
MySQL is one of the most popular relational databases, powering everything from e-commerce platforms to SaaS applications. While it excels at transaction processing, most teams eventually need to move MySQL data into analytics platforms, data warehouses, or other operational systems to unlock deeper insights and automation.
That’s where ETL tools for MySQL come in. These solutions let you extract data from MySQL, transform it into the right format, and load it into destinations like Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, or PostgreSQL. Whether you’re building real-time dashboards, powering AI models, or centralizing data for compliance, a reliable MySQL ETL pipeline is critical.
In this article, we’ll review the best ETL tools for MySQL in 2025 — including Estuary Flow, Fivetran, Informatica, Talend, and Skyvia. Each tool offers a different mix of performance, ease of use, and enterprise readiness, helping you choose the right fit for your use case.
Why ETL Tools Are Critical for MySQL
MySQL is often the source of business-critical data, but by itself it has limits when it comes to analytics and integration. Its built-in replication and export options work for basic use cases, yet they struggle as data volume grows or when teams need to integrate with modern cloud platforms.
ETL tools extend MySQL by making it easier to:
- Build real-time analytics pipelines: Stream MySQL data into warehouses like Snowflake or BigQuery to analyze customer behavior, transactions, or inventory in near real time.
- Support AI and machine learning workflows: Feed fresh data into Databricks or similar platforms for churn prediction, fraud detection, or recommendation models.
- Simplify compliance and governance: Apply consistent transformations, schema enforcement, and auditing before data reaches its destination.
- Enable cross-platform integration: Move MySQL data into SaaS applications, other databases, or reverse ETL pipelines for operational use.
In short, ETL tools unlock MySQL data for modern analytics and AI while reducing the engineering burden of building and maintaining fragile, custom pipelines.
Best ETL Tools for MySQL Integration
MySQL remains one of the most widely used databases, and moving its data efficiently into modern warehouses or other systems is critical for analytics and operations. Today’s ETL tools vary in how they handle real-time vs batch sync, source vs destination support, and enterprise features like security and governance.
Below is a comparison of the leading MySQL ETL tools in 2025, including Estuary Flow, Fivetran, Informatica, Talend, and Skyvia.
1. Estuary
Estuary Flow is a real-time ETL and data streaming platform that makes it simple to capture, process, and sync MySQL data across your ecosystem. Unlike batch-first tools, Flow is built on continuous CDC pipelines using MySQL’s binary log, ensuring exactly-once delivery so your data is always fresh, consistent, and analytics-ready.
Estuary's MySQL connector supports self-hosted and cloud-hosted MySQL instances including Amazon RDS, Amazon Aurora, Google Cloud SQL, and Azure Database for MySQL. It automatically handles initial backfills (batch loads), ongoing change capture, schema drift, and even secure connectivity with options like SSH tunneling. MySQL is supported as both a source and a destination, so teams can either capture data from MySQL or materialize other sources into MySQL.
Key strengths include:
- Real-time CDC: Captures inserts, updates, and deletes directly from the MySQL binary log.
- Backfills and CDC combined: Loads historical data first, then streams ongoing changes for a complete picture.
- Source + Destination: MySQL can be both captured from and written to in Flow pipelines.
- Wide platform support: Works with self-hosted MySQL and managed services like RDS, Aurora, GCP Cloud SQL, and Azure Database for MySQL.
- Enterprise-ready security: Supports BYOC and Private Deployment, with secure networking through VPC peering, PrivateLink, and SSH tunneling.
- Flexible destinations: Materialize MySQL data to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, and more.
- Schema enforcement: Automatically detects schema changes and validates data integrity.
- Read replicas support: Capture directly from MySQL read replicas to reduce load on primary databases.
- Pricing: Estuary Flow offers a transparent, volume-based pricing model with a free tier and pay-as-you-go options, making it significantly more cost-efficient than row-based or batch-focused competitors.
With Estuary Flow, teams can unify MySQL with other operational databases and SaaS applications in real time, enabling advanced analytics, machine learning, and real-time customer experiences without the complexity of custom pipelines.
👉 Ready to try it? Start syncing MySQL data with Estuary Flow.
2. Fivetran
Fivetran is a fully managed ETL/ELT platform with strong support for MySQL as both a source and a destination. It minimizes engineering work by automating schema evolution, monitoring, and reliability.
The connector supports MySQL 5.5–8.4 across major services like Amazon RDS, Aurora (v1, v2, Serverless), Azure Database for MySQL, Google Cloud SQL, and Generic MySQL. It works with both primary instances and read replicas for flexible sync options.
Key strengths include:
- CDC with binlog replication: Fivetran captures inserts, updates, and deletes using MySQL’s binary log for accurate incremental syncs.
- Teleport Sync option: Proprietary incremental sync method available when binlog access is not possible, though it has row and table limits.
- Automatic schema evolution: Adjusts to changes like new fields or updated types without breaking pipelines.
- Enterprise security: Supports private networking via AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link, and proxy agents for secure deployments.
- System metadata: Adds _fivetran_deleted, _fivetran_synced, and _fivetran_id columns for tracking row state and sync history.
Considerations: While Fivetran is reliable, it remains batch-first rather than streaming, so real-time use cases may face latency. The Monthly Active Rows (MAR)-based pricing can also become expensive at scale, especially for high-volume MySQL workloads.
3. Informatica
Informatica is an enterprise-grade data integration platform that offers deep support for MySQL through its Informatica Intelligent Cloud Services (IICS). It is widely used by large organizations that need robust governance, compliance, and complex transformation capabilities.
