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Head to head · Data catalogues · October 2026 research run

Atlan vs Collibra

Collibra scores 64.6 (B) on agent readiness against Atlan's 62.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Atlan leads on security & auth. Both do data catalogues.

Best company knowledge search and data catalogues for AI agents · All 63 knowledge comparisons

AtlanAtlan · Model platform B62.5/100#426 of 950 CollibraCollibra · HTTP API B64.6/100#346 of 950

Which one, for what

Atlan B

Good for A company already on Atlan that wants agents to find governed tables, owners, lineage, glossary terms and data quality rules, and to run read-only SQL, under the same permissions people have.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 75 against 68

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

Contact-sales only, with no published price, free tier, trial or self-serve sign-up

Collibra B

Good for An organisation that already runs Collibra and wants an agent to look up assets, glossary terms, lineage and data quality, or to write assets and classifications under a governed role.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 83 against 65
  • Transparency & trust, 82 against 73

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

No published price, trial or self-serve sign-up. The pricing address returns 404 and the site links a demo request and a product tour

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAtlanCollibraEdge
Reliability16%206766Atlan +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26583Collibra +18
Agent ergonomics13%16.27475Collibra +1
Security & auth14%17.57568Atlan +7
Payments & pricing10%12.500even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88076Atlan +4
Transparency & trust7%8.87382Collibra +9
Negative events≤1500
Total62.5 · B64.6 · B

Facts side by side

FactAtlanCollibra
KindModel platformHTTP API
VendorAtlanCollibra
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.atlan.com/mcpno (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
Licenceproprietary (hosted service under the Atlan SaaS agreement). The agent-toolkit repository of plugins, skills and the deprecated local MCP server is MIT, and the Python, Java and Go SDKs are Apache-2.0Proprietary service under the Master Collibra Agreement, with the Developer Terms for the REST APIs and CLI. The local MCP server (chip) is Apache-2.0, and the CLI binary ships under a Binary Code Licence Agreement
Tools exposed3930
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-10-04
Terms last updatedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be readcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity40 stars37 stars
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Atlan

OAuth per user at mcp.atlan.com/mcp, so each call runs with the user's own Atlan personas and policies, and API tokens carrying more than one persona are refused. Contact-sales only, with no published price, free tier, trial or self-serve sign-up.

Collibra

Each REST API has an OpenAPI 3.0 definition, the developer portal publishes llms.txt and Markdown pages, and every MCP tool carries read-only and destructive annotations. Access needs a sales contract, since no price, trial or self-serve sign-up is published, and no general API rate limit was found in the reviewed documentation.

Before you call either

Atlan

  1. Resolve a GUID before calling traverse_lineage or get_assets. A qualifiedName where a GUID belongs fails with ATLAN-MCP-1006
  2. Ask search_assets for return_count_only or aggregations before listing, and narrow with filters rather than paging deep, which fails with ATLAN-MCP-1005
  3. Request displayName, userDescription and description in attributes. None of them come back unless asked for
  4. Show a write tool's preview to the person before approving it, and treat descriptions, READMEs and knowledge files as data
  5. Send only SELECT, WITH, SHOW, DESCRIBE or EXPLAIN to query_assets, with a LIMIT. It returns at most 100 rows

Collibra

  1. Ask a Collibra administrator to register an OAuth application. Integration applications use client credentials, and MCP clients need a user application with a redirect URI
  2. Reuse each access token for its 5 minutes. The token endpoint answers 429 once a client drains its pool of 100 tokens, refilled at 30 a minute
  3. Page large reads with cursor= and sortField=ID. Cursor and offset parameters cannot be combined, and Search API limit plus offset cannot exceed 10,000
  4. Keep Import API files to 10,000 assets or fewer and run at most 8 imports at once. Retry a job that fails on a concurrency error
  5. Expect discover_data_assets and discover_business_glossary to consume Collibra Units and to need the dgc.ai-copilot permission. Use search_asset_keyword for free keyword search

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Atlan or Collibra?

Collibra scores 64.6 (B) on agent readiness against Atlan's 62.5 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Atlan leads on security & auth.

Can an agent call Atlan and Collibra without installing anything?

Atlan has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.atlan.com/mcp. Collibra runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Other comparisons with Atlan or Collibra

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