Hevo Data vs Hightouch vs SingleStore: Which Is Right for You in 2026?

Hevo Data and Hightouch both move data around a warehouse but in opposite directions — Hevo is ELT that loads data into the warehouse, Hightouch is reverse…

Hevo Data

Freemium · From Free (up to 1M events/month); paid plans from about $265/month billed annually

Best for: Data teams that need a no-code ELT pipeline to move data from 150+ sources into a warehouse with built-in transformations and change data capture.

Hightouch

Contact for pricing

Best for: Marketing and RevOps teams that want to activate warehouse data directly into 300+ marketing/sales tools, rather than storing data themselves.

SingleStore

Usage-based (free tier available) · From Free (Shared tier); Standard plans from $0.99 per hour

Best for: Engineering teams that need a single distributed SQL database to power both transactional and real-time analytical workloads at scale.

At a Glance

 Hevo DataHightouchSingleStore
Primary categoryDatabasesDatabasesDatabases
RatingNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemiumContact for pricingUsage-based (free tier available)
Starting priceFree (up to 1M events/month); paid plans from about $265/month billed annuallyNot documentedFree (Shared tier); Standard plans from $0.99 per hour
Free planYesNot documentedYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsNot documentedWebNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedYesYes
Public APIYesYesYes

Standout Differences

Opposite data flows: Hevo in, Hightouch out

Hevo Data is an ELT platform that pulls data from 150+ sources into a warehouse using change data capture, while Hightouch is a reverse-ETL / composable CDP that pushes warehouse data back out into 300+ marketing and sales tools. They sit on either side of the same warehouse rather than competing for the same job.

Hevo Data, Hightouch

Only Hevo and SingleStore publish a starting price

Hevo Data shows a free tier (up to 1M events/month) and paid plans from roughly $265/month billed annually. SingleStore is usage-based with a free Shared tier and Standard plans from $0.99/hour. Hightouch is contact-for-pricing with no published number, which typically signals a sales-led, enterprise-oriented buying process.

Hevo Data, SingleStore, Hightouch

SingleStore isn't a pipeline tool at all

Unlike Hevo and Hightouch, which move data between systems, SingleStore is a destination — a distributed SQL database (formerly MemSQL) built to unify transactional and real-time analytical workloads in one engine, meaning it could sit underneath either of the other two as the warehouse or operational store they read from or write to.

SingleStore

Hightouch has expanded beyond plain reverse ETL

Hightouch now describes itself as a composable CDP and agentic marketing platform, a broader scope than a pure data-movement tool like Hevo — it's positioned for activation and marketing workflows on top of warehouse data, not just syncing rows.

Hightouch

Feature-by-Feature

Pricing & Plans

FeatureHevo DataHightouchSingleStore
Free tierAvailableNot documentedAvailable
Published starting priceAvailableUnavailableAvailable
Usage/consumption-based pricingNot documentedNot documentedAvailable

Core Function

FeatureHevo DataHightouchSingleStore
Data ingestion / ELT into a warehouseAvailableUnavailableNot documented
Reverse ETL / activation to business toolsUnavailableAvailableUnavailable
Database/compute engine (stores and serves queries)UnavailableUnavailableAvailable
Change data capture (CDC)AvailableNot documentedNot documented

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Hevo Data

Free — Free free
Starter — $265-299/month (billed annually) yearly
Professional — $750-849/month (billed annually) yearly
Business Critical — Custom monthly

Hightouch

No individual plan breakdown documented yet.

SingleStore

Shared — Free Monthly
Standard — From $0.99/hour Usage-based (hourly)
Enterprise — From $1.49/hour Usage-based (hourly)
BYOC (Bring Your Own Cloud) — Custom pricing Custom

Pros & Cons

Hevo Data

Pros

  • Broad connector library covering databases and SaaS applications
  • Free tier available for smaller data workloads
  • Automatic handling of schema changes and record-level failures
  • Compliant with major security and privacy standards
  • No-code setup lowers the barrier for non-engineering teams

Cons

  • Costs scale quickly with event volume on paid tiers
  • Advanced features like streaming pipelines and SSO require custom Business Critical pricing
  • Overage charges apply once a plan's event quota is exceeded
  • Some connectors and features are restricted to higher-priced tiers

Hightouch

Pros

  • Activates data directly from the warehouse without duplicating it into a separate system
  • Combines data activation with AI-driven campaign creation in one platform
  • Recognized as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for CDPs
  • SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001 certified for enterprise security needs
  • Used by well-known brands like Spotify and DoorDash

