Celigo is the do-it-all battleship to accompany the aircraft-carrier that is Oracle NetSuite. This dynamic duo can be pricey. An equally-capable lower-level framework, Tim Dietrich’s SuiteAPI is a free DIY tool that is designed to be maximally leveraged by integrators and coders for significant cost-savings. Both can be used together. One brings much pre-built possibility; the other boundless promise.
Celigo (integrator.io) is basically an integration/automation layer that sits around NetSuite and all your other apps. For NetSuite, it gives you a visual way to move data in and out, transform it, orchestrate processes (quote-to-cash, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, etc.), and monitor/repair errors – without having to build and maintain all the SuiteScript / RESTlet / SuiteTalk plumbing yourself. (Celigo)
Below is what it can do for NetSuite, broken down into concrete capability buckets. “Exactly everything” would be an infinite list (because you can build arbitrary flows), but this is what the product explicitly supports out-of-the-box.
1. Connect NetSuite to “anything”
Connectivity into and out of NetSuite
Celigo provides a dedicated NetSuite connector plus a general HTTP connector and many app-specific connectors. With those it can:
- Make authenticated connections to NetSuite using token-based auth or OAuth 1.0 (SuiteTalk, REST, SuiteQL). (Celigo Help Center)
- Talk to NetSuite using:
- Celigo’s own RESTlets via the integrator.io bundle/SuiteApp
- SuiteTalk Web Services
- SuiteQL (REST query)
- Custom RESTlets you’ve written. (Celigo Help Center)
- Connect to hundreds of other systems: Salesforce, Shopify, Amazon, HubSpot, ADP, Workday, Stripe, banks, S3/FTP, Snowflake, etc., via more than 80 prebuilt NetSuite integration apps/templates plus generic connectors. (Celigo)
2. Export data from NetSuite
Celigo’s NetSuite “export” step takes data out of NetSuite and sends it into a flow:
- Scheduled exports
- Run on a schedule (every X minutes/hours/day, etc.). (Celigo Help Center)
- Use saved searches as the source (standard NetSuite pattern).
- Choose export type: All / Delta (only changed since last run) / other modes. (Celigo Help Center)
- Choose API type:
- RESTlet (Celigo bundle RESTlet – default, gives you SuiteScript hooks, etc.)
- Web Services (SuiteTalk), useful for very large data sets or if bundle can’t be installed. (Celigo Help Center)
- Real-time exports (listeners)
- Fire when a NetSuite record is added/updated/deleted.
- You configure record type, execution context, and filters; Celigo creates a listener using SuiteScript (via SuiteApp v2). (Celigo Help Center)
- SuiteQL exports
- Run raw SuiteQL queries through SuiteTalk REST to pull flattened SQL-style data from NetSuite. (Celigo Help Center)
- Custom RESTlet exports
- Proxy calls through the standard NetSuite connection but point them at your own RESTlet script/deployment IDs. (Celigo Help Center)
3. Import data into NetSuite
On the inbound side, Celigo can create/update almost any NetSuite record type:
- Supports standard and many custom record types, line items, subrecords, multiple-select fields, and file cabinet attachments. (Celigo Help Center)
- Uses visual field mapping plus transformations (see next section) to turn foreign payloads into NetSuite records.
- Can run in:
- Batch mode (scheduled)
- Near real-time (triggered by events in Shopify, Amazon, Salesforce, etc.). (Celigo Help Center)
You can think of it as: anything you can create/update in NetSuite via SuiteScript or SuiteTalk, you can drive via Celigo imports.
