In 2024, organizations from various sectors are unlocking the power of data-driven strategies and operations, creating the need for efficient ETL pipelines and, in turn, ETL testing. That’s why this article covers the 7 best ETL testing tools available today.
As an essential complement to the ETL process, ETL testing tools ensure that data quality is maintained. If you’re using ETL, you need to implement one of the best ETL testing tools!
ETL testing tools can validate, verify, and ensure the accuracy of data integration. By spotting problems before data reaches your repository, ETL testing tools ensure your data is reliable and trustworthy.
This is essential to ensure your organization has the confidence to use data for mission-critical decisions and strategies. It’s no wonder that ETL testing tools have become essential for modern businesses that rely on data to drive growth.
What Is ETL Testing?
In general, ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) processes involve gathering data from a wide range of sources, standardizing data to enable analysis and reporting, and storing this transformed data in a suitable repository like a data warehouse.
For every ETL pipeline, there needs to be an ETL testing procedure. These are critical to ensure that data quality is maintained throughout the process of data integration.
But what is ETL testing? In a nutshell, this is a type of software testing that’s used to identify and address issues with data quality, whether that’s missing data, duplicates, improper data types, or data discrepancies.
By following its own software testing lifecycle, ETL testing is a systematic process of software testing that's essential for identifying and resolving data quality issues that arise during the ETL process.
By spotting data problems before it reaches the data repository, ETL testing allows you to ensure your data is reliable and trustworthy.
This means that ETL testing is essential for organizations to ensure their data integration system meets their critical business requirements.
If these software testing concepts are new and you’d like to level up your skills, we’d recommend Stack Social’s ultimate software testing bundle. This collection of courses covers everything you need, including popular tools like Jira.
But how is ETL testing carried out? That’s where ETL testing tools come in.
ETL testing tools are software testing applications that can be used to ensure the accuracy of data integration. Put simply, these allow you to test the integrity of your ETL pipeline.
This means ETL testing automation tools are crucial in preventing data corruption, ensuring data integrity, and maintaining information consistency across multiple data systems.
Moreover, these ETL tools can carry out many ETL testing types, whether functional testing, source-to-target data reconciliation, data completeness testing, and more.
Great! We now know what ETL testing tools are and why they’re so important. Let’s segue into the 7 best ETL testing tools available in 2024.
The 7 Best ETL Testing Tools in 2024
If ETL test automation tools sound like they're the right fit for your business, you'll need the most effective tools available to you.
To give you a head start, we've compiled a list of the 7 best ETL tools to enrich your data analysis strategy.
1. RightData
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
Our findings show that RightData is a self-service ETL tool that’s ideal for businesses that manage high-volume data platforms. It offers a highly intuitive interface that makes it easy to validate and reconcile information between various data sets.
Key features
- Universal query studio
- Custom business rule builder
- Data quality metrics dashboard
- Bulk comparison capacities
- Two-way integration with CICD tools
2. QuerySurge
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
QuerySurge furnishes your business's data with an extra layer of security by quickly identifying any variations in the data. Based on our observations, this ensures your most valuable information remains intact in the data warehouse, removing the risk of data corruption.
QuerySurge also performs point-to-point testing, which enables it to reach up to 100% coverage of data mapping.
Key features
- Automated email report generation
- Data validation through Query Wizard
- Reusable query snippets
- Collaborative view of data health
3. ETL Validator
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
Our research showed that Datagaps' ETL Validator is designed to accommodate different forms of data with ease. It gives you the ability to compare and analyze data schemas in various environments.
The biggest benefit of ETL Validator is that it uses automation to keep costs to a minimum while reducing testing effort. In addition, this ETL tool does not require any custom programming.
Key features
- Drag-and-drop visual test case builder
- Aggregate data comparisons
- Built-in ETL engine
- Integration with HP ALM
4. iCEDQ
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
For comprehensive, end-to-end testing of data processes, iCEDQ is your go-to ETL testing tool.
Our findings show that its rule-based approach aims to simplify various data-centric processes, such as cloud data migration testing and production data monitoring. It also includes a built-in scheduler for triggering ETL testing business rules.
Key features
- In-memory engine for evaluating billions of records
- Advance groovy scripting
- Built-in dashboard module
- Advanced role-based access control
5. Integrate.io
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
This cloud-based ETL tool allows you to streamline data processing. With help from its intuitive graphic interface, you can perform out-of-the-box data transformations quickly and efficiently.
Our team also found that Integrate.io is free of any coding or jargon that may cause confusion during the data analysis process.
