Funnel

Funnel is a marketing data hub designed to automate the collection and transformation of data from advertising platforms, exporting clean, business-ready data to any destination for analysis.

Pre-built ConnectorsREST API SupportFull Table ReplicationHorizontal Scalability

Data Ingestion & Integration

Facilitates the connection to diverse sources and the efficient movement of data into target destinations. This capability covers extraction strategies, file handling, and the synchronization logic required to maintain data consistency.

Capability Score
2.14/ 4

Connectivity & Extensibility

Core capabilities for connecting to diverse data sources and extending platform functionality through custom code.

Avg Score
2.6/ 4
Pre-built Connectors
Best4
Funnel offers an exhaustive library of over 500 pre-built connectors with a focus on marketing data, providing automated API maintenance and proactive management of schema changes across a vast range of long-tail sources.
View details & rubric context

Pre-built connectors allow data teams to ingest data from SaaS applications and databases without writing code, significantly reducing pipeline setup time and maintenance overhead.

What Score 4 Means

The connector ecosystem is exhaustive, covering long-tail sources with intelligent automation that proactively manages API deprecations and dynamic schema evolution, offering sub-minute latency options and AI-assisted mapping.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native library of pre-built connectors, requiring all integrations to be built from scratch.
1Connectivity is achieved through generic REST/HTTP endpoints or custom scripting, requiring significant development effort to handle authentication, pagination, and rate limits.
2A small library of connectors covers major platforms like Salesforce or Google Sheets, but they lack depth in configuration, often fail to handle schema changes automatically, and support only standard objects.
3A broad library supports hundreds of sources with robust handling of schema drift, incremental syncs, and custom objects, working reliably out of the box with minimal configuration.
4The connector ecosystem is exhaustive, covering long-tail sources with intelligent automation that proactively manages API deprecations and dynamic schema evolution, offering sub-minute latency options and AI-assisted mapping.
Custom Connector SDK
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust, UI-based 'Custom Connector' framework that allows users to build integrations for any REST API with support for complex authentication, pagination, and incremental syncs. While it lacks a traditional CLI-based SDK or support for containerized code, its low-code interface is fully integrated into the platform and is production-ready for engineering and data teams.
View details & rubric context

A Custom Connector SDK enables engineering teams to build, deploy, and maintain integrations for data sources that are not natively supported by the platform. This capability ensures complete data coverage by allowing organizations to extend connectivity to proprietary internal APIs or niche SaaS applications.

What Score 3 Means

The platform offers a robust SDK with a CLI for scaffolding, local testing, and validation, fully integrating custom connectors into the main UI alongside native ones with support for incremental syncs and standard authentication methods.

Full Rubric
0The product has no dedicated framework or SDK for building custom connectors; users are limited strictly to the pre-built integration catalog.
1Users can ingest data from unsupported sources only by writing standalone scripts outside the platform and pushing data via a generic webhook or REST API endpoint, lacking a structured development framework.
2A basic SDK or framework is provided to define source schemas and endpoints, but it requires significant manual coding, lacks local testing tools, and offers limited support for complex authentication or incremental syncs.
3The platform offers a robust SDK with a CLI for scaffolding, local testing, and validation, fully integrating custom connectors into the main UI alongside native ones with support for incremental syncs and standard authentication methods.
4The SDK includes a low-code builder or AI-assisted generation to rapidly create connectors, supports any programming language via containerization, and provides automated maintenance features like schema drift detection and seamless version management.
REST API Support
Best4
Funnel's Custom Connector provides a highly intuitive visual builder that supports complex authentication (OAuth2, Bearer), automatic pagination, and intelligent schema mapping from sample JSON payloads, allowing users to create production-ready integrations without writing code.
View details & rubric context

REST API support enables the ETL platform to connect to, extract data from, or load data into arbitrary RESTful endpoints without needing a dedicated pre-built connector. This flexibility ensures integration with niche services, internal applications, or new SaaS tools immediately.

What Score 4 Means

The implementation features intelligent schema inference, adaptive rate-limit throttling, and a visual builder or AI-assistant that automatically configures connection settings and pagination rules based on API documentation or sample payloads.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to connect to generic REST API endpoints for data extraction or loading.
1Connectivity to REST endpoints requires external scripting (e.g., Python/Shell) wrapped in a generic command execution step, or relies on raw HTTP request blocks that force users to manually code authentication logic and pagination loops.
2A generic HTTP/REST connector is provided for basic GET/POST requests, but it lacks built-in logic for complex pagination, dynamic token management, or rate limiting, requiring manual configuration for every endpoint.
3The tool offers a robust REST connector with native support for standard authentication (OAuth, Bearer), automatic pagination handling, and built-in JSON/XML parsing to flatten complex responses into tables.
4The implementation features intelligent schema inference, adaptive rate-limit throttling, and a visual builder or AI-assistant that automatically configures connection settings and pagination rules based on API documentation or sample payloads.
Extensibility
DIY1
Funnel is a strictly no-code platform that lacks native support for inline scripting or a code-based SDK; while it offers a UI-driven 'Custom Connector' tool for API mapping, any complex business logic or bespoke data processing must be handled externally via its API.
View details & rubric context

Extensibility enables data teams to expand platform capabilities beyond native features by injecting custom code, scripts, or building bespoke connectors. This flexibility is critical for handling proprietary data formats, complex business logic, or niche APIs without switching tools.

What Score 1 Means

Extensibility is possible only through external workarounds, such as triggering separate scripts via generic webhooks or APIs, requiring the user to host and manage the execution environment independently.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to execute custom code or build custom connectors; users are restricted entirely to the vendor's pre-built integrations and transformation logic.
1Extensibility is possible only through external workarounds, such as triggering separate scripts via generic webhooks or APIs, requiring the user to host and manage the execution environment independently.
2Native support exists for basic inline scripting (e.g., simple SQL or Python snippets), but it lacks support for external libraries, reusable modules, or advanced debugging capabilities.
3The platform offers a robust SDK or integrated development environment that allows users to write complex code, import standard libraries, and build custom connectors that appear natively within the UI.
4The solution provides a best-in-class open architecture, supporting containerized custom tasks (e.g., Docker), full CI/CD integration for custom code, and a marketplace for sharing and deploying community-built extensions.
Plugin Architecture
DIY1
Funnel is a strictly no-code platform that lacks a native SDK or scripting environment for developers to build custom plugins; users must typically rely on external scripts to push data into supported file-based destinations like S3 or Google Sheets to handle unsupported sources.
View details & rubric context

Plugin architecture empowers data teams to extend the platform's capabilities by creating custom connectors and transformations for unique data sources. This extensibility prevents vendor lock-in and ensures the ETL pipeline can adapt to specialized business logic or proprietary APIs.

What Score 1 Means

Extensibility is possible only through generic webhooks or shell script execution steps, requiring users to host and manage the external code infrastructure completely outside the ETL platform.

Full Rubric
0The product has no framework for extending functionality, restricting users strictly to the pre-built connectors and transformations provided by the vendor.
1Extensibility is possible only through generic webhooks or shell script execution steps, requiring users to host and manage the external code infrastructure completely outside the ETL platform.
2Native support includes a basic scripting interface (e.g., Python or SQL snippets) to define custom logic, but it lacks proper version control, dependency management, or a structured SDK for building full connectors.
3The system provides a robust SDK and CLI for developing custom sources and destinations, fully integrating them into the UI with native logging, configuration management, and standard deployment workflows.
4A market-leading container-based architecture allows plugins in any language with complete resource isolation, accompanied by a public marketplace and automated testing frameworks for maintaining high-quality custom integrations.

Enterprise Integrations

Specialized connectors for integrating data from major enterprise resource planning, CRM, and IT management systems.

Avg Score
1.6/ 4
Mainframe Connectivity
Not Supported0
Funnel is a marketing-focused data hub that specializes in SaaS and advertising platform connectors; it does not provide native support for legacy mainframe environments, EBCDIC parsing, or specialized mainframe databases like VSAM or IMS.
View details & rubric context

Mainframe connectivity enables the extraction and integration of data from legacy systems like IBM z/OS or AS/400 into modern data warehouses. This feature is essential for unlocking critical historical data and supporting digital transformation initiatives without discarding existing infrastructure.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to connect to mainframe environments or parse legacy data formats like EBCDIC.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to connect to mainframe environments or parse legacy data formats like EBCDIC.
1Connectivity requires significant workaround efforts, such as relying on generic ODBC bridges or forcing the user to manually export mainframe data to flat files before ingestion.
2The platform provides basic connectors for standard mainframe databases (e.g., DB2), but lacks support for complex file structures (VSAM/IMS) or requires manual configuration for character set conversion.
3The tool features comprehensive, native support for various mainframe sources (VSAM, IMS, DB2) with automated parsing of COBOL copybooks and seamless EBCDIC-to-ASCII conversion.
4The solution offers market-leading log-based Change Data Capture (CDC) for mainframes to enable real-time replication with minimal system impact, coupled with intelligent automation for handling complex legacy schemas.
SAP Integration
DIY1
Funnel is primarily focused on marketing data sources and does not provide native, deep connectors for SAP ERP systems like ECC or S/4HANA, requiring users to rely on custom API connections or file-based workarounds.
View details & rubric context

SAP Integration enables the seamless extraction and transformation of data from complex SAP environments, such as ECC, S/4HANA, and BW, into downstream analytics platforms. This capability is essential for unlocking siloed ERP data and unifying it with broader enterprise datasets for comprehensive reporting.

What Score 1 Means

Integration is achievable only through generic methods like ODBC/JDBC drivers or custom scripting against raw SAP APIs, requiring significant engineering effort to handle authentication and data parsing.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connectivity or specific support for extracting data from SAP systems.
1Integration is achievable only through generic methods like ODBC/JDBC drivers or custom scripting against raw SAP APIs, requiring significant engineering effort to handle authentication and data parsing.
2A basic native connector is provided, but it is limited to simple table dumps or specific modules and lacks support for complex data structures, delta loads, or metadata interpretation.
3The tool offers deep, certified integration supporting standard extraction methods (e.g., ODP, BAPIs) with built-in handling for incremental loads, complex hierarchies, and application-level logic.
4The solution delivers market-leading SAP connectivity with features like log-based Change Data Capture (CDC), zero-footprint architecture, and automated translation of cryptic SAP codes into business-friendly metadata.
Salesforce Connector
Advanced3
Funnel offers a robust native Salesforce connector that supports standard and custom objects, handles incremental syncs, and manages API rate limits, but it primarily focuses on data ingestion rather than the bi-directional Reverse ETL capabilities required for a score of 4.
View details & rubric context

The Salesforce Connector enables the automated extraction and loading of data between Salesforce CRM and downstream data warehouses or applications. This integration ensures customer data is synchronized for accurate reporting and analytics without manual intervention.

What Score 3 Means

The connector provides robust support for standard and custom objects, automatically handling schema drift, incremental syncs, and API rate limits out of the box.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connectivity to Salesforce, requiring users to manually export data as flat files for ingestion.
1Integration is possible only via generic REST/HTTP connectors or custom scripts, requiring developers to manually manage authentication, API limits, and pagination.
2A native connector exists but is limited to standard objects or full-table refreshes, often lacking support for incremental syncs or automatic schema updates.
3The connector provides robust support for standard and custom objects, automatically handling schema drift, incremental syncs, and API rate limits out of the box.
4The implementation offers high-performance throughput via the Bulk API, supports bi-directional syncing (Reverse ETL), and includes intelligent features like one-click OAuth setup and automated history preservation.
Jira Integration
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native Jira connector that supports both standard and custom fields, handles incremental data synchronization, and manages API rate limits, making it a robust, production-ready solution for centralizing project data.
View details & rubric context

This integration enables the automated extraction of issues, sprints, and workflow data from Atlassian Jira for centralization in a data warehouse. It allows organizations to combine engineering project management metrics with business performance data for comprehensive analytics.

What Score 3 Means

The connector offers robust support for all standard and custom objects, including history and worklogs. It supports automatic schema drift detection, efficient incremental syncs, and handles API rate limits gracefully.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connector for Atlassian Jira, requiring users to rely entirely on external scripts or third-party tools to ingest data.
1Integration is possible only through a generic REST API connector or custom code, requiring the user to manually handle authentication, pagination, and complex JSON parsing.
2A native connector exists but is limited to basic objects like Issues and Users. It often struggles with custom fields, lacks incremental sync capabilities, or requires manual schema mapping.
3The connector offers robust support for all standard and custom objects, including history and worklogs. It supports automatic schema drift detection, efficient incremental syncs, and handles API rate limits gracefully.
4The integration provides best-in-class performance with near real-time syncing via webhooks and pre-built data models that automatically normalize complex Jira nesting into analysis-ready tables.
ServiceNow Integration
DIY1
Funnel does not offer a native, pre-built connector for ServiceNow in its integration library, requiring users to utilize its custom connector functionality or manual file imports to ingest ITSM data.
View details & rubric context

A ServiceNow integration enables the seamless extraction and loading of IT service management data, allowing organizations to synchronize incidents, assets, and change records with their data warehouse for unified operational reporting.

What Score 1 Means

Users must build their own integration using generic HTTP/REST connectors or custom code, requiring manual handling of OAuth authentication, API rate limits, and JSON parsing.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connector or specific functionality to interface with ServiceNow instances.
1Users must build their own integration using generic HTTP/REST connectors or custom code, requiring manual handling of OAuth authentication, API rate limits, and JSON parsing.
2A basic native connector exists but is limited to standard tables (like Incidents) and full table scans, lacking support for custom objects or efficient incremental updates.
3The connector provides comprehensive access to all standard and custom ServiceNow tables with support for incremental loading, automatic schema detection, and bi-directional data movement.
4The solution offers a high-performance, real-time integration using Change Data Capture (CDC) or webhooks, complete with pre-built data models for ITSM analytics and intelligent handling of complex ServiceNow data types.

Extraction Strategies

Methods for efficiently retrieving data from source systems, ranging from full loads to capturing granular changes.

Avg Score
2.4/ 4
Change Data Capture (CDC)
Basic2
Funnel supports native incremental data fetching using date-based or cursor-based logic from marketing APIs, but it lacks advanced log-based CDC capabilities for databases, such as reading WAL or Binlogs.
View details & rubric context

Change Data Capture (CDC) identifies and replicates only the data that has changed in a source system, enabling real-time synchronization and minimizing the performance impact on production databases compared to bulk extraction.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to key-based or cursor-based replication (e.g., relying on 'Last Modified' columns), which often misses deleted records and places higher load on the source database than log-based methods.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to detect or replicate incremental data changes, requiring full table reloads for every synchronization cycle.
1Users must implement their own tracking logic using custom SQL queries on timestamp columns or build external scripts to poll generic APIs, resulting in a fragile and maintenance-heavy setup.
2Native support exists but is limited to key-based or cursor-based replication (e.g., relying on 'Last Modified' columns), which often misses deleted records and places higher load on the source database than log-based methods.
3The platform provides robust, log-based CDC (e.g., reading Postgres WAL or MySQL Binlogs) that accurately captures inserts, updates, and deletes with low latency and minimal configuration.
4A market-leading implementation that offers serverless, log-based CDC with sub-second latency, automatically handling complex schema evolution and seamlessly merging historical snapshots with real-time streams.
Incremental Loading
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust, automated incremental loading by managing state and lookback windows for its marketing API connectors out-of-the-box, though it lacks the log-based Change Data Capture (CDC) capabilities found in database-specific replication tools.
View details & rubric context

Incremental loading enables data pipelines to extract and transfer only new or modified records instead of reloading entire datasets. This capability is critical for optimizing performance, reducing costs, and ensuring timely data availability in downstream analytics platforms.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides robust, out-of-the-box incremental loading that automatically suggests cursor columns and reliably manages state, supporting standard key-based or timestamp-based replication strategies with minimal setup.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native mechanism to identify or sync only changed data, requiring a full reload of the entire dataset for every update cycle.
1Achieving incremental updates requires custom engineering, such as writing manual SQL queries to filter by timestamps or building external scripts to track high-water marks and manage state.
2Native support exists for basic column-based incremental loading (e.g., using an ID or Last Modified Date), but it requires manual configuration and often fails to capture deleted records or handle complex data types.
3The platform provides robust, out-of-the-box incremental loading that automatically suggests cursor columns and reliably manages state, supporting standard key-based or timestamp-based replication strategies with minimal setup.
4The system offers best-in-class incremental loading via log-based Change Data Capture (CDC), capturing inserts, updates, and hard deletes in real-time with zero impact on source database performance.
Full Table Replication
Best4
Funnel provides robust full-refresh export capabilities that include automatic schema management and zero-downtime table swapping via temporary tables to ensure data consistency in the destination.
View details & rubric context

Full Table Replication involves copying the entire contents of a source table to a destination during every sync cycle, ensuring complete data consistency for smaller datasets or sources where change tracking is unavailable.

What Score 4 Means

Best-in-class implementation offering zero-downtime replication (loading to temporary tables before swapping), intelligent parallelization for speed, and automatic history preservation or snapshotting options.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to perform full table snapshots or replacements, relying strictly on incremental appends or manual data extraction.
1Full table replication is possible but requires heavy lifting, such as writing custom scripts to truncate destination tables before loading or manually paginating through API endpoints to extract all records.
2Native support exists for selecting tables to fully replicate, but the implementation is basic; it may lock source tables, fail on large datasets due to timeouts, or lack automatic schema recreation on the destination.
3Strong, production-ready functionality that efficiently handles full loads with automatic pagination, reliable destination table replacement (drop/create), and robust error handling for large volumes.
4Best-in-class implementation offering zero-downtime replication (loading to temporary tables before swapping), intelligent parallelization for speed, and automatic history preservation or snapshotting options.
Log-based Extraction
Not Supported0
Funnel is a marketing-centric data hub that primarily utilizes API-based connectors and standard SQL queries for database extraction, lacking native capabilities to read database transaction logs for Change Data Capture (CDC).
View details & rubric context

Log-based extraction reads directly from database transaction logs to capture changes in real-time, ensuring minimal impact on source systems and accurate replication of deletes.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to read database transaction logs (e.g., WAL, binlog) and relies solely on query-based extraction methods like full table scans or key-based incremental loading.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to read database transaction logs (e.g., WAL, binlog) and relies solely on query-based extraction methods like full table scans or key-based incremental loading.
1Log-based extraction can be achieved only by maintaining external CDC tools (like Debezium) and pushing data via generic APIs, or by writing custom scripts to parse raw log files manually.
2Native log-based extraction is available for common databases but requires complex manual configuration of replication slots and user permissions. It often lacks automated handling for schema drift or log rotation events.
3The feature offers robust, out-of-the-box Change Data Capture (CDC) for a wide variety of databases. It automatically handles initial snapshots, manages replication slots, and reliably captures inserts, updates, and deletes with low latency.
4A market-leading implementation providing sub-second latency with zero-impact initial loads and intelligent auto-healing for log gaps. It optimizes resource usage dynamically and supports complex data types and schema evolution without user intervention.
Historical Data Backfill
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust UI that allows users to 'refetch' data for specific sources and defined date ranges, ensuring historical data can be repaired or backfilled without interrupting the ongoing collection of current data.
View details & rubric context

Historical Data Backfill enables the re-ingestion of past records from a source system to correct data discrepancies, migrate legacy information, or populate new fields. This capability ensures downstream analytics reflect the complete history of business operations, not just data captured after pipeline activation.

What Score 3 Means

The system provides a robust UI for initiating backfills on specific tables or defined time ranges, allowing users to repair historical data without interrupting the flow of real-time incremental updates.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native mechanism to re-import past data; pipelines only capture events or records generated after the initial connection is established.
1Backfilling requires manual intervention, such as resetting internal state cursors via API endpoints, dropping destination tables to force a full reload, or writing custom scripts to fetch specific historical ranges.
2Native support is available but limited to a blunt 'Resync All' or 'Reset' button that re-ingests the entire dataset, lacking controls for specific timeframes or tables and potentially delaying current data processing.
3The system provides a robust UI for initiating backfills on specific tables or defined time ranges, allowing users to repair historical data without interrupting the flow of real-time incremental updates.
4The platform features intelligent backfilling that automatically detects schema changes or missing records and initiates targeted repairs; it optimizes API consumption and concurrency to ensure historical loads never impact the latency of fresh data.

Loading Architectures

Capabilities for moving data into various destinations, including warehouses, lakes, and operational apps.

