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Great Expectations

Open-source data validation framework that helps teams eliminate pipeline debt through data testing, documentation, and profiling.

Open Source
10K+ users
Free
Author: Paul Huston
Overview

Great Expectations is the leading open-source Python-based data validation framework. It helps data teams eliminate pipeline debt through data testing, documentation, and profiling. The framework allows you to assert what you expect from your data, and it will tell you whether your expectations are met.

With Great Expectations, you can create expectations (assertions) about your data, validate data against those expectations, and generate data documentation automatically. It's designed to be human-readable and machine-executable.

Customer Success Story

Vimeo Analytics

Media & Entertainment

"Great Expectations helps us test data pipelines and ensure data quality across our analytics infrastructure."

Source: greatexpectations.io

Key Features

Data Validation

Create and run data quality tests with over 300 built-in expectations

Automated Testing

Integrate data tests into your CI/CD pipeline

Data Docs

Automatically generate beautiful, human-readable documentation

Data Profiling

Understand your data structure and quality metrics

Advantages
  • Highly customizable with extensive expectation library
  • Strong community support and active development
  • Excellent documentation and learning resources
  • Integrates with major data platforms and tools
  • Free and open source
Things to be aware of
  • Steep learning curve for beginners
  • Initial setup can be complex
  • Requires Python knowledge
  • Can be resource-intensive for large datasets
Pricing

Open Source

Free

Full access to the Great Expectations framework with community support

  • • All core features
  • • Community support
  • • GitHub repository access
  • • Documentation and tutorials

Great Expectations Cloud

Contact Sales

Managed service with additional enterprise features

  • • Hosted infrastructure
  • • Enterprise support
  • • Advanced collaboration features
  • • SSO and security controls
Best For

Data Engineers

Building robust data pipelines with automated testing

Data Scientists

Ensuring data quality for ML models and analysis

Data Teams

Organizations wanting open-source flexibility

Implementation & Setup

Time to Value

1-2 weeks for basic setup

Technical Requirements

Python 3.7+, pandas, SQL database

Implementation Complexity

Moderate - requires Python knowledge

Required Expertise

Data engineers, Python developers

Onboarding Support

Extensive docs, tutorials, community

Learning Curve

Steep initially, powerful once mastered

Integration Capabilities

Native Integrations

Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Postgres, Spark

API Quality

Comprehensive Python API, well-documented

Data Export/Import

JSON, HTML reports, programmatic access

Webhook Support

Custom notifications via Python

Pre-built Connectors

20+ database connectors included

Custom Development

Highly extensible, custom expectations

Total Cost of Ownership

Implementation Cost

$10K-50K in developer time

Ongoing Maintenance

Low - stable open source project

Contract Terms

Open source - no contracts

ROI Timeline

3-6 months for data quality improvements

vs Alternatives

90% cost savings vs enterprise tools