DataCleaner vs OpenRefine
DataCleaner
datacleaner.github.ioOpenRefine
openrefine.orgSide by side
| Figure | DataCleaner | OpenRefine |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data Cleansing Software | 8.9 (#2) | 7.9 (#11) |
| Spec score · Data Preparation Software | 8.8 (#3) | 7.9 (#12) |
| Integrations | The project advertises Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Pentaho Data Integration and Apache MetaModel integrations. | OpenRefine can upload data to Google Sheets and create or update statements on Wikidata. |
| Purpose | DataCleaner is an open source data quality solution with a data profiling engine for discovering and analyzing data quality. | OpenRefine is a tool for cleaning, transforming and extending messy data with web services and external data. |
Plans
In their own words
DataCleaner
DataCleaner is an open-source data quality application for profiling, validating, and cleansing data. Its profiling engine identifies patterns, missing values, character sets, and other traits in data values. It works with CSV files, Excel spreadsheets, relational databases, and NoSQL databases. Users can create cleansing rules with search and replace, regular expressions, pattern matching, or custom transformations, and use internal or external reference data to check values. DataCleaner supports batch processing, visual workflows, standardization, validation, enrichment, scheduled runs, and desktop deployment on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Named integrations and connectivity options include Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark, Pentaho Data Integration, and Apache MetaModel. Developers can embed it in other applications or build plugins; the project also describes community extensions, integrations, and shared content. The code is licensed under LGPL. The community edition is free at free. The downloads page lists 5.9.0 as the latest release; release news says version 5.8.1 runs on Java 9 through 17 and is dated February 9, 2022.
OpenRefine
OpenRefine is a free, open-source tool for cleaning, transforming, and extending messy data. It works on the user's machine rather than sending data to a cloud service, and basic functions can run offline through a small web server on that computer. Facets help explore large datasets and apply changes to filtered views. Clustering uses heuristics to find similar values and address inconsistencies; reconciliation matches values to external databases through reconciliation services. Users can undo and redo operations without a stated history limit. OpenRefine imports formats including CSV, TSV, fixed-width text, JSON, XML, spreadsheets, PC-Axis, MARC, RDF formats, and Wikitext. It can also upload data to Google Sheets and create or update Wikidata statements. Releases are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Java must be installed and configured, although the Mac version and some Windows packages include it. Data is not encrypted by default; operating-system full-disk encryption can protect it. The project offers support through its forum, GitHub, community calls, and Gitter chat.