ETL vs ELT

The debate between ETL and ELT has evolved with the rise of powerful cloud data warehouses like Snowflake and BigQuery.

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

Traditionally used when storage and compute were expensive. Transformations happen before loading.

Pros:

• Compliance (PII masking before storage)
• Reduced storage costs

ELT (Extract, Load, Transform)

Modern approach leveraging the power of the destination warehouse.

Pros:

• Faster ingestion
• Flexibility to transform on demand