Redshift is AWS's columnar data warehouse optimized for analytical queries on large datasets with lower baseline costs, while Snowflake is a cloud-agnostic platform emphasizing ease of use, instant scalability, and separation of compute and storage. Snowflake typically costs 30-40% more but offers superior multi-cloud flexibility and faster time-to-value for enterprise teams.
Redshift vs Snowflake — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
AWS's fully managed data warehouse service with native cloud integration and enterprise-grade reliability
Cloud-agnostic data platform with decoupled compute/storage and instant elasticity.
Cloud Platform Support. Compute-Storage Separation. Average Total Cost of Ownership (annual, 100TB). Query Performance (TPC-DS benchmark, 100GB). Setup & Configuration Complexity. Concurrent Users Support (Standard tier). Data Sharing Capabilities
Choose Redshift if you have an AWS-centric infrastructure, prioritize lower TCO, and have predictable, consistent workloads with dedicated DevOps resources. Choose Snowflake if you need multi-cloud flexibility, rapid deployment, elastic scaling for variable workloads, or require seamless data sharing and collaboration—the premium is justified for enterprise agility.
Amazon Redshift: 8000ms | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: $1.50-$5.00 | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Unlimited historical storage | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 95% (PostgreSQL-compatible) | Snowflake: 95% (full ANSI)
Amazon Redshift: 160-256 | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Petabyte scale | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 1-10 seconds | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Minutes to hours typical | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 2,000+ | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: AWS Proprietary Managed Service | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: AWS only | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Limited via Kinesis/S3 batch | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: $2,160-8,640 (dc2.large, 2-4 nodes) | Snowflake: N/A
Query Latency (1B row scan, 10 column aggregate)
Amazon Redshift: 500-2000ms | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Included in node cost | Snowflake: $23 (on-demand)
Amazon Redshift: 2 (minimum production) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 32 (base, expandable via Concurrency Scaling) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Batch (minutes to hours typical) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 20+ (native connectors) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: Not open-source (proprietary) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: $0.50 (DC2.large) | Snowflake: $4.00-$6.00 (Medium warehouse)
Amazon Redshift: ~16 seconds | Snowflake: ~14 seconds
Amazon Redshift: 10-15 (requires cluster resize + restart) | Snowflake: ~1 (auto-scaling, no downtime)
Amazon Redshift: 1 (AWS only) | Snowflake: 3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Amazon Redshift: Up to 30% | Snowflake: Up to 20%
Amazon Redshift: 40-80 (distribution keys, sort keys, vacuum) | Snowflake: 4-8 (clustering hints optional)
Annual TCO (100TB storage, average usage)
Amazon Redshift: $200,000 | Snowflake: $260,000
Amazon Redshift: 40-60 hours | Snowflake: 10-15 hours
Amazon Redshift: 50 (standard) | Snowflake: Unlimited
Amazon Redshift: AWS only | Snowflake: AWS, Azure, GCP
Amazon Redshift: Coupled (scale together) | Snowflake: Independent scaling
Amazon Redshift: ~200 (limited) | Snowflake: 1,500+
Amazon Redshift: 70% | Snowflake: None (on-demand only)
Average Query Latency (1 Billion Row Scan)
Amazon Redshift: 10,000+ | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 99.99% | Snowflake: 99.99%
Amazon Redshift: 12+ (S3, Glue, Lambda, Athena, QuickSight, IAM, EventBridge, etc.) | Snowflake: N/A
Amazon Redshift: 0.5-2 | Snowflake: Batch-based (bulk loading)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $2,000-$5,000
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 1-3 days
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 10,000+
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Structured (Parquet, CSV, JSON)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Snowflake Marketplace (proprietary)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: SQL primarily
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $2-4 per credit
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 20-30 minutes
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Limited by warehouse size
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 1,000+ datasets
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Limited by warehouse size, manual tuning
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 22% YoY
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $200-500
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: AWS, Azure, GCP
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 2-4 seconds
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Native, cross-account/cross-cloud
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Complete separation
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Available (instant, free)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 1-3 weeks
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 30 seconds
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $1,500
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 15 minutes
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 100,000 events/sec
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 90 days
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 4:1 to 8:1
