Data Integration Tools
AWS Glue: features, pricing and who it fits
AWS Glue is a serverless Spark-based ETL, streaming and data catalog service that runs only inside AWS. Billing is $0.44 per DPU-hour by the second. Engineers can use Python or Scala jobs, a visual Glue Studio canvas and the Data Catalog.
Who AWS Glue is for
Best for
- AWS-centric teams building data lakes with S3, Athena, Redshift and EMR
- Engineers who want pay-per-second pricing with no infrastructure
Look elsewhere if
- Teams wanting no-code SaaS connector catalogs
- Teams outside AWS
AWS Glue features
- Connector coverage
- Docs say 70+ data sources; product page says 100+
- ETL / ELT approach
- ETL, ELT and streaming in one service per docs
- Real-time sync and CDC
- Streaming ETL and a Real-Time Mode with single-digit millisecond latency; CDC not detailed
- Transformation capabilities
- Spark jobs (Python/Scala), visual Glue Studio canvas, notebooks, FindMatches dedupe, sensitive data detection
- Deployment options
- Serverless on AWS only
- Governance and monitoring
- Data Catalog, Lake Formation access control, Schema Registry, CloudTrail, Spark UI, Data Quality
- Pricing model
- DPU-hour, billed per second; catalog free tier
- Target company size
- Any size inside AWS
AWS Glue pricing
| Plan | Price | Unit | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ETL jobs and interactive sessions | $0.44 | per DPU-hour, per second | Interactive sessions default to 5 DPUs |
| Crawlers | $0.44 | per DPU-hour | |
| Data Catalog | Free for first 1M objects and requests; $1.00 per 100,000 objects per month beyond | ||
| DataBrew | $1.00 per 30-minute interactive session; $0.48 per node-hour for jobs | ||
| Data Quality | $0.44 | per DPU-hour | Minimum 2 DPUs, 1-minute minimum |
Rates can vary by Region. Zero-ETL has no separate integration fee; source and target resources are billed.
Prices as published by AWS Glue on the date above. Quotes for larger teams often differ, which is what a request on SaaSBid surfaces.
AWS Glue pros and cons
What users like
- Ease of use 6 mentions
- Simplicity 3 mentions
- Features 3 mentions
- ETL 3 mentions
- Data integration 3 mentions
Common complaints
- Slow performance 3 mentions
Pros and cons tags from G2's reviews page, read October 26, 2026.
Integrations, security and hosting
- Integrations
- 70+ to 100+ data sources, including Amazon S3, Athena, Amazon EMR, Redshift, SageMaker
Worth knowing before you buy
- Billing is $0.44 per DPU-hour by the second for ETL jobs, interactive sessions and crawlers.
- Data Catalog storage and requests are free for the first million objects.
- Zero-ETL integrations carry no extra Glue fee; you pay the source and target resources.
- Docs list Glue for Ray end of support.
AWS Glue alternatives
Vendor dossier
Fit by company size
| Category | 1-10 people | 11-50 people | 51-500 people | 500+ people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Integration Tools | Workable | Strong fit | Strong fit | Strong fit |
Strong fitWorkablePoor fitNo data from the vendor
How buying AWS Glue works
- How you buy
- Buy online
- Contract
- Pay as you go, billed by the second, no upfront costs
About the company
- Ownership
- part of Amazon Web Services
Support and integrations
- Integrations
- 100+ data sources
- API
- AWS Glue API, AWS CLI
- Notable integrations
- Amazon S3, Athena, Amazon EMR, Redshift, SageMaker
What vendors in this category ask before quoting
Answer these once in a SaaSBid request and AWS Glue and its alternatives quote against the same facts.
- Which sources and destinations do you need to connect?Connector coverage and plan limits decide which tools qualify.
- How much data do you move each month, and how fast does it grow?Row, event and credit pricing scale differently.
- How fresh must the data be: hourly, every few minutes or near real time?Sync interval and CDC support vary by plan.
- Where must the data be processed, and are SSO or audit logs required?Region choice and governance features often sit in upper tiers.
- Who will build and maintain the pipelines, analysts or engineers?No-code tools and code-first frameworks suit different teams.
- Do you need transformation in the same tool, or will dbt handle it?The answer affects both the edition and the total cost.