Informatica’s MySQL connector allows you to use MySQL as both a source and a target, supporting cloud-hosted and on-premises databases. It integrates with MySQL via JDBC and ODBC drivers, enabling batch and incremental data extraction, transformation, and loading into destinations such as cloud data warehouses or analytics platforms.
Key strengths include:
- Wide compatibility: Supports MySQL across self-hosted and managed cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
- Advanced transformations: Built-in data quality, cleansing, and enrichment tools.
- Enterprise features: Strong security, data governance, and compliance capabilities.
- Flexible deployment: Available in the cloud, on-premises, or hybrid environments.
- Integration breadth: Works with hundreds of enterprise systems beyond MySQL.
Considerations: Informatica is often more complex to set up and manage compared to SaaS-first tools. It requires configuration of Secure Agents for MySQL connectivity and comes with higher licensing costs, making it best suited for enterprises with advanced compliance needs.
4. Talend
Talend is a versatile data integration and transformation platform that provides strong support for MySQL. It offers both Talend Open Studio (open-source) and Talend Data Fabric (enterprise edition), giving teams flexibility based on budget and requirements.
Talend’s MySQL connectors allow you to use MySQL as a source or destination, supporting batch ingestion, incremental loads, and complex transformations. It integrates with popular cloud warehouses like Snowflake, BigQuery, and Redshift, as well as on-premises systems.
Key strengths include:
- Pre-built MySQL connectors: Easy connectivity for both standard and custom MySQL databases.
- Scalable ETL: Handles large datasets efficiently using bulk loading and incremental syncs.
- Advanced transformations: Rich ETL toolkit with data quality, cleansing, and governance features.
- Hybrid deployments: Available as open-source, enterprise SaaS, or self-managed.
- Ecosystem integration: Connects MySQL with a wide range of SaaS apps, APIs, and databases.
Considerations: Talend requires more engineering involvement than no-code platforms like Fivetran or Skyvia. Its enterprise edition offers powerful governance features but comes with higher licensing costs.
5. Skyvia
Skyvia is a cloud-based, no-code data integration platform that makes it easy to connect MySQL with data warehouses, SaaS applications, and analytics tools. It supports ETL, ELT, and Reverse ETL, making it a flexible option for both technical and non-technical users.
With Skyvia, MySQL can be used as both a source and a destination, enabling one-way or bi-directional syncs. It works entirely in the cloud, so no installation or infrastructure management is required.
Key strengths include:
- No-code interface: Build integrations visually without writing code.
- Versatile data flows: Supports ETL, ELT, and Reverse ETL for sending enriched data back into MySQL.
- Cloud-native: 100% SaaS solution with no local setup.
- Affordable pricing: Tiered plans that scale from SMBs to enterprise needs.
- Broad integration support: Connects MySQL with CRMs like Salesforce, marketing platforms like HubSpot, and warehouses like Snowflake or BigQuery.
Considerations: While Skyvia is great for simplicity and cost-effectiveness, it may not handle very large enterprise workloads as efficiently as platforms like Estuary Flow or Informatica.
MySQL ETL Tools Comparison
Tool | Security & Deployment | Real-Time Support | Transformation Capabilities | Destinations Supported |
Estuary Flow | Private & BYOC, VPC Peering, PrivateLink, SSH tunneling | Exactly-once CDC from MySQL binlog | Schema enforcement, SQL/TypeScript transforms | Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, MySQL, and more |
Fivetran | Enterprise options incl. PrivateLink, mTLS | Primarily batch (periodic syncs) | Automatic schema evolution | Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, etc. |
Informatica | Strong governance, compliance-ready | Event-driven options (PushTopics, CDC) but complex | Advanced enterprise transformations | Hundreds of systems |
Talend | Cloud & hybrid deployment options | Supports CDC with more setup | Strong ETL, data quality, governance | Warehouses, SaaS apps, APIs, on-prem databases |
Skyvia | Cloud-based SaaS, simple setup | Limited real-time, mostly scheduled syncs | Basic transformations | CRMs, SaaS, warehouses |
Still exploring? Join our Slack community to connect with engineers solving similar MySQL data challenges.
Key Takeaways
- Estuary Flow stands out by supporting both real-time CDC and batch backfills, while working as a MySQL source and destination. This makes it ideal for teams who want a single platform for streaming and historical sync.
- Fivetran is great for enterprises seeking a fully managed batch-first ETL, though its MAR-based pricing can become expensive at scale.
- Informatica offers enterprise-grade governance and compliance, best suited for large organizations with complex regulatory needs.
- Talend provides flexible ETL pipelines and advanced transformations but requires more setup for CDC and real-time use cases.
- Skyvia delivers affordable, cloud-based batch integration with basic reverse ETL, making it suitable for small to mid-sized teams.
👉 If you need real-time + batch sync, enterprise-grade security, and the flexibility of both source and destination connectors for MySQL, Estuary Flow is the best fit.
See how companies like Livble and others built real-time pipelines with Estuary Flow in our customer success stories
Conclusion: Picking the Right MySQL ETL Tool
Whether you need real-time CDC pipelines, fully managed batch syncs, or a no-code integration option, the MySQL ETL landscape offers tools for every type of business. If your priority is real-time analytics, unified data across systems, or reducing the overhead of custom pipelines, the right platform can make all the difference in speed, reliability, and cost.
For teams that value both data freshness and enterprise-grade security, Estuary Flow provides the most efficient and scalable path to production-ready MySQL pipelines.
👉 Want to see MySQL CDC in action? Start syncing with Estuary Flow today.

About the author
Team Estuary is a group of engineers, product experts, and data strategists building the future of real-time and batch data integration. We write to share technical insights, industry trends, and practical guides.
