Hightouch Review: Pricing, Features & What the Data Shows
Reverse ETL and composable CDP platform that activates your warehouse data across every business tool.
What Hightouch Does
Hightouch is the leading composable CDP and reverse ETL platform — taking the data models in your warehouse (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks) and syncing them to 200+ business tools so your teams can act on the data, not just analyze it. Founded in 2020, Hightouch has grown beyond basic reverse ETL (which Census pioneered) into a full customer data platform built on top of your existing warehouse, eliminating the need for a traditional CDP like Segment or mParticle that requires duplicating your data into yet another system.
The composable CDP concept is Hightouch's biggest bet. Instead of buying a standalone CDP that collects data, stores it, and activates it — with all the associated cost and data duplication — Hightouch says your warehouse already has the data. Just activate it. The platform provides audience building, identity resolution, customer journey tracking, and destination syncing on top of warehouse data, effectively turning Snowflake or BigQuery into a CDP. For organizations that have already invested in a modern data stack, this approach avoids adding another data silo and leverages existing infrastructure investment.
Compared to Census (the direct competitor), Hightouch has pushed further into the CDP feature set — more destination connectors (200+ vs 150+), a visual audience builder for non-SQL users, identity resolution across devices and channels, and customer journey orchestration. Census positions itself as simpler and more opinionated; Hightouch positions itself as more feature-rich and flexible. The entry price is also lower — Hightouch starts at $350/month versus Census at $800/month.
The practical buyer consideration is data infrastructure maturity. Hightouch amplifies good warehouse data — well-modeled, well-maintained, trustworthy. If your warehouse is a mess of raw, unmodeled tables, Hightouch will syndicate messy data to your business tools, making the problem worse rather than better. Invest in your data modeling layer (dbt is the standard) before investing in activation. For teams with clean warehouse models that are stuck in dashboards, Hightouch is the bridge between analytical insight and operational action.
Hightouch Key Features
Reverse ETL Syncs
The foundation. Takes SQL queries or dbt model outputs from your warehouse and syncs them to business tools — Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Ads, Facebook, Braze, Iterable, and 200+ other destinations. Syncs run on a schedule (hourly, daily) or are event-triggered. Only changed records are synced to minimize API usage. The sync engine handles field mapping, record matching, and error recovery automatically. Reliability is strong — Hightouch has invested in monitoring, alerting, and retry logic for production-grade workflows.
Visual Audience Builder
Lets marketers and ops users create audience segments from warehouse data without writing SQL. The visual interface provides filter-based segmentation on any modeled attribute — product usage tiers, lead scores, purchase history, engagement metrics. Segments sync automatically to ad platforms, email tools, and CRMs. This feature bridges the gap between data teams who model the data and marketing teams who need segments, reducing the constant back-and-forth of 'can you pull me a list?' requests.
Identity Resolution
Matches records across systems and devices to build unified customer profiles. When the same person exists in your warehouse under different identifiers — email in one table, user ID in another, cookie in a third — identity resolution merges them into a single profile. This is essential for accurate audience building and personalization across channels. The matching uses deterministic rules (email match) and probabilistic signals (device fingerprinting) depending on configuration.
200+ Destination Connectors
Pre-built connectors for advertising platforms (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok), CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot), marketing automation (Marketo, Braze, Iterable), analytics tools, customer success platforms, and more. The connector library is the largest among reverse ETL tools. Connector quality varies — major ad platforms and CRMs have deep, mature integrations, while newer connectors may support only basic sync operations.
Customer Journey Orchestration
Builds multi-step customer journeys triggered by data changes in the warehouse. For example: when a user crosses a product usage threshold, enroll them in an upsell email sequence in Braze, update their lead score in Salesforce, and add them to a retargeting audience in Facebook — all triggered by a single data event. This orchestration capability pushes Hightouch beyond basic data syncing into active customer engagement.
Schema & Sync Monitoring
Real-time monitoring of sync health, schema changes, and record-level status. Alerts trigger on sync failures, unexpected volume changes, or schema drift in source models. Historical logs show every record that was synced, skipped, or errored in each run. The observability layer is critical for production deployments where stale or missing data in downstream tools directly impacts revenue operations.
Who Uses Hightouch
Composable CDP Replacement
Data teams replace traditional CDPs (Segment, mParticle, Tealium) with Hightouch sitting on top of their existing warehouse. The warehouse already contains event data, product usage data, CRM records, and marketing interactions — Hightouch activates this data across channels without duplicating it into a separate CDP. A company paying $50K+/year for Segment can potentially replace it with Hightouch at $350-5,000/month, depending on volume and features. The composable approach also eliminates the data consistency issues that arise when CDP data and warehouse data drift apart.
Marketing Audience Activation
Marketing teams use Hightouch to push warehouse-modeled audience segments to advertising and email platforms. The visual audience builder lets marketers define segments (e.g., 'enterprise accounts with 500+ employees that used feature X in the last 30 days') without writing SQL, then automatically syncs those segments to Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Braze. The audiences stay synchronized — as users enter or exit the segment based on warehouse data, the downstream platforms update automatically. This eliminates manual CSV uploads and ensures ad targeting always reflects the latest data.
Product-Led Growth Data Activation
PLG companies use Hightouch to push product usage data from their warehouse into sales and marketing tools. The data team models product-qualified lead (PQL) scores in the warehouse based on feature adoption, team size, and engagement patterns. Hightouch syncs these scores to Salesforce for rep prioritization, to Braze for targeted onboarding emails, and to Slack for real-time alerts when high-value accounts hit activation milestones. This use case turns product analytics — often trapped in dashboards — into operational signals that drive revenue action.
