Redshift vs Snowflake 2026: Cost, Speed & Cloud Comparison

A Versus B

software

Updated July 9, 2026

Redshift offers lower costs for predictable, MPP workloads on AWS infrastructure, while Snowflake provides superior multi-cloud flexibility, ease of use, and better performance for ad-hoc queries with its unique architecture. Snowflake dominates in ease of deployment and cross-cloud capability, while Redshift wins on price for consistent, large-scale analytics.

AR

Amazon Redshift

AWS-native MPP data warehouse optimized for large-scale batch analytics and predictable workloads.

Large enterprises with predictable, massive analytics needs on AWS and strong DevOps teams

Score63%

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VS

Snowflake

Enterprise cloud data warehouse with native multi-cloud support and broad BI ecosystem integration.

Mid-market to enterprise companies needing multi-cloud flexibility, rapid deployment, and mixed workload patterns

Score63%

Check Price

Quick Answer

AI Summary

Redshift offers lower costs for predictable, MPP workloads on AWS infrastructure, while Snowflake provides superior multi-cloud flexibility, ease of use, and better performance for ad-hoc queries with its unique architecture. Snowflake dominates in ease of deployment and cross-cloud capability, while Redshift wins on price for consistent, large-scale analytics.

Our Verdict

AI-assisted

Choose Redshift if you have predictable, massive analytics workloads on AWS and need to minimize cost per query—it excels at batch processing and can save 30-40% versus Snowflake for consistent usage. Choose Snowflake if you need multi-cloud deployment, rapid time-to-value, high concurrency, or mixed workload patterns (batch + ad-hoc); it's ideal for enterprises seeking flexibility and reduced DevOps overhead despite higher costs.

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A

Amazon Redshift

7.1/10

Snowflake

7.9/10

A

Choose Amazon Redshift if

Large enterprises with predictable, massive analytics needs on AWS and strong DevOps teams

Choose Snowflake if

Best pick

Mid-market to enterprise companies needing multi-cloud flexibility, rapid deployment, and mixed workload patterns

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Key Differences at a Glance

Architecture Model:✓ Snowflake wins(Shared compute and storage separation - auto-scaling vs Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) - dedicated clusters)
Cloud Support:✓ Snowflake wins(AWS, Azure, GCP multi-cloud vs AWS only)
Estimated Annual Cost (1PB analysis):✓ Amazon Redshift wins($180,000-$240,000 vs $280,000-$360,000)