Avg Score
2.2/ 4
Reverse ETL Capabilities
Not Supported0
Funnel is primarily a marketing data ingestion and transformation platform focused on moving data from sources to destinations for analysis; it does not offer native Reverse ETL functionality to sync data from a warehouse back into operational tools.
View details & rubric context

Reverse ETL capabilities enable the automated synchronization of transformed data from a central data warehouse back into operational business tools like CRMs, marketing platforms, and support systems. This ensures business teams can act on the most up-to-date metrics and customer insights directly within their daily workflows.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native functionality to move data from a warehouse back into operational applications, forcing reliance on external tools or manual file exports.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native functionality to move data from a warehouse back into operational applications, forcing reliance on external tools or manual file exports.
1Reverse data movement is possible only through custom scripts, generic API calls, or complex webhook configurations that require significant engineering effort to build and maintain.
2Basic Reverse ETL support is available for a few major destinations with simple scheduling options. However, it lacks advanced mapping features, detailed error reporting, or control over how data conflicts are resolved.
3The feature provides a comprehensive library of connectors for popular SaaS apps with an intuitive visual mapper. It supports near real-time scheduling, granular control over insert/update logic, and robust logging for troubleshooting sync failures.
4A market-leading implementation offering real-time streaming syncs, intelligent change data capture to minimize API costs, and advanced observability features like visual debugging and proactive data quality alerts.
ELT Architecture Support
Advanced3
Funnel supports ELT patterns by allowing users to export data to major warehouses and providing a dedicated dbt integration for orchestrating downstream transformations, though its primary architecture is still optimized for its internal transformation engine.
View details & rubric context

ELT Architecture Support enables the loading of raw data directly into a destination warehouse before transformation, leveraging the destination's compute power for processing. This approach accelerates data ingestion and offers greater flexibility for downstream modeling compared to traditional ETL.

What Score 3 Means

Strong, fully-integrated ELT support allows for efficient raw data loading and orchestration of complex SQL transformations within the warehouse, complete with logging and error handling.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native support for ELT patterns, strictly enforcing an ETL workflow where data must be transformed prior to loading.
1ELT workflows are possible but require heavy lifting, such as manually configuring raw data dumps and writing custom scripts or API calls to trigger transformations in the destination.
2Native support allows for loading raw data and executing basic SQL transformations in the destination, but lacks advanced orchestration, dependency management, or visual modeling.
3Strong, fully-integrated ELT support allows for efficient raw data loading and orchestration of complex SQL transformations within the warehouse, complete with logging and error handling.
4Best-in-class implementation offers seamless integration with tools like dbt, automated schema drift handling, and intelligent push-down optimization to maximize warehouse performance and minimize costs.
Data Warehouse Loading
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust, native connectors for major data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery, supporting incremental updates, automated data typing, and scheduled exports through a production-ready UI. It lacks the near real-time streaming and advanced destination-side compute optimization required for a score of 4.
View details & rubric context

Data Warehouse Loading enables the automated transfer of processed data into analytical destinations like Snowflake, Redshift, or BigQuery. This capability is critical for ensuring that downstream reporting and analytics rely on timely, structured, and accessible information.

What Score 3 Means

The platform supports robust, high-performance loading with features like incremental updates, upserts (merge), and automatic data typing, fully configurable through the user interface with comprehensive error logging.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to load data into data warehouses, forcing users to manually export files or use external tools for the final load step.
1Loading data requires custom engineering work using generic APIs, JDBC drivers, or command-line scripts, with no built-in management for connection stability, retries, or throughput.
2Native connectors are provided for popular warehouses, but functionality is limited to basic insert or overwrite operations without support for complex schema mapping, deduplication, or incremental updates.
3The platform supports robust, high-performance loading with features like incremental updates, upserts (merge), and automatic data typing, fully configurable through the user interface with comprehensive error logging.
4The solution provides industry-leading loading capabilities including automated schema evolution (drift detection), near real-time streaming insertion, and intelligent optimization to minimize compute costs on the destination side.
Data Lake Integration
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust native connectors for major data lakes including Amazon S3, GCS, and Azure, supporting production-ready features like Parquet exports, compression, and automated partitioning, though it lacks advanced support for open table formats like Delta Lake or Iceberg.
View details & rubric context

Data Lake Integration enables the seamless extraction, transformation, and loading of data to and from scalable storage repositories like Amazon S3, Azure Data Lake, or Google Cloud Storage. This capability is critical for efficiently managing vast amounts of unstructured and semi-structured data for advanced analytics and machine learning.

What Score 3 Means

The platform offers robust, native integration with major data lakes, supporting complex columnar formats (Parquet, Avro, ORC) and compression. It handles partitioning strategies, schema inference, and incremental loading out of the box.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connectors or capabilities to read from or write to data lake object storage services.
1Integration is possible only through custom scripting (e.g., Python, Bash) or by manually configuring generic HTTP/REST connectors to interact with storage APIs. This approach requires significant maintenance and lacks native handling for file formats.
2Native connectors for major data lakes (S3, ADLS, GCS) are provided, but functionality is limited to basic file transfers. It typically supports only simple formats like CSV or JSON and lacks features for partitioning, compression, or schema evolution.
3The platform offers robust, native integration with major data lakes, supporting complex columnar formats (Parquet, Avro, ORC) and compression. It handles partitioning strategies, schema inference, and incremental loading out of the box.
4The solution provides best-in-class integration with support for open table formats (Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg, Hudi) enabling ACID transactions directly on the lake. It includes automated performance optimization like file compaction and deep integration with governance catalogs.
Database Replication
Basic2
Funnel provides native connectors for common databases like MySQL and PostgreSQL, but these rely on batch-based SQL queries rather than log-based Change Data Capture (CDC), making it more suitable for periodic marketing data ingestion than high-performance database replication.
View details & rubric context

Database replication automatically copies data from source databases to destination warehouses to ensure consistency and availability for analytics. This capability is essential for enabling real-time reporting without impacting the performance of operational systems.

What Score 2 Means

Native connectors exist for common databases, but replication relies on basic batch processing or full table snapshots rather than log-based CDC. Handling schema changes is manual, and data latency is typically high due to the lack of real-time streaming.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to replicate data from source databases to a destination.
1Replication is possible only by writing custom scripts or using generic API connectors to poll databases. There is no pre-built logic for Change Data Capture (CDC), requiring significant engineering effort to manage state and consistency.
2Native connectors exist for common databases, but replication relies on basic batch processing or full table snapshots rather than log-based CDC. Handling schema changes is manual, and data latency is typically high due to the lack of real-time streaming.
3The tool offers robust, log-based Change Data Capture (CDC) for a wide range of databases, ensuring low-latency replication. It handles schema changes automatically and provides reliable error handling and checkpointing out of the box.
4The solution provides sub-second latency with zero-maintenance pipelines that automatically heal from interruptions and handle complex schema drift without intervention. It includes advanced capabilities like historical re-syncs, granular masking, and intelligent throughput scaling.

File & Format Handling

Support for ingesting and processing various file types, including structured, semi-structured, and compressed formats.

Avg Score
1.8/ 4
File Format Support
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for standard marketing data formats such as CSV, Excel, and JSON through its File Import functionality, but it lacks the broad support for complex binary formats like Parquet, Avro, or ORC for data ingestion that is typical of more advanced general-purpose ETL tools.
View details & rubric context

File Format Support determines the breadth of data file types—such as CSV, JSON, Parquet, and XML—that an ETL tool can natively ingest and write. Broad compatibility ensures pipelines can handle diverse data sources and storage layers without requiring external conversion steps.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for standard flat files like CSV and simple JSON, but lacks compatibility with complex binary formats (Parquet, Avro) or advanced configuration for delimiters, encoding, and multi-line records.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to read or write standard data files, relying exclusively on direct database or API connections.
1File ingestion is possible but requires heavy lifting, such as writing custom scripts to parse file contents or using generic blob storage connectors that treat files as raw binary objects without understanding their structure.
2Native support exists for standard flat files like CSV and simple JSON, but lacks compatibility with complex binary formats (Parquet, Avro) or advanced configuration for delimiters, encoding, and multi-line records.
3Strong, fully-integrated support covers a wide array of structured and semi-structured formats including Parquet, ORC, and XML, complete with features for automatic schema inference, compression handling, and strict type enforcement.
4A market-leading implementation that automatically handles complex nested structures, schema evolution, and proprietary legacy formats with zero configuration, often including AI-driven parsing for unstructured documents.
Parquet and Avro Support
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for exporting data in Parquet format to cloud storage destinations, but it lacks support for the Avro format and does not offer advanced big data optimizations like predicate pushdown or complex manual partitioning.
View details & rubric context

Parquet and Avro support enables the efficient processing of optimized, schema-enforced file formats essential for modern data lakes and high-performance analytics. This capability ensures seamless integration with big data ecosystems while minimizing storage footprints and maximizing throughput.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for reading and writing these formats, but it struggles with complex nested schemas, lacks compression options, or fails to handle schema evolution automatically.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to read, write, or parse Parquet or Avro file formats.
1Users must rely on custom coding (e.g., Python scripts) or external conversion utilities to transform Parquet or Avro files into CSV or JSON before the tool can process them.
2Native support exists for reading and writing these formats, but it struggles with complex nested schemas, lacks compression options, or fails to handle schema evolution automatically.
3The platform provides fully integrated support for Parquet and Avro, accurately mapping complex data types and nested structures while supporting standard compression codecs without manual configuration.
4The implementation is best-in-class, featuring automatic schema evolution, predicate pushdown for query optimization, and intelligent file partitioning to maximize performance in downstream data lakes.
XML Parsing
Advanced3
Funnel provides native, visual support for XML parsing through its Custom Connector and file import features, allowing users to navigate nested structures and map elements to target schemas without writing code.
View details & rubric context

XML Parsing enables the ingestion and transformation of hierarchical XML data structures into usable formats for analysis and integration. This capability is critical for connecting with legacy systems and processing industry-standard data exchanges.

What Score 3 Means

The tool provides a robust, visual XML parser that handles deeply nested structures, attributes, and namespaces out of the box, allowing for intuitive mapping to target schemas.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to ingest or interpret XML files, requiring external conversion to formats like CSV or JSON before processing.
1XML data can be processed only through custom scripting (e.g., Python, JavaScript) or generic API calls, placing the burden of parsing logic and error handling entirely on the user.
2Native support is available but limited to simple, flat XML structures; handling attributes or nested arrays requires manual configuration and often fails on complex schemas.
3The tool provides a robust, visual XML parser that handles deeply nested structures, attributes, and namespaces out of the box, allowing for intuitive mapping to target schemas.
4The implementation offers intelligent automation, such as auto-flattening complex hierarchies, streaming support for massive files, and dynamic schema evolution handling for changing XML structures.
Unstructured Data Handling
Not Supported0
Funnel is a marketing-specific ETL tool designed to aggregate structured data from advertising platforms and does not possess native capabilities for ingesting or parsing unstructured formats like PDFs, images, or raw text.
View details & rubric context

Unstructured data handling enables the ingestion, parsing, and transformation of non-tabular formats like documents, images, and logs into structured data suitable for analysis. This capability is essential for unlocking insights from complex sources that do not fit into traditional database schemas.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to ingest, parse, or transform unstructured data sources such as PDFs, images, or raw text files.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to ingest, parse, or transform unstructured data sources such as PDFs, images, or raw text files.
1Users must rely on external scripts, custom code (e.g., Python/Java UDFs), or third-party API calls to pre-process unstructured files before the platform can handle them.
2Native support allows for basic text extraction or handling of simple semi-structured formats (like flat JSON or XML), but lacks advanced parsing, OCR, or binary file processing capabilities.
3The platform provides built-in, robust tools for ingesting and parsing various unstructured formats (PDFs, logs, emails) directly within the UI, including regex support and pre-built templates.
4The feature includes AI-driven intelligent document processing (IDP) and natural language processing (NLP) to automatically classify, extract entities, and structure complex data with high accuracy and zero-code configuration.
Compression Support
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for standard compression formats like GZIP for data exports to cloud storage destinations, but it lacks comprehensive support for high-performance codecs like ZSTD or LZ4 and does not offer granular control over compression levels.
View details & rubric context

Compression support enables the ETL platform to automatically read and write compressed data streams, significantly reducing network bandwidth consumption and storage costs during high-volume data transfers.

What Score 2 Means

Native support covers standard formats like GZIP or ZIP, but lacks support for modern high-performance codecs (like ZSTD or Snappy) or granular control over compression levels.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to ingest or output compressed files, requiring all data to be uncompressed prior to ingestion.
1Users must implement custom pre- or post-processing scripts (e.g., shell commands or Python) to handle compression and decompression manually, adding complexity and maintenance overhead to the data pipeline.
2Native support covers standard formats like GZIP or ZIP, but lacks support for modern high-performance codecs (like ZSTD or Snappy) or granular control over compression levels.
3The tool provides comprehensive out-of-the-box support for all major compression algorithms (GZIP, Snappy, LZ4, ZSTD) across all connectors, with seamless handling of split files and archive extraction.
4The system optimizes performance by automatically selecting the most efficient compression algorithm for specific data types and endpoints, offering intelligent parallel processing of splittable compressed files to maximize throughput.

Synchronization Logic

Technical controls for managing data flow limits and record updates during synchronization.

Avg Score
2.3/ 4
Upsert Logic
Basic2
Funnel provides basic upsert-like functionality through its managed incremental exports to major destinations, but it lacks granular UI configuration for users to define custom primary or composite keys for the merge process.
View details & rubric context

Upsert logic allows data pipelines to automatically update existing records or insert new ones based on unique identifiers, preventing duplicates during incremental loads. This ensures data warehouses remain synchronized with source systems efficiently without requiring full table refreshes.

What Score 2 Means

Basic upsert support is provided for select destinations, allowing simple key-based merging, though it may lack configuration options for complex keys or specific update behaviors.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to perform upsert operations, limiting data loading to simple append or full overwrite methods.
1Upserts can be achieved by writing custom SQL scripts (e.g., MERGE statements) or using intermediate staging tables and manual orchestration to handle record matching and conflict resolution.
2Basic upsert support is provided for select destinations, allowing simple key-based merging, though it may lack configuration options for complex keys or specific update behaviors.
3The platform provides comprehensive, out-of-the-box upsert functionality for all major destinations, allowing users to easily configure primary keys, composite keys, and deduplication logic via the UI.
4The solution offers intelligent, automated upsert handling that optimizes merge performance at scale and supports advanced patterns like Slowly Changing Dimensions (SCD Type 2) or conditional updates automatically.
Soft Delete Handling
DIY1
Funnel primarily relies on data refresh windows and full-table overwrites to synchronize changes, as it lacks native log-based CDC or automated logical delete propagation for records that are physically removed from source APIs.
View details & rubric context

Soft Delete Handling ensures that records removed or marked as deleted in a source system are accurately reflected in the destination data warehouse to maintain analytical integrity. This feature prevents data discrepancies by propagating deletion events either by physically removing records or flagging them as deleted in the target.

What Score 1 Means

Users must rely on heavy workarounds, such as writing custom scripts to compare source and destination primary keys or performing manual full-table truncates and reloads to sync deletions.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to track or propagate deletions from the source system, resulting in 'ghost records' remaining in the destination indefinitely.
1Users must rely on heavy workarounds, such as writing custom scripts to compare source and destination primary keys or performing manual full-table truncates and reloads to sync deletions.
2Basic support is available, often requiring the user to manually identify and map a specific 'is_deleted' column or relying on resource-intensive full table snapshots to infer deletions.
3The platform natively handles delete propagation via log-based Change Data Capture (CDC), automatically marking destination records as deleted (logical deletes) without requiring manual configuration or full reloads.
4The system provides market-leading automation, offering configurable options for hard vs. soft deletes, automatic history preservation (SCD Type 2) for deleted records, and sub-second propagation latency across all connectors.
Rate Limit Management
Advanced3
Funnel provides a fully managed service that natively handles API rate limits, including automatic retries and exponential backoff, ensuring data pipelines remain stable without user intervention. While it excels at automated handling across hundreds of connectors, it does not typically expose predictive analytics or granular global quota management tools directly to the end-user.
View details & rubric context

Rate limit management ensures data pipelines respect the API request limits of source and destination systems to prevent failures and service interruptions. It involves automatically throttling requests, handling retry logic, and optimizing throughput to stay within allowable quotas.

What Score 3 Means

Strong, automated handling where the system natively detects rate limit errors, respects Retry-After headers, and implements standard exponential backoff strategies without manual intervention.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to handle API rate limits, causing pipelines to fail immediately upon receiving 429 errors or exceeding quotas.
1Rate limiting is possible but requires custom scripting or manual orchestration, such as writing specific code to handle retries or inserting arbitrary delays to throttle execution.
2Native support exists but requires manual configuration of static limits (e.g., fixed requests per second) and lacks dynamic handling of backoff headers or fluctuating API capacity.
3Strong, automated handling where the system natively detects rate limit errors, respects Retry-After headers, and implements standard exponential backoff strategies without manual intervention.
4Best-in-class implementation that intelligently manages global quotas across concurrent jobs, dynamically adjusts throughput based on real-time API load, and provides predictive analytics on API consumption.
Pagination Handling
Advanced3
Funnel provides automated pagination handling for its hundreds of native connectors and offers a comprehensive, no-code configuration interface within its Custom Connector tool to manage various strategies including cursor-based, offset, and page-number pagination.
View details & rubric context

Pagination handling refers to the ability to automatically iterate through multi-page API responses to retrieve complete datasets. This capability is essential for ensuring full data extraction from SaaS applications and REST APIs that limit response payload sizes.

What Score 3 Means

The tool offers a comprehensive, no-code interface for configuring diverse pagination strategies (cursor-based, link headers, deep nesting) with built-in handling for termination conditions and concurrency.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to iterate through multiple pages of API results, limiting extraction to the first batch of data only.
1Pagination is possible but requires heavy lifting, such as writing custom code blocks (e.g., Python or JavaScript) or constructing complex recursive logic manually to manage tokens, offsets, and loop variables.
2Native support exists for standard pagination methods like page numbers or simple offsets, but users must manually map response fields to request parameters and lack support for complex cursor patterns or link headers.
3The tool offers a comprehensive, no-code interface for configuring diverse pagination strategies (cursor-based, link headers, deep nesting) with built-in handling for termination conditions and concurrency.
4The platform provides intelligent auto-detection of pagination patterns or uses AI heuristics to infer pagination logic from response headers and bodies, handling complex iteration automatically without user configuration.

Transformation & Data Quality

Encompasses the tools required to clean, shape, and enrich raw data into usable formats while ensuring accuracy. It includes schema management, compliance enforcement, and methods for both code-based and logic-based manipulation.

Capability Score
1.81/ 4

Schema & Metadata

Tools for managing data structures, handling structural changes, and maintaining metadata visibility.

Avg Score
2.6/ 4
Schema Drift Handling
Advanced3
Funnel provides strong, out-of-the-box schema management that automatically detects new fields from marketing APIs and allows users to map them via a no-code UI, ensuring pipelines remain operational during source changes. While it handles standard evolution well, it lacks the granular version history and automated complex drift resolution found in specialized enterprise ETL leaders.
View details & rubric context

Schema drift handling ensures data pipelines remain resilient when source data structures change, automatically detecting updates like new or modified columns to prevent failures and data loss.

What Score 3 Means

Strong, out-of-the-box functionality allows users to configure automatic schema evolution policies (e.g., add new columns, relax data types) directly within the UI, ensuring pipelines remain operational during standard structural changes.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to detect or handle changes in source data structures, resulting in immediate pipeline failures whenever a schema modification occurs.
1Handling schema changes requires heavy lifting, such as writing custom pre-ingestion scripts to validate metadata or using generic webhooks to trigger manual remediation processes when a job fails due to structure mismatches.
2Native support is minimal, typically offering a basic choice to either fail the pipeline gracefully or ignore new columns, but lacking the ability to automatically evolve the destination schema to match the source.
3Strong, out-of-the-box functionality allows users to configure automatic schema evolution policies (e.g., add new columns, relax data types) directly within the UI, ensuring pipelines remain operational during standard structural changes.
4Best-in-class implementation features intelligent, granular evolution settings (including handling renames and type casting), comprehensive schema version history, and automated alerts that resolve complex drift scenarios without downtime.
Auto-schema Mapping
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust automated mapping that handles schema drift and standard type conversions across hundreds of marketing connectors, including a visual interface for managing field mappings and resolving conflicts.
View details & rubric context

Auto-schema mapping automatically detects and matches source data fields to destination table columns, significantly reducing the manual effort required to configure data pipelines and ensuring consistency when data structures evolve.

