Azure Data Factory and Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric are both Microsoft data pipeline products, and neither has replaced the other. Azure Data Factory is a standalone Azure resource billed on its own. Data Factory in Fabric is one workload inside a Fabric workspace, billed from that workspace's Fabric capacity alongside Lakehouses, Warehouses and Power BI.

What each one is

Azure Data Factory orchestrates and automates data pipelines: extract, transform and load activities that move data between sources and destinations on a schedule or a trigger, with built-in monitoring and logging.

Data Factory in Fabric covers the same ground inside a Fabric workspace. It combines two tools that used to be separate: pipelines, which orchestrate and schedule activities the way Azure Data Factory does, and Dataflows Gen2, a Power Query-based transformation tool. A pipeline can call a dataflow as one of its steps.

Where they are the same

Both connect to on-premises, cloud and SaaS sources. Both are cloud-based and both cover:

• Data integration and orchestration

• Scheduling and triggers

• Monitoring and logging

• Error handling and retries

Where they differ

Choosing between them

• Data Factory in Fabric fits when your pipelines feed a Fabric Lakehouse or Warehouse, your team already has Fabric capacity for Power BI or data engineering, or you want pipelines, dataflows, notebooks and reports in one workspace with shared permissions.

• Azure Data Factory fits when your pipelines feed Azure services outside Fabric, your infrastructure-as-code and CI/CD already target it, or you are not ready to move existing pipelines and there is no clear benefit to doing so now.

Neither choice is permanent, and a pipeline built in one can be recreated in the other later. For the fuller case for Fabric, see why choose Microsoft Fabric, and for Fabric's own transformation options once data is in a Lakehouse, see Dataflows Gen2 vs. notebooks. For a full walkthrough of building a pipeline in Azure Data Factory, including a worked Copy activity example, see our guide to how Azure Data Factory works.

FAQs

Is Data Factory in Fabric a replacement for Azure Data Factory?

No. Both are current Microsoft products. Fabric added its own Data Factory workload; it did not deprecate the standalone Azure service.

Do I need Azure Data Factory if I already use Fabric?

Not necessarily. If every source and destination your pipelines touch is reachable from Fabric and your team already pays for Fabric capacity, Data Factory in Fabric can cover the same ground without a separate Azure resource. Keep Azure Data Factory alongside it if some pipelines feed Azure services your Fabric workspace does not touch.

Which one is cheaper?

It depends on your pipeline volume and data movement patterns, not on the product name. Azure Data Factory bills each pipeline run and data movement on its own meters; Data Factory in Fabric draws from capacity you may already be paying for. Run both pricing pages against your own pipeline count before deciding.

Sources

• Data Factory in Microsoft Fabric overview - Microsoft Learn

• Introduction to Azure Data Factory - Microsoft Learn