Database Sync vs. CSV Import: Which Should You Use?

If your product data already lives somewhere, like a spreadsheet someone maintains or an internal system's own database, you have two realistic ways to get it into a product feed without typing anything in by hand: import a file on your own schedule, or point the feed at your database and let it pull on a recurring schedule automatically. Neither one is universally "better" - they just fit different shapes of workflow.

CSV/Excel import

You export or maintain a spreadsheet, upload it, and the feed maps its columns to product fields and applies the update. It's the lower-commitment option: no database credentials to hand over, no network access to configure, and it works identically whether your source is a real system's export or a spreadsheet someone updates by hand.

The trade-off is that it's only as current as the last upload. If nobody remembers to re-upload for three days, the feed is three days stale. Nothing syncs on its own.

Database sync

You supply a read-only query and a column mapping once, and the feed pulls fresh rows on a schedule - anywhere from every 15 minutes to once a day, your choice - with nobody needing to remember to trigger anything. It merges rather than replaces. If a sync returns fewer rows than last time (a flaky query, a temporary connection issue), it never deletes products that didn't come back. A bad sync degrades to "stale" instead of "products silently vanished."

The trade-off is setup cost: it needs real, working read access to your database, and a query you're comfortable running on a schedule against production. For a business that already treats its own database as the source of truth, this removes a manual step permanently. For one that doesn't want to expose database credentials to a third party at all, import stays the simpler, lower-trust option.

Choosing between them

Situation	Better fit
Catalog changes are already tracked in a real database	Database sync
Source is a spreadsheet someone edits manually	CSV/Excel import
Freshness matters (stock, pricing) and can't wait on a person	Database sync
One-time catalog load, then mostly updated via the API directly	CSV/Excel import
Not comfortable sharing DB credentials with a third party	CSV/Excel import

Nothing stops using both at different points: import a spreadsheet once to seed a catalog, then switch to database sync once the same data is available from a live system. The feed's Query and Manage APIs behave identically either way; how the rows arrived isn't visible to anything consuming the feed.

How Feedwyre handles this

Database Sync connects to your own SQL Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL database with a read-only query and column mapping, running on whichever interval fits (15 minutes up to daily), with a safety check that refuses to let a sync target resolve to an internal network address by mistake. CSV/Excel import is available on every plan with no setup beyond mapping columns once. Both write through the same feed, so nothing downstream needs to know which one you're using.