4. Transform and map data between systems
Between export (NetSuite) and import (other app, or back to NetSuite), Celigo gives you a full transformation/mapping layer:
- Visual Flow Builder mapping
- Drag/drop fields from NetSuite to target system; supports multiple steps, branches, and lookups. (Celigo Help Center)
- Transformations
- Handlebar expressions and JavaScript for computed fields, conditional logic, restructuring JSON, etc. (Celigo Help Center)
- Lookups and joins
- Do dynamic lookups (e.g., find or create customer/item on the fly) – with SuiteApp 2.0, these lookups are no longer constrained by SuiteScript point limits for common import operations. (Celigo Help Center)
Practically: you can reshape NetSuite’s semi-normalized record structure into whatever your external API/CSV needs, and vice-versa.
5. Orchestrate workflows and processes
Celigo lets you build full processes, not just one-off integrations:
- Flow orchestration
- Chain multiple steps: NetSuite export → transform → HTTP POST to outside system → receive response → import back to NetSuite, etc. (Celigo Help Center)
- Execution control
- Control run order, concurrency, paging, and retry strategies.
- Triggers
- Schedule-based, event/listener-based (NetSuite record changes), file-arrival based (FTP/S3), or API-driven (call the flow from elsewhere via Celigo’s own API). (Celigo Help Center)
6. Prebuilt business-process solutions for NetSuite
Celigo ships “Integration Apps” and templates that are complete prebuilt flows for common NetSuite use cases, including: (Celigo)
- Quote-to-cash (typically NetSuite + Salesforce/CRM)
- Order-to-cash for ecommerce & marketplaces
- Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce, Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc.
- Sync customers, orders, order status, fulfillments, refunds, inventory levels, product/catalog data.
- EDI / 3PL / supply chain
- EDI connections for retailers/distributors, 3PL providers, logistics platforms.
- Procure-to-pay
- Integrations with SAP Business Network, Coupa, etc.
- Expense management
- Concur, Certify, Expensify-style flows to create expense reports, reimbursements, GL postings in NetSuite.
- Subscription/billing
- Recurly, Zuora, Stripe, etc., mapped into NetSuite invoicing and revenue.
- HR/PeopleOps
- HRIS (ADP, BambooHR, Workday, etc.) syncing employees, hires/terminations, payroll data into NetSuite.
- Support & marketing
- Zendesk, Freshdesk, HubSpot, Marketo – syncing contacts, tickets, opportunities, etc.
Those are “managed apps,” so Celigo maintains them, pushes updates, fixes, and documentation; you configure rather than custom-build. (Celigo Help Center)
7. Bulk data loading, migration, and “admin jobs”
Celigo is also a data-loader for NetSuite:
- Data Loader
- Import CSVs into NetSuite, Salesforce, and many other apps (good for initial loads or mass updates). (Celigo Help Center)
- Exports to FTP/S3/file
- Send NetSuite saved searches to FTP/S3 as files, or consume files into NetSuite. (Celigo Help Center)
This covers a lot of the “I just need this search in S3 every night” type tasks without writing code.
8. Error handling, monitoring, and retries
A big part of the value is not just “can I integrate?” but “can I keep it running?” Celigo has a whole error-management subsystem: (Celigo Help Center)
- Dashboards & run console
- Global and per-integration dashboards showing flow runs, success/error counts, and performance.
- Notifications
- Email alerts when flows fail, connections go offline, or error counts spike.
- Error classification & auto-resolution
- AI/ML-based classification of errors (intermittent, rate limit, duplicate, etc.).
- Auto-retry of intermittent and rate-limit errors.
- Auto-resolve duplicate errors based on a trace key, so your error queue stays clean.
- Collaboration
- Assign errors to users, tag them, and manage permissions/roles specific to monitoring vs. editing integrations.
9. Lifecycle management, packaging, and governance
For NetSuite-heavy shops, this matters as much as the flows:
- Integration lifecycle management
- Create revisions, diff changes, merge, take snapshots, and promote between environments (sandbox → prod). (Celigo Help Center)
- Flow packaging
- Package flows and move them between Celigo accounts or environments as templates. (Celigo Help Center)
- Concurrency & rate-limit governance
- Tools to govern NetSuite connection concurrency and auto-recover rate-limit errors. (Celigo Help Center)
- Security & compliance
- Role-based access, policy enforcement, and governance tools aligned with GDPR, CCPA, SOC2, etc. (Celigo)
Net: it gives you “DevOps for integrations” around NetSuite.
