Funnel.io vs Improvado: Which Platform Handles Enterprise Marketing Data Best? (2026)

Funnel.io and Improvado both promise to solve the marketing data pipeline problem — but they approach it from opposite directions. Funnel.io excels at aggregating data from marketing channels and exporting it to your warehouse or BI tool. Improvado builds the entire pipeline from extraction through transformation, governance, and insights in a single governed environment. This comparison breaks down when each platform wins and which architecture fits your team's actual workflow.

Funnel.io vs Improvado: The Platform Architecture Difference

Funnel.io is a marketing intelligence platform that aggregates channel data and pushes it to destinations — your warehouse, Looker Studio, Tableau. It handles the ETL extraction layer and basic modeling, then hands off to your stack. Improvado is an end-to-end marketing analytics platform that extracts, transforms, governs, and visualizes in one environment — eliminating hand-offs between tools. Same starting point (marketing channel connectors), entirely different destination (export hub vs. unified analytics environment).

Full disclosure: we're Improvado, and this page is written from our perspective. We've tried to represent Funnel.io's capabilities accurately — and where we've gotten it wrong, email us and we'll fix it. Our goal is to help you make the right call, even if that's not us.

Quick Verdict: Funnel.io vs Improvado

Feature Comparison: Improvado vs Funnel.io

Feature comparison: Improvado vs Funnel.io (updated February 2026)

Where Improvado and Funnel.io Diverge: 4 Key Differences

Your Marketing Team Operates the Entire Pipeline — No Engineering Tickets Required

Funnel.io delivers clean data to your warehouse or BI tool. What happens next — transformation, governance, visualization — lives in your stack. If your team has data engineers who own DBT transformations and a BI team managing dashboards, that handoff works. If your marketing ops team is expected to self-serve analytics without technical dependencies, the handoff becomes a bottleneck.

Improvado eliminates the handoff. Marketers build transformations in a no-code interface; analysts write SQL when they need it; governance rules run automatically before data hits the warehouse. The same platform that extracts from Google Ads also validates spend caps, flags campaign naming violations, and surfaces budget pacing alerts. No ticket to engineering. No waiting for the BI team to update the dashboard.

This matters most when marketing teams scale faster than technical headcount. Agencies managing 20+ clients can't wait three days for a dashboard update when a client asks a question. Brands launching in new markets can't afford a two-week implementation cycle for each regional campaign structure.

Improvado review

"Now, we don't have to involve our technical team in the reporting part at all. Improvado saves about 90 hours per week and allows us to focus on data analysis rather than routine data aggregation, normalization, and formatting."

Jeff Lee

Marketing Data Governance That Catches Errors Before They Cost You Money

Funnel.io normalizes currency and timezone, tracks data lineage, and sends alerts when connectors fail. That's infrastructure-level governance — it ensures data arrives and stays consistent. It doesn't validate whether the data makes business sense.

Improvado's Marketing Data Governance layer includes 250+ pre-built rules that catch campaign-level errors before they hit production: misspelled UTM parameters that break attribution, duplicate campaign IDs that inflate spend, budget caps exceeded before month-end, naming conventions violated in ways that corrupt segmentation. These rules run automatically on every data refresh. When a marketer launches a campaign, the platform flags issues during setup — not three weeks later when the CFO asks why the numbers don't reconcile.

The difference shows up in trust. If the C-suite questions a number in your board deck, you need to trace it back to source and prove it's correct. Improvado's lineage goes from dashboard metric to transformation recipe to raw API response, with governance checkpoints logged at each stage. That audit trail turns "I think this is right" into "here's exactly how this number was calculated and validated."

Improvado review

“If we don't trust the data, the agency won’t trust the reports and won't give them to the client. They’ll start pulling data manually to Excel and spend a lot of time comparing platform numbers to reports. With Improvado, we now trust the data. If anything is wrong, it’s how someone on the team is viewing it, not the data itself. It’s 99.9% accurate.”

