# Data catalogs and governance for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "data catalog" and as "data governance platform", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/it-data/data-catalogs-and-governance/2026-11/smb

**Standing:** Secoda (tied with OpenMetadata) leads with 19% of first choices; verdict contested. 64 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Secoda](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/secoda/index.md) | 19% | 0% | 42 |
| 2 | [OpenMetadata](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/openmetadata/index.md) | 19% | 11% | 57 |
| 3 | [Select Star](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/select-star/index.md) | 16% | 4% | 27 |
| 4 | [Atlan](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/atlan/index.md) | 8% | 16% | 51 |
| 5 | [DataHub](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/datahub/index.md) | 6% | 24% | 46 |
| 6 | [Microsoft Purview](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/microsoft-purview/index.md) | 6% | 20% | 35 |
| 8 | [OvalEdge](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ovaledge/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 15 |
| 9 | [Collate](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/collate/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 10 | [Snowflake Horizon](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/snowflake-horizon/index.md) | 2% | 9% | 11 |
| 11 | [Databricks Unity Catalog](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/databricks-unity-catalog/index.md) | 2% | 10% | 10 |
| 22 | [Collibra](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/collibra/index.md) | 2% | 88% | 58 |
| 23 | [data.world](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/data-world/index.md) | 0% | 23% | 13 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 118 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Secoda; alternatives Acryl DataHub, Atlan, Select Star
- GPT-5.4 mini: Atlan, Dataplex, Google Cloud Data Catalog; alternatives DataHub, OpenMetadata
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Secoda, Select Star, dbt Docs; alternatives AWS Glue Data Catalog, CastorDoc, Databricks Unity Catalog, OpenMetadata
- Perplexity Sonar: Secoda; alternatives Atlan, DataHub, Microsoft Purview, OpenMetadata
- Grok 4.20: Select Star; alternatives DataHub, Microsoft Purview, OpenMetadata, Secoda
- Mistral Small: Select Star; alternatives Atlan, OpenMetadata, Secoda
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Select Star; alternatives DataHub, Dataedo, OpenMetadata, Secoda
- Llama 4 Maverick: OpenMetadata; alternatives Atlan, OvalEdge, Secoda, Select Star
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Secoda; alternatives Atlan, DataHub, Databricks Unity Catalog, Microsoft Purview
- Kimi K2: Select Star; alternatives Collate, DataHub, OpenMetadata, Secoda
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Secoda; alternatives DataHub, Dawiso, Microsoft Purview, OpenMetadata
- MiniMax M2.5: Secoda; alternatives Catalog, DataHub, Unity Catalog OSS
- GPT-6 Luna: Secoda; alternatives DataHub, OpenMetadata
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Secoda, Select Star; alternatives Amundsen, DataHub, OpenMetadata

## Sources the answers cite

74 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- atlan.com: 48 answers, 99 citations
- kanerika.com: 31 answers, 35 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 29 answers, 31 citations
- ovaledge.com: 26 answers, 38 citations
- g2.com: 23 answers, 35 citations
- datadrivendaily.com: 21 answers, 21 citations
- decube.io: 20 answers, 24 citations
- capterra.com: 17 answers, 20 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://atlan.com/data-catalog-tools (31 answers)
- https://kanerika.com/blogs/data-catalog-tools (30 answers)
- https://datadrivendaily.com/data-catalog-tools-compared-the-2026-guide (21 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/data-catalog (21 answers)
- https://erstudio.com/blog/data-catalog-tools (15 answers)
- https://decube.io/post/top-data-catalog-tools (14 answers)
- https://ovaledge.com/blog/top-data-catalogs (14 answers)
- https://costbench.com/best/data-catalog-for-smb (13 answers)
- https://fivetran.com/learn/data-catalog-tools (13 answers)
- https://atlan.com/know/data-catalog/open-source-vs-commercial-data-catalog-total-cost-of-ownership (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Collibra: 51 of 58 labels negative. "Enterprise tools like Collibra cost $100,000+ but may be overkill." ... "repeatedly described as an enterprise governance platform with complexity and cost that can be prohibitive for smaller organizations" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Alation: 41 of 49 labels negative. "Cons: High price point for small businesses, Steep learning curve for advanced features" ... "these are almost never right for a small team" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud: 22 of 23 labels negative. "listed among criticized challengers with 89% negative labels ... "Legacy platforms like Collibra and Informatica run $130,000 to over $500,000 a year"" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Apache Atlas: 9 of 17 labels negative. "requires real technical expertise to configure and maintain, and users increasingly describe it as heavyweight" (Claude Haiku 4.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: OpenMetadata (18%) to Secoda (19%). Margin 0 points, within noise.

- OvalEdge: 11% to 2%, −9. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 4 → 8 of 118.
- Select Star: 9% to 16%, +7. Inside the floor by 4 points · rank 5 → 3 of 118.
- Secoda: 16% to 19%, +3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 2 → 1 of 118.
- Atlan: 11% to 8%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 → 4 of 118.
- Collate: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 23 → 9 of 118.
- Snowflake Horizon: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 20 → 10 of 118.
- Databricks Unity Catalog: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 26 → 11 of 118.
- Collibra: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 108 → 22 of 118.
- data.world: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 9 → 23 of 118.
- Apache Atlas: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 13 → 115 of 118.
- Alation: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 19 → 118 of 118.
- OpenMetadata: 18% to 19%, +1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 → 2 of 118.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.