In the beginning, Salesforce CRM had only a couple ways to load your data (i.e. the wizards and the data loader). Now there is no shortage of ways to get your data in with each solution having their pros and cons. Here is an updated list of options for you to choose from. Depending on your needs, a particular one might be a better fit. Here they are, listed in order when I became familiar with them and the key differences between them:
1) Salesforce Import Wizards
Salesforce Data Loader Install
Pros:
- It’s free and was developed by Salesforce.com.
- There is one for accounts/contacts which is great for importing an exported outlook file containing both in one fell swoop.
- There is also one for leads, solutions and custom objects.
- It is the simplest tool for salespeople or new users.
- It helps prevent duplicated data from being loaded.
- It works for all editions of salesforce.
Cons:
- – What is Salesforce Data Loader data loader? And why we use data loader? – Salesforce Data Loader is a tool provided by sales force to perform following opearation on data. – By using Salesforce data loader you can load up to 5,00,000 records. – Salesforce data loader good tool to load bulk amount of data.
- Data Loader trial versions are free to download. Data Loader is available to try before you buy. The Trial Version is fully functional except, it will not load more than 50 Rows for each table. Use it and evaluate and if you are satisfied then you can purchase the registered version to remove trial version restriction.
In SalesForce you can store various types of files attached to your objects. Keep in mind that attachments can't exist on their own, they must always be linked to an object (ex: a contact, an event). Attachments can be up to 5MB each, for a file attached to a Solution, the limit is 1.5MB.
- If you’re looking to import cases, opportunities or products or any other standard objects, you’re out of luck.
- It doesn’t remember your mapped settings. Forget a field in your csv file? You get to run through the wizard all over again.
- You can only load csv files with up to 50,000 records (if you are an admin, 500 if you just a regular user).
2) Apex Data Loader
Pros:
- It’s free and was developed by Salesforce.com.
- Good for importing files with up to 5 million records.
- Good for loading data into objects where there is no wizard.
- It saves your mappings.
- It has scheduling and exporting abilities.
Cons:
- It only works for Enterprise Edition and above (does not work with Group Edition or Professional Edition unless you buy the API separately).
- It’s designed for Salesforce admins but to some admins, it has too simple an interface.
- You need to download the app and it only works for Windows machines.
3) Force.com Excel Connector
Pros:
- It’s free!
- It’s great for those who love Excel
- It’s handy for bi-directional movement of records and loading small batches
- It works on Professional Edition and above
Cons:
- It’s open source and not officially supported.
- Newer versions of Windows and Excel 64 Bit can be problematic.
- It has a separate download and excel add-in for each edition (PE, EE, UE).
4) DemandTools
Pros:
- It’s a powerful tool for data loading, but also has a suite of tools for data quality.
- It works on Professional Edition and above.
Cons:
- It’s not free, but the ROI is there for those admins looking for a data quality toolset.
- It’s an on-premise app for Windows only.
5) Jitterbit Data Loader for Salesforce
Pros:
- It’s a free tool provided by a 3rd party developer.
- It works on all Salesforce Editions.
- It’s a nice looking UI with a powerful toolset.
- It’s popular and has good reviews on the AppExchange.
- It runs on PC or Mac.
- It supports multiple org logins.
Cons:
- It’s an on-premise app.
- The developer is hoping you’ll graduate to their full real-time integration tool so you will likely be included in their marketing efforts.
- It’s not supported. Look to the community for answers.
6) Dataloader.io
Pros:
- It’s a free tool provided by a 3rd party developer.
- It works on all Salesforce Editions.
- It’s has a nice looking cloud user interface with a powerful toolset.
- It’s popular and has good reviews on the AppExchange.
- Its cloud-based so it’s platform agnostic.
Cons:
- The developer is hoping you’ll graduate to their full real-time integration tool so you will likely be included in their marketing efforts.
- It’s not supported. Look to the community for answers.
7) Informatica Cloud Data Loader for Salesforce
Pros:
- It’s a free tool provided by a 3rd party developer.
- It works on all Salesforce Professional Edition and above.
- It’s has a nice looking cloud user interface with a powerful toolset.
- It’s popular and has good reviews on the AppExchange.
- Its cloud-based so it’s platform agnostic.
- Monitor via a mobile app.
Cons:
- The developer is hoping you’ll graduate to their full real-time integration tool so you will likely be included in their marketing efforts.
- It’s not supported. Look to the community for answers.
Do you have questions about data migration and Salesforce CRM?
