Open Source vs Commercial Data Catalog: Total Cost of Ownership

Emily Winks

Data Governance Expert

Updated:Oct 28, 2026

Published:Oct 28, 2026

12 min read

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Key takeaways

The license is free; running it is not.
The license score reflects the pricing model, not an exact price, because most enterprise prices are not public.
Count connector upkeep and upgrades as ongoing work, not a one-time project.
Ask each vendor whether implementation services are priced separately from the subscription.

What is the open source vs commercial data catalog total cost of ownership?

Scored on license, infrastructure, people (counted double) and switching, the lowest TCO score comes from a managed open-source data catalog, Collate or DataHub Cloud, or from Microsoft Purview: each scores 2 of a possible 10 points. Commercial SaaS catalogs follow at 3. Self-hosted open source scores 4, because your team carries the engineering time, which counts double; archived Amundsen ranks last at 6.

What would a context layer return on your catalog spend?

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Rank	Option	Model	License	Infra	People (x2)	Switching	TCO score (lower is cheaper)	Best for
1	Collate	Managed open source (OpenMetadata)	2	0	0	0	2	OpenMetadata without platform engineers
1	DataHub Cloud	Managed open source (DataHub)	2	0	0	0	2	Engineering-led teams that want DataHub without the upkeep
1	Microsoft Purview	Cloud-native, pay-as-you-go	1	0	0	1	2	Azure, Fabric and Power BI estates
4	Atlan	Commercial SaaS	2	0	0	1	3	Mixed, multi-cloud stacks that need adoption beyond the data team
5	Alation	Commercial SaaS	2	0	0	1	3	Federated governance programs
5	Collibra	Commercial SaaS	2	0	0	1	3	Complex governance that needs deep configuration
7	DataHub, self-hosted	Open source	0	2	1	0	4	Platform teams that already run Kafka and Kubernetes
7	Google Knowledge Catalog	Cloud-native, pay-as-you-go	1	0	1	1	4	BigQuery-centered estates
7	OpenMetadata, self-hosted	Open source	0	2	1	0	4	Teams that already run Airflow
10	Amundsen	Open source, archived	0	2	2	0	6	Teams that already run it

How is total cost of ownership scored here?

Each option gets 0, 1 or 2 on four cost parts, and the yardstick is License + Infrastructure + 2 x People + Switching, out of a maximum of 10. Lower means the buyer carries less of that cost. People counts double because published estimates size it in whole engineers: a quarter to a full platform engineer to run a self-hosted catalog (Decube), and 2+ FTEs at enterprise scale (Acceldata). The license score reflects the pricing model, not an exact price, because most enterprise prices are not public. Every score comes from a public page, under the same rule for every option.

Cost part	0 points	1 point	2 points
License	Open-source license, no fee	Pay-as-you-go meter, no contract needed	Subscription contract, quoted or at a fixed annual price
Infrastructure	The vendor hosts it	Not used: hosting is yours or it is not	You host the servers, database and search index
People (engineering and admin), counted double	The vendor runs upgrades and maintains connectors (0)	You carry one of those two jobs (2)	You carry both (4)
Switching	Open-source core: the same software runs without the vendor	Proprietary, with a documented API or export	Proprietary, with no documented export

Each option is scored on the edition an enterprise team would buy, not a capped free tier. Commercial SaaS vendors manage upgrades and fix broken connectors under a support agreement (Decube). Optional private-network agents are not scored, since several hosted options have one: DataHub Cloud’s in-VPC ingestion agent, Purview’s self-hosted integration runtime and Atlan’s Self-Deployed Runtime. For self-hosted open source, “connector fixes still arrive upstream” means a GitHub release in the last 90 days.

Ties break on the Customer Favorite label in The Forrester Wave: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2025. Forrester evaluated 13 vendors and gave that label to Atlan only. It did not evaluate Microsoft, Google or the open-source projects. So the Customer Favorite label is the only tiebreak: options that remain tied share a rank and are listed alphabetically.

Points show who pays each cost, not how big the bill is. The worksheet below adds the dollars.

Which data catalogs have the lowest TCO score?

1. Collate: OpenMetadata with no servers to run

Collate is a fully managed service built on OpenMetadata. Premium and Enterprise are sold through a demo, and Enterprise adds a bring-your-own-cloud option (Collate pricing). Score: 2 + 0 + 2x0 + 0 = 2. Its core, OpenMetadata, is Apache 2.0, so the same software runs without Collate.

1. DataHub Cloud: DataHub with the upgrades handled

DataHub Cloud is fully managed by DataHub engineers under a 99.5% availability SLA, with installation, scaling, upgrades and security patching included. Cloud pricing is quoted on data volume, users and capabilities (DataHub Cloud vs Core). Score: 2 + 0 + 2x0 + 0 = 2. Core is the same Apache 2.0 project (GitHub), so leaving the managed service does not mean leaving DataHub.

1. Microsoft Purview: pay-as-you-go for Microsoft estates

Purview has billed pay-as-you-go since January 6, 2025. Unified Catalog bills per governed asset per day; assets scanned into Data Map but not linked to a data product or other governance concept are not billed (Microsoft Learn). Microsoft’s own source list covers Snowflake, Oracle, Teradata, SAP HANA, Google BigQuery and Amazon S3 (Data Map sources) and publishes REST APIs. Score: 1 + 0 + 2x0 + 1 = 2.

4. Atlan: managed SaaS, first on the Forrester tiebreak

Atlan is a single-tenant SaaS platform on AWS, Azure or GCP, run from Atlan-managed infrastructure (Atlan architecture). Its AWS Marketplace listing offers custom pricing through a private offer. Metadata leaves through the Atlan Lakehouse, which any Iceberg REST-compatible client can query. Score: 2 + 0 + 2x0 + 1 = 3; Forrester’s only Customer Favorite breaks the tie.

