What are the pros and cons of Snowplow? What alternatives should we consider?
Userlevel 2
Pros:
- You can get ETL-as-a-service for this source from Snowplow Inc, or from Fivetran (my company)
- If your event collector goes down, snowplow.js will buffer the events in localStorage in the user’s web-browser, so you won’t lose any data.
Cons:
- You need to provide a JSON schema for all your custom attributes, which is a bit over-engineered.
- The documentation on github is a bit messy.
Alternatives:
- Segment
- Just make HTTP requests to a webhooks collector.
Just using webhooks is an underrated approach. These JS pixels don’t add a ton of value.
I’d consider Snowplow and Segment (we went with Segment but I know other people who have gone with Snowplough). One of the big differences is that Snowplow offers consultancy service at a reasonable price to help you model your data, etc. which may be a big advantage if you don’t have the spare capacity to do an implementation in-house.
Reply
Enter your username or e-mail address. We'll send you an e-mail with instructions to reset your password.