# Atlan vs DataHub

> Atlan has a score of 62.7 (B) against DataHub's 59.5 (C). Both do data catalogues. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 16 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Atlan has a score of 62.7 (B) against DataHub's 59.5 (C). Both do data catalogues. The largest gap is schema & documentation, 16 points.

- Atlan: grade B, 62.7/100, rank #213 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/atlan.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/atlan.json
- DataHub: grade C, 59.5/100, rank #263 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/datahub.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/datahub.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Atlan for security & auth (+10), transparency & trust (+10).

Pick DataHub for schema & documentation (+16), payments & pricing (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Atlan | DataHub | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 67 | 68 | DataHub +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 81 | DataHub +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 78 | DataHub +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 75 | 65 | Atlan +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 0 | 10 | DataHub +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 80 | 77 | Atlan +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 65 | Atlan +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **62.7 · B** | **59.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Atlan | DataHub |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model platform | Model platform |
| Vendor | Atlan | Acryl Data, Inc. (DataHub) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.atlan.com/mcp` | `https://mcp.datahub.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | stdio, HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | proprietary (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-2.0 | 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 |
| Tools exposed | 39 | 8 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-25 |
| Popularity | 40 stars | 13k stars, 1.6M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (2) |

## 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.

**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.

## 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

### DataHub

1. Start keyword queries with `/q` and pass filters as one string, such as `entity_type = dataset AND platform = snowflake`
2. Call `search` with `num_results=0` first to get the tags, glossary terms, platforms and domains in use
3. Page with `offset`. `num_results` is capped at 50
4. 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
5. 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

## Other comparisons with Atlan or DataHub

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- [Atlan vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-marmot.md)
- [Atlan vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atlan-vs-openmetadata.md)
- [DataHub vs Marmot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-marmot.md)
- [DataHub vs OpenMetadata](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-openmetadata.md)
- [DataHub vs Guru](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/datahub-vs-guru.md)