Tyler Corcoran

AI That Surfaces Insights You Wouldn't Find Manually

Funnel.io focuses on aggregation and export — the intelligence layer lives downstream in your BI tool or warehouse queries. Improvado embeds AI across the platform: the AI Agent monitors performance data, detects anomalies (spend spikes, conversion drops, pacing issues), and generates natural-language answers to ad-hoc questions without writing SQL.

The practical impact: a marketing analyst opens the platform Monday morning and sees a flagged alert — Facebook CPM increased 40% over the weekend in EMEA campaigns. The AI Agent has already isolated the cause (audience saturation in three specific ad sets), quantified the budget impact, and suggested reallocation. The analyst didn't build a query or set up a custom dashboard — the platform surfaced the insight proactively.

For teams managing dozens of campaigns across regions, this shifts work from reactive reporting (what happened last week?) to proactive optimization (what's about to go wrong, and how do we fix it before it costs us?). Funnel.io gives you the data to answer those questions yourself. Improvado's AI tells you the answer.

Improvado review

“I use Improvado AI Agent to get basic analytics and quick solves. I just enter the question, and it gives me the answer I need.”

Beau Payne

Total Cost of Ownership: One Platform vs. a Stack of Tools

Funnel.io's sticker price starts at $400/month for Starter, but that's just the aggregation layer. Add the cost of your data warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake), transformation tool (DBT Cloud), BI licenses (Tableau, Looker), and the engineering time to maintain the integrations between them. A mid-market team running Funnel.io + BigQuery + DBT + Looker often lands at $3,000–$6,000/month in software costs alone, before counting the analyst and engineering hours.

Improvado replaces all of those. One contract. One platform. One support relationship. You're not managing five vendor renewals or troubleshooting which tool in the stack caused the dashboard to break. The pricing is outcome-based — what matters is the number of data sources, destinations, and the complexity of transformation logic you need, not how many seats or how often you refresh data.

The hidden cost isn't just software spend — it's coordination overhead. When a new marketing channel launches, Funnel.io users create a ticket for the data team to add a DBT model, wait for BI to update the dashboard, then reconcile discrepancies between what the platform reports and what the dashboard shows. Improvado users connect the source, map fields in the no-code UI, and see clean data in their existing dashboards within hours. Time-to-insight is the real cost, and architectures with fewer handoffs win.

When to Choose Funnel.io Over Improvado

Funnel.io is the right choice when:

• Your data team already owns transformation in DBT or BigQuery — and you just need clean channel data delivered to the warehouse. Funnel.io extracts well, and if your engineers prefer writing SQL transformations themselves, there's no need to pay for a transformation layer you won't use.
• You need built-in MMM and attribution without requiring a separate analytics platform — Funnel.io offers digital attribution and marketing mix modeling natively, which is valuable if those are your primary use cases and you're comfortable exporting results to your BI tool.
• Your team is small (under 10 channels) and you value speed-to-setup over customization depth — Funnel.io's promise of sub-10-minute connector setup for Google Ads, Meta, and GA4 is real, and if you don't need complex governance or custom transformation logic, that simplicity wins.
• You're okay with usage-based pricing that scales with connectors, destinations, and refresh frequency — if your data needs are predictable and won't grow significantly, Funnel.io's Flexpoints model can be more affordable than a full-platform solution. Just be aware costs can escalate quickly as you add sources and increase data granularity.
• Your BI stack is already built and optimized — and you're happy managing dashboards in Looker, Tableau, or Power BI. Funnel.io integrates cleanly with those tools, so if your visualization layer is solved, you don't need Improvado's end-to-end environment.

What Customers Say: Real Results from Teams Who Switched

These are real outcomes from marketing teams and agencies that consolidated their data stack with Improvado — named customers, verified metrics, with links to full case studies.

Case study

At Signal Theory, for most clients, the reporting process is now fully automated, taking 30 minutes to an hour at most. For clients with unique data sources requiring manual input, the system is flexible enough to accommodate specific needs without compromising overall efficiency. Read full case study →

“Reports that used to take hours now only take about 30 minutes. We're reporting for significantly more clients, even though it is only being handled by a single person. That's been huge for us.”