Delhivery tried open source first: two developers spent seven months full-time building on Amundsen and Apache Atlas. Akash Deep Verma, Director of Data Engineering, wrote: “It would take six or seven people and up to two years to build what Atlan gave us out of the box.” (Delhivery story)

5. Alation: quoted SaaS for federated governance

Alation runs as Alation Cloud Service SaaS or customer-managed, and sells a 12-month subscription through AWS Marketplace (rfp.wiki). Its REST APIs include a Data Catalog API for reading tables, columns and custom fields (API Evangelist profile). Forrester named Alation a Leader and recommends it for enterprises that run federated governance. Score for the SaaS edition: 2 + 0 + 2x0 + 1 = 3.

5. Collibra: an annual contract with deep configuration

Collibra lists its Data Intelligence Platform on AWS Marketplace as SaaS at $170,000 for a 12-month subscription (AWS Marketplace). Stardog imports metadata from Collibra Data Intelligence Cloud on a schedule (Stardog docs). Forrester named Collibra a Leader, best suited to complex governance that needs deep configuration. Score: 2 + 0 + 2x0 + 1 = 3.

7. DataHub, self-hosted: no license fee, four dependencies

DataHub is Apache 2.0 (GitHub). A Kubernetes deployment needs four external dependencies in place first: Kafka, a relational database such as MySQL or Postgres, Elasticsearch, and a graph index (DataHub deploy docs). The project shipped v1.8.0 on October 22, 2026 (releases), so connector fixes still arrive upstream. Upgrades and backups are yours. Score: 0 + 2 + 2x1 + 0 = 4.

7. Google Knowledge Catalog: pay-as-you-go, some connectors you build

Google renamed Dataplex Universal Catalog to Knowledge Catalog and prices it pay-as-you-go (pricing). Prebuilt connectors, in Preview, cover dbt Core, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL and SQL Server (connectors); for Snowflake and other sources you build a custom connector that runs on Managed Service for Apache Spark (managed connectivity). Export jobs write metadata to Cloud Storage as JSONL (export docs). Score: 1 + 0 + 2x1 + 1 = 4.

7. OpenMetadata, self-hosted: no license fee, Airflow included

OpenMetadata is Apache 2.0 (GitHub). A Kubernetes deployment needs MySQL 8 or PostgreSQL 15 and up, Elasticsearch 9 or OpenSearch 3, and Airflow on a ReadWriteMany disk (OpenMetadata deployment docs). Release 2.0.7 shipped October 27, 2026 (releases). Score: 0 + 2 + 2x1 + 0 = 4.

10. Amundsen: archived, so your team carries every fix

Amundsen ranks last because nothing comes from upstream. Lyft’s catalog was archived for inactivity in September 2026 and the repository is read-only (GitHub); its last release, databuilder 7.5.1, shipped August 14, 2024 (releases). Your team carries both upgrades and connector fixes, and that people score counts double. Score: 0 + 2 + 2x2 + 0 = 6.

It is listed for teams that already run it. A new deployment should start on one of the maintained open-source catalogs.

How do you price open source vs commercial TCO for your own team?

Copy this worksheet and fill in three years.

Cost line	Self-hosted open source	Managed or commercial SaaS	Where the number comes from
License	$0	Annual quote or usage meter	Vendor quote; Collibra’s AWS listing is one public anchor
Infrastructure	Compute, database, search index, Kafka or Airflow, backups	Included	Your cloud bill for a staging cluster sized to your asset count
Platform engineering	Upgrades, scaling, on-call	Vendor	Published estimates run from a quarter to a full platform engineer (Decube) up to 2+ FTEs at enterprise scale (Acceldata)
Connector upkeep	Yours when upstream lags	Vendor	Your sources vs the connector list
Stewardship	Yours	Yours	Equal on both sides, and often the largest hidden cost (datacatalog.net)
Implementation	Your engineers’ weeks	Vendor or partner services	Statement of work, or an internal estimate
Exit	You keep the software	Export by API or open format	Ask for the export format before you sign

Three-year TCO = 3 × (license + infrastructure + people) + implementation + exit. For one vendor’s line items, see Informatica data catalog pricing; for the wider decision, the build vs buy guide.

FAQs about open source vs commercial data catalog total cost of ownership

Is an open-source data catalog free?

The license is free; running it is not. Self-hosted DataHub needs Kafka, a relational database, Elasticsearch and a graph index before it starts, and OpenMetadata needs a database, a search engine and Airflow. Someone has to upgrade, scale and back up each one, and that person’s salary is the real price.

How many engineers does a self-hosted data catalog need?

Published estimates vary with scale. Decube puts it at a quarter to a full platform engineer, and Acceldata says 2 or more FTEs at enterprise scale. Delhivery’s first build used two developers full-time for seven months before rollout. Count connector upkeep and upgrades as ongoing work, not a one-time project.

What does a commercial data catalog cost per year?

Most commercial vendors quote prices instead of publishing them. One public anchor is Collibra’s AWS Marketplace listing at $170,000 for a 12-month subscription. Microsoft Purview and Google Knowledge Catalog publish pay-as-you-go meters, so cost scales with governed assets or processing. Ask each vendor whether implementation services are priced separately from the subscription.

Which data catalog is cheapest to leave?

Options with an open-source core cost least to leave, because the same software runs without the vendor: Collate maps to OpenMetadata and DataHub Cloud to DataHub Core. Proprietary platforms score one point higher when they document an export path, such as Purview’s REST APIs, the Atlan Lakehouse queried over Iceberg REST, or Knowledge Catalog’s JSONL export jobs.

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