Microsoft Purview vs Informatica CDGC: Data Governance (2026)

Quick verdict

Short answer

Choose Microsoft Purview if your estate is centred on Azure, Microsoft Fabric and Power BI, you want to start free and grow on transparent pay-as-you-go meters, and you can live with feature support that varies by source. Choose Informatica CDGC if you already run, or plan to run, Informatica IDMC for integration, data quality or MDM, so governance shares the same platform, metadata and IPU contract. Bought on its own, CDGC is a quote-priced enterprise catalog, and the 2025 change of ownership to Salesforce is a reason to ask for roadmap commitments in writing.

How we know: This comparison is research-based: product scope, supported sources, pricing models and ownership were checked on 7 November 2026 against Microsoft's Azure pricing page and Microsoft Learn, Informatica's product and pricing pages, Salesforce Trailhead and Salesforce press releases. We have not used either service, so nothing here is a measured result. Purview unit rates are masked on Microsoft's page, so we only repeat Microsoft's own worked examples; Informatica publishes no prices.

Microsoft Purview (formerly Azure Purview) is Microsoft's family of data security, compliance and governance services; this page covers its data governance part. The Data Map scans registered sources, extracts schemas, classifies data and records lineage. Unified Catalog sits on top for business users, with governance domains, data products, glossary terms, critical data elements, access policies with self-service requests, and data quality rules and scores. A free version (preview) covers a few Azure sources and Fabric up to 1,000 annotated assets; the enterprise version is pay-as-you-go. Microsoft is rolling out the new Unified Catalog experience region by region.

Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog is a service of Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC). Administrators configure scanners in the Metadata Command Center; scanners extract metadata from databases, cloud storage and BI tools, profile data, discover lineage, classify data with AI and link glossary terms. CDGC works with Informatica's data quality service for rules and scores, and related IDMC products add Data Access Management (de-identifying sensitive data) and a Cloud Data Marketplace.

Ownership change. Salesforce signed a definitive agreement to acquire Informatica on 27 May 2025 and completed the acquisition on 18 November 2025. Informatica's pages are now branded "Informatica from Salesforce", and CDGC continues to be sold as part of IDMC. See our Informatica IDMC profile for the wider platform.

Side by side

Aspect	Microsoft Purview	Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog
Vendor and ownership	Microsoft	Informatica, owned by Salesforce since 18 November 2025
Product shape	Managed Microsoft service: Data Map (technical) plus Unified Catalog (business)	IDMC service: Metadata Command Center plus the catalog; related data quality, access and marketplace services
Home ecosystem	Azure, Microsoft Fabric, Power BI, Microsoft 365	Informatica IDMC (integration, data quality, MDM)
Source scanning	Data Map list covers Azure services, SQL Server, Oracle, Snowflake, BigQuery, Amazon S3, RDS and Redshift, SAP, Teradata, Power BI, Fabric and more; support varies by source	Scanners for databases, cloud storage and BI tools; no scanner count published
Private and on-premises sources	Self-hosted integration runtime	Informatica Secure Agent in your environment
Classification	Automatic classification on many sources; sensitivity labels in preview	AI-powered classification during scanning
Lineage	Source dependent, for example Data Factory, Synapse pipelines, Unity Catalog, Power BI, Snowflake	Lineage discovered by scanners, with lineage views in business context
Data quality	Data quality rules and scores in Unified Catalog, billed in DGPU	Through Informatica's data quality service, with rules and health scores
Access control	Unified Catalog access policies and self-service requests; data policies on some Azure sources	Through the related Data Access Management product
Free option	Free version (preview): 1,000 annotated assets, a few Azure sources and Fabric, no support tickets	30-day IDMC trial advertised; no trial terms specific to CDGC found
Pricing model	Pay-as-you-go meters: governed assets per day, DGPU, vCore-hours, capacity units	Informatica Processing Units (IPUs), shared across IDMC services; quote only

Key differences

Ecosystem fit decides most cases

Purview is closest to Microsoft data. Many Azure, Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Fabric and Power BI customers get the free version automatically, Fabric and Power BI items appear through live view, and lineage comes from Data Factory, Synapse pipelines, Azure Databricks Unity Catalog, Power BI and Fabric. Governance lives in the same Microsoft portal as Purview's security and compliance products.

CDGC is closest to Informatica pipelines. If Cloud Data Integration moves your data and Informatica's data quality service checks it, CDGC shares the platform, metadata and IPU pool, so governance is an extension of what you already run rather than another vendor. Outside IDMC it is still a full enterprise catalog, but it then competes with independent catalogs on equal terms.

Source coverage and what each source supports

Microsoft publishes a detailed matrix for the Purview Data Map, and it is worth reading line by line, because capabilities vary. For example, on the July 2026 version of that page, Snowflake supports automatic classification, sensitivity labels and lineage; Google BigQuery, MySQL and PostgreSQL support lineage but not automatic classification; Amazon Redshift, MongoDB and SAP HANA show technical metadata only; and policies can be applied only to a handful of Azure sources. On-premises sources are scanned through a self-hosted integration runtime, which for some sources needs extra components such as a JDK or a specific driver.

Informatica describes CDGC scanners for cloud storage, databases and BI tools, with metadata extraction, profiling, lineage discovery, classification and glossary linking in one scan, configured in the Metadata Command Center. We could not find a published scanner list or count on the pages checked, so ask Informatica for the scanner documentation for each of your sources and check whether lineage reaches column level for them.