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Consumption-based (compute + storage)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 3/10 (very easy)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: <5 seconds
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 30-120 seconds
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 0.3-0.5 weeks (1-2 days)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $120,000-180,000
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Up to 50+ PB (cloud limits)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: SQL, Python, Java, JavaScript, Scala
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 1-2 years (SQL knowledge)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Yes (sub-second latency)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $240,000
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 8 (Parquet, CSV, JSON, ORC, AVRO, XML, PDF, Images)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: SaaS only (AWS/Azure/GCP)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 1,000-10,000ms
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: ~10,000 enterprises
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $10,000-1,000,000 (credits-based)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 3-15 (depends on data size)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Unlimited (petabyte-scale)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 3/10 (managed cloud service)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 2-5 seconds
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: $120-240
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Limited (external integration required)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Structured (optimized for tables/CSV/JSON)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Unlimited (multi-cluster shared warehouse)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 5-10 minutes
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 32% of cloud data warehouse market
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 2.8x baseline (external ML tools required)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 30-45 minutes
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 38 seconds
Starting Monthly Cost (10GB active data)
SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS Benchmark)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: Cortex AI (basic)
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: High (proprietary format)
Maximum Concurrent Queries Per Warehouse
Amazon Redshift: N/A | Snowflake: 8-128 (warehouse-dependent)
How to choose between Amazon Redshift and Snowflake
Redshift vs Snowflake — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Redshift vs Snowflake. Contains 116 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Redshift vs Snowflake — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Redshift vs Snowflake.
Which is cheaper: Redshift or Snowflake?
Redshift is 25-35% cheaper on average. For a 100TB data warehouse with typical usage, Redshift costs ~$200K annually vs. Snowflake's ~$260K. However, Snowflake's elastic scaling can be more cost-effective for highly variable workloads, as you pay only for compute actually used, whereas Redshift charges for provisioned capacity regardless of utilization.
Can I use Snowflake or Redshift on multiple clouds?
Snowflake natively supports AWS, Azure, and GCP with a single account, enabling true multi-cloud flexibility. Redshift is AWS-only, though you can run separate Redshift instances in other clouds independently, which defeats the purpose of unified management and requires duplicated data and governance.
How long does it take to set up each platform?
Snowflake typically reaches production in 10-15 hours with minimal configuration required. Redshift typically requires 40-60 hours due to cluster sizing decisions, distribution key selection, and performance tuning. This gives Snowflake a 75%+ speed advantage for time-to-value.
Snowflake scales to unlimited concurrent users through elastic clustering without performance degradation. Redshift supports ~50 simultaneous users in standard configurations; exceeding this requires manual cluster resizing, which introduces downtime and complexity. Snowflake is superior for organizations with many BI users.
Which is better for semi-structured data (JSON, logs)?
Snowflake has native, optimized support for semi-structured data through VARIANT columns and automatic schema inference, making it substantially easier to ingest and query JSON/Parquet files. Redshift requires manual denormalization or external transformation tools like AWS Glue, adding complexity and latency.
How to Choose Between Amazon Redshift and Snowflake
Cloud Platform Support: Amazon Redshift has AWS only, while Snowflake has AWS, Azure, GCP.
Compute-Storage Separation: Amazon Redshift has Coupled (requires resize), while Snowflake has Fully decoupled (independent scaling).
Consider: Average Total Cost of Ownership (annual, 100TB)
Average Total Cost of Ownership (annual, 100TB): Amazon Redshift has $180,000-220,000, while Snowflake has $240,000-280,000.
Consider: Query Performance (TPC-DS benchmark, 100GB)
Query Performance (TPC-DS benchmark, 100GB): Amazon Redshift has 42 seconds average, while Snowflake has 38 seconds average.
Consider: Setup & Configuration Complexity
Setup & Configuration Complexity: Amazon Redshift has Moderate (requires tuning), while Snowflake has Minimal (auto-configured).
Consider: Concurrent Users Support (Standard tier)
Concurrent Users Support (Standard tier): Amazon Redshift has Up to 50 simultaneously, while Snowflake has Unlimited (elastic scaling).
Data Sharing Capabilities: Amazon Redshift has Basic (limited ecosystem), while Snowflake has Advanced (Snowflake Marketplace).