{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "alation", "name": "Alation", "vendor": "Alation, Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://www.alation.com", "kind": "http-api", "category": "company-knowledge", "summary": "Alation is a hosted data catalogue for tables, queries, BI reports, lineage and data quality. Agents reach it through REST APIs, a natural-language Aggregated Context API, a Python agent SDK and an MCP server on each cloud instance.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json", "repo": "https://github.com/Alation/alation-ai-agent-sdk", "license": "Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0", "transports": [ "http", "streamable-http", "stdio" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "alation-ai-agent-mcp" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "alation-ai-agent-sdk" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "allie-sdk" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Access is granted inside a customer's Alation instance. On Alation Cloud Service a Server Admin registers an OAuth client application, which creates a system user with one Alation role, and the client exchanges its ID and secret for a JWT sent as a Bearer token. An authorisation code flow with refresh tokens covers user sign-in, and the remote MCP server needs a client that accepts a `client_id` and `client_secret`, since dynamic client registration is not supported. Any signed-in user can also create an API key pair, a refresh token (60 days by default) and an access token (24 hours) sent in a `TOKEN` header. Permissions follow the user's role, as listed in the APIs by Roles table.", "pricing": "paid", "pricingNotes": "No prices are published. www.alation.com/pricing redirects to a form for a sales call, and we found no trial or self-serve sign-up. Each cloud tenant gets a one-time allowance of 2,000 Aggregated Context API calls, with 429 responses from 2,400 calls until a paid tier is bought through the account manager (checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "Paid", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the developer portal, the agent SDK source or the legal pages (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 16, "popularity": { "githubStars": 19, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 2087, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://developer.alation.com/", "capabilities": [ "data.catalogue", "knowledge.search", "data.lineage", "db.sql" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "closed-source", "enterprise", "official", "mcp", "oauth", "openapi", "python", "sales-led", "status-page", "sla", "soc2" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-03", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.3, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 472, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 7, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 71, "maintenance": 71, "payments": 0, "reliability": 61, "schema": 78, "security": 63, "transparency": 76 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.", "bestFor": "A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.", "strengths": [ "OpenAPI 3.0 definitions for each API, shown on every reference page and served by each instance under `/openapi/`", "OAuth 2.0 client credentials tied to a system user with one Alation role, with token revocation, secret rotation and offline JWT verification", "The AI API answers 429 with `Retry-After` and three `Ai-RateLimit` headers, and the REST 429 body states the seconds to wait", "The local MCP server enables 8 of its 16 tools by default, with allow and deny lists, and the remote server lists only tools the user may call", "A 99.5 per cent monthly uptime target with service credits of 1 to 5 per cent in the published MSA" ], "weaknesses": [ "No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form", "Four incidents between 10 August and 10 September 2026, two of them regional outages longer than an hour", "`alation-ai-agent-sdk` and `alation-ai-agent-mcp` were last published on 14 January 2026 as 1.0.0rc3, and a plain `pip install` still resolves to 0.12.0", "No guidance on prompt injection, although tools return catalogue descriptions, documents and query text written by users", "No `security.txt` and no bug bounty, and security advisories sit behind a Community login" ], "agentNotes": [ "Ask a Server Admin to register an OAuth client application with the lowest role that fits. Only admins can create one, and the secret is shown once", "Pin `alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3`. An unpinned install resolves to 0.12.0, which predates the catalogue search agent", "Call `catalog_context_search_agent` for catalogue questions. `alation_context` is deprecated and its description tells models not to call it directly", "Watch `X-Entitlement-Usage` on Aggregated Context API responses. The 2,000 free calls never reset, and a quota 429 is not retryable", "Page with `limit` and `skip` and follow `X-Next-Page`. The BI Source API uses `offset`, and one call returns at most 1,000 objects" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.3 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 71, "maintenance": 71, "payments": 0, "reliability": 61, "schema": 78, "security": 63, "transparency": 65 }, "provenanceScore": 86 }, "connect": { "install": "uv pip install alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3", "config": { "mcpServers": { "alation": { "args": [ "--from", "alation-ai-agent-mcp", "start-alation-mcp-server" ], "command": "uvx", "env": { "ALATION_AUTH_METHOD": "service_account", "ALATION_BASE_URL": "https://your-alation-instance.com", "ALATION_CLIENT_ID": "your-client-id", "ALATION_CLIENT_SECRET": "your-client-secret" } } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/data.catalogue", "tool": "https://letme.dev/alation" }, "area": "business", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Alation, Inc.", "domain": "alation.com", "domainRegistered": "1998-07-27", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://www.alation.com/legal/msa/", "privacy": "https://www.alation.com/legal/privacy-policy/", "statusPage": "https://status.alationcloud.com", "changelog": "https://developer.alation.com/dev/docs/running-api-release-notes", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The MSA (version 10 April 2026) and the privacy policy (version 23 September 2026) name Alation, Inc., 3 Lagoon Drive, Suite 300, Redwood City, CA 94065. The MSA is governed by Delaware law, or by the law of England and Wales for customers in the UK, EEA and Switzerland.", "Cloud instances and the status page are on alationcloud.com, a second domain of the vendor's. The agent SDK's guides give `your-instance.alationcloud.com` as the instance host.", "www.alation.com/.well-known/security.txt returns 404. The security page sends reports to security@alation.com.", "The privacy policy covers Alation websites and other Alation services. Customer personal data in the product is governed by the Data Privacy Addendum of 10 April 2026 at https://www.alation.com/legal/online-dpa/.", "RDAP gives alation.com a registration date of 1998-07-27. We did not establish when Alation acquired the domain." ], "score": 86 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.json", "live": { "slug": "alation", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.alationcloud.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T11:36:47.259400669Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T11:36:47.259400669Z" } }, "answer": "Alation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community.", "b": { "slug": "datahub", "name": "DataHub", "vendor": "Acryl Data, Inc. (DataHub)", "vendorUrl": "https://datahub.com", "kind": "platform", "category": "company-knowledge", "summary": "Open-source data catalogue and metadata platform from Acryl Data, trading as DataHub.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datahub.json", "repo": "https://github.com/datahub-project/datahub", "license": "Apache-2.0 (DataHub Core and mcp-server-datahub). DataHub Cloud, its managed MCP endpoint and Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context are closed", "transports": [ "stdio", "http", "streamable-http" ], "remoteUrl": "https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "mcp-server-datahub" }, { "registry": "oci", "name": "docker.io/acryldata/mcp-server-datahub" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "acryl-datahub" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Every DataHub instance takes a personal access token as `Authorization: Bearer`. A token belongs to a user and carries that user's privileges, needs the Generate Personal Access Tokens privilege, and expires after 1 hour to 365 days, with never-expiring tokens off by default. The local MCP server reads `DATAHUB_GMS_URL` and `DATAHUB_GMS_TOKEN` from the environment or `~/.datahubenv`. Its HTTP mode refuses a shared token, takes each client's own bearer token and rejects tokens in the query string. DataHub Cloud's managed endpoint adds OAuth 2.0 with dynamic client registration from Cloud v1.0.2. Tokens have no scopes of their own.", "pricing": "freemium", "pricingNotes": "DataHub Core and the MCP server are Apache-2.0 and free to self-host. DataHub Cloud has no published prices. The Cloud vs Core page says pricing is scoped to the use case, asks you to contact sales, and names a 99.5 per cent uptime SLA. datahub.com/pricing/ returns 404 and we found no free trial (checked 2026-10-03).", "priceSummary": "Freemium", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs, the Cloud pages or the MCP server source (checked 2026-10-03).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 8, "popularity": { "githubStars": 12800, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": 1634029, "asOf": "2026-10-03" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.datahub.com/docs/features/feature-guides/mcp", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.datahub.com/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "data.catalogue", "data.lineage", "work.docs" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "self-hosted", "hosted", "mcp", "oauth", "llms-txt", "python", "java", "docker", "freemium", "enterprise", "read-only-mode", "telemetry-default-on", "pre-1.0", "status-page" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-25", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 59.4, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 497, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 842, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 78, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 10, "reliability": 68, "schema": 81, "security": 65, "transparency": 64 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-03" }, "negative": -5, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-03-11. Since