Pricing models: meters versus IPUs

Purview bills several meters. Unified Catalog charges per governed asset per day, and only assets linked to data products, critical data elements or data quality count, so scanning thousands of assets does not by itself raise the catalog bill. Data quality runs in Data Governance Processing Units (DGPU) in Basic, Standard and Advanced SKUs; Data Map scanning per vCore-hour; and Data Map capacity per Capacity Unit hour (one CU supports up to 25 operations per second and 10 GB of metadata). This is transparent in structure, but needs modelling.

Informatica uses Informatica Processing Units (IPUs), a consumption model that gives access to eligible IDMC services, with usage metered per service. The advantage is one pool across integration, quality and governance; the drawback is that the IPU cost of governance work is not published and has to be planned with Informatica.

Ownership and roadmap risk

Microsoft continues to invest in Purview, and the main change for buyers is the new Unified Catalog experience, which is still rolling out by region and requires the enterprise version in the new portal. Informatica became part of Salesforce on 18 November 2025. CDGC is still sold, and Salesforce has said it will integrate Informatica technology with its own platform, without a published timeline. That is not a reason to rule CDGC out, but multi-year buyers should ask for written roadmap and support commitments.

Pricing and licensing

Microsoft Purview. The Azure pricing page for Purview data governance lists the meters but shows the unit rates masked in its text. Its worked examples state that 200 governed assets for 30 days cost USD 100 without discounts (implying about USD 0.50 per governed asset per month), and that 2 DGPU of Basic data quality in a day cost USD 30 (implying about USD 15 per Basic DGPU). The first 1 MB of Data Map metadata storage is free, scanning Power BI online tenants and on-premises SQL Server through the on-premises runtime is free for a limited time, and DevOps data policies are listed at USD 0.003 per policy hour. The free version (preview) is limited to 1,000 annotated assets. Use Microsoft's pricing calculator for your region.

Informatica CDGC. No prices are published. CDGC is billed as part of IDMC in IPUs, and the pricing page offers a quote. Informatica advertises a free 30-day IDMC trial, but we found no trial terms specific to CDGC.

Pricing checked on the vendors' official pages on 7 November 2026. Prices change; confirm before buying.

Where each one leads

Microsoft Purview strengths

Deep integration with Azure, Microsoft Fabric and Power BI
Free version for discovery of Azure and Fabric assets
Published per-source capability matrix for scanning, classification, policies and lineage
Unified Catalog bills only governed assets, not every scanned asset
Governance sits in the same portal as Microsoft's security and compliance tools

Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog strengths

Shares platform, metadata and IPUs with Informatica integration, quality and MDM
Scanners combine metadata extraction, profiling, lineage and classification
Related Data Access Management and Data Marketplace products
Fits estates where Informatica pipelines already move most of the data

Limitations

Microsoft Purview limitations

Several pricing meters, with unit rates masked on the pricing page
Lineage, classification and policies are not available for every source
Free version is in preview, capped at 1,000 annotated assets and has no support tickets
The new Unified Catalog experience is still rolling out by region

Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog limitations

No public pricing; IPU consumption must be planned with Informatica
Most valuable inside IDMC rather than as a standalone catalog
No published scanner list on the pages checked
Ownership changed in November 2025 and Salesforce has given no integration timeline

When to choose each

Choose Microsoft Purview if

Your data estate is centred on Azure, Fabric and Power BI
You want to start with a free version and grow on pay-as-you-go billing
You want governance in the same portal as Microsoft security and compliance
Your key non-Microsoft sources (for example Snowflake or Oracle) are well covered in the Data Map matrix
You want to pay only for assets you actually govern

Choose Informatica Cloud Data Governance and Catalog if

You already use Informatica IDMC for integration, data quality or MDM
You want governance, quality and integration on one consumption contract
Your pipelines are built in Informatica and you want their lineage in the catalog
You need data access management and a data marketplace from the same vendor

When neither is right

You want an independent enterprise catalog that is not tied to a platform vendor: see Collibra vs Alation.
Your data lives mainly in Databricks or Snowflake: start with Unity Catalog vs Snowflake Horizon.
You want an open source catalog: see DataHub vs OpenMetadata.
You run on Google Cloud or AWS: the native Knowledge Catalog or AWS Glue Data Catalog may be closer to the data.

Final recommendation

Bottom line

The deciding factor is usually the platform you already depend on. For Microsoft-centred estates, Microsoft Purview is the more direct fit: it starts free, ties into Fabric and Power BI, and bills only the assets you govern, though you must check the per-source matrix and model its meters. For organisations that run their data movement and quality on Informatica, Informatica CDGC is the more direct fit, because governance shares the IDMC platform and IPU contract; get a written roadmap given the Salesforce ownership. If neither ecosystem dominates your estate, compare an independent catalog as well.

Frequently asked questions

Is Informatica still sold after the Salesforce acquisition?

Yes. Salesforce completed its acquisition of Informatica on 18 November 2025, and Informatica products, including Cloud Data Governance and Catalog as part of IDMC, continue to be sold under "Informatica from Salesforce" branding.

Is Microsoft Purview free?

There is a free version (preview) for search and curation of a few Azure sources and Fabric, limited to 1,000 annotated assets and without support tickets. Full scanning, automatic classification, workflows and policies need the pay-as-you-go enterprise version.

How is Informatica CDGC priced?

Through Informatica Processing Units (IPUs), the consumption model shared across IDMC services. Informatica publishes no prices; you get a quote.

Can Purview scan Informatica or non-Microsoft sources?

Purview's Data Map scans many non-Microsoft sources, including Snowflake, Oracle, Google BigQuery, Amazon S3, Teradata and SAP, with capabilities that vary by source. Informatica is not listed as a Data Map source on Microsoft's supported sources page.

Sources

Checked November 2026.

How we research comparisons: our editorial method.