What Score 3 Means

The feature offers robust auto-schema mapping that handles standard type conversions, supports automatic schema drift propagation (adding/removing columns), and provides a visual interface for resolving conflicts.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to map source schemas to destinations automatically; all field mappings must be defined manually, column by column.
1Automated mapping is possible only by writing custom scripts that query metadata APIs to programmatically generate mapping configurations, requiring ongoing maintenance.
2Native auto-schema mapping exists but is limited to exact string matching of column names; it fails to handle type coercion, nested fields, or slight naming variations without manual intervention.
3The feature offers robust auto-schema mapping that handles standard type conversions, supports automatic schema drift propagation (adding/removing columns), and provides a visual interface for resolving conflicts.
4Intelligent auto-schema mapping utilizes semantic analysis or machine learning to accurately map fields with different naming conventions, automatically evolves schemas in real-time without pipeline downtime, and proactively suggests transformations for complex data types.
Data Type Conversion
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust, no-code transformation interface that allows users to define rules for converting data types, including complex date parsing and currency formatting, directly within its UI.
View details & rubric context

Data type conversion enables the transformation of values from one format to another, such as strings to dates or integers to decimals, ensuring compatibility between disparate source and destination systems. This functionality is critical for maintaining data integrity and preventing load failures during the ETL process.

What Score 3 Means

A comprehensive set of conversion functions is built into the UI, supporting complex date/time parsing, currency formatting, and validation logic without coding.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to transform or cast data types, requiring source and destination schemas to match exactly or resulting in load failures.
1Conversion is possible only by writing custom SQL snippets, Python scripts, or using generic code injection steps to manually parse and recast values.
2Native support allows for basic casting (e.g., string to integer) via simple dropdowns, but lacks robust handling for complex formats like specific date patterns or nested structures.
3A comprehensive set of conversion functions is built into the UI, supporting complex date/time parsing, currency formatting, and validation logic without coding.
4The platform utilizes intelligent type inference to automatically detect and apply the correct conversions for complex schemas, proactively handling mismatches and schema drift with zero user intervention.
Metadata Management
Advanced3
Funnel provides native visual data lineage and automated schema mapping that tracks data from source to export, including transformation logic, though it lacks the AI-driven active metadata and cross-stack observability of market leaders.
View details & rubric context

Metadata management involves capturing, organizing, and visualizing information about data lineage, schemas, and transformation logic to ensure governance and traceability. It allows data teams to understand the origin, movement, and structure of data assets throughout the ETL pipeline.

What Score 3 Means

The system automatically captures comprehensive technical metadata, offering visual data lineage, automated schema drift handling, and searchable catalogs directly within the UI.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to capture, store, or display metadata regarding data flows, schemas, or lineage.
1Metadata tracking requires manual documentation or building custom scripts to parse raw API logs and job configurations to reconstruct lineage and schema history.
2Native support includes basic logging of job execution statistics and static schema definitions, but lacks visual lineage, searchability, or detailed impact analysis.
3The system automatically captures comprehensive technical metadata, offering visual data lineage, automated schema drift handling, and searchable catalogs directly within the UI.
4The platform utilizes an active metadata engine with AI-driven insights, end-to-end column-level lineage across the entire data stack, and automated governance enforcement for superior observability.
Data Catalog Integration
DIY1
Funnel lacks native, out-of-the-box connectors for external data catalogs, requiring users to leverage the Funnel API to programmatically extract metadata and schema information for integration with governance platforms.
View details & rubric context

Data Catalog Integration ensures that metadata, lineage, and schema changes from ETL pipelines are automatically synchronized with external governance tools. This connectivity allows data teams to maintain a unified view of data assets, improving discoverability and compliance across the organization.

What Score 1 Means

Integration is possible only by building custom scripts that extract metadata via generic APIs and push it to the catalog. Maintaining this synchronization requires significant engineering effort and manual updates when schemas change.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native connectivity to external data catalogs and does not expose metadata in a format easily consumable by governance tools.
1Integration is possible only by building custom scripts that extract metadata via generic APIs and push it to the catalog. Maintaining this synchronization requires significant engineering effort and manual updates when schemas change.
2Native connectors exist for a few major catalogs (e.g., Alation or Collibra), but functionality is limited to simple schema syncing. It lacks support for lineage propagation, operational metadata, or bidirectional updates.
3The platform offers robust, out-of-the-box integration with a wide range of data catalogs, automatically syncing schemas, column-level lineage, and transformation logic. Configuration is handled entirely through the UI with reliable, near real-time updates.
4The integration provides deep, bidirectional synchronization that includes operational stats (quality scores, freshness) and automated tagging based on ETL logic. It proactively alerts the catalog to breaking changes before they occur, acting as a central nervous system for data governance.

Data Quality Assurance

Features designed to validate, clean, and profile data to ensure accuracy and reliability before analysis.

Avg Score
2.2/ 4
Data Cleansing
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust, no-code transformation engine that allows users to standardize data formats, apply regex for pattern validation, and handle missing values through logic-based rules, though it lacks the automated ML-driven anomaly detection of market-leading data quality tools.
View details & rubric context

Data cleansing ensures data integrity by detecting and correcting corrupt, inaccurate, or irrelevant records within datasets. It provides tools to standardize formats, remove duplicates, and handle missing values to prepare data for reliable analysis.

What Score 3 Means

Provides a robust, no-code interface with extensive pre-built functions for deduplication, pattern validation (regex), and standardization of common data types like addresses and dates.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capabilities for detecting or correcting data quality issues within the ETL workflow.
1Users must write custom SQL queries, Python scripts, or use external APIs to handle basic tasks like deduplication or formatting, with no visual aids or pre-packaged logic.
2Includes a limited set of standard transformations such as trimming whitespace, changing text case, and simple null handling, but lacks advanced features like fuzzy matching or cross-field validation.
3Provides a robust, no-code interface with extensive pre-built functions for deduplication, pattern validation (regex), and standardization of common data types like addresses and dates.
4Leverages machine learning to automatically profile data, identify anomalies, and suggest remediation steps, offering intelligent entity resolution and automated quality monitoring at scale.
Data Deduplication
Basic2
Funnel provides basic deduplication by automatically aggregating data based on selected dimensions and primary keys during ingestion, but it lacks advanced UI-driven features like fuzzy matching or probabilistic entity resolution.
View details & rubric context

Data deduplication identifies and eliminates redundant records during the ETL process to ensure data integrity and optimize storage. This feature is critical for maintaining accurate analytics and preventing downstream errors caused by duplicate entries.

What Score 2 Means

Basic deduplication is supported via simple distinct operators or primary key enforcement, but it lacks flexibility for complex matching logic or partial duplicates.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to detect or remove duplicate records during data ingestion or transformation.
1Users must write custom scripts (e.g., Python or SQL) or build complex manual workflows to identify and filter duplicates, requiring significant maintenance overhead.
2Basic deduplication is supported via simple distinct operators or primary key enforcement, but it lacks flexibility for complex matching logic or partial duplicates.
3The tool provides comprehensive, built-in deduplication transformations with configurable logic for exact matches, fuzzy matching, and specific field comparisons directly within the UI.
4Intelligent, automated deduplication uses machine learning for entity resolution and probabilistic matching, offering sophisticated survivorship rules to merge records rather than just deleting them.
Data Validation Rules
Basic2
Funnel offers a native rules engine that allows for basic data cleaning and transformation logic, such as handling null values or using if-then statements, but it lacks a dedicated validation suite with advanced error handling, row-level flagging, or quarantine management.
View details & rubric context

Data validation rules allow users to define constraints and quality checks on incoming data to ensure accuracy before loading, preventing bad data from polluting downstream analytics and applications.

What Score 2 Means

Native support includes a basic set of standard checks (e.g., null values, data types) applied to individual fields, but lacks support for complex logic or cross-field validation.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to define or enforce data validation rules or quality checks within the pipeline.
1Validation can be achieved only by writing custom SQL scripts, Python code, or using external webhooks to manually verify data integrity during the transformation phase.
2Native support includes a basic set of standard checks (e.g., null values, data types) applied to individual fields, but lacks support for complex logic or cross-field validation.
3The platform provides a robust visual interface for defining complex validation logic, including regex, cross-field dependencies, and lookup tables, with built-in error handling options like skipping or flagging rows.
4The solution features AI-driven anomaly detection that automatically suggests validation rules based on historical data profiling, coupled with advanced quarantine management and self-healing workflows.
Anomaly Detection
Basic2
Funnel provides native 'Data Validation' rules and a 'Data Health' dashboard that allow users to set static thresholds and monitor data freshness, but it lacks automated historical trend analysis or machine-learning-based anomaly detection.
View details & rubric context

Anomaly detection automatically identifies irregularities in data volume, schema, or quality during extraction and transformation, preventing corrupted data from polluting downstream analytics.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to static, user-defined thresholds (e.g., hard-coded row count limits) or basic schema validation, lacking historical context or adaptive learning capabilities.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to detect data irregularities, requiring users to manually inspect data or rely on downstream failures to identify issues.
1Anomaly detection is possible only by writing custom SQL validation scripts, implementing manual thresholds within transformation logic, or integrating third-party data observability tools via generic webhooks.
2Native support exists but is limited to static, user-defined thresholds (e.g., hard-coded row count limits) or basic schema validation, lacking historical context or adaptive learning capabilities.
3The platform offers robust, built-in anomaly detection that monitors historical trends to automatically identify volume spikes, freshness delays, or null rates, with integrated alerting workflows to stop pipelines when issues arise.
4A best-in-class implementation utilizes unsupervised machine learning to detect subtle column-level distribution shifts and complex data quality issues without manual configuration, offering automated root cause analysis and intelligent circuit-breaking capabilities.
Automated Data Profiling
Basic2
Funnel provides native visibility into data types and row counts through its Data Explorer and Data Validation features, but it lacks automated statistical profiling like histograms or null-value distributions, often requiring users to manually set up validation rules to monitor data quality.
View details & rubric context

Automated data profiling scans datasets to generate statistics and metadata about data quality, structure, and content distributions, allowing engineers to identify anomalies before building pipelines.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to basic metrics (e.g., row counts, data types) on a small sample of data, often requiring manual triggering without visual distribution charts.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in capability to analyze or profile data statistics; users must manually query source systems to understand data structure and quality.
1Profiling is possible only by writing custom SQL queries or scripts within the pipeline to manually calculate statistics like row counts, null values, or distributions.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic metrics (e.g., row counts, data types) on a small sample of data, often requiring manual triggering without visual distribution charts.
3Strong functionality that automatically generates detailed statistics (min/max, nulls, distinct values) and histograms for full datasets, integrated directly into the dataset view.
4Best-in-class implementation that uses AI/ML to detect anomalies, identify PII, and infer relationships automatically, offering proactive alerting on data profile drift.

Privacy & Compliance

Tools to protect sensitive information and ensure adherence to global data privacy regulations.

Avg Score
1.2/ 4
Data Masking
Basic2
Funnel allows users to manually obfuscate or redact sensitive information using its standard transformation rules and custom dimensions, but it lacks a dedicated data masking suite with pre-built PII patterns or automated discovery.
View details & rubric context

Data masking protects sensitive information by obfuscating specific fields during the extraction and transformation process, ensuring compliance with privacy regulations while maintaining data utility.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to basic hashing or redaction functions applied manually to individual columns, lacking format-preserving options or centralized management.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to obfuscate or mask sensitive data fields during the ETL process.
1Masking is possible only by writing custom transformation scripts (e.g., SQL, Python) or manually integrating external encryption libraries within the pipeline logic.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic hashing or redaction functions applied manually to individual columns, lacking format-preserving options or centralized management.
3The platform offers a robust library of pre-built masking rules (e.g., for SSNs, credit cards) and supports format-preserving encryption, allowing users to apply protections via the UI without coding.
4The system automatically detects sensitive data using AI/ML, suggests appropriate masking techniques, and maintains referential integrity across tables while supporting dynamic, role-based masking.
PII Detection
Not Supported0
Funnel does not offer a native, automated PII detection or scanning feature; users must manually identify and manage sensitive fields through field selection or custom transformation rules.
View details & rubric context

PII Detection automatically identifies and flags sensitive personally identifiable information within data streams during extraction and transformation. This capability ensures regulatory compliance and prevents data leaks by allowing teams to manage sensitive data before it reaches the destination warehouse.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to scan, identify, or flag Personally Identifiable Information (PII) within data pipelines.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to scan, identify, or flag Personally Identifiable Information (PII) within data pipelines.
1PII detection requires manual implementation using custom transformation scripts (e.g., Python, SQL) or external API calls to third-party scanning services to inspect data payloads.
2Native support is limited to basic pattern matching (regex) for standard fields like emails or SSNs. Users must manually tag columns or configure rules for each pipeline, lacking automated discovery.
3The system provides robust, out-of-the-box detection that automatically scans schemas and data samples to identify sensitive information. It integrates directly with transformation steps to easily mask, hash, or block PII.
4PII detection leverages advanced machine learning to accurately identify sensitive data across global formats and unstructured text. It features intelligent, policy-driven automation that dynamically applies governance rules and masking across the entire data estate without user intervention.
GDPR Compliance Tools
Basic2
Funnel provides native capabilities to exclude specific fields and apply basic transformations like hashing for PII protection, but it lacks automated PII detection and integrated workflows for propagating deletion requests across the data ecosystem.
View details & rubric context

GDPR Compliance Tools within ETL platforms provide essential mechanisms for managing data privacy, including PII masking, encryption, and automated handling of 'Right to be Forgotten' requests. These features ensure that data integration workflows adhere to strict regulatory standards while minimizing legal risk.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to basic transformation functions, such as simple column hashing or exclusion, without automated workflows for Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR).

Full Rubric
0The product has no specific features or settings to assist with GDPR compliance, requiring users to manage data privacy and PII handling entirely external to the ETL tool.
1Compliance is possible but requires heavy lifting, such as writing custom scripts or complex SQL transformations to manually hash PII or execute deletion requests one by one.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic transformation functions, such as simple column hashing or exclusion, without automated workflows for Data Subject Access Requests (DSAR).
3The platform offers robust, built-in tools for PII detection and automatic masking, along with integrated workflows to propagate deletion requests (Right to be Forgotten) to destination warehouses efficiently.
4Best-in-class implementation features AI-driven PII classification, a centralized governance dashboard for managing consent across all pipelines, and automated generation of audit-ready compliance reports.
HIPAA Compliance Tools
Not Supported0
Funnel does not provide a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and explicitly states that its platform is not designed to handle or store Protected Health Information (PHI).
View details & rubric context

HIPAA compliance tools ensure that data pipelines handling Protected Health Information (PHI) meet regulatory standards for security and privacy, allowing organizations to securely ingest, transform, and load sensitive patient data.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no specific features, certifications, or legal frameworks (such as a BAA) to support the handling of Protected Health Information (PHI).

Full Rubric
0The product has no specific features, certifications, or legal frameworks (such as a BAA) to support the handling of Protected Health Information (PHI).
1Achieving compliance requires significant manual effort, such as writing custom scripts for field-level encryption prior to ingestion or managing complex self-hosted infrastructure to isolate data flows.
2The vendor is willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) and provides standard encryption at rest and in transit, but lacks specific features for identifying or managing PHI within the pipeline.
3The platform offers robust, native HIPAA compliance features, including configurable hashing for sensitive columns, detailed audit logs for data access, and secure, isolated processing environments.
4The solution provides market-leading compliance automation, featuring AI-driven detection of PHI, dynamic masking policies that adapt to schema changes, and real-time reporting dashboards designed specifically for regulatory audits.
Data Sovereignty Features
Basic2
Funnel provides basic data residency options by allowing customers to choose between specific regions (such as the EU or US) for their account's data storage and processing, but these settings are typically applied at the account level rather than offering granular, per-pipeline geographic routing.
View details & rubric context

Data sovereignty features enable organizations to restrict data processing and storage to specific geographic regions, ensuring compliance with local regulations like GDPR or CCPA. This capability is critical for managing cross-border data flows and preventing sensitive information from leaving its jurisdiction of origin during the ETL process.

What Score 2 Means

Basic region selection is available at the tenant or account level, but the platform lacks granular control to assign specific pipelines or datasets to distinct geographic processing zones.

Full Rubric
0The product has no mechanisms to restrict data processing or storage to specific geographic regions, routing all traffic through a default global infrastructure.
1Achieving data residency compliance requires deploying self-hosted agents manually in desired regions or architecting complex custom routing solutions outside the standard platform workflow.
2Basic region selection is available at the tenant or account level, but the platform lacks granular control to assign specific pipelines or datasets to distinct geographic processing zones.
3The platform provides native, granular controls to select processing regions and storage locations for individual pipelines or jobs, ensuring data remains within defined borders throughout the lifecycle.
4The solution offers policy-driven automation that dynamically routes data to the correct region based on origin or classification, complete with immutable audit logs and multi-cloud geofencing to guarantee strict sovereignty compliance.

Code-Based Transformations

Capabilities allowing engineers to use standard programming languages and SQL for complex data manipulation.

Avg Score
0.4/ 4
SQL-based Transformations
Basic2
Funnel provides a native 'Funnel SQL' interface that allows users to write SQL queries to aggregate and restructure data for export, but it lacks advanced production-grade features like incremental logic, dependency management, or version control integration.
View details & rubric context

SQL-based transformations enable users to clean, aggregate, and restructure data using standard SQL syntax directly within the pipeline. This leverages existing team skills and provides a flexible, declarative method for defining complex data logic without proprietary code.

What Score 2 Means

The platform provides a basic text editor to run simple SQL queries as transformation steps, but it lacks advanced features like incremental logic, parameterization, or version control integration.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to execute SQL queries for data transformation purposes within the pipeline.
1Users must rely on external scripts, generic code execution steps, or webhooks to trigger SQL on a target database, requiring manual connection management and lacking integration with the pipeline's state.
2The platform provides a basic text editor to run simple SQL queries as transformation steps, but it lacks advanced features like incremental logic, parameterization, or version control integration.
3The feature supports complex SQL workflows, including incremental materialization, parameterization, and dependency management, often accompanied by a robust SQL editor with syntax highlighting and validation.
4The platform offers a best-in-class experience with features like native dbt integration, automated lineage generation from SQL parsing, AI-assisted query writing, and built-in data quality testing within the transformation logic.
Python Scripting Support
Not Supported0
Funnel is a strictly no-code marketing data hub that utilizes a rules-based transformation engine; it does not offer a native environment or pipeline step for executing custom Python scripts.
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Python Scripting Support enables data engineers to inject custom code into ETL pipelines, allowing for complex transformations and the use of libraries like Pandas or NumPy beyond standard visual operators.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to execute Python code or scripts within the data pipeline.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to execute Python code or scripts within the data pipeline.
1Users must rely on external workarounds, such as triggering a shell command to run a local script or calling an external compute service (like AWS Lambda) via a generic API step.
2A native Python step exists, but it operates in a highly restricted sandbox without access to common third-party libraries or debugging tools, serving only simple logic requirements.
3The platform provides a robust embedded Python editor with access to standard libraries (e.g., Pandas), syntax highlighting, and direct mapping of pipeline data to script variables.
4The feature offers a best-in-class development environment, supporting custom dependency management, reusable code modules, integrated debugging, and notebook-style interactivity for complex data science workflows.
dbt Integration
Not Supported0
While Funnel provides a pre-built dbt package to assist with data modeling in the warehouse, the platform itself lacks native capabilities to execute, orchestrate, or monitor dbt jobs directly within its interface.
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dbt Integration enables data teams to transform data within the warehouse using SQL-based workflows, ensuring robust version control, testing, and documentation alongside the extraction and loading processes.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to execute, orchestrate, or monitor dbt models, forcing users to manage transformations entirely in a separate system.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to execute, orchestrate, or monitor dbt models, forcing users to manage transformations entirely in a separate system.
1Integration is achievable only through custom scripts or generic webhooks that trigger external dbt jobs, offering no feedback loop or status reporting within the ETL tool itself.
2Native support allows for triggering basic dbt runs (often just `dbt run`) after data loading, but lacks support for granular model selection, detailed log visibility, or advanced flags.
3The platform provides a fully integrated dbt experience, allowing users to configure dbt Cloud or Core jobs, manage dependencies, and view detailed run logs and artifacts directly in the UI.
4The integration is best-in-class, offering features like in-browser IDEs for dbt, automatic lineage visualization, integrated data quality alerts based on dbt tests, and smart optimization of run schedules.
Custom SQL Queries
Not Supported0
Funnel is a strictly no-code marketing data hub that utilizes a visual rule-based engine for transformations, lacking any native interface or component for writing and executing raw SQL queries within the platform.
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Custom SQL Queries allow data engineers to write and execute raw SQL code directly within extraction or transformation steps. This capability is essential for handling complex logic, specific database optimizations, or legacy code that cannot be replicated by visual drag-and-drop builders.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native interface for writing or executing custom SQL queries, forcing users to rely solely on pre-built visual connectors.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native interface for writing or executing custom SQL queries, forcing users to rely solely on pre-built visual connectors.
1Custom SQL execution requires external workarounds, such as wrapping queries in generic script execution steps (e.g., Python or Bash) or calling database APIs manually, rather than using a dedicated SQL component.
2A native SQL entry field exists, but it is a simple text box lacking syntax highlighting, validation, or the ability to preview results, serving only as a pass-through for code.
3The platform provides a robust SQL editor with syntax highlighting, code validation, and parameter support, allowing users to test and preview query results immediately within the workflow builder.
4The SQL experience rivals a dedicated IDE, featuring intelligent autocomplete, version control integration, automated performance optimization tips, and the ability to mix visual lineage with complex SQL transformations seamlessly.
Stored Procedure Execution
Not Supported0
Funnel is a no-code marketing data platform focused on automated data collection and mapping; it lacks native functionality to trigger or manage stored procedures within destination databases.
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Stored Procedure Execution enables data pipelines to trigger and manage pre-compiled SQL logic directly within the source or destination database. This capability allows teams to leverage native database performance for complex transformations while maintaining centralized control within the ETL workflow.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to invoke or manage stored procedures residing in connected databases.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to invoke or manage stored procedures residing in connected databases.
1Execution requires writing raw SQL code in generic script nodes or using external command-line hooks to trigger database jobs. Parameter passing is manual and error handling requires custom scripting.
2Native support exists via a basic SQL task that accepts a procedure call string. However, it lacks automatic parameter discovery, requiring users to manually define inputs and outputs without visual aids.
3The tool offers a dedicated visual connector that browses available procedures and automatically maps input/output parameters to pipeline variables. It handles return values and standard execution logging seamlessly within the UI.
4Best-in-class support includes asynchronous execution management, detailed performance profiling of the procedure steps, and dynamic parameter injection. It handles complex data types and specific database error codes intelligently for automated retries.

