Feature Comparison: FME Flow and FME Flow Hosted

Publishing and Running Workspaces

Yes

Yes*

Schedules

Yes

Yes

Automations

Yes

Yes

Server Apps

Yes

Yes

Workspace View/Edit

Yes

Yes

Job Management

Yes

Yes

Projects

Yes

Yes

Resources

Yes

Yes, network-based connections won’t work.

Database and Web Connections

Yes

Yes

FME Flow Security

Yes

Yes

Active Directory Support

Yes

No

Azure Active Directory for User Mgmt

Yes

Yes

SAML for User Mgmt

Yes

Yes

System Configuration - Security

Yes

Yes

System Configuration - Network and Email

Yes

Yes - Cannot rename service URLs.

System Configuration - System Cleanup

Yes

Yes

System Configuration - System Events

Yes

Yes

System Configuration - Broadcast Message

Yes

Yes

System Configuration - Version Control

Yes

Yes - Only supports repositories accessible to the FME Flow Hosted instance, e.g. GitHub.

System Configuration - Job Routing

Yes

Yes

Backup and Restore

Yes

Yes

Licensing & Engines - Licensing

Yes

No - Instance automatically licensed with unlimited FME Engines.

Licensing & Engines - Engine Management

Yes

Yes

Licensing & Engines - Deployment Status

Yes

Yes

Support for custom Python and R Libraries

Yes

Yes - You can upload libraries via the WebUI, see Python on FME Flow. Some libraries are installed by default, see here.

Operating System

Windows or Linux

Linux. Since everything is accessed through an API or web interface, the only consideration when it comes to the OS is format support.

File System Access

Yes.

No. You cannot access the instance directly that FME Flow is running on. All interaction is via the web interface and API.

Distributed Deployment

Yes.

No. FME Flow Hosted deploys FME Flow as a single host. However, we have optimized and tuned the deployment and have a huge amount of integrated monitoring, allowing us to deliver a very high level of uptime.

OS Security Updates

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes. This is automated; see Installing Security Updates.

Publicly Accessible

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes. All FME Flow Hosted instances are on the public internet. The access can be restricted; see Configuring Instance Security.

Static IP address

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes, see Assigning a Static IP Address to an Instance.

Automatic Backups

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes. We take a backup every 24 hours see Working with Backups.

Custom URL

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

No. The URL for the FME Flow is based on your FME Flow Hosted account name and the name you give it on launch.

Virtual Network Integration 

(e.g. Virtual Network on Azure or VPC on AWS)

Yes, you can deploy wherever you want.

No. You cannot set up a VPN between FME Flow Hosted and your own network. 

Always Encrypted

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes, both the data and network connections are encrypted; see the FME Flow Hosted Security Whitepaper.

FME Flow Upgrades

Yes. It is a manual process.

Yes, it is a manual process.

Resizing an instance

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes, both the disks and instance size can be changed via the UI; see Resizing an Instance.

Monitoring Instance Health (e.g. disk usage, memory, response time)

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes, FME Flow Hosted provides tools to monitor your instance infrastructure and receive alerts when there is an issue see Monitoring Instance Health with Alerts.

Monitoring Instance Events (e.g instance started, failed, rebooted)

Possible. You would have to configure it yourself outside of FME Flow.

Yes, you can configure an FME Flow Hosted instance to send notifications about events that occur on an instance; see Monitoring Instance Events and Alerts.

Esri Geodatabases

No

FME Flow Hosted cannot read or write to an Enterprise Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE) as 3rd party libraries are required that cannot be installed.

ArcGIS Online/Server/Portal Feature Services

Yes

Full support for reading/writing to ArcGIS Feature services no matter if they reside on Portal, Server, or Online.

Esri File Geodatabase

Yes/No

On FME Flow Hosted you can read or write to an Esri File Geodatabase using the Esri Geodatabase (File Geodatabase Open API). This format enables connections to File Geodatabase systems through an open API published by Esri, though it does have limited functionality compared to the full reader/writer. 

FME Flow Hosted does not support the Esri File Geodatabase (File Geodb) format which uses ArcObjects and requires an Esri license to connect.

On-Premises Databases

Yes. You can deploy FME Flow next to your database.

Partial - You can connect to databases on-premises. The connection will go over the public internet, which needs encrypting and the firewall configured.

Cloud Databases

Yes. You can deploy FME Flow next to your cloud database.

Partial - You can connect to databases on any cloud platform. The connection will go over the public internet, which needs encrypting and the firewall configured.

Cloud Platform Services (e.g. AWS,  Azure)

Yes. All services are encrypted, so accessing the public internet is secure and performant.

Yes. All services are encrypted, so accessing the public internet is secure and performant.