Shayna Tyler

Analyst, Signal Theory

Signal Theory, a full-service agency, needed to scale reporting for dozens of clients without proportionally growing their analytics headcount. Manual exports from ad platforms were consuming 4–5 hours per week per client. After implementing Improvado, reporting time dropped to 30 minutes per client, and the team now manages significantly more accounts with the same staff.

Case study

At Booyah Advertising, when the initial setup was complete, the team found that they rarely needed to interact with the Improvado platform on a daily basis. Read full case study →

“Once the data's flowing and our recipes are good to go—it's just set it and forget it. We never have issues with data timing out or not populating in GBQ. We only go into the platform now to handle a backend refresh if naming conventions change or something. That's it.”

Tyler Corcoran

Booyah Advertising

Booyah Advertising, managing Search Ads 360 and complex attribution for enterprise clients, faced connector failures and data trust issues with their previous platform. Improvado's vendor-managed connectors and proactive support eliminated data timing issues — campaigns that previously required manual reconciliation now run on autopilot.

Improvado maintains a 4.4/5 rating on G2 across 100+ verified reviews, with particularly high marks for quality of support (9.4/10) and ease of setup. Customers consistently cite the dedicated CSM model and professional services as differentiators — you're not filing tickets into a queue, you're working with a named team that knows your data architecture.

Pricing: Funnel.io vs Improvado

Funnel.io Pricing

Funnel.io eliminated its free plan in December 2025. All new users start on paid tiers using a plan + Flexpoints usage-based model. As of February 2026:

• Starter: $400/month minimum (up from $120–$240 pre-2026). Includes 121 connectors, 500 Flexpoints for basic reporting and exports. Costs increase as you add connectors, destinations, accounts, or increase data refresh frequency.
• Business: Usage-based pricing, typically $6,000–$12,000/year for teams managing 20–30 accounts. Includes 579+ connectors and advanced reporting features.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing (deals range from thousands to over $1M annually for large implementations). Includes 590+ connectors, governance, security features, and custom connector builds.

The Flexpoints system means capacity is consumed by number of connectors, destinations, accounts, data refresh frequency, and reporting granularity. Additional Flexpoints can be purchased, but costs become unpredictable as your data needs grow. Average enterprise contracts hit $73,500 annually according to Vendr data.

Hidden costs: Funnel.io requires a separate data warehouse subscription (BigQuery, Snowflake), transformation tool (DBT Cloud if you need complex logic), and BI platform licenses (Tableau, Looker, Power BI). These aren't included in Funnel.io's pricing but are necessary to operationalize the data.

Improvado Pricing

Improvado uses outcome-based pricing — what you pay depends on the number of data sources you connect, the destinations you need, and the complexity of transformation and governance rules. There are no per-seat fees, no usage-based surprise charges for data refresh frequency, and no separate costs for professional services or dedicated support (both included).

Pricing is custom-quoted based on your specific requirements. Contact the Improvado team with your list of data sources, expected data volume, and transformation needs for an accurate quote. The platform is designed for mid-market and enterprise teams — if you're a small startup with five data sources and limited budget, Funnel.io's Starter plan or a simpler ETL tool may be more appropriate.

What's included: Unlike Funnel.io, Improvado's pricing covers the entire pipeline — extraction, transformation, governance, AI insights, and support. You're not paying separately for a warehouse, DBT, or BI tool integration (though you can bring your own if you prefer). The total cost of ownership is often lower than a multi-tool stack, even if the initial platform price is higher.

Frequently Asked Questions: Funnel.io vs Improvado

What is the main difference between Funnel.io and Improvado?

Funnel.io is a marketing intelligence platform focused on aggregating data from marketing channels and exporting it to destinations like data warehouses, Looker Studio, or BI tools. Improvado is an end-to-end marketing analytics platform that handles extraction, transformation, governance, and insights in one environment — eliminating the need to manage separate tools for each stage of the pipeline. If your team already owns transformation in DBT and visualization in Tableau, Funnel.io fits cleanly. If marketing ops needs to self-serve analytics without engineering dependencies, Improvado removes the handoffs.