Data Shaping & Enrichment

Functions for restructuring datasets, combining sources, and adding external context to raw data.

Avg Score
2.5/ 4
Data Enrichment
Basic2
Funnel provides basic enrichment capabilities through its 'Data Mapping' and 'Rules' engine, allowing users to join datasets with uploaded reference tables, but it lacks native, direct integrations with a broad library of third-party enrichment providers like Clearbit or ZoomInfo.
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Data enrichment capabilities allow users to augment existing datasets with external information, such as geolocation, demographic details, or firmographic data, directly within the data pipeline. This ensures downstream analytics and applications have access to comprehensive and contextualized information without manual lookup.

What Score 2 Means

The platform offers a limited set of pre-built enrichment functions, such as basic IP-to-location lookups or simple reference table joins, but lacks integration with a broad range of third-party data providers.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to augment data with external sources or third-party datasets during the transformation process.
1Enrichment is possible only by writing custom scripts or configuring generic HTTP request connectors to call external APIs manually, requiring significant development effort to handle rate limiting and authentication.
2The platform offers a limited set of pre-built enrichment functions, such as basic IP-to-location lookups or simple reference table joins, but lacks integration with a broad range of third-party data providers.
3The tool provides a robust library of native integrations with popular third-party data providers and services, allowing users to configure enrichment steps via a visual interface with built-in handling for API keys and field mapping.
4The solution features a comprehensive marketplace of enrichment providers with intelligent caching and cost-management controls, utilizing AI to automatically suggest relevant external datasets and map schemas for seamless augmentation.
Lookup Tables
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native Lookup Tables feature that allows users to upload CSVs or connect to Google Sheets for automated synchronization, fully integrated into its transformation UI for mapping values across data sources.
View details & rubric context

Lookup tables enable the enrichment of data streams by referencing static or slowly changing datasets to map codes, standardize values, or augment records. This capability is critical for efficient data transformation and ensuring data quality without relying on complex, resource-intensive external joins.

What Score 3 Means

Supports dynamic lookup tables connected to external databases or APIs with scheduled synchronization. The feature is fully integrated into the transformation UI, allowing for easy key-value mapping and handling moderate dataset sizes efficiently.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to store, manage, or reference auxiliary datasets for data enrichment within the pipeline.
1Lookups can be achieved by hardcoding values within custom scripts or implementing external API calls per record, which is performance-prohibitive and difficult to maintain.
2Native support is limited to manually uploading static files (e.g., CSV) with a capped size. There is no automation for updates, requiring manual intervention to refresh reference data.
3Supports dynamic lookup tables connected to external databases or APIs with scheduled synchronization. The feature is fully integrated into the transformation UI, allowing for easy key-value mapping and handling moderate dataset sizes efficiently.
4Provides a high-performance, distributed lookup engine capable of handling massive datasets with real-time updates via CDC. Advanced features include fuzzy matching, temporal lookups (point-in-time accuracy), and versioning for auditability.
Aggregation Functions
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust visual interface for defining custom metrics and dimensions with native support for various aggregation types and multi-level grouping, specifically optimized for marketing data workflows.
View details & rubric context

Aggregation functions enable the transformation of raw data into summary metrics through operations like summing, counting, and averaging, which is critical for reducing data volume and preparing datasets for analytics.

What Score 3 Means

The tool provides a comprehensive library of aggregation functions including statistical operations, accessible via a visual interface with support for multi-level grouping and complex filtering logic.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to group records or perform summary calculations like sums, counts, or averages within the transformation pipeline.
1Aggregation can only be achieved by writing custom scripts (e.g., Python, SQL) or utilizing generic webhook calls to external processing engines, requiring significant manual coding.
2Native support exists for standard aggregations (sum, count, min, max) on a single field, but lacks advanced grouping capabilities, window functions, or visual configuration options.
3The tool provides a comprehensive library of aggregation functions including statistical operations, accessible via a visual interface with support for multi-level grouping and complex filtering logic.
4The platform offers high-performance aggregation for massive datasets, including support for real-time streaming windows, automatic roll-up suggestions based on usage patterns, and complex time-series analysis.
Join and Merge Logic
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust visual interface for mapping and transforming data from disparate sources into unified dimensions, supporting complex logic and data previews without requiring SQL. While it automates many marketing-specific mappings, it functions primarily through a rule-based transformation engine rather than a general-purpose fuzzy matching or relationship discovery system.
View details & rubric context

Join and merge logic enables the combination of distinct datasets based on shared keys or complex conditions to create unified data models. This functionality is critical for integrating siloed information into a single source of truth for analytics and reporting.

What Score 3 Means

A comprehensive visual editor supports all standard join types, composite keys, and complex logic, providing data previews and validation to ensure merge accuracy during design.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native functionality to combine separate data streams or tables; all data must be joined externally before processing.
1Merging data is possible but requires writing custom SQL code, utilizing external scripting steps, or complex workarounds involving temporary staging tables.
2Basic join types (Inner, Left, Right) are supported via a simple UI, but the feature struggles with composite keys, non-standard join conditions, or handling null values gracefully.
3A comprehensive visual editor supports all standard join types, composite keys, and complex logic, providing data previews and validation to ensure merge accuracy during design.
4The system automatically detects relationships and suggests join keys across disparate sources, supports fuzzy matching for messy data, and optimizes execution plans for high-volume merges.
Pivot and Unpivot
DIY1
Funnel lacks a dedicated, native transformation component for pivoting or unpivoting data structures; users must instead utilize manual workarounds within the 'Rules' engine to map and restructure fields, which is not the primary purpose of that tool.
View details & rubric context

Pivot and Unpivot transformations allow users to restructure datasets by converting rows into columns or columns into rows, facilitating data normalization and reporting preparation. This capability is essential for reshaping data structures to match target schema requirements without complex manual coding.

What Score 1 Means

Users must write custom SQL queries, Python scripts, or use generic code execution steps to reshape data structures, as no dedicated transformation component exists.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to pivot or unpivot data streams within the transformation layer.
1Users must write custom SQL queries, Python scripts, or use generic code execution steps to reshape data structures, as no dedicated transformation component exists.
2Native components exist for pivoting or unpivoting, but they are rigid, requiring manual mapping of every specific column and lacking support for dynamic schema changes or complex aggregations.
3Fully integrated visual transformations allow users to easily select pivot/unpivot columns with support for standard aggregations and intuitive field mapping, working seamlessly within the pipeline builder.
4A highly intelligent implementation that automatically detects pivot/unpivot patterns, supports dynamic columns (handling schema drift), and processes complex multi-level aggregations on massive datasets with optimized performance.
Regular Expression Support
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust, native support for regular expressions within its transformation engine, allowing users to perform matches, replacements, and extractions using capture groups directly through the visual interface.
View details & rubric context

Regular Expression Support enables users to apply complex pattern-matching logic to validate, extract, or transform text data within pipelines. This functionality is critical for cleaning messy datasets and handling unstructured text formats efficiently without relying on external scripts.

What Score 3 Means

The tool provides robust, native regex functions for extraction, validation, and replacement, fully supporting capture groups and standard syntax directly within the visual transformation interface.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to parse or execute regular expressions for data manipulation or validation.
1Regex functionality requires writing custom code blocks (e.g., Python, JavaScript, or raw SQL snippets) or utilizing external API calls, as there are no built-in regex transformation components.
2Native support is present but limited to basic match or replace functions without support for advanced syntax, capture groups, or global flags.
3The tool provides robust, native regex functions for extraction, validation, and replacement, fully supporting capture groups and standard syntax directly within the visual transformation interface.
4The platform includes an advanced visual regex builder and debugger that allows users to test patterns against real-time data samples, or offers AI-assisted pattern generation for complex use cases.

Pipeline Orchestration & Management

Manages the design, execution, and monitoring of data workflows through visual interfaces and automation tools. It ensures operational visibility via alerting, debugging, and reusable configuration settings.

Capability Score
2.23/ 4

Processing Modes

Capabilities defining how and when data is processed, including real-time streams and event-driven triggers.

Avg Score
1.0/ 4
Real-time Streaming
Not Supported0
Funnel is architected as a batch-based marketing data hub that relies on scheduled API fetches from advertising platforms, lacking native infrastructure for continuous, low-latency streaming or real-time event processing.
View details & rubric context

Real-time streaming enables the continuous ingestion and processing of data as it is generated, allowing organizations to power live dashboards and immediate operational workflows without waiting for batch schedules.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to ingest or process streaming data, relying entirely on scheduled batch jobs with significant latency.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to ingest or process streaming data, relying entirely on scheduled batch jobs with significant latency.
1Streaming can be simulated by triggering frequent API calls or webhooks via custom scripts, but the platform lacks dedicated streaming connectors or infrastructure to handle high-velocity data reliably.
2Native support for streaming exists, often implemented as micro-batching with latency in minutes rather than seconds, and supports a limited set of sources without complex in-flight transformation capabilities.
3The platform offers robust, low-latency streaming capabilities with out-of-the-box support for major streaming platforms and Change Data Capture (CDC) sources, allowing for reliable continuous data movement with minimal configuration.
4The solution provides a unified architecture for both batch and sub-second streaming, featuring advanced in-flight transformations, windowing, and auto-scaling infrastructure that guarantees exactly-once processing at massive scale.
Batch Processing
Advanced3
Funnel is built on a robust batch processing architecture that automates data collection and exports on set schedules, featuring native support for incremental updates, automatic retries, and comprehensive execution monitoring.
View details & rubric context

Batch processing enables the automated collection, transformation, and loading of large data volumes at scheduled intervals. This capability is essential for efficiently managing high-throughput pipelines and optimizing resource usage during off-peak hours.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides a robust batch processing engine with built-in scheduling, support for incremental updates (CDC), automatic retries, and detailed execution logs for production-grade reliability.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to process data in batches, relying exclusively on real-time streaming or manual single-record entry.
1Batching is possible but requires significant custom engineering, such as writing external scripts to aggregate data and push it via generic APIs without native orchestration tools.
2Native batch processing exists but is limited to basic scheduled jobs. It lacks critical features like incremental loading, dynamic throttling, or granular error handling for individual records within a batch.
3The platform provides a robust batch processing engine with built-in scheduling, support for incremental updates (CDC), automatic retries, and detailed execution logs for production-grade reliability.
4The solution offers intelligent batch processing that auto-scales compute resources based on load and optimizes execution windows. It features smart partitioning, predictive failure analysis, and seamless integration with complex dependency trees.
Event-based Triggers
Not Supported0
Funnel is designed as a scheduled marketing data aggregator that relies on fixed, automated polling intervals and manual refreshes rather than providing native capabilities to trigger data pipelines via external events like webhooks or S3 uploads.
View details & rubric context

Event-based triggers allow data pipelines to execute immediately in response to specific actions, such as file uploads or database updates, ensuring real-time data freshness without relying on rigid time-based schedules.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to initiate pipelines based on external events or data changes, relying solely on manual execution or fixed cron schedules.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to initiate pipelines based on external events or data changes, relying solely on manual execution or fixed cron schedules.
1Event-driven execution is possible only by building external listeners or scripts that monitor for changes and subsequently call the ETL tool's generic API to trigger a job.
2Native support exists for basic triggers, such as watching a specific folder for new files, but lacks support for diverse event sources (like webhooks or database logs) or conditional logic.
3The platform offers robust, out-of-the-box integrations with common event sources (e.g., S3 events, webhooks, message queues), allowing users to configure reactive pipelines directly within the UI.
4The system features a sophisticated event-driven architecture capable of sub-second latency, complex event pattern matching, and dependency chaining, enabling fully reactive real-time data flows.
Webhook Triggers
DIY1
Funnel allows for programmatic data refreshes through its Management API, but this requires custom scripting or third-party middleware rather than providing a native, dedicated webhook endpoint for event-driven triggers.
View details & rubric context

Webhook triggers enable external applications to initiate ETL pipelines immediately upon specific events, facilitating real-time data processing instead of relying on fixed schedules. This feature is critical for workflows that demand low-latency synchronization and dynamic parameter injection.

What Score 1 Means

Triggering pipelines externally is possible but requires custom scripting against a generic management API, often necessitating complex workarounds for authentication and payload handling.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to trigger pipelines via incoming webhooks or HTTP requests, relying solely on time-based schedules or manual execution.
1Triggering pipelines externally is possible but requires custom scripting against a generic management API, often necessitating complex workarounds for authentication and payload handling.
2Native webhook support exists, providing a simple URL to trigger jobs. However, it lacks advanced security controls or the ability to dynamically parse and use payload data as pipeline parameters.
3The platform provides production-ready webhook triggers with integrated security (e.g., HMAC, API keys) and native support for mapping incoming JSON payload data directly to pipeline variables.
4Best-in-class webhook implementation features built-in request buffering, debouncing, and replay capabilities. It offers granular observability and conditional logic to route or filter triggers based on payload content before execution.

Visual Interface

User-friendly tools for designing, visualizing, and organizing data pipelines without extensive coding.

Avg Score
2.4/ 4
Drag-and-Drop Interface
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust, no-code visual environment where users can manage the entire data pipeline—from connection to transformation and export—using UI-driven forms and pre-configured logic rules. While it utilizes a structured workflow rather than a free-form node-based canvas, it fully delivers on the promise of a production-ready, low-code experience for both technical and non-technical users.
View details & rubric context

A drag-and-drop interface allows users to visually construct data pipelines by selecting, placing, and connecting components on a canvas without writing code. This visual approach democratizes data integration, enabling both technical and non-technical users to design and manage complex workflows efficiently.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides a robust, fully functional visual designer where users can build end-to-end pipelines using pre-configured components; field mapping and logic are handled via UI forms, making it a true low-code experience.

Full Rubric
0The product has no visual design capabilities or canvas, requiring all pipeline creation and management to be performed exclusively through code, command-line interfaces, or text-based configuration files.
1Visual workflow design is not native; users must rely on external third-party diagramming tools to generate configuration code or utilize generic API wrappers to visualize process flows without true interactive editing.
2A native visual canvas exists for arranging pipeline steps, but the implementation is superficial; users can place nodes but must still write significant code (SQL, Python) inside them to make them functional, or the interface lacks basic usability features like validation.
3The platform provides a robust, fully functional visual designer where users can build end-to-end pipelines using pre-configured components; field mapping and logic are handled via UI forms, making it a true low-code experience.
4The interface offers a best-in-class experience with intelligent features such as AI-assisted data mapping, auto-layout, real-time interactive debugging, and smart schema propagation that predicts next steps, significantly outperforming standard visual editors.
Low-code Workflow Builder
Basic2
Funnel provides a native, user-friendly visual interface for its 'Connect, Map, Share' process, but it lacks a flexible drag-and-drop canvas for complex, non-linear workflow orchestration or advanced logic like branching and loops.
View details & rubric context

A low-code workflow builder enables users to design and orchestrate data pipelines using a visual interface, democratizing data integration and accelerating development without requiring extensive coding knowledge.

What Score 2 Means

A native visual interface is provided for simple, linear data flows, but it lacks advanced logic capabilities like branching, loops, or granular error handling.

Full Rubric
0The product has no visual interface for building workflows, requiring users to define pipelines exclusively through code, CLI commands, or raw configuration files.
1Visual orchestration is possible only by integrating external tools or heavily customizing generic scheduling features, requiring significant manual setup to achieve a cohesive workflow.
2A native visual interface is provided for simple, linear data flows, but it lacks advanced logic capabilities like branching, loops, or granular error handling.
3The solution offers a comprehensive drag-and-drop canvas that supports complex logic, dependencies, and parameterization, fully integrated into the platform for production-grade pipeline management.
4The builder delivers a market-leading experience with AI-driven recommendations, intelligent auto-mapping, and reusable templates, allowing for rapid construction and self-healing of complex data ecosystems.
Visual Data Lineage
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native Data Flow visualization that allows users to interactively trace data from sources through transformation steps to destinations, though it lacks the deep cross-system impact analysis and historical versioning found in specialized lineage platforms.
View details & rubric context

Visual Data Lineage maps the flow of data from source to destination through a graphical interface, enabling teams to trace dependencies, perform impact analysis, and audit transformation logic instantly.

What Score 3 Means

The platform includes a fully interactive graphical map that traces data flow upstream and downstream, allowing users to click through nodes to inspect transformation logic and dependencies natively.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to visualize data flow, dependencies, or transformation paths between sources and destinations.
1Lineage information is not visible in the UI but can be reconstructed by manually parsing logs, querying metadata APIs, or building custom integrations with external cataloging tools.
2A basic dependency list or static diagram is available, but it lacks interactivity, real-time updates, or granular detail, often stopping at the job or table level without field-level insight.
3The platform includes a fully interactive graphical map that traces data flow upstream and downstream, allowing users to click through nodes to inspect transformation logic and dependencies natively.
4The feature offers column-level lineage with automated impact analysis, cross-system tracing, and historical comparisons, allowing users to pinpoint exactly how specific data points change over time across the entire stack.
Collaborative Workspaces
Basic2
Funnel provides shared workspaces with granular role-based access control (RBAC) that allow teams to collaborate on data mappings and exports, but it lacks advanced version control features such as visual branching, merging, or in-context commenting.
View details & rubric context

Collaborative Workspaces enable data teams to co-develop, review, and manage ETL pipelines within a shared environment, ensuring version consistency and accelerating development cycles.

What Score 2 Means

Basic shared projects or folders are available, allowing users to see team assets, but the system lacks concurrent editing capabilities and relies on simple file locking to prevent overwrites.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability for shared workspaces, forcing users to work in isolation on local instances without visibility into team activities.
1Collaboration is possible only through manual workarounds, such as exporting and importing pipeline configurations or relying entirely on external CLI-based version control systems to share logic.
2Basic shared projects or folders are available, allowing users to see team assets, but the system lacks concurrent editing capabilities and relies on simple file locking to prevent overwrites.
3A fully integrated environment supports granular role-based access control (RBAC), in-context commenting, and visual branching or merging, allowing teams to manage complex workflows efficiently.
4The platform offers a best-in-class experience with real-time co-authoring, automated conflict resolution, and embedded change management, turning pipeline development into a seamless multiplayer experience.
Project Folder Organization
Basic2
Funnel utilizes a 'Workspace' model to group data sources and exports by client or project, but it lacks a hierarchical file-system approach with nested folders or advanced bulk organization features within those workspaces.
View details & rubric context

Project Folder Organization enables users to structure ETL pipelines, connections, and scripts into logical hierarchies or workspaces. This capability is critical for maintaining manageability, navigation, and governance as data environments scale.

