OpenMetadata vs SemanticWorx Affirma

OpenMetadata is an open-source platform for cataloging and governing data, bringing technical context, business meaning and organizational memory into a knowledge graph. Its capabilities include discovery, data quality, observability, lineage, semantics and memory. The graph connects schemas, tables, columns, dashboards, pipelines, ML models, owners and classifications. Glossary terms, metric definitions and relationships using RDF, OWL, DCAT and Schema.org help represent shared business meaning. For AI workflows, OpenMetadata provides an MCP server, an AI SDK and a Context Center for articles, documents and memories. Its ingestion framework has connectors for 130+ data services, including Airflow, BigQuery, Databricks, dbt, Kafka, MySQL, Snowflake and Tableau. The schema-first architecture includes 700+ open specifications in JSON Schema and RDF/JSON-LD. It can be deployed in an organization's own environment, explored in a live sandbox with demo data, or used through a free cloud service with the organization's data. The self-hosted plan is listed at free, with no usage limits stated. Security documentation describes stored-secret encryption, SSL/TLS connections and external secrets manager support.

SemanticWorx Affirma is a paid enterprise semantic and metadata management solution for harmonizing data architecture. Its catalog stores data models, schemas, integration schemas, and other definitions, while an enterprise semantic model records shared meanings and dataset relationships. Lineage, mapping, and transformation features show data origins and movement between sources and targets. Governance workflows support approvals, audit review, and notifications. Build Automation provides code generation, and Data Design can generate XSD and DDL for MySQL, Hana, Snowflake, Oracle, MS SQL, and SQLite. Deployment options are on-premises and cloud-based, with self-hosted and web access listed. Affirma can import schemas, ODBC sources, UML, XML, and reference data, and the site describes Databricks Unity Catalog metadata harvesting and lineage integration. Core, Professional, and Ultimate subscriptions are annual and priced by inquiry, considering users and data sources. Basic Support includes updates, ticket turnaround, a knowledge base, and a solution forum.