SAP Integration Suite alternative — SAP Integration Suite vs Skippr

SAP Integration Suite is iPaaS on Business Technology Platform. Cloud Integration runs iFlows: the successor path from Process Integration / Process Orchestration. The same tenant can turn on API Management, Open Connectors, Integration Advisor, and Event Mesh. Advanced Event Mesh is a separate license. SAP's Integration Solution Advisory Methodology still points this product at process integration (A2A, B2B), not warehouse ELT. You pay for a tenant edition (Starter, Standard, Premium or Enhanced on current cards) plus messages. A message is one electronic exchange through those capabilities. Anything over 250 KB counts another message for each extra 250 KB. Cloud Integration counts on the receiver side: a splitter, a multicast, a retry, or a request-reply can turn one inbound payload into many billable messages. ProcessDirect and JMS hops are the usual internal exceptions. Additional messages buy in blocks. Pay-as-you-go and CPEA draw the same metric from BTP credits. This is not SAP Data Services and it is not Datasphere.

Skippr is an open Streamhouse you run as one Rust binary. Write skippr.yml (or the same thing in Python), discover, sync. You query live state over Iceberg ∪ WAL, and the history is ordinary Iceberg in your bucket. No iFlow. ELT into a warehouse is one path, not the product.

Feature	Skippr	SAP Integration Suite
Deploy	Single Rust binary, your VPC or on-prem	BTP tenant. Edge Integration Cell is optional
Schema	In-stream evolution, sibling columns	iFlow mapping. API contracts in API Management
Storage	Open Iceberg on Parquet you own	Receiver system. No Iceberg destination in the suite
CDC	Log-based; fails closed if the dest cannot honour	Events via Event Mesh. Not log CDC
Query	skipprd query on Iceberg ∪ WAL; history in any Iceberg engine	None. The next system is the store
Pricing	Free self-hosted engine	Edition plus messages (250 KB slices). See SAP's pricing page.

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What SAP Integration Suite is good at

Keeping S/4, Ariba, SuccessFactors, and a bank file talking without standing up PI again. Prebuilt SAP content and B2B trading-partner maps are why the PO migration lands here. Event Mesh can fan a business event to several subscribers. If the job is "an order in S/4 becomes a posting in another SAP system," that is a real product.

Where the job is wider

Integration Suite is a message fabric. It is not a Streamhouse. There is no Iceberg ∪ WAL. There is no skipprd query on in-flight rows. An iFlow ends at the receiver.

Message math is the ops. A 1 MB IDoc is four messages before fan-out. A splitter that writes a thousand receivers writes a thousand messages. Retries count. Standard's included allowance on public cards is smaller than Starter's; the edition is about capabilities, not a bigger bucket. Advanced Event Mesh is another line.

Skippr will not run an iFlow or replace PI/PO. Skippr also will not be your B2B mailbox. If the job is "process integration across SAP apps," Integration Suite is the narrower tool. If the job is live SQL on Iceberg you run, Integration Suite was never that.

Getting started

Install skipprd from the install guide, or pip install skippr. The three tabs write the same skippr.yml. Then discover, sync, and query.

YAML

skippr:
  workspace: analytics
  skipprd_el_storage_mode: local

pipelines:
  orders:
    data_source: data_sources.app_db
    data_sink: data_sinks.lake

data_sources:
  app_db:
    Postgres:
      host: db.internal
      user: skippr_reader
      password: ${APP_DB_PASSWORD}
      database: app
      tables: [orders, customers]
      cdc_mode: snapshot_then_cdc

data_sinks:
  lake:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1
    schema_sink: schema_sinks.lake_schema

schema_sinks:
  lake_schema:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1

CLI

skipprd --workspace analytics --storage-mode local connect data-source postgres \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name app_db \
  --host db.internal \
  --user skippr_reader \
  --password '${APP_DB_PASSWORD}' \
  --database app \
  --tables orders \
  --tables customers \
  --cdc-mode snapshot_then_cdc

skipprd connect data-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake \
  --warehouse s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/ \
  --glue-database-name analytics \
  --athena-workgroup-name primary \
  --athena-results-s3-bucket my-athena-results \
  --region us-east-1

skipprd connect schema-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake_schema

Python

from skippr import (
    Config,
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg,
    DataSourcePostgres,
    DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode,
    EnvRef,
    LocalStorage,
    Pipeline,
)

cfg = Config().workspace("analytics").storage(LocalStorage())

app_db = cfg.data_source(
    "app_db",
    DataSourcePostgres(
        host="db.internal",
        user="skippr_reader",
        password=EnvRef("APP_DB_PASSWORD"),
        database="app",
        tables=["orders", "customers"],
        cdc_mode=DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode.SNAPSHOTTHENCDC,
    ),
)

lake = cfg.data_sink(
    "lake",
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg(
        warehouse="s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/",
        glue_database_name="analytics",
        athena_workgroup_name="primary",
        athena_results_s3_bucket="my-athena-results",
        region="us-east-1",
    ),
    schema_sink="lake_schema",
)

cfg.pipeline("orders", Pipeline(data_source=app_db, data_sink=lake))
cfg.save("skippr.yml")

export APP_DB_PASSWORD='your-postgres-password'
skipprd discover --pipeline orders
skipprd sync --pipeline orders --once
skipprd query "SELECT count(*) FROM analytics.orders"

Which to choose

Choose SAP Integration Suite if you need iFlows and B2B between SAP apps, and the receiver after the message is enough.

Choose Skippr if you want one binary, live SQL, and Iceberg files that stay yours. Skippr will not run an iFlow.

Install from Install. Connector and query reference live in Developer Docs. For optional onboarding in your VPC, Enterprise Jumpstart or Contact.