10. AI helpers and API layer
Finally, Celigo adds AI and API-first options on top of all this: (Celigo Help Center)
- Celigo AI
- Auto-generate field mappings.
- Code assistance for expressions.
- Descriptive summaries of resources, flows, and errors.
- Integration APIs / API Management
- Build custom REST endpoints that front your NetSuite-centric flows (instead of writing your own API gateway).
- Async endpoints for long-running jobs.
- Visual API builder to create “composite” services (e.g., single endpoint that hits NetSuite + Salesforce and returns a joined response). (Celigo Help Center)
How to mentally model it in a NetSuite context
If you’re already thinking of NetSuite as a morphic, parametric data store:
- Celigo is the integration/automation runtime around that store.
- NetSuite is just one of the “applications” in a flow; saved searches + SuiteQL + record APIs are your data taps.
- You design flows where NetSuite is:
- Source: “Export these SOs / items / balances”
- Destination: “Create/update these invoices / inventory adjustments / journal entries”
- Both: multi-step round-trips (e.g., pull Shopify orders → post to NetSuite → push fulfillment back out).
Short version: Tim Dietrich’s free connector (SuiteAPI) can give you almost all of the raw NetSuite connectivity that Celigo uses under the hood (and in some ways more flexibly), but it does not replace Celigo as an iPaaS. By itself, SuiteAPI only covers the NetSuite side of the wire — integrators and programmers can develop the ‘build-out’ that uses the SuiteAPI ‘piping’ and interface to advantage custom integrations and applications. Not just the piping but another suite all its own, Celigo adds its whole integration/automation platform: 3rd-party app connectors, visual flows, scheduling, error handling, etc.
So:
- NetSuite connectivity only? SuiteAPI is very close, and fully usable.
- End-to-end “connect NetSuite to everything” with orchestration and monitoring? That’s Celigo’s domain.
Below is the detailed compare/contrast, focusing on connectivity.
1. What Tim Dietrich’s tool actually is: SuiteAPI
Tim’s “free NetSuite connector” is SuiteAPI:
- Open-source, free, MIT-licensed alternative Web API for NetSuite. (suiteapi.com)
- Implemented as a single RESTlet deployed in your account, using NetSuite roles + token-based auth (so it respects NS permissions). (suiteapi.com)
- RPC-style: every call is an HTTP POST with JSON request/response; not RESTful resources. (suiteapi.com)
Out of the box, SuiteAPI can: (suiteapi.com)
- Run SuiteQL queries (including going past the usual 5,000-row limit).
- Retrieve records, including sublists.
- Return saved search results via an API.
- Upload/download File Cabinet files.
- Generate PDFs (from transactions or ad-hoc XML).
- Send email via NetSuite.
- Call NetSuite’s generative-AI APIs from external apps (newer versions). (Tim Dietrich)
- Be extended (by editing the RESTlet) to work with transactions, entities, items, custom records, etc.
Important limitation straight from the FAQ:
- Current standard SuiteAPI build does not ship with create/update/delete procedures; you’re expected to add those yourself if you want them. (suiteapi.com)
So it’s a low-level, very capable NetSuite API gateway, but not an orchestration layer.
2. What Celigo is, in connectivity terms
Celigo’s NetSuite connector is one “endpoint” inside the integrator.io platform: a hosted iPaaS with lots of app connectors and tooling. It provides: (SuiteApp)
- A managed NetSuite connection using SuiteTalk (REST/SOAP) + Celigo RESTlets (SuiteScript 1.0/2.0) + SuiteQL. (Celigo Help Center)
- A catalog of prebuilt connectors and “Integration Apps” for Shopify, Amazon, Salesforce, etc.