Which platform has more data connectors?

Funnel.io offers 590+ connectors on Enterprise plans, with 121 on Starter and 579+ on Business. Improvado provides 500+ pre-built connectors, with custom connector builds completed in 2–4 weeks under SLA. Both platforms cover all major ad platforms, analytics tools, and CRMs. The difference is maintenance: Funnel.io manages connector updates automatically, while Improvado also offers dedicated support for custom API integrations that aren't in the pre-built library.

Does Funnel.io offer marketing data governance like Improvado?

Funnel.io provides data normalization (currency, timezone), lineage tracking, and monitoring alerts — infrastructure-level governance that ensures data arrives consistently. Improvado includes 250+ pre-built governance rules that validate campaign-level business logic: budget caps, naming convention compliance, duplicate campaign detection, UTM parameter validation, and spend pacing alerts. If governance for you means "data flows reliably," both platforms deliver. If it means "catch errors before they cost money," Improvado's rule engine goes deeper.

How long does it take to migrate from Funnel.io to Improvado?

For most teams, initial setup with Improvado takes 1–2 weeks to connect core data sources, configure transformation logic, and validate outputs against your existing reports. Full migration — including replicating complex DBT models, setting up governance rules, and training the team — typically completes within 4–6 weeks. Improvado provides dedicated professional services and a named CSM to manage the transition, so you're not doing it alone. The timeline depends on how many custom transformations need to be rebuilt and whether you're consolidating multiple tools (warehouse, DBT, BI) into Improvado's platform.

When does Funnel.io win over Improvado?

Funnel.io is the better choice when your data engineering team already owns transformation in DBT or BigQuery, and you just need clean extraction and export to your warehouse. It's also strong for teams that prioritize built-in MMM and attribution and are comfortable managing downstream analytics in separate BI tools. If your needs are predictable (under 10 data sources, limited growth), Funnel.io's lower entry price and quick setup can be more cost-effective than a full-platform solution. Where Funnel.io struggles is teams that need end-to-end pipeline ownership without technical dependencies — that's where Improvado's unified environment wins.

What AI capabilities does each platform offer?

Improvado includes an AI Agent that monitors performance data, detects anomalies (spend spikes, conversion drops, pacing issues), and generates natural-language answers to ad-hoc questions without SQL. The AI proactively surfaces insights — for example, flagging audience saturation or budget overruns before they impact campaigns. Funnel.io does not prominently feature AI capabilities in available documentation; its intelligence layer relies on downstream tools like BI platforms or custom warehouse queries. If AI-driven insights and anomaly detection are priorities, Improvado provides them natively.

Can I use Improvado without a data warehouse, or do I need both?

Improvado supports two deployment models: you can bring your own warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift) and use Improvado for extraction, transformation, and governance before loading clean data into your warehouse. Or, you can use Improvado's managed environment end-to-end, with transformed data available directly in Improvado's interface or pushed to BI tools without requiring a separate warehouse. Most enterprise teams use the BYOW model to integrate with existing data infrastructure. Smaller teams or those consolidating tools often use Improvado's managed environment to eliminate warehouse costs entirely.

How does support differ between Funnel.io and Improvado?

Funnel.io offers responsive ticket-based support, with users frequently praising same-day responses for connector issues and data discrepancies. Improvado includes a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) and professional services as part of the contract — not an add-on. You have a named team that knows your data architecture, not a rotating queue of support agents. For complex implementations (custom connectors, governance rule setup, transformation logic), this makes a material difference. Funnel.io users handle most configuration themselves; Improvado users work collaboratively with the CSM team.

Ready to See the Difference?

The choice between Funnel.io and Improvado comes down to architecture: do you need a tool that exports data cleanly to your existing stack, or do you need the entire pipeline — extraction, transformation, governance, insights — solved in one platform? If your team is spending more time coordinating between tools than analyzing data, it's worth seeing what consolidation unlocks.