Best Data Transformation Tools in 2026
Updated
In short: LANSA is ranked #1 of 36 as of 4 October 2026, ahead of jq and Prophecy. The best-ranked option with a free plan is jq. The lowest first paid tier on this page is AWS Glue DataBrew at $0.48/mo.
Preparing data for later steps can mean reshaping or cleaning it, and tools differ in how they support that work. Compare supported data formats and the transformation interface, then look at data quality checks, version control, and workflow orchestration. Deployment model can help you assess where a tool fits in your environment; free plan availability and paid-from pricing provide cost context. The ranking begins with KNIME Analytics Platform, Apache Beam, and Dataform, followed by Prophecy and Polars. Consider the data you work with and how you want to build, manage, and run transformations when comparing these entries.
36 data transformation tools ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
| # | App | Score | From | Free plan | Paid from | Deployment model | Transformation interface | Supported data formats | Version control | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LANSA | 6.4 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 2 |  jq | 6.3 | Free | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 3 | Prophecy | 6.3 | $150/mo | Yes | — | cloud | visual | CSV, TSV, JSON, text, XLSX, XLS, XML, fixed-width, Parquet | Yes | View |
| 4 | Coalesce Catalog | 6.2 | $150/mo | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 5 |  csvkit | 6.2 | Free | Yes | — | self_hosted | code | CSV, DBF, fixed-width, GeoJSON, JSON, NDJSON, XLS, XLSX; gzip, bz2 and xz-compressed CSV input | — | View |
| 6 | Cube | 6.2 | $40/mo | Yes | 40 /mo | hybrid | — | — | — | View |
| 7 | Dataform | 6.2 | Free | Yes | — | cloud | sql | SQLX, JavaScript, JSON | Yes | View |
| 8 | dbt Semantic Layer | 6.2 | $100/mo | Yes | — | cloud | — | — | — | View |
| 9 |  Kedro | 6.2 | Free | Yes | — | self_hosted | code | CSV, Excel, Parquet, Feather, HDF5, JSON, SQL tables, SQL queries, Spark DataFrames, XML, Delta tables, Pickle | Yes | View |
| 10 | KNIME Analytics Platform | 6.2 | — | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 11 | Matillion Transform | 6.2 | Free | — | — | hybrid | visual | JSON, AVRO | Yes | View |
| 12 | Apache Beam | 6.1 | Free | — | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 13 | Apache Hop | 6.1 | Free | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 14 | Bruin for Customer Success | 6.1 | Free | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 15 | OpenRefine | 6.1 | Free | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 16 | Visitran | 6.0 | $29/mo | Yes | — | cloud | visual | — | Yes | View |
| 17 |  Tableau | 5.9 | $15/mo | Yes | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 18 |  IRI DarkShield | 5.5 | — | No | — | hybrid | code | Delimited, fixed, line sequential, record sequential, variable sequential, blocked, CSV, JSON, LDIF, XML, COBOL, ODBC tables, Excel, Kafka, MQTT, S3, Azure Blob, GCP storage, HDFS | Yes | View |
| 19 | Centerprise Data Integrator | 5.4 | — | No | — | hybrid | visual | CSV, Excel, fixed-length text, XML, JSON, COBOL, SQL, PDF, database tables | Yes | View |
| 20 | AWS Glue DataBrew | 5.3 | $0.48/mo | No | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 21 | Datameer | 5.3 | — | No | — | — | — | — | — | View |
| 22 | Fugue | 5.3 | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | code | DataFrame-based inputs; Parquet files are shown in examples | — | View |
| 23 | Pentaho Data Integration | 5.3 | — | No | — | hybrid | visual | Flat files, relational databases, Hadoop, NoSQL, cloud storage, JSON, XML, Parquet | Yes | View |
| 24 | Polars | 5.3 | — | Yes | — | hybrid | code | CSV, JSON, Parquet, Delta Lake, Avro, Excel, Feather, Arrow IPC | — | View |
| 25 | Rocky | 5.3 | — | Yes | — | self_hosted | sql | SQL; TOML; warehouse tables including Delta and Iceberg (adapter support varies) | Yes | View |
Is your app on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which data transformation tool is ranked first on Samsung Mobile US Press?
LANSA is ranked #1 of 36 with a score of 6.4. jq is second and Prophecy third.
How many of these have a free plan?
15 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, AWS Glue DataBrew has the lowest first paid tier we found: $0.48/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked mobile-first: a phone app alongside the web or desktop product, a free tier and the depth of its documentation. Paid placements never change a rank.