the modular rewrite synced on 11 March 2026, every mcp-server-datahub tool call sends a Mixpanel event, on by default, with the tool name, the MCP client's name and version (added 16 March), result length, duration and the first 500 characters of any error message. The telemetry page lists CLI invocations and error types, and neither it, the README nor the MCP docs mention MCP tool calls. Error text can carry URNs from the catalogue, so more than counts, -3 (https://github.com/acryldata/mcp-server-datahub/blob/main/src/mcp_server_datahub/_telemetry.py; https://github.com/datahub-project/datahub/blob/master/docs/deploy/telemetry.md)", "2026-02-04 to 2026-05-19. Four advisories in twelve months, CVE-2026-25644 (7.5, the LDAP ingestion source turned off TLS certificate checks, fixed in 1.3.1.8), CVE-2026-44501 (4.3, cookie deserialisation in the OIDC callback, fixed in 1.5.0.3) and two open redirects. All fixed and published, so decayed, -2 (https://github.com/datahub-project/datahub/security/advisories)" ], "verdict": "Apache-2.0 platform and MCP server, run with `uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest` or the acryldata/mcp-server-datahub Docker image against DataHub Core or DataHub Cloud. The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar.", "bestFor": "Teams already running DataHub who want agents to find tables, trace column lineage, read the SQL people run and see owners and glossary terms before touching data.", "strengths": [ "Apache-2.0 platform and MCP server, run with `uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest` or the acryldata/mcp-server-datahub Docker image against DataHub Core or DataHub Cloud", "Write tools stay off until `TOOLS_IS_MUTATION_ENABLED=true`, and all 10 read tools carry readOnlyHint", "One filter string on search and lineage (`platform = snowflake AND env = PROD`), paging capped at 50, facet-only searches and an 80,000-token response budget", "The shared HTTP mode refuses a server-wide token, takes each user's own bearer token in the header only and rejects tokens in the query string", "CI runs unit tests and integration tests against DataHub quickstarts for Cloud, v1.3.0 and head, passing on main, and DataHub tagged five releases between 4 August and 25 September 2026" ], "weaknesses": [ "The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar", "Every tool call sends a Mixpanel event by default with the tool name, the client and up to 500 characters of any error message, and no docs page mentions it", "The MCP server is pre-1.0 (0.7.1), and CHANGELOG.md stops at 0.5.3 with a breaking HTTP change still under Unreleased", "The docs page lists Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context and says every tool carries destructiveHint and idempotentHint, which the open-source server doesn't set", "No published DataHub Cloud prices or trial, no DPA or subprocessor list, and the privacy policy excludes paying customers' use of the service" ], "agentNotes": [ "Start keyword queries with `/q` and pass filters as one string, such as `entity_type = dataset AND platform = snowflake`", "Call `search` with `num_results=0` first to get the tags, glossary terms, platforms and domains in use", "Page with `offset`. `num_results` is capped at 50", "Expect no write tools unless the operator set `TOOLS_IS_MUTATION_ENABLED=true`, and create tags and terms before `add_tags` or `add_terms` refers to them", "Use https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp with OAuth only on DataHub Cloud v1.0.2 or later. DataHub Core needs the local server and a personal access token" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 3.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 59.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 78, "maintenance": 77, "payments": 10, "reliability": 68, "schema": 81, "security": 65, "transparency": 55 }, "provenanceScore": 72 }, "connect": { "install": "uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest", "claudeCode": "claude mcp add datahub \\\n -e DATAHUB_GMS_URL=\"\u003cyour-datahub-url\u003e\" \\\n -e DATAHUB_GMS_TOKEN=\"\u003cyour-datahub-token\u003e\" \\\n -- uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest", "config": { "mcpServers": { "datahub": { "args": [ "mcp-server-datahub@latest" ], "command": "\u003cfull-path-to-uvx\u003e", "env": { "DATAHUB_GMS_TOKEN": "\u003cyour-datahub-token\u003e", "DATAHUB_GMS_URL": "\u003cyour-datahub-url\u003e" } } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/data.catalogue", "tool": "https://letme.dev/datahub" }, "area": "business", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Acryl Data, Inc. (d/b/a DataHub)", "domain": "datahub.com", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "https://datahub.com/terms-of-service/", "privacy": "https://datahub.com/privacy-policy/", "statusPage": "https://status.datahub.com", "changelog": "https://github.com/datahub-project/datahub/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-03", "notes": [ "The datahub.com footer reads Acryl Data, Inc., and the privacy policy of 11 August 2026 names Acryl Data, Inc. d/b/a DataHub.", "The terms of service (28 May 2020) cover the website only. Paid use is governed by a Master Services Agreement we couldn't read.", "The shared managed MCP endpoint is mcp.datahub.com, and tenant endpoints sit on \u003ctenant\u003e.acryl.io. A