See all 7 differences

Key Facts & Figures

125 numeric metrics compared

Metric	Amazon Redshift	Snowflake	Ratio
Query Latency (p99)(milliseconds)	8000ms	—	—
Typical Query Cost (per TB scanned)(USD)	$1.50-$5.00	—	—
Setup Time (to production)(days)	1-3	—	—
SQL Standard Compliance(% compatibility)	95% (PostgreSQL-compatible)	95% (full ANSI)
Typical Memory Per Node(GB)	160-256	—	—
Maximum Cluster Size(nodes)	Petabyte scale	—	—
Query Latency (Average)(milliseconds)	1-10 seconds	—	—
Data Freshness(seconds)	Minutes to hours typical	—	—
Concurrent User Support(users)	2,000+	—	—
Ingestion Streaming Support(events per second)	Limited via Kinesis/S3 batch	—	—
Base Monthly Cost (Small Cluster)(USD)	$2,160-8,640 (dc2.large, 2-4 nodes)	—	—
Query Latency (1B row scan, 10 column aggregate)(milliseconds)	500-2000ms	—	—
Storage Cost (per TB/month)(USD)	Included in node cost	$23 (on-demand)
Typical Data Compression Ratio(x)	4-8x	—	—
Minimum Cluster Size (nodes)(nodes)	2 (minimum production)	—	—
Max Concurrent Queries (default config)(queries)	32 (base, expandable via Concurrency Scaling)	—	—
Data Ingestion Latency(seconds)	Batch (minutes to hours typical)	—	—
AWS Service Integration (native)(count)	20+ (native connectors)	—	—
Base Hourly Cost (2-node cluster)(USD/hour)	$0.50 (DC2.large)	$4.00-$6.00 (Medium warehouse)
Query Performance (TPC-DS 100GB)(seconds)	~16 seconds	~14 seconds
Scaling Adjustment Time(minutes)	10-15 (requires cluster resize + restart)	~1 (auto-scaling, no downtime)
Maximum Single Query Data Scanned(petabytes)	100+	20+
Cloud Providers Supported(count)	1 (AWS only)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Annual Contract Discount(percent)	Up to 30%	Up to 20%
Configuration Tuning Required(hours (estimated))	40-80 (distribution keys, sort keys, vacuum)	4-8 (clustering hints optional)
Annual TCO (100TB storage, average usage)(USD)	$200,000	$260,000
TPC-DS Query Benchmark (100GB dataset)(seconds)	42	38
Setup Time to Production(minutes)	40-60 hours	10-15 hours
Maximum Concurrent Users(users)	50 (standard)	Unlimited	—
Data Marketplace Size(datasets)	~200 (limited)	1,500+
Reserved Instance Discount(percent)	70%	None (on-demand only)
Average Query Latency (1 Billion Row Scan)(ms)	350ms	—	—
Monthly Cost per TB Stored(USD)	$2.25	—	—
Maximum Concurrent Queries(queries/sec)	10,000+	—	—
Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)	99.99%	99.99%
Native AWS Service Integration(count)	12+ (S3, Glue, Lambda, Athena, QuickSight, IAM, EventBridge, etc.)	—	—
Data Ingestion Rate(GB/sec)	0.5-2	Batch-based (bulk loading)	—
Typical Query Latency (100GB Dataset)(milliseconds)	500ms-5000ms	—	—
Storage Cost per TB per Month(USD)	$0.25-$0.50	—	—
Typical Setup Time for Production(days)	3-7 days	—	—
Data Ingestion Freshness(seconds)	300-3600 seconds	—	—
Maximum Concurrent Queries (Standard Node)(queries)	15-25	—	—
SQL Dialect Compatibility(percentage)	Full PostgreSQL compatible (95%+ ANSI SQL)	—	—
Time to Production Deployment(days)	21-28 days	2-3 days
Estimated Annual Cost (1 PB throughput)(USD)	$180,000-$240,000	$280,000-$360,000
Cloud Provider Support(count)	1 (AWS only)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Median Ad-hoc Query Response Time(seconds)	120-240 seconds	3-5 seconds
Concurrent Users per Instance(users)	50-100 typical	500-1000+ elastic
Data Compression Ratio(ratio)	10:1 average	3-5:1 average
Minimum Compute Billing Unit(seconds)	Per-second (reserved/on-demand)	Per-second (1 credit minimum per query)
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)	$2,000-$5,000	$2,000-$5,000
Setup Time(minutes)	1-3 days	1-3 days
Query Performance (TPC-DS)(seconds)	15-20	15-20
ML/AI Integration Score(out of 10)	4/10	4/10
Global Enterprise Customers(count (2026))	10,000+	10,000+
Supported Cloud Providers(number of platforms)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)
Setup Time to First Query(minutes)	20-30 minutes	20-30 minutes
Data Marketplace Size(number of datasets)	1,000+ datasets	1,000+ datasets
Annual Customer Growth Rate (2025)(percent)	22% YoY	22% YoY
Average Enterprise Contract Value(USD thousands per year)	$200-500	$200-500
Base Cost per TB (Monthly)(USD)	$4-6	$4-6
Available Cloud Providers(count)	AWS, Azure, GCP	AWS, Azure, GCP
Average Query Response Time(seconds)	2-4 seconds	2-4 seconds
Time to Production (median)(weeks)	1-3 weeks	1-3 weeks
Market Share 2026(percent)	32%	32%
Query Latency (1 billion rows)(seconds)	30 seconds	30 seconds
Monthly Cost (100 GB compressed)(USD)	$1,500	$1,500
Ingestion Throughput(events/sec)	100,000 events/sec	100,000 events/sec
Data Retention for Time-Travel(days)	90 days	90 days
Compression Ratio(ratio)	4:1 to 8:1	4:1 to 8:1
