Panoply Reviews

Pros

The speed to solution is a big win for us. We were able to get a full data pipeline up in running in less than half a day. That's with various data sources and incremental refresh. The UI is easy to use.

Cons

There aren't really any cons. The platform is in its infancy and I can tell that the team is listening to user feedback and already making updates.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Panoply

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Panoply

Pros

Very simple to set up and manage. Still all the core functionality you need in a warehouse

Cons

The built in data connectors could be buggy. Particularly Google Analytics with multiple accounts. Integrating with Google Data Studio was also frustrating as we couldn't find a way to share dashboards within our workspace.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to Panoply

Pros

We used Panoply to ingest DynamoDB data and send it to the analytics platform for intellegence. The software worked and functioned fine, our we had a simple use case, but it never failed us.

Cons

The pricing was really steep for our simple use case and didn't bring the value that the price tag suggests. Ultimately we found a service that is 40% the cost that suites our needs. When I went to cancel there is no unsubscribe button, I had to hunt for a cancellation email address. After going back and forth with the director of customer service, I finally got it cancelled. However, they threw a 30-day notice clause at us causing us to pay an extra 50 days for a product we are not using. Really bad form in my opinion.

Pros

I was introduced to Panoply by a colleague. I was trying to analyze a bunch of climate variables that were in netcdf format. Before I could write a code in Matlab to analyze the data, I needed to know the data structure. For this I have used a combination of F77 and Matlab in the past. However, I wanted to exclude Fortran and have a more convenient way of knowing the basic data structure. Matlab was more powerful with the actual analysis but not with the pre processing. This is where Panoply came in handy. All I had to do was upload the netcdf data file directly into panoply and boom. It gave me the basic structure that includes the number of data points, latitudes and longitudes of the data points and other essential details I needed.

Cons

I did not come across any problem in particular for the 2+ years I have used Panoply. Sometimes, It did take a little long to load it if the netcdf file I was working with was a large file but it was not a big deal. Panoply actually was immensely helpful in knowing the data structure of the variable type for which I followed a much more complex procedure in the past before I used Panoply.

Pros

It's really easy to start and add various data sources. You can then create connections between data sources and start building custom reports that show you insights and valuable data.

Cons

The biggest con I can think about is the lack of built-in visualization tools. At the moment if you want to see your data visually you must use an external software. Hoping they would get around to adding it soon!

Pros

Forget about building and maintaining a data warehouse in-house (with all its ETLs).
You can get up and running in just 5 minutes with a lot of pre-built integrations, and amazing customer support.
And with it's flexible pricing model, it makes Panoply a no-brainer for both small and large enterprises.

Cons

The web UI/UX needs more work, it can be slow, and there are many features that are only available on request from the backend (history tables, ssh tunnel for connections, etc.).
The replication frequency is rather limited (down to 1hr only), and the lack of change log replication is a big cons (e.g. MongoDB chagelog or Postgres replication log).

Pros

If it worked for our use case I'm sure the product would be great. However our experience was that there was a lot of promises during the sales process but it turned out that we couldn't actually use the product – for reasons on both sides. They insisted that we pay for it for 14 months anyway though.

Cons

Their management team (someone in the C suite) sent some of the rudest emails I have ever received.

When we were unable to use the product because it wasn't able to sufficiently support our use case or have adequate protections for our private/secure data, they went from friendly to incredibly rude and confrontational.

They were unable to accept that a customer who got zero use or value from the product (which they'd be able to demonstrate with internal metrics) wasn't likely to love the product or recommend it to others.

Pros

For our purposes, they worked out cheaper than an out-of-the-box AWS integration, but they offered ELT and excellent customer support as a bonus.

Cons

They don't have as many ELT connectors as companies like Fivetran and Stitch, but what they do have works very effectively.

Pros

Panoply is easy to use and doesn't require a lot of work to get started. Without a database manager I was able to connect and save all of my data. Able to use SQL instead of crashing my computer for reports and segmentation.

Cons

Organizing folders can be difficult if you didn't plan ahead because you can't select more than one at a time. Also difficult to search for information and it is slow when going in and out of folders.

