Great write-up. For that last comment, my understanding is Fivetran is more focused/specialized on ELT/ETL - getting data to a storage solution like a warehouse. Segment does a bit of that, but is much more focused/better at on real-time streaming and unifying into user profiles for marketing teams. Hence the integration between the two (allowing them to stay in their own lane and have mutual customers)
One question, how does a CDP like Segment differ from what Mulesoft does? Are they solving the same problem but in different ways? Any color on this would be appreciated. Sent the same question on twitter DM but thought it is better to share your knowledge publicly so I post it here also :)
Mulesoft's core functionality is to connect applications (that aren't already connected) without having to write code and to easily build system APIs for applications that were not originally built with exposed APIs. Once the applications are exposed, Mulesoft also allows you to build an API layer above the application layer (called process APIs) which can roll-up multiple applications or expose multiple applications through one API, limiting the amount of code a developer needs to write when accessing data from or sending data to multiple applications. Mulesoft's user interface is primarily a workflow engine to connect these different applications and visualize where data is flowing.
Segment is primarily used as a GUI to tag objects on web applications. Once objects are tagged they can track what a customer is doing and this information can be saved into a customer profile. This works for "known" or registered users and "unknown" or random visits to the website. Once this information is captured, it's powerful for marketers to understand the customer journey and to build marketing campaigns based on journeys. This is also powerful for product teams as they can understand how users are experiencing the website.
I'm trying to understand how Amplitude/Pendo differ from Segment as they both seem to track web/mobile events. I guess Amplitude provides better experimentation and A/B testing but any clarification would be great!
AFAIK Segment is basically a smart pipe. It can track events, but that data needs to be sent somewhere to be used (eg: Amplitude helps you run cohort analysis on data you might track with Segment)
Great write-up. For that last comment, my understanding is Fivetran is more focused/specialized on ELT/ETL - getting data to a storage solution like a warehouse. Segment does a bit of that, but is much more focused/better at on real-time streaming and unifying into user profiles for marketing teams. Hence the integration between the two (allowing them to stay in their own lane and have mutual customers)
One question, how does a CDP like Segment differ from what Mulesoft does? Are they solving the same problem but in different ways? Any color on this would be appreciated. Sent the same question on twitter DM but thought it is better to share your knowledge publicly so I post it here also :)
By no means an expert but here is my take -
Mulesoft's core functionality is to connect applications (that aren't already connected) without having to write code and to easily build system APIs for applications that were not originally built with exposed APIs. Once the applications are exposed, Mulesoft also allows you to build an API layer above the application layer (called process APIs) which can roll-up multiple applications or expose multiple applications through one API, limiting the amount of code a developer needs to write when accessing data from or sending data to multiple applications. Mulesoft's user interface is primarily a workflow engine to connect these different applications and visualize where data is flowing.
Segment is primarily used as a GUI to tag objects on web applications. Once objects are tagged they can track what a customer is doing and this information can be saved into a customer profile. This works for "known" or registered users and "unknown" or random visits to the website. Once this information is captured, it's powerful for marketers to understand the customer journey and to build marketing campaigns based on journeys. This is also powerful for product teams as they can understand how users are experiencing the website.
I'm trying to understand how Amplitude/Pendo differ from Segment as they both seem to track web/mobile events. I guess Amplitude provides better experimentation and A/B testing but any clarification would be great!
AFAIK Segment is basically a smart pipe. It can track events, but that data needs to be sent somewhere to be used (eg: Amplitude helps you run cohort analysis on data you might track with Segment)