self-hosted MCP server answers on the operator's own host.", "datahub.com/.well-known/security.txt returns 404. SECURITY.md routes reports to security@datahub.com with a PGP key, and advisories are published on GitHub.", "status.datahub.com runs on incident.io with one component, DataHub Cloud, and history from July 2026." ], "score": 72 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub.json", "live": { "slug": "datahub", "probe": { "target": "https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-09T11:46:26.483235405Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 401, "lastMs": 678, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 751, "p95ms24h": 897, "samples24h": 259, "samples30d": 1535, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 54, "ok": 54 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 125, "ok": 125 } ] }, "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.datahub.com", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-09T11:38:52.811506871Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "datahub-project/datahub", "version": "v1.7.0.1", "released": "2026-09-03", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:07:53.931810108Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "acryl-datahub", "version": "1.7.0.14", "released": "2026-09-29", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:07:52.160234262Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "mcp-server-datahub", "version": "0.7.1", "released": "2026-09-16", "seenAt": "2026-10-08T16:07:51.908303092Z" } ], "githubStars": 12798, "pypiWeekly": 6934, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://datahub.com/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T15:38:58.351228498Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.datahub.com/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T14:00:17.971212371Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "datahub.com", "registered": "1995-03-16", "source": "https://rdap.verisign.com/com/v1/domain/datahub.com", "checkedAt": "2026-10-04T13:10:21.931110985Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://datahub.com/privacy-policy/", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:16:52.177732376Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "52be5c18d1d7" }, { "url": "https://datahub.com/terms-of-service/", "kind": "terms", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-08T18:16:54.485240524Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "c6e186f631f7" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-09T11:46:26.483235405Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "HTTP API", "b": "Model platform", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Alation, Inc.", "b": "Acryl Data, Inc. (DataHub)", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio", "b": "stdio, HTTP, Streamable HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "OAuth or key", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Paid", "b": "Freemium", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0", "b": "Apache-2.0 (DataHub Core and mcp-server-datahub). DataHub Cloud, its managed MCP endpoint and Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context are closed", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "16", "b": "8", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-03", "b": "2026-09-25", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2020-05-28", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "2026-08-11", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "not found in the text", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk", "b": "13k stars, 1.6M PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "3.5/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Alation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Alation or DataHub?" }, { "answer": "Alation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. DataHub has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp.", "question": "Can an agent call Alation and DataHub without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "No open-source release is listed for Alation. DataHub is open source (Apache-2.0 (DataHub Core and mcp-server-datahub). DataHub Cloud, its managed MCP endpoint and Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context are closed).", "question": "Are Alation and DataHub open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 64" ], "also": [ "No incidents deducted, where DataHub loses 5 points for them" ], "goodFor": "A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.", "slug": "alation", "watchFor": "No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 68 against 61", "Agent ergonomics, 78 against 71", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 10 against 0", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 77 against 71" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install", "Open source" ], "goodFor": "Teams already running DataHub who want agents to find tables, trace column lineage, read the SQL people run and see owners and glossary terms before touching data.", "slug": "datahub", "watchFor": "The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar" } ], "job": { "capability": "data.catalogue", "name": "Data catalogues" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.json", "title": "Alation vs Cohere North", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.json", "title": "Alation