Key features
- Data integration from over 100 data stores/SaaS apps
- Low-code and no-code options
- Complex data preparation functions
- Job scheduling/monitoring capabilities
6. Informatica Data Validation
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
This cloud-based ETL testing tool provides automated data quality testing and data validation functionalities via a user-friendly GUI.
Our findings also show that it’s designed to ensure the accuracy, consistency, and reliability of data across various systems.
This tool allows users to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from any source to any destination while enabling the validation of data transformation rules, identifying data discrepancies, and providing comprehensive reporting on the data quality.
Key features
- Comprehensive suite requires no programming experience
- Includes automation of ETL testing and assists with data reconciliation
- Huge range of cloud connectors for AWS, Salesforce, Azure, and more
- Intuitive user interface and built-in operators
- Wizards available to create test Queries without SQL knowledge
7. BiG EVAL
Why we chose this ETL testing tool
BiG EVAL is a comprehensive data testing and validation tool that ensures data quality, consistency, and reliability across various systems.
Our findings show that it supports various testing scenarios, including automated regression testing and the ability to build a set of test cases within Agile sprints. You also get comprehensive reports and notifications for data issues.
This ETL tool is designed to aid organizations that handle enterprise-scale data to make data-driven decisions confidently by ensuring their data is accurate and reliable.
Key features
- Modern reporting and dashboards for alerts
- Integration with common business tools like Jira, Slack, Teams, and more
- Support for RDBMS, NoSQL, Big DATA, APIs, cloud, or on-premise data
- Easily integrates with DevOps CI/CD workflows
The Importance of ETL Testing Tools
Let’s take a look at some of the main reasons to use ETL testing tools.
- ETL tools provide a consolidated view of your data, allowing you to quickly identify changes while also saving time and money in the long term.
- ETL tools test your company's data as soon as it's extracted, giving you plenty of time to make adjustments early while avoiding the hassle of altering data later.
- ETL test automation helps companies of all sizes seamlessly transfer large amounts of information while protecting against data loss or duplication.
- ETL testing verifies and authenticates information in data warehouses, giving you the confidence that your valuable data isn't falling into the wrong hands.
How to Choose the Right Tools for ETL Testing?
When it comes to ETL testing, not all tools are created equal. While many offer the same benefits, they might not be tailored to your business's needs and goals.
The best way to identify which ETL testing tool is right for your company is to know what specific qualities and features to look for. Let’s take a look at essential criteria that you can use to narrow down your options.
- Usability: Whether you need to schedule a replication task or set up integrations, your ETL tool should let you do this without hassle. Look for customizability as high levels of personalization can boost productivity.
- Security: You want peace of mind that your data is protected. To determine how secure an ETL tool is, assess the security controls to check if they are user-configurable and whether they offer strong authentication.
- Stability & Reliability: The more stable and reliable an ETL automation tool is, the more you can trust it to do its job without constantly worrying about bugs or other issues. You'll also want to ensure data reaches its destination within a reasonable amount of time.
Final Thoughts
If your business or organization is taking advantage of data to drive decision-making, operations, and future growth, chances are you’ll be implementing some form of ETL pipelines and, naturally, ETL testing.
This means that you need to be using one of the best ETL testing tools to ensure that data quality is maintained.
To help you find the right ETL testing tool for your situation, this article has covered the 7 best ETL testing tools available in 2024. These include a range of options for various technical skill levels, including low and no-code options.
Armed with the right ETL testing tool, your organization can have the confidence it needs to unlock hidden value from its data stores.
Want to boost your software testing resume in 2024? Check out:
The Best Software Testing Certifications
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Are the Most Popular ETL Testing Tools Currently Available?
Some of the most widely used ETL automation testing tools are QuerySurge, Informatica Data Validation, RightData, DataQ, and ETL Validator. All of these tools offer highly intuitive and simplistic interfaces to make data processing as straightforward as possible.
2. Are There Any Open-Source ETL Testing Tools Available?
Open-source ETL tools are more widely accessible than ETL testing tools. This article focuses on the ETL testing aspect of data integration, but if you’d like to explore open-source ETL tools, you might consider Talend or Apache NiFi.
3. What Are Some Best Practices for ETL Testing?
To get the most out of tools for ETL testing, there are some best practices that you can implement. Minimize data input to eliminate unnecessary data early on, optimize data quality and clean up your data before feeding it into your ETL pipeline, and finally, track your metricsto spot strengths and weaknesses in your data processes.
People are also reading:
