We recently hosted our first Community Office Hours session all about optimizing your MAR (monthly active rows) usage. You can access a copy of the presentation, including Q&A here.
Here are some key takeaways from the session that might be helpful while monitoring your usage of Fivetran and managing your budget.
1. Get familiar with consumption-based pricing & monthly active rows (MAR)
The first step is to review our pricing model and understand how Monthly Active Rows (MAR) work. You can read more about pricing here and in our Pricing FAQ.
A few callouts to keep in mind:
- Higher usage leads to a better rate.
- You get a 14-day free trial for each new connector, so take advantage of it!
- Initial syncs for connectors (as well as tables) are free.
- Sync frequency does not impact your MAR usage.
2. Monitor your usage within Fivetran
Admin or Billing users can view usage information by month in the Usage tab. You can monitor your consumption on your Billing tab and set usage alerts to help you stay within budget.
3. Expect MAR usage fluctuations at the beginning of each month
MAR rises at the beginning of each month because Fivetran counts all the distinct primary keys you sync at the start of the month.
MAR usage increases at the end of trial. New, changed, or deleted rows synced as distinct primary keys count towards your paid MAR for the month post-trial.
4. Predict your usage during connector trials
7 days into testing a new connector, you’re able to see a cost and MAR estimate. To see this data, go into the “Connector” tab > Pull down the “Usage” details.
5. Stay within budget with a few key features
Fivetran Log Connector - Free connector that syncs lots of useful metadata to your destination about your consumption, connector errors, etc. Great for observability, but you can also modify these downstream to set up custom alerts.
Define Schema Change Handling settings - Allow or block schemas, and/or tables, to only sync useful valuable data.
Tables without Primary Keys can have higher MAR - You can reduce your monthly active rows by blocking columns for tables without a primary key.
Be mindful of Re-Import Tables - If we fetch some new records in the current month as part of a re-import, these new rows count as MAR.
6. Conserve budget with an annual contract
Once you add your connectors, monitor your usage, and optimize data syncs, consider an annual contract for additional cost savings. As an annual contract customer, you will receive a 16% discount, a dedicated Customer Success Manager, and preferential access to our team.
If you have any questions about our pricing model or would like to get in touch with Fivetran team members, please leave us a comment below!