What Score 2 Means

Native support includes basic, single-level folders for grouping assets, but lacks support for sub-folders, bulk actions, or folder-specific settings.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to group or organize assets, leaving all pipelines and connections in a single, unorganized flat list.
1Organization is possible only through strict manual naming conventions or by building custom external dashboards that leverage metadata APIs to group assets.
2Native support includes basic, single-level folders for grouping assets, but lacks support for sub-folders, bulk actions, or folder-specific settings.
3A fully functional file system approach allows for nested folders, drag-and-drop movement of assets, and folder-level permissions that streamline team collaboration.
4The feature offers an intelligent workspace environment with dynamic smart folders based on tags, automated Git-syncing of folder structures, and granular policy inheritance for enterprise governance.

Orchestration & Scheduling

Features for managing the timing, dependencies, and execution order of complex data workflows.

Avg Score
1.5/ 4
Dependency Management
Not Supported0
Funnel is a managed data hub where data collection, transformation, and exports are handled automatically or via time-based schedules, lacking native features for users to define execution hierarchies or dependencies between distinct jobs.
View details & rubric context

Dependency management enables the definition of execution hierarchies and relationships between ETL tasks to ensure jobs run in the correct order. This capability is essential for preventing race conditions and ensuring data integrity across complex, multi-step data pipelines.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to define execution order or relationships between distinct ETL jobs; tasks run independently or strictly on time-based schedules.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to define execution order or relationships between distinct ETL jobs; tasks run independently or strictly on time-based schedules.
1Users must rely on external scripts, generic webhooks, or third-party orchestrators to enforce execution order, requiring significant manual configuration and maintenance.
2Basic linear dependencies (Task A triggers Task B) are supported natively, but the feature lacks support for complex logic like branching, parallel execution, or cross-pipeline triggers.
3A robust visual orchestrator supports complex Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), allowing for parallel processing, conditional logic, and dependencies across different projects or workflows.
4The platform features dynamic, data-aware orchestration that automatically resolves dependencies based on data arrival or state changes, offering intelligent backfilling and self-healing pipeline capabilities.
Job Scheduling
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust, production-ready scheduling system that automates data collection and exports with built-in retries, error handling, and integrated alerting. It effectively manages the dependencies between fetching data from marketing sources and delivering it to destinations, though it prioritizes managed automation over highly granular, user-defined cron-based orchestration.
View details & rubric context

Job scheduling automates the execution of data pipelines based on defined time intervals or specific triggers, ensuring consistent data delivery without manual intervention.

What Score 3 Means

A robust, fully integrated scheduler allows for complex cron expressions, dependency management between tasks, automatic retries on failure, and integrated alerting workflows.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to schedule data pipelines, requiring users to manually initiate every execution via the interface.
1Scheduling can only be achieved through external workarounds, such as using third-party cron services or custom scripts to hit generic webhooks or APIs to trigger jobs.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic time-based intervals (e.g., run daily at 9 AM) with no support for complex dependencies, conditional logic, or automatic retries.
3A robust, fully integrated scheduler allows for complex cron expressions, dependency management between tasks, automatic retries on failure, and integrated alerting workflows.
4The scheduling engine is best-in-class, offering intelligent features like dynamic backfilling, predictive run-time optimization, event-driven orchestration, and smart resource allocation.
Automated Retries
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust, native automated retry logic that handles transient API failures and rate limits using internal exponential backoff strategies, ensuring data reliability without manual intervention. While the platform prioritizes a managed experience over user-facing configuration of retry parameters, its ability to intelligently handle specific error codes makes it production-ready for marketing data pipelines.
View details & rubric context

Automated retries allow data pipelines to recover gracefully from transient failures like network glitches or API timeouts without manual intervention. This capability is critical for maintaining data reliability and reducing the operational burden on engineering teams.

What Score 3 Means

The feature provides granular control with configurable exponential backoff, custom delay intervals, and the ability to specify which error codes or task types should trigger a retry.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to automatically restart failed jobs or tasks; all failures require manual intervention to restart.
1Retries are possible only through external orchestration or custom scripts that monitor job status via API and trigger restarts manually.
2Native support includes basic settings such as a fixed number of retries or a simple on/off toggle, but lacks configurable backoff strategies or granular control over specific error types.
3The feature provides granular control with configurable exponential backoff, custom delay intervals, and the ability to specify which error codes or task types should trigger a retry.
4The system employs intelligent, adaptive retry logic that analyzes historical failure patterns to optimize backoff times and includes circuit breakers to prevent cascading system failures.
Workflow Prioritization
Not Supported0
Funnel is a fully managed SaaS platform that automates data collection and refreshes on its own schedule; it does not provide native controls for users to manually assign or manage priority levels for specific data pipelines.
View details & rubric context

Workflow prioritization enables data teams to assign relative importance to specific ETL jobs, ensuring critical pipelines receive resources first during periods of high contention. This capability is essential for meeting strict data delivery SLAs and preventing low-value tasks from blocking urgent business analytics.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to assign priority levels to jobs or pipelines; execution follows a strict First-In-First-Out (FIFO) model regardless of business criticality.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to assign priority levels to jobs or pipelines; execution follows a strict First-In-First-Out (FIFO) model regardless of business criticality.
1Prioritization is achieved only through heavy lifting, such as manually segregating environments, writing custom scripts to trigger jobs sequentially via API, or using an external orchestration tool to manage dependencies.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic static labels (e.g., High, Medium, Low) that simply reorder the wait queue. It lacks advanced features like resource preemption or dedicated capacity pools.
3Offers a robust, fully integrated priority system allowing for granular integer-based priority levels and weighted fair queuing. Critical jobs can reserve specific resource slots to ensure they run immediately.
4Delivers a market-leading, SLA-aware engine that dynamically re-prioritizes jobs based on predicted completion times and deadlines. It includes intelligent preemption features that can pause low-priority tasks to free up resources for urgent workflows automatically.

Alerting & Notifications

Communication tools that keep teams informed of pipeline status, failures, and operational health.

Avg Score
2.8/ 4
Alerting and Notifications
Advanced3
Funnel provides native alerting through email and Slack for data source errors and credential issues, allowing users to configure notifications based on specific error categories. While it lacks the predictive capabilities of market leaders, its native chat integrations and rule-based triggers meet the requirements for production-ready alerting.
View details & rubric context

Alerting and notifications capabilities ensure data engineers are immediately informed of pipeline failures, latency issues, or schema changes, minimizing downtime and data staleness. This feature allows teams to configure triggers and delivery channels to maintain high data reliability.

What Score 3 Means

The system offers comprehensive alerting with native integrations for tools like Slack, PagerDuty, and Microsoft Teams, allowing users to configure granular rules based on specific error types, duration thresholds, or data volume anomalies.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to alert users of job failures or status changes, requiring manual monitoring of the dashboard to detect issues.
1Alerting is achievable only by building custom scripts that poll the API for job status and trigger external notification services manually via webhooks or SMTP.
2Native support exists for basic email notifications on job failure or success, but configuration options are limited, lacking integration with chat tools like Slack or granular control over alert conditions.
3The system offers comprehensive alerting with native integrations for tools like Slack, PagerDuty, and Microsoft Teams, allowing users to configure granular rules based on specific error types, duration thresholds, or data volume anomalies.
4A market-leading implementation includes intelligent noise reduction, predictive anomaly detection, and bi-directional workflows that allow users to acknowledge or retry jobs directly from the notification interface.
Operational Dashboards
Advanced3
Funnel features a native 'Data Health' dashboard that provides real-time visibility into the status of data connections and syncs, allowing users to drill down into specific error messages and connection issues to maintain pipeline integrity.
View details & rubric context

Operational dashboards provide real-time visibility into pipeline health, job status, and data throughput, enabling teams to quickly identify and resolve failures before they impact downstream analytics.

What Score 3 Means

Strong, fully integrated dashboards provide real-time visibility into throughput, latency, and error rates, allowing users to drill down from aggregate views to individual job logs seamlessly.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native visual interface or dashboarding capability for monitoring pipeline health or operational metrics.
1Users must extract metadata via APIs, webhooks, or logs to build their own visualizations in external monitoring tools like Grafana or Datadog.
2Native dashboards exist but are limited to high-level summary statistics (e.g., success/failure counts) with static views and no ability to drill down into specific run details.
3Strong, fully integrated dashboards provide real-time visibility into throughput, latency, and error rates, allowing users to drill down from aggregate views to individual job logs seamlessly.
4Best-in-class observability features predictive anomaly detection, automated root cause analysis, and highly customizable widgets that correlate infrastructure usage with pipeline performance.
Email Notifications
Basic2
Funnel provides native email alerts for data source errors and connection issues, but the functionality is limited to standard templates and basic recipient selection without advanced customization or granular trigger logic.
View details & rubric context

Email notifications provide automated alerts regarding pipeline status, such as job failures, schema changes, or successful completions. This ensures data teams can respond immediately to critical errors and maintain data reliability without constant manual monitoring.

What Score 2 Means

Native support is provided but limited to global on/off settings for basic events (success/failure) with static recipient lists and generic, non-customizable message bodies.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to send email alerts regarding pipeline status or system events.
1Alerting requires custom implementation, such as writing scripts to hit external SMTP servers or configuring generic webhooks to trigger third-party email services upon job failure.
2Native support is provided but limited to global on/off settings for basic events (success/failure) with static recipient lists and generic, non-customizable message bodies.
3A robust notification system allows for granular triggers based on specific job steps or thresholds, customizable email templates with context variables, and management of distinct subscriber groups.
4The feature offers intelligent noise reduction to prevent alert fatigue, dynamic routing based on severity or on-call schedules, and includes AI-driven root cause summaries directly within the email body.
Slack Integration
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native Slack integration that allows users to configure specific alerts for data source connection issues and export failures across multiple channels, including direct links to the platform for troubleshooting.
View details & rubric context

Slack integration enables data engineering teams to receive real-time notifications about pipeline health, job failures, and data quality issues directly in their communication channels. This capability reduces reaction time to critical errors and streamlines operational monitoring workflows by delivering alerts where teams already collaborate.

What Score 3 Means

The feature offers deep integration with configurable triggers for specific pipelines, support for multiple channels, and rich messages containing error details and direct links to the debugging console.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to connect with Slack for notifications or alerting.
1Integration is possible only by manually configuring generic webhooks or writing custom scripts to hit Slack's API when specific pipeline events occur.
2Native support is provided but limited to a global setting that sends generic success/failure notifications to a single channel without granular control over message content or triggering conditions.
3The feature offers deep integration with configurable triggers for specific pipelines, support for multiple channels, and rich messages containing error details and direct links to the debugging console.
4Best-in-class implementation features bi-directional interactivity, allowing users to retry jobs or approve schema changes directly from Slack, coupled with smart alerting to group related errors and prevent notification fatigue.

Observability & Debugging

Deep visibility into pipeline performance, error logs, and user activities to facilitate troubleshooting.

Avg Score
3.0/ 4
Error Handling
Advanced3
Funnel provides a dedicated Data Health dashboard that offers granular visibility into connection and transformation errors, including configurable alert policies and the ability to backfill data once issues are resolved without requiring custom code.
View details & rubric context

Error handling mechanisms ensure data pipelines remain robust by detecting failures, logging issues, and managing recovery processes without manual intervention. This capability is critical for maintaining data integrity and preventing downstream outages during extraction, transformation, and loading.

What Score 3 Means

The platform offers comprehensive error handling with granular control, including row-level error skipping, dead letter queues for bad data, and configurable alert policies. Users can define specific behaviors for different error types without custom code.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in mechanism to detect, log, or manage errors during data processing, causing pipelines to fail silently or completely stop without diagnostic information.
1Error management requires manual scripting within transformation code (e.g., Python try/catch blocks) or external monitoring tools hooked into generic webhooks to detect and report failures.
2Native error handling exists but is limited to basic job-level pass/fail status and simple logging. Users can configure a global retry count, but granular control over specific records or transformation steps is missing.
3The platform offers comprehensive error handling with granular control, including row-level error skipping, dead letter queues for bad data, and configurable alert policies. Users can define specific behaviors for different error types without custom code.
4The system provides intelligent, self-healing error management with automated root cause analysis and predictive failure detection. It supports sophisticated remediation workflows, such as automatic data replay and smart backfilling, to resolve issues with zero human intervention.
Detailed Logging
Advanced3
Funnel provides comprehensive, searchable logs within its Data Feeds and Exports sections that detail row counts, execution timestamps, and specific error messages from destination APIs, allowing users to diagnose pipeline issues without external tools.
View details & rubric context

Detailed logging provides granular visibility into data pipeline execution by capturing row-level errors, transformation steps, and system events. This capability is essential for rapid debugging, auditing data lineage, and ensuring compliance with data governance standards.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides comprehensive, searchable logs that capture detailed execution steps, error stack traces, and row counts directly within the UI, allowing engineers to quickly diagnose issues without leaving the environment.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in logging capability for data pipelines, leaving users blind to execution details and errors.
1Logging is achievable only by manually inserting print statements or custom code blocks to send logs to an external destination or text file, requiring significant developer effort to maintain visibility.
2Native logging exists but is limited to high-level job status (success/failure) and timestamps, lacking the granular row-level details or transformation context needed for effective debugging.
3The platform provides comprehensive, searchable logs that capture detailed execution steps, error stack traces, and row counts directly within the UI, allowing engineers to quickly diagnose issues without leaving the environment.
4Logging is intelligent and proactive, offering automated root cause analysis, predictive anomaly detection, and deep integration with data lineage to pinpoint exactly where and why data diverged, significantly reducing mean time to resolution.
Impact Analysis
Advanced3
Funnel provides native column-level lineage through its 'Used in' functionality, which allows users to trace how specific fields and custom metrics are utilized across transformations and downstream exports. While it lacks the predictive CI/CD integration required for a higher score, it offers comprehensive visibility into data flow within the platform.
View details & rubric context

Impact Analysis enables data teams to visualize downstream dependencies and assess the consequences of modifying data pipelines before changes are applied. This capability is essential for maintaining data integrity and preventing service disruptions in connected analytics or applications.

What Score 3 Means

The system provides full column-level lineage and impact visualization across the entire pipeline out-of-the-box, allowing users to easily trace data flow from source to destination.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to track dependencies or visualize the downstream impact of changes.
1Impact analysis is possible only by manually querying metadata APIs or exporting logs to external tools to reconstruct lineage graphs via custom code.
2A native dependency viewer exists, but it provides only object-level (table-to-table) lineage without column-level details or deep recursive traversal.
3The system provides full column-level lineage and impact visualization across the entire pipeline out-of-the-box, allowing users to easily trace data flow from source to destination.
4The platform offers predictive impact analysis that automatically alerts developers to potential breakages in specific reports or dashboards during the pull request process, integrating directly with CI/CD for automated governance.
Column-level Lineage
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native, interactive visual lineage graph that automatically traces field-level dependencies from source connectors through internal transformations to data exports, providing clear visibility into data provenance.
View details & rubric context

Column-level lineage provides granular visibility into how specific data fields are transformed and propagated across pipelines, enabling precise impact analysis and debugging. This capability is essential for understanding data provenance down to the attribute level and ensuring compliance with data governance standards.

What Score 3 Means

The platform offers a robust, interactive visual graph that automatically parses complex code and SQL to trace field-level dependencies accurately across the pipeline without manual configuration.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to track data lineage at the column or field level, limiting visibility to table-level dependencies or requiring manual documentation.
1Achieving column-level visibility requires heavy lifting, such as manually parsing logs or extracting metadata via generic APIs to reconstruct field dependencies in an external tool.
2Native support exists, but it is limited to simple direct mappings or list views, often failing to parse complex SQL transformations or lacking an interactive visual graph.
3The platform offers a robust, interactive visual graph that automatically parses complex code and SQL to trace field-level dependencies accurately across the pipeline without manual configuration.
4The feature is market-leading, offering automated impact analysis, historical lineage comparisons, and cross-system metadata propagation (e.g., PII tagging) to proactively manage data health and compliance.
User Activity Monitoring
Advanced3
Funnel provides a dedicated Audit Log feature that tracks detailed configuration changes, data source modifications, and user access, offering the search and filtering capabilities necessary for production-ready compliance and troubleshooting.
View details & rubric context

User Activity Monitoring tracks and logs user interactions within the ETL platform, providing essential audit trails for security compliance, change management, and accountability.

What Score 3 Means

Comprehensive audit trails are fully integrated, offering detailed logs of specific changes (diffs), robust search and filtering, and easy export options for compliance reporting.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to track, log, or display user actions, leaving the system without an audit trail for changes or access.
1Activity tracking requires parsing raw server logs or polling generic APIs to extract user events, demanding custom scripts or external logging tools to make the data usable.
2A basic audit log is provided within the UI, listing fundamental events like logins or job updates, but it lacks detailed context, searchability, or extended retention.
3Comprehensive audit trails are fully integrated, offering detailed logs of specific changes (diffs), robust search and filtering, and easy export options for compliance reporting.
4The system offers intelligent monitoring with real-time alerting for suspicious activities, visual timelines of user sessions, and native, automated integration with enterprise SIEM and governance tools.

Configuration & Reusability

Features that allow for dynamic pipeline configuration and the reuse of logic across workflows.

Avg Score
2.5/ 4
Transformation Templates
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust library of pre-built transformation templates for common marketing KPIs and data cleaning tasks, while also allowing users to create, parameterize, and share custom rules across their data sources.
View details & rubric context

Transformation templates provide pre-configured, reusable logic for common data manipulation tasks, allowing teams to standardize data quality rules and accelerate pipeline development without repetitive coding.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides a comprehensive library of complex, production-ready templates and fully integrates workflows for users to create, parameterize, version, and share their own custom transformation logic.

Full Rubric
0The product has no pre-built transformation templates or library of reusable logic, requiring users to write every data manipulation rule from scratch using raw code or SQL.
1Reusability is possible only through manual workarounds, such as copy-pasting code snippets between pipelines or calling external scripts via generic webhooks, with no native UI for managing templates.
2Native support exists as a static list of basic functions (e.g., string trimming, date formatting), but the library is limited and does not support creating, saving, or sharing custom user-defined templates.
3The platform provides a comprehensive library of complex, production-ready templates and fully integrates workflows for users to create, parameterize, version, and share their own custom transformation logic.
4A best-in-class implementation features an intelligent ecosystem with a public marketplace for templates and utilizes AI to automatically suggest specific transformations based on detected schema and data lineage.
Parameterized Queries
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for variables within its 'Connector Creator' to handle dynamic API requests and incremental date ranges, but it lacks a robust, typed parameterization system for SQL-based extraction or advanced security validations found in developer-centric ETL tools.
View details & rubric context

Parameterized queries enable the injection of dynamic values into SQL statements or extraction logic at runtime, ensuring secure, reusable, and efficient incremental data pipelines.

What Score 2 Means

Native support allows for basic text substitution or simple variable insertion, but lacks strong type safety, validation, or specific handling for security contexts like preventing SQL injection.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to inject variables or parameters into queries; all SQL statements or extraction logic must be hardcoded.
1Dynamic querying is possible only through external scripting to construct SQL strings before execution or by using complex, brittle string concatenation workarounds within the tool's expression builder.
2Native support allows for basic text substitution or simple variable insertion, but lacks strong type safety, validation, or specific handling for security contexts like preventing SQL injection.
3The platform offers robust, typed parameter support integrated into the query editor, allowing for secure variable binding, environment-specific configurations, and seamless handling of incremental load logic (e.g., timestamps).
4The implementation includes intelligent parameter detection, automated incremental logic generation, and dynamic parameter values derived from upstream task outputs or external secret managers, optimizing both security and performance.
Dynamic Variable Support
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for basic dynamic elements such as date macros in exports and templated naming conventions, but it lacks a robust system for runtime parameterization or passing variables between complex workflow steps found in more technical ETL platforms.
View details & rubric context

Dynamic Variable Support enables the parameterization of data pipelines, allowing values like dates, paths, or credentials to be injected at runtime. This ensures workflows are reusable across environments and reduces the need for hardcoded logic.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for basic static variables or environment keys, but the feature lacks dynamic evaluation or the ability to pass data between workflow steps.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to define or use variables, forcing users to hardcode all values within pipeline configurations.
1Parameterization is possible only through heavy lifting, such as generating configuration files via external scripts or using API wrappers to inject values before execution.
2Native support exists for basic static variables or environment keys, but the feature lacks dynamic evaluation or the ability to pass data between workflow steps.
3Strong, fully-integrated support allows variables to be defined at multiple scopes (global, pipeline, run) and dynamically populated using system macros or upstream task outputs.
4Best-in-class implementation offers a rich expression language for complex variable logic, deep integration with external secret stores, and intelligent context-aware parameter injection.
Template Library
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust library of pre-built data templates and dashboard starters for various marketing platforms and destinations, allowing users to quickly deploy standardized data models and visualizations without manual configuration.
View details & rubric context

A Template Library provides a repository of pre-built data pipelines and transformation logic, enabling teams to accelerate integration setup and standardize workflows without starting from scratch.