vs Dust", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.json", "title": "Alation vs Glean", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.json", "title": "Alation vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx.json", "title": "Alation vs Onyx", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock.json", "title": "Alation vs Overclock", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan.json", "title": "Alation vs Atlan", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot.json", "title": "Alation vs Marmot", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata.json", "title": "Alation vs OpenMetadata", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-datahub.json", "title": "Atlan vs DataHub", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-datahub" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-marmot.json", "title": "DataHub vs Marmot", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-marmot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-openmetadata.json", "title": "DataHub vs OpenMetadata", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-openmetadata" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.json", "title": "DataHub vs Guru", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru" } ], "scores": [ { "alation": 61, "by": 7, "datahub": 68, "edge": "datahub", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "alation": 78, "by": 3, "datahub": 81, "edge": "datahub", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "weight": 13 }, { "alation": 71, "by": 7, "datahub": 78, "edge": "datahub", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "weight": 13 }, { "alation": 63, "by": 2, "datahub": 65, "edge": "datahub", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "weight": 14 }, { "alation": 0, "by": 10, "datahub": 10, "edge": "datahub", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "alation": 71, "by": 6, "datahub": 77, "edge": "datahub", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "weight": 7 }, { "alation": 76, "by": 12, "datahub": 64, "edge": "alation", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Alation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community. Both do data catalogues.", "verdicts": { "alation": "Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.", "datahub": "Apache-2.0 platform and MCP server, run with `uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest` or the acryldata/mcp-server-datahub Docker image against DataHub Core or DataHub Cloud. The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.min.md" }, "markdown": "Alation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community. Both do data catalogues.\n\n- Alation: grade C, 60.3/100, rank #472 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/alation.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json\n- DataHub: grade C, 59.4/100, rank #497 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datahub.json\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Alation (C)\n\nGood for: A company already on Alation Cloud Service that wants agents to find governed tables, columns, queries, BI reports and lineage, and to run read-only SQL against data products, under an Alation role.\n\nAhead on:\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 76 against 64\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No incidents deducted, where DataHub loses 5 points for them\n\nWatch for: No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address redirects to a sales form\n\n### DataHub (C)\n\nGood for: Teams already running DataHub who want agents to find tables, trace column lineage, read the SQL people run and see owners and glossary terms before touching data.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 68 against 61\n- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 71\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 10 against 0\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 77 against 71\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Alation | DataHub | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 61 | 68 | DataHub +7 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 81 | DataHub +3 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 71 | 78 | DataHub +7 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 65 | DataHub +2 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 10 | DataHub +10 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 71 | 77 | DataHub +6 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 76 | 64 | Alation +12 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |\n| **Total** | | **60.3 · C** | **59.4 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Alation | DataHub |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | HTTP API | Model platform |\n| Vendor | Alation, Inc. | Acryl Data, Inc. (DataHub) |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp` |\n| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | stdio, HTTP, Streamable HTTP |\n| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | Proprietary service under Alation's Master Cloud Software Licence and Services Agreement. The AI Agent SDK, the MCP server package, the Allie SDK and the Data Quality SDK are Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 (DataHub Core and mcp-server-datahub). DataHub Cloud, its managed MCP endpoint and Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context are closed |\n| Tools exposed | 16 | 8 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-03 | 2026-09-25 |\n| Terms last updated | no date given | 2020-05-28 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-08-11 |\n| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 19 stars, 2.1k PyPI/wk | 13k stars, 1.6M PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Alation.