- Built-in exports/imports:
- Export via saved searches, SuiteQL, or direct record APIs (scheduled or real-time). (Celigo Help Center)
- Import create/update/upsert of most record types (transactions, items, entities, custom records). (Celigo Help Center)
- Flow builder for transformations, field mapping, lookups and multi-step flows. (Celigo Help Center)
- Monitoring, retries, dashboards, and governance tools. (SuiteApp)
So Celigo is “NetSuite + everything else + automation.”
3. Connectivity surface: SuiteAPI vs Celigo (NetSuite-side only)
What both can reach in NetSuite
Both, in one way or another, can access:
- SuiteQL queries.
- SuiteAPI exposes a direct “run SuiteQL” procedure. (suiteapi.com)
- Celigo exports can be configured to use SuiteQL via SuiteTalk REST. (Celigo Help Center)
- Saved search results.
- SuiteAPI has a built-in saved search procedure. (suiteapi.com)
- Celigo uses saved searches as its primary scheduled export mechanism. (Celigo Help Center)
- Records and sublists.
- SuiteAPI has record-retrieve procedures and can be extended to any record type. (suiteapi.com)
- Celigo imports/exports let you work with standard and custom records through SuiteTalk and its RESTlets. (Celigo Help Center)
- File Cabinet (upload/download). (suiteapi.com)
- PDF generation via transaction/HTML/XML (SuiteAPI) vs Celigo typically leaving PDFs to NetSuite or custom RESTlets. (suiteapi.com)
If your definition of “connectivity” is “can I programmatically read/write most of the NetSuite data model and supporting services,” both can, with enough config/custom code.
Where Celigo does more than SuiteAPI (out of the box)
- CRUD operations are built-in. Celigo ships ready-to-use operations for add/update/upsert on common record types. SuiteAPI currently requires you to add those procedures yourself if you want standardized CRUD over REST. (suiteapi.com)
- Real-time listeners & triggers. Celigo’s SuiteApp/bundle exposes real-time export flows (User Event + Mass Update listeners) without you writing SuiteScript. (Celigo Help Center)
- With SuiteAPI you can poll or design your own eventing logic, but nothing out-of-the-box.
- Managed connection types. Celigo persists multiple connections (prod/sandbox, different roles, etc.) and handles concurrency/rate limits for you. (Celigo Help Center)
Where SuiteAPI is simpler or more direct
- Very thin layer: single RESTlet / single endpoint, JSON-in/JSON-out, no iPaaS UI overhead. Easy to call from anything (curl, Python, Node, Xojo, Power BI via Power Query, Excel, etc.). (suiteapi.com)
- Direct exposure of specific capabilities that are sometimes awkward via SuiteTalk alone (e.g., saved search via REST, large SuiteQL result sets, File Cabinet + PDF generation in one place). (suiteapi.com)
- Open source & hackable: you can read/modify the SuiteScript to add exactly the procedures you want – including your own high-level RPC methods (“postSalesOrder”, “upsertItem”, etc.). (Tim Dietrich)
4. Multi-app connectivity: where Celigo is in another category
This is where the answer to your literal question is “no”:
can timdietrich tool do everything celigo can, roughly, in terms of connectivity?
If “connectivity” includes connecting NetSuite to other SaaS systems, file stores, and queues (Salesforce, Shopify, Amazon, S3, Azure, etc.) and running scheduled jobs, retries, transforms, and dashboards, then:
- SuiteAPI does not do that by itself.
- It only exposes NetSuite via one HTTP endpoint; you still need your own integration runtime (n8n, Node services, Python scripts, etc.) to talk to the rest of the world. (Tim Dietrich)
- Celigo is that runtime.
- It ships ready-made connectors, flow builder, transformations, scheduling, error handling, environment management – the whole iPaaS stack. (SuiteApp)
So, SuiteAPI ≈ “great NetSuite API server”; Celigo ≈ “full integration platform, where NetSuite is just one of many endpoints.”