Cons

  • Pricing is not published and requires a sales conversation
  • Requires an existing cloud data warehouse to get full value from the composable CDP model
  • Best suited to mid-market and enterprise teams rather than very small businesses
  • Broad feature set across data and marketing may require onboarding to use effectively

SingleStore

Pros

  • Unifies transactional and analytical workloads in a single database
  • Free Shared tier lowers the barrier to evaluation
  • Full ANSI SQL compatibility eases migration from existing systems
  • Native vector search suits modern AI and RAG use cases
  • Usage-based pricing scales cost with actual workload size

Cons

  • Usage-based hourly pricing can become expensive at large scale
  • Enterprise features (audit logging, PITR) require the higher-priced tier
  • Recent private equity acquisition (2025) introduces some roadmap uncertainty
  • Smaller ecosystem and community than long-established databases like PostgreSQL
  • BYOC and custom enterprise pricing require a sales conversation rather than transparent self-serve pricing

Use Cases

Choose Hevo Data: Data teams that need a no-code ELT pipeline to move data from 150+ sources into a warehouse with built-in transformations and change data capture.
Choose Hightouch: Marketing and RevOps teams that want to activate warehouse data directly into 300+ marketing/sales tools, rather than storing data themselves.
Choose SingleStore: Engineering teams that need a single distributed SQL database to power both transactional and real-time analytical workloads at scale.

Hevo Data

  • Centralizing SaaS & Database Data — Consolidating data from multiple SaaS tools and databases into a central data warehouse.
  • Real-Time Replication via CDC — Replicating database changes in near real time for up-to-date analytics.
  • No-Code ETL for Lean Teams — Building data pipelines without dedicated data engineering resources.
  • Compliant Enterprise Data Pipelines — Running data pipelines that must meet HIPAA, GDPR, or SOC 2 requirements.

Hightouch

  • Audience activation — Building customer segments in the warehouse and syncing them to ad and marketing platforms.
  • AI-driven campaign creation — Using the Agentic Marketing Platform to plan and generate ad creative and campaigns.
  • Customer journey orchestration — Coordinating personalized, cross-channel campaigns based on real-time customer behavior.
  • Enterprise data governance — Activating customer data while meeting SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance requirements.

SingleStore

  • Real-time operational dashboards — Teams use SingleStore to power customer-facing and internal dashboards that need fresh data queried with low latency, without a separate ETL step into a warehouse.
  • AI and retrieval-augmented generation applications — Developers use SingleStore's native vector search alongside relational data to build RAG pipelines and AI-powered search features.
  • High-throughput transactional workloads — Companies with demanding OLTP requirements use SingleStore to combine transaction processing and analytics in one distributed system.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between Hevo Data and Hightouch if both touch a data warehouse?

Hevo Data is an ELT pipeline that loads data from 150+ sources into your warehouse using built-in transformations and change data capture. Hightouch does the reverse: it's a composable CDP and reverse-ETL platform that takes data already sitting in your warehouse and activates it into 300+ marketing and sales tools like Salesforce or HubSpot-style systems. Most teams use both together rather than choosing one over the other.

Can SingleStore replace the warehouse that Hevo Data loads into?

SingleStore is a distributed SQL database built to unify transactional and real-time analytical workloads in one engine, formerly known as MemSQL, so architecturally it could serve as a warehouse-like destination. However, it isn't documented in the data available here whether Hevo Data lists SingleStore among its supported destination connectors, so confirm compatibility before committing.

Which of the three is cheapest to start with?

SingleStore has a free Shared tier and usage-based Standard plans starting at $0.99/hour. Hevo Data has a free tier up to 1 million events/month, after which paid plans start around $265/month billed annually. Hightouch doesn't publish pricing at all — it's contact-for-pricing, so cost depends on a sales conversation.

Do I need Hightouch if I'm already using Hevo Data?

Possibly, if your goal extends beyond centralizing data. Hevo Data brings data into your warehouse from 150+ sources; Hightouch pushes data back out of the warehouse into the marketing and sales tools your team actually works in. They're complementary layers rather than substitutes for each other.

Is SingleStore relevant to a marketing team evaluating Hightouch?

Not directly. SingleStore is an engineering-focused distributed SQL database, not a marketing activation tool, so a marketing team choosing between these three would more likely land on Hightouch for activation. SingleStore would only enter the picture indirectly, as a possible database underneath the warehouse Hightouch reads from.

Read the full Hevo Data review · Read the full Hightouch review · Read the full SingleStore review