** Each API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, and OAuth clients are bound to an Alation role with revocable tokens and rotatable secrets. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published. The agent SDK and local MCP server have stayed at a release candidate since 14 January 2026.\n\n**DataHub.** Apache-2.0 platform and MCP server, run with `uvx mcp-server-datahub@latest` or the acryldata/mcp-server-datahub Docker image against DataHub Core or DataHub Cloud. The eight default tools carry about 26,000 characters of descriptions, and search and get_lineage each repeat the same 3,063-character filter grammar.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Alation\n\n1. Ask a Server Admin to register an OAuth client application with the lowest role that fits. Only admins can create one, and the secret is shown once\n2. Pin `alation-ai-agent-mcp==1.0.0rc3`. An unpinned install resolves to 0.12.0, which predates the catalogue search agent\n3. Call `catalog_context_search_agent` for catalogue questions. `alation_context` is deprecated and its description tells models not to call it directly\n4. Watch `X-Entitlement-Usage` on Aggregated Context API responses. The 2,000 free calls never reset, and a quota 429 is not retryable\n5. Page with `limit` and `skip` and follow `X-Next-Page`. The BI Source API uses `offset`, and one call returns at most 1,000 objects\n\n### DataHub\n\n1. Start keyword queries with `/q` and pass filters as one string, such as `entity_type = dataset AND platform = snowflake`\n2. Call `search` with `num_results=0` first to get the tags, glossary terms, platforms and domains in use\n3. Page with `offset`. `num_results` is capped at 50\n4. Expect no write tools unless the operator set `TOOLS_IS_MUTATION_ENABLED=true`, and create tags and terms before `add_tags` or `add_terms` refers to them\n5. Use https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp with OAuth only on DataHub Cloud v1.0.2 or later. DataHub Core needs the local server and a personal access token\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Alation or DataHub?\n\nAlation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community.\n\n### Can an agent call Alation and DataHub without installing anything?\n\nAlation runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. DataHub has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp.\n\n### Are Alation and DataHub open source?\n\nNo open-source release is listed for Alation. DataHub is open source (Apache-2.0 (DataHub Core and mcp-server-datahub). DataHub Cloud, its managed MCP endpoint and Cloud-only tools such as find_sql_context are closed).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"alation\", \"b\": \"datahub\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare alation datahub`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/alation.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datahub.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Alation or DataHub\n\n- [Alation vs Cohere North](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-cohere-north.md)\n- [Alation vs Dust](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-dust.md)\n- [Alation vs Glean](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-glean.md)\n- [Alation vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-guru.md)\n- [Alation vs Onyx](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-onyx.md)\n- [Alation vs Overclock](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-overclock.md)\n- [Alation vs Atlan](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-atlan.md)\n- [Alation vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-marmot.md)\n- [Alation vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-openmetadata.md)\n- [Atlan vs DataHub](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-datahub.md)\n- [DataHub vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-marmot.md)\n- [DataHub vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-openmetadata.md)\n- [DataHub vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-09", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Alation vs DataHub", "url": "" } ], "description": "Alation and DataHub score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 60.3 (C) and 59.4 (C). DataHub leads on reliability, agent ergonomics, payments \u0026 pricing and maintenance \u0026 community. Both do data catalogues. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by…", "facts": [ "Alation C 60.3", "DataHub C 59.4", "scores" ], "h1": "Alation vs DataHub", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-alation-vs-datahub.png", "path": "/compare/alation-vs-datahub", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Alation vs DataHub for AI agents, C 60.3 vs C 59.4 | Anchor Terminal", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-09", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/alation-vs-datahub" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2250, "slim": 780 }, "version": 1 }