  2. 5 Reasons why Atlan is the best Alation alternative
  3. 5 Alation open source alternatives
  4. FAQs about best alation alternatives
  5. Related reads

5 Reasons why Atlan is the best Alation alternative #

1. Highest scores in Forrester Wave for current offering and strategy #


In the Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024 report, Atlan achieved the highest possible scores in 15 criteria related to Current Offering and Strategy. The report evaluated 12 data catalog solutions, including both Atlan and Alation, across 24 key criteria.

Atlan stood out as the only company to score top marks in governance, risk, and compliance, as well as adoption, deployment, and time-to-value. Additionally, Atlan outperformed Alation in both the current offering (Y-axis) and strategy (X-axis).

Here’s what Forrester had to say about Atlan: “Atlan’s Third-Gen Data Catalog is rapidly surpassing established players by … addressing strategic customer needs through automation.”


Quadrant from Forrester Wave™ Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024

Quadrant from Forrester Wave™ Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024. Source: Forrester

Read the full report that details how Atlan stands out from its competitors in terms of product capabilities, strategic vision, roadmap, and more.

Download full report for free

2: Pioneers of the Active Metadata category #


Why is Active Metadata important? It’s the key to preventing enterprise data catalogs from becoming expensive shelfware. Atlan leads the way as the only active metadata platform, pioneering this critical category.

Active Metadata transforms a data catalog from being just a passive repository into a dynamic tool that sends enriched metadata and unified context across your entire data stack. This unlocks automation and enables powerful programmatic use cases, ensuring your catalog is ready for modern concepts like data fabric and data mesh.

Active Metadata Use Cases

The potential of active metadata is limitless. Here are a few of our top use cases:

  • Cost optimization through:
    • Dynamic data pipeline optimization, reducing unnecessary data processing
    • Cleaning up the data landscape by removing stale, unused, or duplicate assets
  • Enhancing BI tools with enriched metadata to improve user experience
  • Defining access control policies at scale
  • Automatically assigning freshness statuses to data assets

Check out this video for a quick rundown of 20 active metadata use cases in 20 minutes.


Atlan and dbt Labs at Coalesce 2022. Source:dbt

3: DIY setup in weeks, not months #


When you invest in a data catalog, speed matters—you need it operational in weeks, not months. Unlike Alation, which often requires external support and long implementation timelines, Atlan is designed for fast, DIY setup.

In a time where maximizing data team ROI is critical, the last thing you want is to budget extra for setup assistance and additional man-hours. Many reviewers on G2 consistently highlight Atlan’s ease of setup when compared to Alation, making it the smarter, more efficient choice.

Screenshot from G2 suggestion on Alation alternatives

Screenshot from G2 suggestion on Alation alternatives. Source: G2

4. Customized Ux for all data users to boost adoption and speed up value #


Your data catalog is as good as the data that’s cataloged in it. Adoption and usage are thus crucial to drive value from an enterprise data catalog tool. Important to note, that this means adoption by all kinds of users and not just technical users.

Given the diverse nature of data consumers and producers that exist in an enterprise, your data catalog must be able to handle the diversity and granularity of modern data and metadata.

" Tool with best UX Implementing a data catalog is about adoption. After taking a look at the best catalogs on the market, I chose Atlan, and I would choose Atlan again if I had to. It’s the best UX, best experience, and best adoption." - Otávio Leite Bastos, Global Governance Lead, Contentsquare.

Atlan enables you to create personalized experiences for diverse data users in your team, empowering them to work better with curated contexts. The bi-directional flow of metadata and deep integration with communication tools unify the micro-workflows that waste time, cause frustration, and lead to tool fatigue for data teams. Instead, Atlan makes these tasks delightful.

Visual representation of how Atlan activates metadata to keep you in the flow.

Visual representation of how Atlan activates metadata to keep you in the flow. Source: Atlan

5. Dedicated customer success to drive business-critical initiatives #


A data catalog is valuable only when,

  1. Most of your favorite data tools connect to it
  2. Most of your data operations can be managed through it
  3. Most of your data users actively use it

Atlan goes beyond just offering a platform—it provides dedicated customer success teams that work hand-in-hand with you to identify and implement your most critical business initiatives. When you invest in Atlan, you’re not just choosing a tool; you’re gaining a strategic partner committed to ensuring your data catalog aligns with your goals and delivers measurable impact.

Given the importance of ROI for data catalogs and teams, it’s essential to evaluate data catalogs based on their focus on customer success and support. Atlan’s customer success team, including dedicated Customer Success Managers (CSMs) and Customer Solution Architects (CSAs), collaborates with organizations to drive key data initiatives. In addition, Atlan empowers its customers through significant investments in data governance and enablement programs, such as DataOps leadership programs and customer-led masterclasses, to foster continuous growth and innovation.

" Atlan, at the heart of our successful data governance strategy! The Customer Success & Experience Team! They are always available, patient, and ready to help at any moment of the day!" - Kenza Z, Data Governance Strategist, Contentsquare.

5 Alation open source alternatives #

Here are the five popular alation open source alternatives that you can check out.

  1. Amundsen
  2. DataHub
  3. Apache Atlas
  4. Metacat
  5. OpenMetadata

It’s possible you want to keep some open-source data catalog tools as well in your evaluation mix. These are the five popular tools that you can check out. Read more about them here.

We also have some handy comparison notes between these tools ready for you:

FAQs about best Alation alternatives #

What is the best Alation alternative? #


Atlan is widely regarded as the best Alation alternative due to its high scores in industry reports, unique active metadata capabilities, and dedicated customer success. Unlike Alation, Atlan ensures quicker setup, superior UX for diverse teams, and more powerful automation capabilities.

What are the open-source alternatives to Alation? #


Popular open-source alternatives to Alation include Amundsen, DataHub, Apache Atlas, Metacat, and OpenMetadata. These tools offer varying features and integrations depending on your data cataloging needs. Many teams consider these when looking for more flexible or cost-effective solutions.

Why choose Atlan over Alation? #


Teams choose Atlan for its ease of setup, active metadata features, and exceptional customer support. Atlan also leads in key criteria such as governance, adoption, and time-to-value, making it the preferred choice for modern data teams.

Is Atlan easier to set up than Alation? #


Yes, Atlan’s DIY setup takes just weeks, while Alation often requires months and external support. Teams aiming for faster time-to-value and lower implementation costs prefer Atlan’s streamlined onboarding process.

How does Atlan’s active metadata differ from Alation? #


Atlan’s active metadata automates data processes across your stack, sending enriched metadata to tools like BI, data pipelines, and governance platforms. This automation helps teams maintain dynamic, real-time control of their data ecosystem, unlike Alation’s more static approach.

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