What Score 3 Means

The platform includes a robust, searchable library of pre-configured pipelines that are fully integrated into the workflow, allowing users to quickly instantiate and modify complex integrations out of the box.

Full Rubric
0The product has no pre-built templates or catalog of reusable pipeline patterns, forcing users to build every integration entirely from scratch.
1Teams can manually import configuration files or copy-paste code snippets from external documentation or community forums, but there is no integrated UI for browsing or applying templates.
2A limited set of static templates is available for the most common data sources, but they lack depth, versioning capabilities, or the ability to be easily customized for complex scenarios.
3The platform includes a robust, searchable library of pre-configured pipelines that are fully integrated into the workflow, allowing users to quickly instantiate and modify complex integrations out of the box.
4A vast, community-enriched marketplace offers intelligent, AI-driven template recommendations based on data context, featuring one-click deployment and automated schema mapping for a best-in-class experience.

Security & Governance

Protects the platform and data through rigorous access controls, network security protocols, and encryption standards. It also ensures adherence to industry certifications and internal governance policies.

Capability Score
1.65/ 4

Identity & Access Control

Security measures for managing user authentication, authorization, and audit history.

Avg Score
2.8/ 4
Audit Trails
Advanced3
Funnel provides a native Change Log that tracks modifications to data sources, mapping rules, and exports, offering visibility into user actions and configuration changes directly within the UI, though it lacks advanced features like SIEM integration or immutable ledgers.
View details & rubric context

Audit trails provide a comprehensive, chronological record of user activities, configuration changes, and system events within the ETL environment. This visibility is crucial for ensuring regulatory compliance, facilitating security investigations, and troubleshooting pipeline modifications.

What Score 3 Means

A robust, searchable audit log is fully integrated into the UI, capturing detailed 'before and after' snapshots of configuration changes with export capabilities for compliance.

Full Rubric
0The product has no mechanism to record or display user activity, configuration changes, or system access logs.
1Audit data can be obtained only by manually parsing raw server logs or building custom connectors to extract event metadata via generic APIs.
2Native audit logging is available but limited to a basic chronological list of events without search capabilities, detailed change diffs, or extended retention policies.
3A robust, searchable audit log is fully integrated into the UI, capturing detailed 'before and after' snapshots of configuration changes with export capabilities for compliance.
4The system offers an immutable, tamper-proof audit ledger with native SIEM integrations, intelligent anomaly detection for suspicious activity, and granular filtering for complex compliance audits.
Role-Based Access Control
Advanced3
Funnel provides a robust native permissioning system that allows administrators to assign specific roles, such as Admin, Editor, or Viewer, scoped to individual accounts or workspaces within the platform.
View details & rubric context

Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) enables organizations to restrict system access to authorized users based on their specific job functions, ensuring data pipelines and configurations remain secure. This feature is critical for maintaining compliance and preventing unauthorized modifications in collaborative data environments.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides a robust permissioning system allowing for custom roles and granular access control scoped to specific workspaces, pipelines, or connections directly within the UI.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to restrict access based on user roles, granting all users equal, often unrestricted, privileges within the system.
1Access restrictions can be achieved only through complex workarounds, such as building custom API wrappers or relying solely on network-level gating without application-level logic.
2Native support is limited to a few static, pre-defined roles (e.g., Admin and Read-Only) that apply globally, lacking the flexibility to scope permissions to specific projects or resources.
3The platform provides a robust permissioning system allowing for custom roles and granular access control scoped to specific workspaces, pipelines, or connections directly within the UI.
4Best-in-class implementation features dynamic Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), automated policy enforcement via API, and deep integration with enterprise identity providers to manage complex permission hierarchies at scale.
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Advanced3
Funnel provides robust, production-ready SSO support via SAML 2.0 and integrates with major enterprise identity providers like Okta and Azure AD, including support for Just-In-Time (JIT) user provisioning.
View details & rubric context

Single Sign-On (SSO) enables users to access the platform using existing corporate credentials from identity providers like Okta or Azure AD, centralizing access control and enhancing security.

What Score 3 Means

The product provides robust, production-ready SSO support via SAML 2.0 or OIDC, integrating seamlessly with major enterprise identity providers and supporting Just-In-Time (JIT) user provisioning.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability for Single Sign-On, requiring users to create and manage distinct username and password credentials specifically for this platform.
1SSO integration is possible only through custom workarounds, such as building an authentication wrapper around the API or configuring complex proxy-based header injections without native support.
2Native support exists but is minimal, often limited to basic social logins (e.g., Google, GitHub) or a generic SAML configuration that lacks advanced features like role mapping or automatic user provisioning.
3The product provides robust, production-ready SSO support via SAML 2.0 or OIDC, integrating seamlessly with major enterprise identity providers and supporting Just-In-Time (JIT) user provisioning.
4The implementation is best-in-class, featuring full SCIM support for automated user lifecycle management (provisioning and deprovisioning), granular group-to-role synchronization, and support for multiple simultaneous identity providers.
Multi-Factor Authentication
Advanced3
Funnel provides native support for two-factor authentication via authenticator apps (TOTP) and integrates with SSO providers via SAML to enforce organizational security policies.
View details & rubric context

Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) secures the ETL platform by requiring users to provide two or more verification factors during login, protecting sensitive data pipelines and credentials from unauthorized access.

What Score 3 Means

The platform offers robust native MFA support including TOTP (authenticator apps) and seamless integration with SSO providers to enforce organizational security policies.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native Multi-Factor Authentication capabilities, relying solely on standard username and password credentials for access.
1MFA is not natively supported within the application but can be achieved by placing the tool behind a custom VPN, reverse proxy, or external identity gateway that enforces authentication hurdles.
2Native MFA support exists but is limited to basic methods like email or SMS codes, often lacking support for authenticator apps or granular enforcement policies.
3The platform offers robust native MFA support including TOTP (authenticator apps) and seamless integration with SSO providers to enforce organizational security policies.
4Best-in-class MFA implementation supporting hardware security keys (e.g., YubiKey), biometrics, and adaptive risk-based authentication that intelligently challenges users based on context.
Granular Permissions
Basic2
Funnel provides native Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) with predefined roles such as Admin, Editor, and Viewer, but these are typically applied at the Workspace level rather than allowing for granular, resource-specific permissions within a single environment.
View details & rubric context

Granular permissions enable administrators to define precise access controls for specific resources within the ETL pipeline, ensuring data security and compliance by restricting who can view, edit, or execute specific workflows.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to broad, pre-defined system roles (e.g., Admin vs. Viewer) that apply to the entire workspace rather than specific pipelines or connections.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability for defining user roles or permissions, effectively granting all users full administrative access to the entire environment.
1Access control requires heavy lifting, relying on external identity provider workarounds, network-level restrictions, or custom API gateways to simulate permission boundaries.
2Native support exists but is limited to broad, pre-defined system roles (e.g., Admin vs. Viewer) that apply to the entire workspace rather than specific pipelines or connections.
3Strong functionality allows for custom Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) where permissions can be scoped to specific resources, folders, or pipelines directly within the UI.
4Best-in-class implementation supports Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), dynamic policy inheritance, and granular restrictions down to specific data columns or masking rules.

Network Security

Protocols and features ensuring secure data transmission across networks and firewalls.

Avg Score
1.2/ 4
Data Encryption in Transit
Advanced3
Funnel enforces TLS 1.2 or higher for all data transfers between marketing sources and destinations by default, providing automated certificate management and secure pipelines without requiring manual user configuration.
View details & rubric context

Data encryption in transit protects sensitive information moving between source systems, the ETL pipeline, and destination warehouses using protocols like TLS/SSL to prevent unauthorized interception or tampering.

What Score 3 Means

Strong encryption (TLS 1.2+) is enforced by default across all data pipelines with automated certificate management, ensuring secure connections out of the box without manual intervention.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to encrypt data streams between sources and destinations, transmitting data in cleartext unless the underlying network provides independent security.
1Secure transfer is possible but requires the user to manually configure SSH tunnels, set up VPNs, or write custom scripts to wrap connections, placing the burden of infrastructure security on the customer.
2Native TLS/SSL support exists for standard connectors, but configuration may be manual, certificate management is cumbersome, or the tool lacks support for specific high-security cipher suites.
3Strong encryption (TLS 1.2+) is enforced by default across all data pipelines with automated certificate management, ensuring secure connections out of the box without manual intervention.
4The platform offers best-in-class security with features like Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) for transit layers, automatic key rotation, and granular control over cipher suites to meet strict compliance standards like FIPS 140-2.
SSH Tunneling
Not Supported0
Funnel does not provide native SSH tunneling capabilities for its database connectors, instead requiring users to whitelist Funnel's static IP addresses to allow direct access to the database port.
View details & rubric context

SSH Tunneling enables secure connections to databases residing behind firewalls or within private networks by routing traffic through an encrypted SSH channel. This ensures sensitive data sources remain protected without exposing ports to the public internet.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to establish SSH tunnels, requiring databases to be exposed publicly or connected via external network configurations.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to establish SSH tunnels, requiring databases to be exposed publicly or connected via external network configurations.
1Secure connectivity via SSH is possible only through complex external workarounds, such as manually setting up local port forwarding scripts or configuring independent proxy servers before data ingestion can occur.
2Native SSH tunneling is supported but basic; it requires manual entry of keys and host details, lacks support for encrypted keys or passphrases, and offers limited feedback on connection failures.
3SSH tunneling is a seamless part of the connection workflow, supporting standard key-based authentication, automatic connection retries, and stable persistence during long-running extraction jobs.
4The feature provides a best-in-class security experience with auto-generated key pairs for bastion hosts, support for complex multi-hop tunnels, and integrated rotation policies that simplify compliance and setup.
VPC Peering
Not Supported0
Funnel is a managed SaaS marketing data hub that relies on encrypted connections over the public internet and IP whitelisting, with no native support for VPC peering or private network infrastructure.
View details & rubric context

VPC Peering enables direct, private network connections between the ETL provider and the customer's cloud infrastructure, bypassing the public internet. This ensures maximum security, reduced latency, and compliance with strict data governance standards during data transfer.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability to establish private network connections or VPC peering, forcing all data traffic to traverse the public internet.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to establish private network connections or VPC peering, forcing all data traffic to traverse the public internet.
1Secure connectivity requires complex workarounds, such as manually configuring SSH tunnels through bastion hosts or setting up self-managed VPNs, rather than using a native peering feature.
2Native VPC peering is supported but is limited to specific regions or a single cloud provider and requires a manual setup process involving support tickets to exchange CIDR blocks.
3The platform provides a self-service UI for configuring VPC peering across major cloud providers, allowing users to input network details and validate connections without contacting support.
4The solution offers comprehensive, automated private networking options, including VPC Peering and PrivateLink across multiple clouds, with intelligent handling of IP conflicts and integrated network-level audit logging.
IP Whitelisting
Advanced3
Funnel provides a set of static egress IP addresses for secure database connections and allows administrators to restrict platform access using IP whitelisting with support for CIDR ranges at the account level.
View details & rubric context

IP whitelisting secures data pipelines by restricting platform access to trusted networks and providing static egress IPs for connecting to firewalled databases. This control is essential for maintaining compliance and preventing unauthorized access to sensitive data infrastructure.

What Score 3 Means

A production-ready implementation supports CIDR ranges, API-based management, and granular application at the project or user level, along with dedicated static IPs for egress.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to restrict access based on IP addresses or provide static egress IPs for database connections.
1IP restrictions can only be achieved through complex workarounds, such as configuring external reverse proxies or custom VPN tunnels to manage traffic flow.
2Basic IP whitelisting is supported, allowing manual entry of individual IP addresses globally, but lacks support for CIDR ranges or granular scope.
3A production-ready implementation supports CIDR ranges, API-based management, and granular application at the project or user level, along with dedicated static IPs for egress.
4The feature offers market-leading security with automated IP lifecycle management, integration with SSO/IDP context, and options for Private Link or VPC peering to supersede traditional whitelisting.
Private Link Support
Not Supported0
Funnel does not offer native support for Private Link protocols, instead relying on IP whitelisting and encryption in transit for secure data transfers to destinations like data warehouses.
View details & rubric context

Private Link Support enables secure data transfer between the ETL platform and customer infrastructure via private network backbones (such as AWS PrivateLink or Azure Private Link), bypassing the public internet. This feature is essential for organizations requiring strict network isolation, reduced attack surfaces, and compliance with high-security data standards.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability to support private networking protocols, forcing all data traffic to traverse the public internet, relying solely on encryption in transit or IP whitelisting for security.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to support private networking protocols, forcing all data traffic to traverse the public internet, relying solely on encryption in transit or IP whitelisting for security.
1Secure connectivity can be achieved only through heavy lifting, such as manually configuring and maintaining SSH tunnels or custom VPN gateways to simulate private network isolation.
2Native support for Private Link is available but limited to a single cloud provider or requires a manual, high-friction setup process involving support tickets and static configuration.
3Strong, self-service support for Private Link is integrated into the UI for major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), allowing users to provision and manage secure endpoints with minimal friction.
4Best-in-class implementation offers automated, multi-cloud Private Link support with intelligent health monitoring, cross-region capabilities, and granular audit logging for a seamless, zero-trust network architecture.

Data Encryption & Secrets

Mechanisms for protecting stored data and managing sensitive credentials within the platform.

Avg Score
1.0/ 4
Data Encryption at Rest
Basic2
Funnel provides standard AES-256 encryption for all data at rest within its infrastructure as part of its SOC 2 Type II compliance, but the encryption keys are managed by Funnel rather than offering native Customer Managed Keys (CMK) or BYOK functionality.
View details & rubric context

Data encryption at rest protects sensitive information stored within the ETL pipeline's staging areas and internal databases from unauthorized physical access. This security control is essential for meeting compliance standards like GDPR and HIPAA by rendering stored data unreadable without the correct decryption keys.

What Score 2 Means

The platform provides standard, always-on server-side encryption (typically AES-256) for all stored data, but the encryption keys are fully owned and managed by the vendor with no visibility or control offered to the customer.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to encrypt data stored on disk, leaving staging files, temporary caches, and internal logs vulnerable to unauthorized access if physical storage is compromised.
1Encryption is possible but relies entirely on external infrastructure configurations (such as manual OS-level disk encryption) or custom pre-processing scripts to encrypt payloads before they enter the pipeline, placing the burden of security management on the user.
2The platform provides standard, always-on server-side encryption (typically AES-256) for all stored data, but the encryption keys are fully owned and managed by the vendor with no visibility or control offered to the customer.
3The solution supports Customer Managed Keys (CMK) or Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) workflows, allowing organizations to manage encryption lifecycles via integration with major cloud Key Management Services (KMS) directly from the settings interface.
4The implementation offers market-leading granularity, including field-level encryption at rest, automated key rotation without service interruption, and hardware security module (HSM) support, complete with detailed audit logging for every cryptographic operation.
Key Management Service
Not Supported0
Funnel utilizes vendor-managed encryption for data security and does not currently offer native support for customer-managed encryption keys (BYOK) or direct integration with cloud Key Management Services like AWS KMS or Azure Key Vault.
View details & rubric context

Key Management Service (KMS) integration enables organizations to manage, rotate, and control the encryption keys used to secure data within ETL pipelines, ensuring compliance with strict security policies. This capability supports Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) workflows to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive information.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability for customer-managed encryption keys, relying entirely on opaque, vendor-managed encryption with no visibility or control.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability for customer-managed encryption keys, relying entirely on opaque, vendor-managed encryption with no visibility or control.
1Key management is possible only through heavy lifting, such as manually encrypting payloads via custom scripts prior to ingestion or building bespoke API connectors to fetch keys from external vaults.
2Native support exists for basic Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) functionality, allowing users to upload a static key, but it lacks direct integration with cloud KMS providers or automated rotation policies.
3Strong, out-of-the-box integration connects directly with major cloud providers (AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, GCP KMS), supporting automated key rotation, revocation, and seamless lifecycle management within the UI.
4A market-leading implementation offers granular field-level encryption control, support for Hardware Security Modules (HSM), and intelligent multi-cloud key orchestration with comprehensive audit trails for compliance.
Secret Management
Basic2
Funnel provides native, secure storage for credentials used in its data connectors, including encryption at rest and masking in the UI, but it lacks integration with external enterprise secret management vaults like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.
View details & rubric context

Secret Management securely handles sensitive credentials like API keys and database passwords within data pipelines, ensuring encryption, proper masking, and access control to prevent data breaches.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for storing credentials securely (encrypted at rest) and masking them in the UI, but the feature is limited to internal storage and lacks integration with external secret vaults.

Full Rubric
0The product has no dedicated secret management system, requiring credentials to be stored in plain text within pipeline configurations or code.
1Secure credential handling requires custom workarounds, such as manually fetching secrets via API calls within scripts or relying on generic environment variable injection without native management interfaces.
2Native support exists for storing credentials securely (encrypted at rest) and masking them in the UI, but the feature is limited to internal storage and lacks integration with external secret vaults.
3The feature is production-ready, offering seamless integration with major external secret providers (e.g., AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault) and granular role-based access control for secret usage.
4A best-in-class implementation that includes automated credential rotation, support for dynamic short-lived secrets, and comprehensive audit logging for all secret access events.
Credential Rotation
Not Supported0
Funnel primarily relies on manual user intervention within its UI to update or reconnect data sources when credentials change, and it lacks native integrations with external secrets managers like HashiCorp Vault or AWS Secrets Manager for automated rotation.
View details & rubric context

Credential rotation ensures that the secrets used to authenticate data sources and destinations are updated regularly to maintain security compliance. This feature minimizes the risk of unauthorized access by automating or simplifying the process of refreshing API keys, passwords, and tokens within data pipelines.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability to manage credential lifecycles automatically; users must manually edit connection settings in the UI every time a password or token changes at the source.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability to manage credential lifecycles automatically; users must manually edit connection settings in the UI every time a password or token changes at the source.
1Rotation is achievable only through heavy lifting, such as writing custom scripts to query an external vault and update the ETL tool's connection configurations via a management API.
2Native support allows connections to reference internal stored secrets or environment variables, but the actual rotation process requires manual intervention to update the stored value.
3The platform provides strong, out-of-the-box integration with standard external secrets managers (e.g., AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault), allowing pipelines to fetch valid credentials dynamically at runtime without manual updates.
4A market-leading implementation offers fully automated, zero-downtime rotation that coordinates with both the secrets vault and the source system, including proactive expiration alerts and comprehensive audit logging for compliance.

Governance & Standards

Certifications and features that ensure the platform meets industry standards for security and financial tracking.

Avg Score
1.3/ 4
SOC 2 Certification
Best4
Funnel maintains both SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certifications, providing a dedicated Trust Center that offers streamlined access to security reports and demonstrates continuous monitoring of their control environment.
View details & rubric context

SOC 2 Certification validates that the ETL platform adheres to strict information security policies regarding the security, availability, and confidentiality of customer data. This independent audit ensures that adequate controls are in place to protect sensitive information as it moves through the data pipeline.

What Score 4 Means

The vendor offers a real-time Trust Center displaying continuous monitoring of SOC 2 controls, often complemented by additional certifications like ISO 27001 and automated access to security documentation for instant vendor risk assessment.