5. Practical take-aways for you
The trade-off is:
- If you want max control and minimal black-box:
- Use SuiteAPI as your NetSuite gateway and wire it into your own orchestrator (n8n, custom PHP/Python/Node, etc.).
- You’ll have to implement:
- scheduling,
- retries,
- logging/monitoring,
- external system connectors,
- and any CRUD procedures you need in SuiteAPI itself.
- If you want “click-ops” and lots of prebuilt SaaS–NetSuite flows:
- Use Celigo and treat SuiteAPI as redundant (they each solve the “expose NetSuite over HTTP” problem, but Celigo also brings the big iPaaS features).
NetSuite-side connectivity only → SuiteAPI can absolutely stand in for Celigo’s NetSuite connector if you’re comfortable building the rest of the plumbing.
End-to-end connectivity between NetSuite and dozens of other apps, with UX, templates, and support → that’s where Celigo does substantially more than Tim’s tool on its own.
Very roughly, you’re comparing $0 license + your time (SuiteAPI) vs five-figure annual SaaS spend (Celigo).
1. License / subscription cost
SuiteAPI (Tim Dietrich)
- Published as open-source; there is no license fee to download or use it. (SuiteAPI)
- You host it yourself as a single RESTlet in your NetSuite account plus whatever external app or service calls it.
- Any cost is:
- Your implementation time (writing the external code, adding custom procedures to the RESTlet, monitoring, etc.).
- Optional consulting/dev work from Tim or others (SuiteStep, etc.), but the tool itself is free. (Tim Dietrich)
Celigo (integrator.io)
- Commercial iPaaS with subscription pricing:
- Celigo says they price on endpoints and flows (flat-rate, not per-transaction). (Celigo)
- They offer editions (Standard, Professional, Premium, Enterprise). (integscloud.com)
- Most official pages are “contact us for a quote”; Integration Apps (Amazon–NetSuite, Square–NetSuite, etc.) are also quote-based. (Celigo)
Independent pricing guides and buyers’ tools give ballparks:
- One guide pegs small-business Celigo deployments around $12,800–$25,500 per year, depending on size and scope. (ErpPeers)
- Another buyer site says Celigo “starts at approximately $600/month” for basic plans, rising with connections, users and automation level. (Spendflo)
So: for a “typical” NetSuite + a few SaaS integrations, you’re realistically in the low- to mid-five-figure annual range for Celigo licenses, plus any implementation services.
2. Total cost of ownership differences
SuiteAPI TCO looks like:
- $0 licensing, but you must provide:
- Your own integration runtime (Node/PHP/Python, n8n, Airflow, etc.).
- Your own scheduling, retries, logging, dashboards, and monitoring.
- Your own connectors to Shopify, Amazon, Salesforce, etc.
- This is ideal if:
- You’re comfortable writing and running your own code and infrastructure.
- You want a thin, NetSuite-only gateway and don’t care about a visual iPaaS.
Celigo TCO looks like:
- Subscription cost (as above) + optional professional services.
- In exchange you get:
- Prebuilt, supported NetSuite↔SaaS Integration Apps. (Celigo)
- Visual flow builder, field mapping, transformations, real-time listeners, monitoring, error handling, and governance out of the box. (SuiteApp)
- This is closer to paying for a managed integration platform + accelerators, rather than just an API.
3. How to think about it in practice
If you boil it down:
- SuiteAPI
- Cash cost: effectively $0.
- Effort cost: you’re building and maintaining everything around NetSuite connectivity.
- Best when you already have engineering time, prefer full control, and want to avoid SaaS lock-in or large subscription spend.
- Celigo
- Cash cost: significant recurring spend (often tens of thousands per year once you have a few serious integrations).
- Effort cost: much lower for common NetSuite↔SaaS scenarios because of templates, GUIs, and support.
- Best when you want click-ops and prebuilt flows more than you want to hand-craft the plumbing.
