Headset replaced Airbyte with Estuary, cutting Snowflake ingestion costs by 40%

“Estuary has been a game-changer for Headset’s data infrastructure. Compared to our previous solutions, it has dramatically improved reliability while reducing our overall costs significantly. The real-time ingestion capabilities ensure that our analytics are always powered by the freshest, most accurate data without the operational headaches we faced before.”

Scott Vickers, CTO, Headset

The Challenge

Headset’s data architecture involves moving data from SQL databases into Snowflake to power its analytics platform. Over the years, they experimented with different data integration tools but faced several challenges:

1. Cost and Scalability Issues with Fivetran
   • Initially, Fivetran was reliable but became prohibitively expensive, with a 50% cost increase in costs due to a pricing change.
   • Seeking a more cost-effective solution, they transitioned to Airbyte Cloud about a year ago.
2. Performance & Reliability Issues with Airbyte
   • While Airbyte was more affordable than Fivetran, it introduced major inefficiencies in loading data into Snowflake.
   • Snowflake compute costs skyrocketed by 50% due to Airbyte’s inefficient loading mechanisms.
   • Frequent Sev 0 outages in the first months severely disrupted operations.
   • Support was unresponsive, with critical issues going unresolved for multiple days.
3. Severe Latency & Data Integrity Issues
   • Airbyte jobs, which should have taken 30 minutes, often extended to 6 hours with unexplained latency spikes.
   • 10% of records were missing in certain data loads, leading to significant data accuracy concerns.
   • Airbyte’s MongoDB connector never worked incrementally, requiring full refreshes instead of efficient change-data-capture (CDC).

Faced with escalating costs, unreliable data delivery, and unresponsive support, Headset knew they needed a real-time, scalable, and cost-efficient alternative.

The Solution

Given their frustration with Airbyte, Headset decided to give Estuary a try—and the results were immediate:

1. Superior Snowflake Data Loading
   • Estuary's Snowflake loading method was dramatically more efficient, using 75% fewer Snowflake credits than Airbyte.
   • Flexible real-time streaming into Snowflake allowed granular control over ingestion, allowing the Headset to fine-tune batch frequencies based on cost and performance needs.
2. Massive Cost Savings
   • Estuary was not only more efficient than Airbyte but also cheaper.
   • Snowflake compute costs dropped by 40%, reducing the financial burden of running analytics.
3. Reliability & Performance Gains
   • Estuary’s streaming-first approach eliminated Airbyte’s frequent failures and inconsistencies.
   • No missed records, ensuring complete and accurate data in every sync.
   • Job runtimes were dramatically reduced, from 45–60 minutes with Airbyte to near real-time ingestion.
4. Improved Support & Experience
   • Unlike Airbyte’s two-week response times for Sev 0 tickets, Estuary provided responsive, knowledgeable support.
   • The experience of using Estuary was smoother and more reliable from day one.

The Results

• 75% fewer Snowflake credits used per load
• 40% reduction in overall Snowflake compute costs
• Eliminated missing records—100% data integrity
• No unexplained latency spikes or long job runtimes
• Immediate improvements over Airbyte’s Snowflake inefficiencies
• Reliable support and fast issue resolution

With Estuary Flow, Headset successfully cut costs, improved data reliability, and ensured real-time analytics without the headaches of Airbyte’s inefficiencies. This transformation has empowered them to focus on delivering high-quality cannabis market insights with confidence.