Full Rubric
0The product has no SOC 2 certification and cannot provide third-party attestation regarding its security controls.
1The vendor claims alignment with SOC 2 standards or relies solely on the certification of their cloud infrastructure provider (e.g., AWS, Azure) without having their own application-level third-party audit.
2The vendor possesses a SOC 2 Type 1 report (point-in-time snapshot) or provides a basic Type 2 report that is difficult to access, requiring significant manual legal processing or delays.
3The vendor maintains a current SOC 2 Type 2 report demonstrating the operational effectiveness of controls over a period of time, easily accessible via a standard trust portal or streamlined NDA process.
4The vendor offers a real-time Trust Center displaying continuous monitoring of SOC 2 controls, often complemented by additional certifications like ISO 27001 and automated access to security documentation for instant vendor risk assessment.
Cost Allocation Tags
Not Supported0
Funnel is a managed SaaS marketing data hub that does not provide native features for tagging its internal data pipelines or compute resources for the purpose of financial chargeback or cloud spend attribution.
View details & rubric context

Cost allocation tags allow organizations to assign metadata to data pipelines and compute resources for precise financial tracking. This feature is essential for implementing chargeback models and gaining visibility into cloud spend across different teams or projects.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to tag resources or pipelines for cost tracking, offering no visibility into spend attribution at a granular level.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to tag resources or pipelines for cost tracking, offering no visibility into spend attribution at a granular level.
1Cost attribution is possible only by manually extracting usage logs via API and correlating them with external project trackers or by building custom scripts to parse billing reports against job names.
2Users can apply simple key-value tags to pipelines or clusters, but these tags may not propagate to the underlying cloud provider's billing console or lack support for hierarchical structures and bulk editing.
3The platform supports comprehensive tagging strategies that automatically propagate to cloud infrastructure bills, allowing for detailed cost reporting, filtering, and budget enforcement directly within the UI.
4The system offers automated tag governance with policy enforcement (e.g., mandatory tags for new jobs) and AI-driven recommendations to optimize spend based on tagged resource utilization, enabling granular chargeback models with zero manual overhead.
Open Source Core
Not Supported0
Funnel is a proprietary, closed-source SaaS platform with no open-source core or self-hosted version available for inspection or modification.
View details & rubric context

An Open Source Core ensures the underlying data integration engine is transparent and community-driven, allowing teams to inspect code, contribute custom connectors, and avoid vendor lock-in. This architecture enables users to seamlessly transition between self-hosted implementations and managed cloud services.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no open source availability; the core processing engine is entirely proprietary, opaque, and cannot be inspected, modified, or self-hosted.

Full Rubric
0The product has no open source availability; the core processing engine is entirely proprietary, opaque, and cannot be inspected, modified, or self-hosted.
1The core engine is proprietary, but the platform allows users to integrate specific open-source connector standards (like Singer taps) via complex custom coding, container wrappers, or generic API hooks.
2A native open-source version of the core exists, but it is minimal, often lacking a user interface, essential orchestration features, or timely updates compared to the commercial offering.
3The managed platform is built directly on a robust open-source project with high feature parity, allowing users to run the exact same pipelines locally or in the cloud with minimal friction.
4The solution is backed by a market-leading open-source ecosystem that automates connector maintenance and development. It offers a seamless, bi-directional workflow between local open-source development and the enterprise cloud environment.

Architecture & Development

Defines the underlying infrastructure, deployment options, and developer tooling necessary for a scalable system. It includes performance optimization, DevOps integration, and ecosystem support resources.

Capability Score
2.00/ 4

Infrastructure & Scalability

Architectural features that ensure the platform remains available and performant under heavy loads.

Avg Score
3.0/ 4
High Availability
Advanced3
As a fully managed SaaS platform, Funnel provides built-in redundancy and automatic job retries that ensure high availability and data resilience without requiring manual configuration or administrative intervention.
View details & rubric context

High Availability ensures that ETL processes remain operational and resilient against hardware or software failures, minimizing downtime and data latency for mission-critical integration workflows.

What Score 3 Means

The solution provides robust active-active clustering with automatic failover and leader election, ensuring that jobs are automatically retried or resumed seamlessly without data loss or administrative intervention.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in redundancy or failover mechanisms, meaning any server failure results in immediate downtime and stopped pipelines until the system is manually restored.
1High availability can be achieved only through complex custom configurations, such as manually setting up external load balancers, scripting custom health checks, or managing state across containers using third-party orchestration tools.
2The platform offers basic native support, such as active-passive failover or simple clustering, but recovery may require manual triggers or result in the loss of in-flight job progress.
3The solution provides robust active-active clustering with automatic failover and leader election, ensuring that jobs are automatically retried or resumed seamlessly without data loss or administrative intervention.
4The platform delivers best-in-class resilience with multi-region high availability, zero-downtime upgrades, and self-healing architecture that proactively reroutes workloads to healthy nodes before failures impact performance.
Horizontal Scalability
Best4
Funnel is a fully managed SaaS platform that utilizes a cloud-native, elastic architecture to automatically scale processing resources based on data volume, requiring zero manual infrastructure management or node provisioning from the user.
View details & rubric context

Horizontal scalability enables data pipelines to handle increasing data volumes by distributing workloads across multiple nodes rather than relying on a single server. This ensures consistent performance during peak loads and supports cost-effective growth without architectural bottlenecks.

What Score 4 Means

Best-in-class elastic scalability automatically provisions and de-provisions compute resources based on real-time workload metrics. This serverless-style or auto-scaling approach optimizes both performance and cost with zero manual intervention.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability for clustering or distributed processing, relying entirely on a single-node architecture where scaling is limited to vertical hardware upgrades.
1Horizontal scaling is achievable only through manual data sharding or custom orchestration scripts that trigger independent instances. There is no built-in cluster awareness or automatic state synchronization.
2Native clustering is supported, allowing multiple nodes to share the processing load. However, scaling requires manual configuration changes or static provisioning, and load balancing strategies are basic.
3Strong support for dynamic clustering allows nodes to be added or removed without system downtime. The platform automatically balances workloads across the cluster and handles failover seamlessly within the standard UI.
4Best-in-class elastic scalability automatically provisions and de-provisions compute resources based on real-time workload metrics. This serverless-style or auto-scaling approach optimizes both performance and cost with zero manual intervention.
Serverless Architecture
Advanced3
Funnel is a fully managed SaaS platform that completely abstracts infrastructure management, allowing users to automate data pipelines without provisioning servers or configuring clusters. It automatically scales compute resources to handle varying data volumes, though its billing model is typically based on data sources or 'Flexpoints' rather than granular per-second compute metrics.
View details & rubric context

Serverless architecture enables data teams to run ETL pipelines without provisioning or managing underlying infrastructure, allowing compute resources to automatically scale with data volume. This approach minimizes operational overhead and aligns costs directly with actual processing usage.

What Score 3 Means

The platform provides a robust, fully managed serverless environment where infrastructure is completely abstracted, and pipelines automatically scale compute resources up or down based on workload demand.

Full Rubric
0The product has no serverless capability, requiring users to manually provision, configure, and maintain the underlying servers or virtual machines to run data pipelines.
1Serverless execution is possible only through complex workarounds, such as manually containerizing the ETL engine to deploy on external Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) platforms via generic APIs.
2Native support exists as a managed service, but it lacks true elasticity; users must still manually select instance types or cluster sizes, and auto-scaling capabilities are limited or slow to react.
3The platform provides a robust, fully managed serverless environment where infrastructure is completely abstracted, and pipelines automatically scale compute resources up or down based on workload demand.
4The solution offers a best-in-class serverless engine featuring instant elasticity with zero cold-start latency, intelligent resource optimization, and granular consumption-based billing (e.g., per-second or per-row).
Clustering Support
Best4
As a cloud-native SaaS platform, Funnel utilizes a serverless architecture that provides inherent elastic scaling and automated workload distribution, ensuring high availability and performance without requiring manual cluster configuration.
View details & rubric context

Clustering support enables ETL workloads to be distributed across multiple nodes, ensuring high availability, fault tolerance, and scalable parallel processing for large data volumes.

What Score 4 Means

A best-in-class implementation features elastic auto-scaling and intelligent workload distribution that optimizes resource usage in real-time, often leveraging serverless or container-native architectures for infinite scale.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability for distributed processing or clustering, limiting execution to a single server instance which creates a single point of failure.
1Clustering is possible only through custom architecture, such as manually sharding data across separate instances and using external orchestration tools or scripts to manage execution flow.
2Native support exists for basic failover (Active/Passive) or static clusters, but configuration is often manual (e.g., config files) and lacks dynamic load balancing capabilities.
3Advanced clustering provides out-of-the-box Active/Active support with automatic load balancing and seamless failover, fully configurable within the management console without complex setup.
4A best-in-class implementation features elastic auto-scaling and intelligent workload distribution that optimizes resource usage in real-time, often leveraging serverless or container-native architectures for infinite scale.
Cross-region Replication
DIY1
While Funnel allows users to select specific regions for data residency to meet compliance needs, it does not offer native, automated cross-region replication for pipelines or data; achieving such redundancy would require manual synchronization of separate workspaces or custom API implementations.
View details & rubric context

Cross-region replication ensures data durability and high availability by automatically copying data and pipeline configurations across different geographic regions. This capability is critical for robust disaster recovery strategies and maintaining compliance with data sovereignty regulations.

What Score 1 Means

Achieving cross-region redundancy requires manual scripting to export and import data via APIs or maintaining completely separate, manually synchronized deployments.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to replicate data or pipeline configurations across different geographic regions.
1Achieving cross-region redundancy requires manual scripting to export and import data via APIs or maintaining completely separate, manually synchronized deployments.
2Native replication exists but is limited to specific metadata or requires manual triggers, lacking real-time synchronization or granular control over data subsets.
3The platform provides robust, automated cross-region replication for both data and configuration, supporting standard disaster recovery workflows with defined RPO/RTO targets.
4The system offers market-leading, active-active global replication with sub-second latency, intelligent geo-routing, and automated compliance enforcement, ensuring zero-downtime resilience.

Deployment Models

Options for hosting the ETL platform, ranging from fully managed SaaS to on-premise installations.

Avg Score
1.2/ 4
On-premise Deployment
Not Supported0
Funnel is a cloud-native SaaS platform that does not offer any options for local installation or self-hosting, as it is exclusively available as a managed cloud service.
View details & rubric context

On-premise deployment enables organizations to host and run the ETL software entirely within their own infrastructure, ensuring strict data sovereignty, security compliance, and reduced latency for local data processing.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability for local installation and is exclusively available as a cloud-hosted SaaS solution.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability for local installation and is exclusively available as a cloud-hosted SaaS solution.
1Deployment within a private environment is possible but requires significant manual configuration, such as wrapping cloud binaries in custom containers or relying on unsupported, complex workarounds.
2Native on-premise support exists via basic installers or standalone Docker images, but it lacks orchestration features, requires manual updates, and may not have full feature parity with the cloud version.
3The solution offers a robust, production-ready on-premise deployment option with official support for container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, Helm charts) and streamlined upgrade workflows.
4The platform delivers a best-in-class on-premise experience with full air-gapped capabilities, automated scaling, and enterprise-grade security controls that provide a 'private cloud' experience indistinguishable from managed SaaS.
Hybrid Cloud Support
Not Supported0
Funnel is a cloud-native SaaS platform that lacks native on-premise agents or gateways, requiring users to migrate data to a cloud-accessible environment before it can be ingested or processed.
View details & rubric context

Hybrid Cloud Support enables ETL processes to seamlessly connect, transform, and move data across on-premise infrastructure and public cloud environments. This flexibility ensures data residency compliance and minimizes latency by allowing execution to occur close to the data source.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to bridge on-premise and cloud environments, requiring data to be fully migrated to one side before processing.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to bridge on-premise and cloud environments, requiring data to be fully migrated to one side before processing.
1Hybrid scenarios are achievable only through complex network configurations like manual VPNs, SSH tunneling, or custom scripts to stage data in an accessible location.
2A basic on-premise agent or gateway is provided to access local data, but it lacks centralized management, requires manual updates, and offers limited visibility into local execution.
3The platform offers robust, production-ready hybrid agents that install easily behind firewalls and integrate seamlessly with the cloud control plane for unified orchestration and monitoring.
4The solution provides a market-leading hybrid architecture with intelligent, auto-updating agents, dynamic workload distribution based on data gravity, and comprehensive security governance across all environments.
Multi-cloud Support
Basic2
Funnel provides native connectors to export data to all major cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and GCP), but as a fully managed SaaS platform, its core execution engine is centralized rather than allowing users to deploy processing agents across their own multi-cloud infrastructure.
View details & rubric context

Multi-cloud support enables organizations to deploy data pipelines across different cloud providers or migrate data seamlessly between environments like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud to prevent vendor lock-in and optimize infrastructure costs.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for connecting to major cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) as data sources or destinations, but the core execution engine is tethered to a single cloud, limiting true cross-cloud processing flexibility.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to operate across multiple cloud environments, restricting deployment and data processing to a single cloud vendor or on-premises infrastructure.
1Achieving multi-cloud functionality requires heavy lifting, such as building custom API connectors, manually configuring VPNs, or maintaining self-managed gateways to bridge distinct cloud environments.
2Native support exists for connecting to major cloud providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) as data sources or destinations, but the core execution engine is tethered to a single cloud, limiting true cross-cloud processing flexibility.
3The platform offers strong, out-of-the-box support for deploying execution agents or pipelines across multiple cloud environments from a unified control plane, ensuring seamless data movement and consistent governance.
4A best-in-class implementation that abstracts underlying infrastructure, offering intelligent workload placement, automatic failover between clouds, and cost-optimized routing to maximize performance across a hybrid or multi-cloud ecosystem.
Managed Service Option
Best4
Funnel is a cloud-native, fully managed SaaS platform that completely abstracts infrastructure management, offering automated scaling and a serverless experience for marketing data integration.
View details & rubric context

A managed service option allows teams to offload infrastructure maintenance, updates, and scaling to the vendor, ensuring reliable data delivery without the operational burden of self-hosting.

What Score 4 Means

The managed service is a best-in-class, serverless architecture featuring instant auto-scaling, consumption-based pricing, and advanced security controls like PrivateLink, completely abstracting infrastructure complexity.

Full Rubric
0The product has no managed cloud offering, requiring customers to self-host, provision hardware, and handle all maintenance and upgrades manually.
1Deployment on cloud infrastructure is possible via generic machine images or containers, but the customer retains full responsibility for instance management, patching, and scaling configuration.
2A basic hosted option is available, but it lacks true elasticity; scaling often requires manual tier upgrades or support intervention, and it may not support all features found in the self-hosted version.
3The solution offers a robust, fully managed SaaS environment with automated upgrades, built-in high availability, and self-service scaling that integrates seamlessly into modern data stacks.
4The managed service is a best-in-class, serverless architecture featuring instant auto-scaling, consumption-based pricing, and advanced security controls like PrivateLink, completely abstracting infrastructure complexity.
Self-hosted Option
Not Supported0
Funnel is a fully managed, multi-tenant SaaS platform that does not offer any options for on-premise or private cloud deployment.
View details & rubric context

A self-hosted option enables organizations to deploy the ETL platform within their own infrastructure or private cloud, ensuring strict adherence to data sovereignty, security compliance, and network latency requirements.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no capability for on-premise or private cloud deployment, operating exclusively as a managed multi-tenant SaaS solution.

Full Rubric
0The product has no capability for on-premise or private cloud deployment, operating exclusively as a managed multi-tenant SaaS solution.
1Deployment in a private environment is possible but relies on unsupported workarounds, such as manually wrapping binaries or utilizing generic containers without official documentation, requiring significant engineering effort to maintain.
2Native support exists via basic deployment artifacts like a standalone Docker container or installer script. It covers fundamental execution but lacks orchestration templates, high-availability configurations, or automated update paths.
3The solution offers a production-ready self-hosted package with official Helm charts, Terraform modules, or cloud marketplace images. It supports high availability, seamless version upgrades, and maintains feature parity with the cloud version.
4The platform delivers a market-leading 'Bring Your Own Cloud' (BYOC) or managed private plane architecture. This combines the operational simplicity of SaaS with the security of self-hosting, featuring automated scaling, self-healing infrastructure, and unified management.

DevOps & Development

Tools that integrate data engineering with modern software development and testing practices.

Avg Score
1.1/ 4
Version Control Integration
Not Supported0
Funnel is a no-code marketing data hub that manages all transformation logic and data mappings within its own proprietary UI, offering no native integration with external version control systems like Git.
View details & rubric context

Version Control Integration enables data teams to manage ETL pipeline configurations and code using systems like Git, facilitating collaboration, change tracking, and rollback capabilities. This feature is critical for maintaining code quality and implementing DataOps best practices across development, testing, and production environments.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native capability to sync with external version control systems, forcing reliance on manual file management or internal snapshots.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to sync with external version control systems, forcing reliance on manual file management or internal snapshots.
1Version control is possible only by manually exporting pipeline definitions (e.g., JSON or YAML) and committing them to a repository via external scripts or API calls, with no direct UI linkage.
2Native connectivity to repositories exists, but functionality is limited to basic commit and pull actions without support for branching strategies, visual diffs, or conflict resolution.
3The platform offers robust integration with major providers (GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket), supporting branching, merging, and visual code comparisons directly within the ETL interface.
4Best-in-class integration treats pipelines entirely as code, automatically triggering CI/CD workflows, testing, and environment promotion upon commit while syncing permissions deeply with the repository.
CI/CD Pipeline Support
Not Supported0
Funnel is a no-code marketing data hub that lacks native version control, environment branching, or deployment automation, requiring users to manually configure and update data transformations directly within the platform's interface.
View details & rubric context

CI/CD Pipeline Support enables data teams to automate the testing, integration, and deployment of ETL workflows across development, staging, and production environments. This capability ensures reliable data delivery, reduces manual errors during migration, and aligns data engineering with modern DevOps practices.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no native version control or deployment automation capabilities, requiring users to manually recreate or copy-paste pipeline configurations between environments.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native version control or deployment automation capabilities, requiring users to manually recreate or copy-paste pipeline configurations between environments.
1Deployment automation is achievable only through heavy custom scripting using generic APIs to export and import pipeline definitions, often lacking state management or native Git integration.
2Native support includes basic version control integration (e.g., Git sync) and simple environment promotion mechanisms, but lacks automated testing hooks or granular conflict resolution.
3The platform provides deep integration with standard CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions) and supports full branching strategies, environment parameterization, and automated rollback capabilities.
4A market-leading DataOps implementation that includes automated data quality regression testing within the pipeline, infrastructure-as-code generation, and intelligent dependency analysis to prevent downstream breakage.
API Access
Advanced3
Funnel offers a well-documented Management API that supports CRUD operations for accounts and data sources, enabling programmatic automation, though it lacks market-leading features like a Terraform provider or GraphQL support.
View details & rubric context

API Access enables programmatic control over the ETL platform, allowing teams to automate job execution, manage configurations, and integrate data pipelines into broader CI/CD workflows.

What Score 3 Means

A comprehensive, well-documented REST API covers the majority of UI functionality, allowing for full CRUD operations on pipelines and connections with standard authentication and rate limiting.

Full Rubric
0The product has no public API available, requiring all job triggering, configuration, and monitoring to be performed manually through the user interface.
1Programmatic interaction is possible only through undocumented internal endpoints, basic webhooks that lack status feedback, or rigid CLI tools that require significant custom wrapping to function as an API.
2A native API exists but is limited to essential functions, such as triggering a sync and checking its status. It lacks endpoints for creating or modifying connections and does not expose detailed logging data.
3A comprehensive, well-documented REST API covers the majority of UI functionality, allowing for full CRUD operations on pipelines and connections with standard authentication and rate limiting.
4The API offering is market-leading, featuring official SDKs, a Terraform provider for Infrastructure-as-Code, and GraphQL support. It enables complex, high-scale automation with granular permissioning and deep observability.
CLI Tool
DIY1
Funnel does not provide a native, dedicated command-line interface tool; programmatic interaction and automation are instead handled through its REST API, which requires users to build custom scripts or use cURL commands.
View details & rubric context

A dedicated Command Line Interface (CLI) Tool enables developers and data engineers to programmatically manage pipelines, automate workflows, and integrate ETL processes into CI/CD systems without relying on a graphical interface.

