Informatica EDC
vs Atlan

Industry experts and practitioners who have used
both agree: Atlan’s active-metadata platform
is a generation ahead.

While evaluating Informatica EDC vs Atlan: why 8-in-10 enterprise trials picked Atlan over legacy tools

Seven of the top reasons that enterprise teams said made the decision easy.

1. Easy to set up, deploys in weeks, not months.
2. Collaboration-focused UI/UX with Slack or Teams chat, a Chrome side panel, and a familiar
“Netflix-style” home page that both technical and business users enjoy.
3. Automated, Column-level lineage that pulls in key metadata context and is simple to explore.
4. Metadata and context are embedded directly in tools, that users already love and use.
5. Native and deep integrations with all best-of-breed tools across the data estate.
6. Strategic customer support team that work as partners, focusing on business-critical outcomes
from day one.
7. Upfront pricing that is based on value and non-prohibitive, an investment that you can feel
confident leaning into.

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Informatica EDC vs Atlan:
a comparison of how they drive
business outcomes

In the table below, you can find a quick comparison of how Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog and Atlan addresses common challenges faced by data leaders

Factor
Enabling self-service analytics	Agent-heavy scanners for cloud resources, table-only lineage by default, Slow adoption due to UI complexity.	Cloud-native, intuitive UX; business users self-serve within a month.
Encouraging adoption across your org	The interface is resource-intensive and time-consuming to understand. Single-digit MAU after a year.	Intuitive collaboration-focused UI/UX, any type of user can hit the ground running. With Slack/Teams chat + plug-ins, teams have seen up to 3× higher MAU.
Ease of setting up	Require 4-12 months or more; need implementation support experts.	DIY setup, typically in weeks.
Time to experience actual value	Long time to value, often taking a year or more, after a cumbersome multi-month deployment cycle. The major roadblock to realizing value is the lack of adoption.	First, metadata-driven value is in a matter of weeks not months. Easy adoption by diverse stakeholders makes value inevitable.
Scaling with business change	Closed, on-prem DNA that may not handle change well. Lacks the flexibility needed to support modern paradigms like Data Mesh or Data Fabric. Limited scalability across domains and increased dependence on centralized teams and tools.	Is open to change in your stack and growth. Open-by-design, cloud-first Kubernetes-based platform with natively built-in microservices. Purpose-built for Data Mesh and Fabric.
Bringing visibility into your entire data estate	Strong on legacy on-prem that suits on-prem integrations, but limited depth in cloud-native modern data stack.	Deep integrations with cloud-native modern tools. Cloud-first, Cloud-native platform as core DNA. Present with major on-prem providers and emerging in others.
The overall cost of deployment and maintenance	High license + infra + services. IPU price spikes.	Pay-as-you-go pricing, aligned to usage and value.

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Informatica EDC vs Atlan:
Which solution is the most future-ready?

Informatica EDC and Atlan take fundamentally different approaches. Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog reflects an older, static model built for on-prem environments, while Atlan is designed as a modern, cloud-native platform centered on active metadata.

Here’s how the two platforms compare in terms of future-readiness:

Factor
Forward-looking architecture	Static, closed, agent-based	Open, scalable, tech-debt-free platform, suited for data fabric and data mesh
Active governance	Manual stewardship, nightly jobs	Programmatic governance through metadata activation
Real-time lineage & impact	Typically surfaces lineage at the table level. Refresh can lag for hours	Column-level lineage that updates within minutes, bringing key context into one intuitive view
AI readiness	Limited Gen-AI capability	The truly AI-ready data catalog

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Informatica EDC vs Atlan:
notes from users who’ve used both

How do users who’ve used both compare Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog and Atlan?

Faster adoption
Column Level Lineage
"With Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, adoption was extremely low despite significant manual effort from our team. Within the first three months of using Atlan, we achieved over 500 monthly active users — more than 3x the adoption we saw with previous tools."
Natalie Hallak, Director of Global Data Management at HelloFresh
Collaboration focused UI/UX
Pay as you go pricing
“We had Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. The motivation to look for a different solution came from some difficulties in implementing certain features like lineage, a business glossary. It was kind of frustrating, and it came to a point where we felt like the technology was kind of blocking us from reaching where we wanted to go.”

“Atlan kind of fit like a glove. The user experience was also very important to us, and we felt it was the most user-friendly interface we had seen from any other provider. From a cost perspective, it also had the best cost-benefit ratio for us.”
Danrlei Alves, Senior Data Governance Analyst, Porto, a Brazil-based insurance company
Plug and play
Partner, not vendor
“With Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog, you need to navigate across like multiple URLs or endpoints to get to what you need to do. I have to manage five different tools to maintain the catalog, all serve a different function."

“Atlan solves that problem better than Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog by a long shot with slack integration and easy ways to look up. Atlan adoption is probably 10 times better than Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog."
Head of Data and Business Intelligence, leading U.S based financial confidence platform