As a certified Salesforce consultant and Salesforce.com Silver Cloud Alliance Partner, we can help. Contact Perpetual West at 1 (877) 388-6400 to learn more.
Jim SimonWelcome back! This is the second blog in an evolving series around Salesforce.com data loader tools. In case you missed it, please checkout my first blog “5 Best Practices for Salesforce.com Apex Data Loader”.
Salesforce data-loading tools have been around for a while and there’s a lot to chose from these days. How do you make sense of them? Which ones do you use? There’s a whole slew of them now on the AppExchange, but today we are going to look at 5.
This idea is not new; I’m just circling back around to this topic to give my perspective. In fact, there are other great blogs such as “Comparing Data Loaders for Salesforce” (2013) by Roger Mitchell and “Best Data loader for Salesforce” (2014) by Ben McCarthy.
There are so many tools out there today, but what do you use? It all depends on what you want to accomplish and who is going to do the work. In order to determine what tool you want to use depends on a few key factors:
• Your audience– tech savvy or non tech savvy
• How often you need to load– one-off load, routine, integration/automated, etc
• How many records you need to load
• What Salesforce objects you need to load to.
Note: I am making an assumption that the correct permissions are set up for the users to import data where they need, if not, you will need to understand your Salesforce security model in advance.
Let’s get started!
1. Salesforce Apex Data Loader
The standard Salesforce Data Loader is the tool of choice for most, business users and consultants alike. It’s powerful, convenient and well documented. This tool is best used for repetitive data loads by business users or data migration projects.
Pros: Pretty fast compared to other tools; a lot of flexibility to throttle batch sizes; Can load up to 5 million records; Powerful CLI tools; Ability to schedule recurring data loads and since it’s installed locally you can install on a server and use as an integration tool for on premise systems; Ability to match on external IDs.
Cons: Can be annoying to install on a Mac; Auto mappings can be a bit quirky, sometimes leading to wrong mappings or missing fields in the UI altogether; Can only import CSV files.
2. Dataloader.io
Dataloader.io is one of the most popular tools on the market today, and I generally recommend this tool to most of my clients. It’s very intuitive and wizard driven. I like the fact you can save your data loading jobs.
Pros: 100% cloud-based, no installation required; doesn’t require security token; Support for DropBox, Box, SFTP and FTP; Scheduling jobs.
Cons: Can be a little slower than the Salesforce Apex Data Loader; If you just want to do a quick one off data load this might take a little longer to setup than standard Salesforce Apex Data Loader.
3. Salesforce Data Import wizard
The Import Wizard is native to Salesforce and is accessed from within. It is used to import records into many standard objects such as Leads, Accounts, Contacts, Solutions and custom objects. As the name implies, it is wizard-driven.
Pros: Easy for repetitive tasks for business users to import Leads–which is the most popular use of this tool especially if you have a formatted external data set you routinely load; See this Trailhead module to learn more.
Cons: Can only import up to 50,000 records; CSV files only.
4. Jitterbit Data Loader
Jitterbit is the free data loader offering by Jitterbit as entry to their full integration suite. I generally only recommend this tool if someone needs to have local database connectivity or integration and is a tech savvy user. I will admit I don’t use this tool much, and I’m sure it has a lot of great use cases.
Pros: Loading any flat file, any ODBC or JDBC database; repetitive loads; basic scripted ETLs and basic integration.
Apex Data Loader Salesforce
Cons: I don’t find the user interface as intuitive as Dataloader.io; cumbersome for one-off loads; not 100% cloud based as the name would suggest but requires local client to be installed.
5. Informatica Cloud Data Loader
Informatica is know as a powerful integration suite and the Cloud Data Loader is an entry into the full offering that has some neat capabilities. I recommend this tool for those who want to do above basic data transformations as they load.
Pros: What they call “built-in intelligence” where it will format your data fields to the Salesforce support format–when using the standard Salesforce Data Loader, you must transform your date fields; prebuilt integration templates for systems such as NetSuite or SAP; Allow for on the fly data transformations; Connects to Box.
Cons: CSV files only; a bit cumbersome to learn and understand; not for non tech savvy users.
In the end, these tools accomplish the same thing; they get data in and out of Salesforce. You need to decide what’s the best tool for you to accomplish this. I hope that with all the information listed above it helps make your decision easier.
Stay tuned for my next blog where I talk about leveraging Salesforce Data Loader and other related tools to backup Salesforce such as: DBAmp, SQL server, Ownbackup, and Salesforce weekly exports.