Hightouch Pricing
Free
1 destination, limited syncs and records
Starter
Multiple destinations, visual audience builder
Business
Composable CDP features, advanced matching, SSO
Enterprise
Unlimited destinations, SLAs, dedicated support
Hightouch's pricing starts lower than Census and scales with usage. The free tier includes one destination and limited syncing — adequate for proof-of-concept testing. Starter at $350/month provides multiple destinations, the visual audience builder, and standard sync scheduling. Business and Enterprise tiers are custom-priced with composable CDP features, identity resolution, advanced matching, and SSO.
Most mid-market deployments running 3-5 destination syncs with audience building cost $1,000-3,000/month. Enterprise deployments using full composable CDP features with identity resolution and journey orchestration can reach $5,000-10,000/month.
Compared to Census: Hightouch's entry price ($350/month) is significantly lower than Census ($800/month). Feature-for-feature at higher tiers, pricing is broadly comparable. Hightouch includes more features at lower tiers (visual audience builder on Starter), which gives it an edge for teams that want audience activation without enterprise pricing.
Compared to traditional CDPs: Segment's entry pricing for teams starts around $120/month but scales to $12K-120K+/year for real deployments. mParticle and Tealium are typically $50K-200K+/year. Hightouch's composable approach leverages your existing warehouse investment, which means the total cost of ownership is lower as long as you've already invested in the data stack (Fivetran + Snowflake + dbt). Without that foundation, the infrastructure costs need to be factored in.
Job Market Demand for Hightouch
Hightouch appears in 3 job postings across 2 companies in our database of 23,338+ analyzed job postings. The average salary range for roles requiring Hightouch: $181K - $231K.
Department
- Senior Director, Data (Head of Data)
- Director / Sr. Director, Technology Services - Salesforce Ecosystem
- Director / Sr. Director, Technology Services - Adobe Ecosystem
- shift paradigm (2)
- point digital finance (1)
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Composable CDP approach eliminates the need for a separate CDP platform
- 200+ destination connectors, more than Census
- Visual audience builder lets marketers create segments without SQL
- Lower entry price ($350/mo) compared to Census ($800/mo)
- Strong identity resolution and customer matching capabilities
Cons
- Requires clean, well-modeled data in your warehouse to be useful
- Composable CDP features add complexity beyond simple reverse ETL
- Smaller company, still proving long-term enterprise reliability
- Visual audience builder can be slow with very large datasets
- Advanced features are only available on Business and Enterprise tiers
Best for: Data teams with a modern data stack who want to activate warehouse data and potentially replace a traditional CDP
Not ideal for: Companies without a data warehouse, teams without SQL skills, or organizations that need a standalone CDP with built-in data collection
Hightouch Alternatives
| Tool | Starting Price | Job Mentions | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census | $0 | 6 | Data and RevOps teams with a modern data stack (warehouse + ETL) who want to operationalize their warehouse data across business tools |
| Fivetran | $0 | 11 | Data and RevOps teams that need reliable, automated data pipelines without dedicated data engineering resources |
| Airbyte | $0 | 2 | Data engineering teams that want control over their integration infrastructure without vendor lock-in. Ideal for startups and mid-market companies with some engineering capacity, especially those running modern data stacks with dbt and a cloud warehouse. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Hightouch vs Census: which reverse ETL tool should I pick?
Hightouch has a broader feature set (composable CDP, visual audience builder, more connectors) and a lower entry price ($350/mo vs Census at $800/mo). Census is simpler and more opinionated, which means faster setup. If you want basic reverse ETL with minimal complexity, Census. If you want a platform that can grow into a full CDP replacement, Hightouch.
What's a composable CDP?
A composable CDP uses your existing data warehouse as the customer data platform instead of buying a separate one like Segment or mParticle. Hightouch sits on top of your warehouse and provides the audience building, identity resolution, and activation that a CDP normally handles. The advantage is you avoid data duplication and can use data your team has already modeled.
Do I need Hightouch if I already have Segment?
They solve overlapping problems differently. Segment collects event data and stores it in its own system. Hightouch activates data that's already in your warehouse. If your warehouse is your source of truth and you want to avoid maintaining a separate CDP, Hightouch can replace Segment's activation features. Many companies use both, with Segment for event collection and Hightouch for warehouse-based activation.
Our Verdict on Hightouch
Hightouch is the right choice for data teams with a modern data stack who want to activate warehouse data across business tools — and potentially replace a traditional CDP in the process. The composable CDP approach is architecturally sound: your warehouse already has the best version of your customer data, and Hightouch turns it into operational fuel for marketing, sales, and customer success teams. The visual audience builder makes warehouse data accessible to non-SQL users, which solves the adoption gap that holds back many data stack investments.
The trade-off is infrastructure dependency and feature maturity. Hightouch requires clean, well-modeled warehouse data — without it, you're syndicating garbage. The composable CDP features are compelling but still maturing compared to established CDPs like Segment, which have had years to refine identity resolution, event tracking, and journey orchestration. For organizations that haven't built their data stack yet, investing in Hightouch is premature — start with Fivetran and dbt, then add the activation layer.
Hightouch appears in 3 job postings across 2 companies in our database, with an average salary range of $181K-$231K — among the highest we track, reflecting the senior data and technology roles where reverse ETL experience is valued. The all-remote distribution and limited posting volume are consistent with Hightouch's position as an emerging category tool adopted by data-sophisticated organizations.