What Score 1 Means

Programmatic interaction is possible only by manually making cURL requests to generic API endpoints or writing custom wrapper scripts to mimic CLI functionality.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native command-line interface, forcing all configuration and execution to occur manually through the web-based graphical user interface.
1Programmatic interaction is possible only by manually making cURL requests to generic API endpoints or writing custom wrapper scripts to mimic CLI functionality.
2A basic native CLI exists, but functionality is limited to simple tasks like triggering jobs or checking status, lacking the ability to create or modify configurations.
3The CLI is production-ready and offers near-parity with the UI, allowing users to manage connections, configure pipelines, and handle deployment tasks seamlessly within standard development workflows.
4The CLI provides a market-leading developer experience, featuring local pipeline execution for testing, interactive scaffolding, declarative configuration management (GitOps), and intelligent auto-completion.
Data Sampling
Basic2
Funnel provides native data previews within its Data Explorer and Data Mapping interfaces to help users validate transformation logic, but these are limited to basic row previews rather than advanced statistical or stratified sampling methods.
View details & rubric context

Data sampling allows users to preview and process a representative subset of a dataset during pipeline design and testing. This capability accelerates development cycles and reduces compute costs by validating transformation logic without waiting for full-volume execution.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists but is limited to basic "top N rows" (e.g., first 100 records), which often fails to capture edge cases or representative data distributions needed for accurate validation.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to sample data, forcing users to process full datasets during design, debugging, and testing phases.
1Sampling is achievable only through manual workarounds, such as creating separate, smaller source files outside the tool or writing custom SQL queries upstream to limit record counts.
2Native support exists but is limited to basic "top N rows" (e.g., first 100 records), which often fails to capture edge cases or representative data distributions needed for accurate validation.
3The platform provides robust sampling methods, including random percentage, stratified sampling, and conditional filtering, allowing users to toggle seamlessly between sample and full views within the transformation interface.
4The system utilizes intelligent, statistically significant sampling that automatically preserves data distribution and outliers, ensuring that tests on samples accurately predict production behavior on petabyte-scale data with zero manual configuration.
Environment Management
DIY1
Funnel lacks native environment lifecycle management, requiring users to manually duplicate workspaces or configurations to separate development from production without built-in synchronization or promotion tools.
View details & rubric context

Environment Management enables data teams to isolate development, testing, and production workflows to ensure pipeline stability and data integrity. It facilitates safe deployment practices by managing configurations, connections, and dependencies separately across different lifecycle stages.

What Score 1 Means

Users must manually duplicate pipelines or rely on external scripts and generic APIs to move assets between stages. Achieving isolation requires maintaining separate accounts or projects with no built-in synchronization.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to separate development, staging, and production workflows, forcing all changes to occur in a single, shared environment.
1Users must manually duplicate pipelines or rely on external scripts and generic APIs to move assets between stages. Achieving isolation requires maintaining separate accounts or projects with no built-in synchronization.
2Native support exists for defining environments (e.g., Dev and Prod), but promoting changes involves manual export/import or basic cloning. Configuration management across environments is rigid or prone to manual error.
3Strong, built-in lifecycle management allows for seamless promotion of pipelines between defined environments with specific configuration overrides. It includes integrated version control and role-based permissions for deploying to production.
4Best-in-class implementation features automated CI/CD integration, ephemeral environments for testing individual branches, and granular governance. It supports programmatic promotion policies, automated testing gates, and instant rollbacks.
Sandbox Environment
DIY1
Funnel does not offer a native, integrated sandbox environment; users must manually create separate workspaces to test configurations and then manually replicate those changes in their production workspace.
View details & rubric context

A Sandbox Environment provides an isolated workspace where users can build, test, and debug ETL pipelines without affecting production data or workflows. This ensures data integrity and reduces the risk of errors during deployment.

What Score 1 Means

Users must manually replicate production pipelines into a separate project or account to simulate a sandbox, relying on manual export/import processes or API scripts to migrate changes.

Full Rubric
0The product has no dedicated testing or staging environment, forcing users to make changes directly to live production pipelines.
1Users must manually replicate production pipelines into a separate project or account to simulate a sandbox, relying on manual export/import processes or API scripts to migrate changes.
2A basic sandbox or staging mode is available for testing logic, but it lacks strict data isolation or automated tools to promote configurations to the production environment.
3The platform offers a fully isolated sandbox environment with built-in version control and one-click deployment features to promote pipelines from staging to production seamlessly.
4The solution provides ephemeral, on-demand sandboxes with automated data masking for privacy and deep CI/CD integration, allowing for sophisticated regression testing and safe, automated release management.

Performance Optimization

Features designed to maximize processing speed and efficiency while monitoring resource usage.

Avg Score
2.0/ 4
Resource Monitoring
Not Supported0
Funnel is a fully managed SaaS platform that abstracts infrastructure management from the user, providing no native visibility or reporting on the CPU, memory, or storage resources consumed during data processing.
View details & rubric context

Resource monitoring tracks the consumption of compute, memory, and storage assets during data pipeline execution. This visibility allows engineering teams to optimize performance, control infrastructure costs, and prevent job failures due to resource exhaustion.

What Score 0 Means

The product has no built-in capability to track or display the CPU, memory, or storage resources consumed by ETL jobs.

Full Rubric
0The product has no built-in capability to track or display the CPU, memory, or storage resources consumed by ETL jobs.
1Resource usage data is not natively exposed in the interface; users must rely on external infrastructure monitoring tools or build custom scripts to correlate generic system logs with specific ETL job executions.
2Native support exists, providing high-level metrics such as total run time or aggregate compute units consumed. However, granular visibility into CPU or memory spikes over time is lacking, and historical trends are difficult to analyze.
3Strong, deep functionality offers detailed time-series visualizations for CPU, memory, and I/O usage directly within the job execution view. It allows for easy historical comparisons and alerts users when specific resource thresholds are breached.
4A best-in-class implementation that not only tracks usage but uses predictive analytics to recommend resource allocation adjustments and auto-scale infrastructure. It provides deep cost attribution per pipeline and proactively identifies code-level bottlenecks causing resource contention.
Throughput Optimization
Basic2
Funnel is a fully managed SaaS platform that abstracts away infrastructure management, meaning it handles scaling and data volume automatically but provides users with very few manual controls to tune throughput, such as batch sizes or thread counts. While it avoids the limitations of sequential processing through its cloud-native architecture, it lacks the granular resource configuration or advanced autonomous optimization features found in more technical ETL tools.
View details & rubric context

Throughput optimization maximizes the speed and efficiency of data pipelines by managing resource allocation, parallelism, and data transfer rates to meet strict latency requirements. This capability is essential for ensuring large data volumes are processed within specific time windows without creating system bottlenecks.

What Score 2 Means

Native support allows for basic manual tuning, such as setting fixed batch sizes or enabling simple multi-threading, but lacks dynamic scaling or granular control over resource usage.

Full Rubric
0The product has no specific mechanisms to tune or accelerate data processing speeds; pipelines run sequentially with fixed, unchangeable resource limits.
1Optimization is possible only through manual workarounds, such as writing custom scripts to shard data inputs or externally orchestrating multiple job instances via APIs to simulate parallelism.
2Native support allows for basic manual tuning, such as setting fixed batch sizes or enabling simple multi-threading, but lacks dynamic scaling or granular control over resource usage.
3The platform provides robust, production-ready controls for parallel processing, including dynamic partitioning, configurable memory allocation, and auto-scaling compute resources integrated directly into the workflow.
4The solution offers market-leading autonomous optimization that uses machine learning or heuristics to dynamically adjust throughput in real-time, balancing speed and cost without human intervention.
Parallel Processing
Best4
Funnel's cloud-native, fully managed architecture automatically handles data partitioning and parallel execution across its processing engine, ensuring high throughput and data freshness without requiring any manual tuning or infrastructure oversight from the user.
View details & rubric context

Parallel processing enables the simultaneous execution of multiple data transformation tasks or chunks, significantly reducing the overall time required to process large volumes of data. This capability is essential for optimizing pipeline performance and meeting strict data freshness requirements.

What Score 4 Means

Best-in-class implementation features intelligent, dynamic auto-scaling and automatic data partitioning that optimizes throughput in real-time without requiring manual tuning or infrastructure oversight.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability for parallel execution; all tasks and data flows run sequentially, leading to extended processing times for large datasets.
1Parallelism is possible only through manual workarounds, such as writing custom scripts to split files or triggering multiple job instances via API to simulate concurrent processing.
2Native support exists for basic multi-threading or concurrent job execution, but it requires manual configuration of worker nodes or partitions and lacks sophisticated resource management.
3Strong, out-of-the-box parallel processing allows users to easily configure concurrent task execution and dependency management within the workflow designer, ensuring efficient resource utilization.
4Best-in-class implementation features intelligent, dynamic auto-scaling and automatic data partitioning that optimizes throughput in real-time without requiring manual tuning or infrastructure oversight.
In-memory Processing
Basic2
Funnel utilizes a proprietary native engine to process marketing data transformations, but it functions primarily as a managed data hub where data is stored and processed in its 'Data Core' rather than being built on a dedicated high-performance in-memory architecture designed for low-latency ETL.
View details & rubric context

In-memory processing performs data transformations within system RAM rather than reading and writing to disk, significantly reducing latency for high-volume ETL pipelines. This capability is essential for time-sensitive data integration tasks where performance and throughput are critical.

What Score 2 Means

Native support includes basic in-memory caching for lookups or small intermediate datasets, but the engine defaults to disk-based processing for larger volumes or complex joins.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native in-memory processing engine, relying exclusively on disk-based I/O or external database compute for all data transformations.
1High-speed processing can be approximated by manually configuring RAM disks or invoking external in-memory frameworks (like Spark) via custom code steps, requiring significant infrastructure maintenance.
2Native support includes basic in-memory caching for lookups or small intermediate datasets, but the engine defaults to disk-based processing for larger volumes or complex joins.
3A robust, native in-memory engine handles end-to-end transformations within RAM, supporting large datasets and complex logic with standard configuration settings.
4The solution offers a market-leading distributed in-memory architecture with intelligent resource management, automatic spill-over handling, and query optimization, delivering real-time throughput for massive datasets with zero manual tuning.
Partitioning Strategy
Basic2
Funnel provides native support for date-based partitioning when exporting data to warehouses like BigQuery, but it lacks the flexibility for more complex partitioning methods such as hash or list partitioning.
View details & rubric context

Partitioning strategy defines how large datasets are divided into smaller segments to enable parallel processing and optimize resource utilization during data transfer. This capability is essential for scaling pipelines to handle high volumes without performance bottlenecks or memory errors.

What Score 2 Means

Native support exists for simple column-based partitioning (e.g., integer or date ranges), but it requires manual configuration and lacks flexibility for complex data types or dynamic scaling.

Full Rubric
0The product has no native capability to segment data, requiring all datasets to be extracted and loaded as a single, monolithic batch.
1Partitioning is possible only through manual workarounds, such as writing custom SQL scripts with specific WHERE clauses or orchestrating external loops to chunk data via APIs.
2Native support exists for simple column-based partitioning (e.g., integer or date ranges), but it requires manual configuration and lacks flexibility for complex data types or dynamic scaling.
3Strong, out-of-the-box support for various partitioning methods (range, list, hash) allows users to easily configure parallel extraction and loading directly within the UI for high-throughput workflows.
4A market-leading implementation that automatically detects optimal partition keys and dynamically adjusts chunk sizes in real-time to maximize throughput and handle data skew without manual tuning.

Support & Ecosystem

Resources and services provided by the vendor and community to assist users in implementing the solution.

Avg Score
3.0/ 4
Community Support
DIY1
Funnel lacks a dedicated, vendor-facilitated peer-to-peer community forum or Slack channel, primarily directing users to its official Help Center and direct support teams while leaving peer discussions to generic external platforms.
View details & rubric context

Community support encompasses the ecosystem of user forums, peer-to-peer channels, and shared knowledge bases that enable data engineers to troubleshoot ETL pipelines without relying solely on official tickets. A vibrant community accelerates problem-solving through shared configurations, custom connector scripts, and best-practice discussions.

What Score 1 Means

Users must rely on generic technology forums or unofficial channels to find answers, often requiring deep searching to find relevant workarounds without official vendor acknowledgement or facilitation.

Full Rubric
0The product has no public community forum, user group, or accessible ecosystem for peer-to-peer assistance, forcing reliance entirely on direct vendor support.
1Users must rely on generic technology forums or unofficial channels to find answers, often requiring deep searching to find relevant workarounds without official vendor acknowledgement or facilitation.
2A vendor-hosted forum or basic communication channel exists, but engagement is sporadic and responses are primarily user-generated with minimal official participation or moderation.
3An active, well-moderated community ecosystem exists across modern platforms (e.g., Slack, Discord), featuring regular contributions from vendor engineers and a searchable history of solved technical challenges.
4The community is a massive, self-sustaining ecosystem that serves as a strategic asset, offering a vast library of user-contributed connectors, a formal champions program, and direct influence over the product roadmap.
Vendor Support SLAs
Advanced3
Funnel offers formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and dedicated support for Enterprise-tier customers, including guaranteed response times and uptime commitments, though it lacks the sub-hour response guarantees and proactive infrastructure resolution characteristic of market leaders.
View details & rubric context

Vendor Support SLAs define contractual guarantees for uptime, incident response times, and resolution targets to ensure mission-critical data pipelines remain operational. These agreements provide financial remedies and assurance that the ETL provider will address severity-1 issues within a specific timeframe.

What Score 3 Means

Strong, production-ready SLAs are included, offering 24/7 support for critical severity issues, guaranteed response times under four hours, and defined financial service credits for uptime breaches.

Full Rubric
0The product has no formal Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for support or uptime, relying solely on community forums, documentation, or best-effort responses without guaranteed timelines.
1Guaranteed support levels are not part of the standard offering; users must negotiate complex custom enterprise contracts or engage third-party managed service providers to secure specific response time commitments.
2Native support exists with standard SLAs, but coverage is typically limited to business hours and guaranteed response times are relatively slow (e.g., 24 to 48 hours), lacking urgency for critical pipeline failures.
3Strong, production-ready SLAs are included, offering 24/7 support for critical severity issues, guaranteed response times under four hours, and defined financial service credits for uptime breaches.
4Best-in-class implementation includes dedicated technical account managers (TAMs), sub-hour response guarantees for critical incidents, and proactive monitoring where the vendor identifies and resolves infrastructure issues before the customer is impacted.
Documentation Quality
Advanced3
Funnel provides a highly comprehensive and searchable knowledge base with detailed guides for its 500+ connectors, alongside a dedicated 'Funnel Academy' and in-app support widgets that facilitate troubleshooting and onboarding.
View details & rubric context

Documentation quality encompasses the depth, accuracy, and usability of technical guides, API references, and tutorials. Comprehensive resources are essential for reducing onboarding time and enabling engineers to troubleshoot complex data pipelines independently.

What Score 3 Means

Documentation is comprehensive, searchable, and regularly updated, providing detailed tutorials, architectural best practices, and clear troubleshooting steps for production workflows.

Full Rubric
0The product has no centralized or publicly accessible documentation, forcing users to rely entirely on direct support channels or trial and error.
1Official documentation is sparse, outdated, or fragmented, requiring users to rely on community forums, external blogs, or reading source code to figure out implementation details.
2Native documentation covers the basics, such as installation and simple API definitions, but lacks depth, practical examples, or guidance on complex configurations.
3Documentation is comprehensive, searchable, and regularly updated, providing detailed tutorials, architectural best practices, and clear troubleshooting steps for production workflows.
4The documentation experience is best-in-class, featuring interactive code sandboxes, AI-driven search, and context-aware help directly within the UI to accelerate development and debugging.
Training and Onboarding
Best4
Funnel offers a market-leading onboarding experience through its Funnel Academy, which provides structured certification programs and role-based learning paths, alongside dedicated solution architects and personalized support for enterprise-level implementations.
View details & rubric context

Training and onboarding resources ensure data teams can quickly master the ETL platform, reducing the learning curve associated with complex data pipelines and transformation logic.

What Score 4 Means

Best-in-class implementation features personalized, role-based learning paths, interactive sandbox environments, and dedicated solution architects or AI-driven assistance to ensure immediate strategic value.

Full Rubric
0The product has no dedicated training materials, documentation, or onboarding support for new users.
1Users must rely on community forums, generic technical specifications, or trial-and-error, requiring significant effort to self-educate without structured vendor guidance.
2Native support includes standard static documentation and a basic 'getting started' guide, but lacks interactive tutorials, video content, or personalized onboarding paths.
3Strong support is provided through a comprehensive knowledge base, video tutorials, certification programs, and in-app walkthroughs that guide users through complex pipeline configurations.
4Best-in-class implementation features personalized, role-based learning paths, interactive sandbox environments, and dedicated solution architects or AI-driven assistance to ensure immediate strategic value.
Free Trial Availability
Best4
Funnel offers a market-leading experience by providing a perpetual free tier alongside a frictionless, no-credit-card-required free trial for its paid plans, allowing users to fully validate connectors and data transformation logic.
View details & rubric context

Free trial availability allows data teams to validate connectors, transformation logic, and pipeline reliability with their own data before financial commitment. This hands-on evaluation is critical for verifying that an ETL tool meets specific technical requirements and performance benchmarks.

What Score 4 Means

The solution offers a market-leading experience with a generous perpetual free tier or extended trial that includes guided onboarding, sample datasets, and high volume limits to fully prove ROI.

Full Rubric
0The product has no self-service free trial capability; prospective users must contact sales, sign contracts, or pay for a pilot to access the platform.
1Trial access is possible but requires heavy lifting, such as manually deploying a limited local version (e.g., via Docker) or waiting for a manually provisioned sandbox environment.
2A basic self-service trial exists, but it is strictly time-boxed (e.g., 14 days), often requires a credit card upfront, and restricts access to premium connectors or data volume.
3A frictionless, production-ready trial is available instantly without a credit card, offering full feature access and sufficient data volume credits to build and test complete pipelines.
4The solution offers a market-leading experience with a generous perpetual free tier or extended trial that includes guided onboarding, sample datasets, and high volume limits to fully prove ROI.

Pricing & Compliance

Free Options / Trial

Whether the product offers free access, trials, or open-source versions

Freemium
Yes
Funnel offers a permanent free plan that includes a limited number of 'flexpoints' (typically around 350-400), allowing users to connect a few data sources (e.g., 3-4) and send data to destinations like Google Sheets or Looker Studio.
View description

A free tier with limited features or usage is available indefinitely.

Free Trial
Yes
A free trial is available for the paid subscription tiers, allowing potential customers to test the full platform capabilities before committing to a contract.
View description

A time-limited free trial of the full or partial product is available.

Open Source
No
Funnel is a proprietary SaaS platform; while it utilizes open-source technologies in its infrastructure, the core product itself is not open source.
View description

The core product or a significant version is available as open-source software.

Paid Only
No
Funnel is not paid-only as it offers both a free subscription plan and free trials for its paid tiers.
View description

No free tier or trial is available; payment is required for any access.

Pricing Transparency

Whether the product's pricing information is publicly available and visible on the website

Public Pricing
No
Funnel does not clearly list base pricing on its website. Explicit price figures were recently removed, and the site now primarily directs users to 'Book a demo' or use a price estimator rather than displaying a static pricing table.
View description

Base pricing is clearly listed on the website for most or all tiers.

Hybrid
Yes
Funnel operates on a hybrid transparency model where a public price estimator allows users to gauge starting costs (e.g., around $120/month) for base plans, while higher-tier Business and Enterprise plans require contacting sales for a custom quote.
View description

Some tiers have public pricing, while higher tiers require contacting sales.

Contact Sales / Quote Only
No
While the primary call to action is often to book a demo, the presence of a public price estimator means that pricing is not entirely hidden behind a sales wall.
View description

No pricing is listed publicly; you must contact sales to get a custom quote.

Pricing Model

The primary billing structure and metrics used by the product

Per User / Per Seat
No
Funnel's paid plans typically include unlimited users, with pricing primarily determined by the subscription tier and usage capacity (Flexpoints) rather than the number of individual seats.
View description

Price scales based on the number of individual users or seat licenses.

Flat Rate
No
Funnel does not offer a single fixed price regardless of usage; costs are tied to a subscription that scales based on the consumption of 'Flexpoints' (capacity for connectors and data).
View description

A single fixed price for the entire product or specific tiers, regardless of usage.

Usage-Based
Yes
Funnel employs a 'Flexpoints' system where pricing scales based on usage metrics, such as the number of data source connectors, destinations, and overall data capacity.
View description

Price scales based on consumption metrics (e.g., API calls, data volume, storage).

Feature-Based
Yes
Funnel offers distinct pricing tiers (e.g., Starter, Business, Enterprise) that unlock specific sets of features, such as advanced connectors, enterprise governance, and priority support.
View description

Different tiers unlock specific sets of features or capabilities.

Outcome-Based
No
Pricing is determined by feature access and usage capacity, not by the direct business value or revenue outcomes achieved by the customer.
View description

Price changes based on the value or impact of the product to the customer.

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