Pros

Panoply finally offers non-technical users an easy and affordable way to warehouse data, pipe it to the right tools, and not deal with the hassle of new warehouse creation, view generation, or ETL. The interface is intuitive enough to not need support during setup, and data is accurately reflected in the warehouse within hours. Several adaptors to other services are supported out of the box.

Cons

Panoply works well for limited warehousing applications, but if you have technical resources available and/or need good long-term storage, other warehousing solutions may be best. Panoply has many native cloud integrations, but several require 3rd party solutions like Stitch, increasing cost and complexity.

Pros

Query optimization is great and all behind the scenes.
Views automatic materialization is great and enable me to create very complicated views without considering runtime.
support representatives are very responsive and usually very helpful.
In general, very flexible company that always to get better and answers it's clients needs

Cons

Web platform can be built better
Materialization processes have some problem sometimes (downtime) and are not visible properly on the platform

Pros

This is the perfect solution for those who want to use amazon redshift but don't want to manage a cluster. Panoply automagically creates indexes and optimizes your DB as you add data

Cons

The software is still new, so I occasionally run across a bug or 2. These are typically minor and fixed quickly.

Pros

Panoply is very easy to set up and entirely obfuscates the ETL process.

Cons

When I had issues with data loading it was very difficult to troubleshoot and had to talk to support many times and eventually also a data architect.

Pros

I love the service and response time from Alon and crew. They are always on top of it. I also like the materialized views functionality and our custom integration with Twilio.

Cons

I don't like that I can't materialize views in Panoply if I'm not the dbadmin. I also have had frustrations with queries timing out in our data visualization tool, although that's improved recently. I'd also like multifactor auth available in the UI in Panoply.

Pros

- Can run Redshift without needing a DBA -- Panoply does it for us.
- Access to a data architect for assistance.

Cons

- No alerts for if a job fails.
- Limited number of connectors. Have to bridge the gap with other software.

Pros

- Ease of setting up
- Simplicity
- Customer service is very close every trimester
- Integrations to other platforms

Cons

At the begining it was hard to conect to Microsoft Azure and the development of this took time, after this, everything were as expected

Pros

Panoply has a LOT of connectors to third-party tools

Cons

Does not support common formats like Parquet, making it clear that this was built for non-engineers

Pros

Easy to setup, with minimal technical skill required.

Cons

Tricky renewal process and absolute inflexibility. Charged us for an additional 12 month contract for unused product after auto-renewal. Product generally good, but I would caution to watch billing like a HAWK.

Pros

It does something that is sorely needed in the market -- a way to manage large amounts of data in one central store without needing tons of in-house expertise. Getting set up could not have been easier and working with data in Panoply is easy. I have no regrets about signing up.

Cons

Redshift SQL is a little bit annoying, but that has nothing to do with Panoply and their service. It will be interesting to see if they expand to other warehouses in the future.

Pros

I like that it is easy to use. It is incredibly easy to navigate around. It allows you essentially to browse without using strict SQL queries. As we are trying to integrate the product for use with our non technical team, this is incredibly important. They are not particularly well versed in tech or code or any of the sort, but they can understand panoply. Trying to grapple with SQL data directly would be fairly impossible. Panoply allows us to level to playing field and bring this over to all users and simplify the entire process as well as not provide us with the ability to not expose the direct data that customers are using directly.

Cons

I have not used the product in a couple weeks, but at the time panoply was incredibly slow. Whenever I attempted to use the product in any way shape or form, it took an incredibly long time for it to deliver any data that I was looking for. It was actually surprising how long it would take and I actually spent some time troubleshooting my local network as a result (which I've found not to be the issue). My colleague has since informed me that this is no longer the case, so I'm definitely willing to give it another go, but my impression at the moment unfortunately still stands at this present time.

Pros

Panoply is the best investment we have made so far. For a company our size(100-200 employees), and a company that cannot invest too much money in BI infrastructure yet, Panoply not only maintains the infrastructure but also provides the best customer support and data architect to gain insights from various sources. I have already recommended panoply to a few of my contacts.

Cons

Restriction on the number of admins to 1.