Learning Curve (1-10 scale)(difficulty)	3/10 (very easy)	3/10 (very easy)
Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds)	<5 seconds	<5 seconds
Query Latency (1TB dataset)(seconds)	30-120 seconds	30-120 seconds
Deployment Time(seconds)	0.3-0.5 weeks (1-2 days)	0.3-0.5 weeks (1-2 days)
Annual Cost (100TB storage, 10 users)(USD)	$120,000-180,000	$120,000-180,000
Maximum Scalability(concurrent container instances)	Up to 50+ PB (cloud limits)	Up to 50+ PB (cloud limits)
Time to First Query (production)(days)	1-3 days	1-3 days
Required Technical Expertise Level(years experience needed)	1-2 years (SQL knowledge)	1-2 years (SQL knowledge)
Annual License Cost (100TB data)(USD)	$240,000	$240,000
Query Response Time (10TB scan)(seconds)	8.2	8.2
Data Format Support Count(formats)	8 (Parquet, CSV, JSON, ORC, AVRO, XML, PDF, Images)	8 (Parquet, CSV, JSON, ORC, AVRO, XML, PDF, Images)
Available Integrations(count)	600+	600+
Time to Production(days)	0.5	0.5
Query Latency (Typical)(milliseconds)	1,000-10,000ms	1,000-10,000ms
Enterprise Customers (2025)(count)	~10,000 enterprises	~10,000 enterprises
Base Setup Cost (Annual)(USD)	$10,000-1,000,000 (credits-based)	$10,000-1,000,000 (credits-based)
Time to Insight (Complex Query)(seconds)	3-15 (depends on data size)	3-15 (depends on data size)
Maximum Daily Data Volume(terabytes)	Unlimited (petabyte-scale)	Unlimited (petabyte-scale)
Operational Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)	3/10 (managed cloud service)	3/10 (managed cloud service)
SQL Query Performance (1TB dataset)(seconds)	2-5 seconds	2-5 seconds
Base Monthly Cost (minimum)(USD)	$120-240	$120-240
Data Format Support	Structured (optimized for tables/CSV/JSON)	Structured (optimized for tables/CSV/JSON)
Concurrent Users Support(users)	Unlimited (multi-cluster shared warehouse)	Unlimited (multi-cluster shared warehouse)
Data Warehouse Setup Time(minutes)	5-10 minutes	5-10 minutes
Global Market Share (2024)(%)	32% of cloud data warehouse market	32% of cloud data warehouse market
ML Model Training Cost Efficiency(relative cost index)	2.8x baseline (external ML tools required)	2.8x baseline (external ML tools required)
Initial Setup Time(minutes)	0.1 weeks (24 hours)	0.1 weeks (24 hours)
TPC-DS 100TB Query Performance(seconds)	38 seconds	38 seconds
Starting Monthly Cost (10GB active data)(USD)	$480	$480
SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS Benchmark)(seconds)	28	28
BI Tool Native Connectors(count)	150+	150+
Maximum Concurrent Queries Per Warehouse(queries)	8-128 (warehouse-dependent)	8-128 (warehouse-dependent)
Customer Satisfaction Rating (G2 2025)(percent)	85%	85%
Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(difficulty score)	4	4
Query Latency (P99 percentile)(milliseconds)	2500ms	2500ms
Maximum Ingestion Rate(events/second)	500,000	500,000
Storage Cost(USD per TB per month)	$50	$50
Concurrent Query Capacity(concurrent users)	1000+	1000+
Time to First Query(minutes)	5 (account creation)	5 (account creation)
Minimum Cluster Size(nodes)	1 (virtual warehouse)	1 (virtual warehouse)
Query Performance (10TB TPC-DS benchmark)(seconds)	5 seconds	5 seconds
Annual Cost (100TB, 24/7 usage)(USD)	$200,000	$200,000
Data Recovery (Time Travel)(days)	90 days automatic	90 days automatic
Required DevOps Team Size(FTE)	0.5 engineers	0.5 engineers
Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars)	2,800 stars	2,800 stars
SQL Query Speed (relative benchmark)(relative to baseline)	Industry leading (100% baseline)	Industry leading (100% baseline)
Minimum Setup Time(minutes)	5-10 minutes (serverless)	5-10 minutes (serverless)
ML/AI Feature Maturity(1-10 scale)	4/10 (limited native, requires integrations)	4/10 (limited native, requires integrations)
Base Compute Cost (per hour)(USD)	$2.00-$4.00 per credit	$2.00-$4.00 per credit
Enterprise Customer Adoption(% of market)	32% enterprise market share (2025)	32% enterprise market share (2025)
ETL/ELT Performance (1TB dataset)(minutes)	20-35 minutes (SQL based)	20-35 minutes (SQL based)
Minimum Annual Cost(USD)	$4,000-8,000	$4,000-8,000
Native BI Tool Connectors(count)	30+ (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Qlik, Sisense)	30+ (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Qlik, Sisense)
Uptime SLA(percentage)	99.9%	99.9%
Time-Travel Query Window(days)	90 days retention	90 days retention

Sourced from publicly available data · Jul 2026

Key Differences

7 attributes compared head-to-head

AR

1Amazon Redshift

Snowflake leads

6Snowflake

Amazon Redshift

Attribute

Snowflake

Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) - dedicated clusters
Architecture Model
Shared compute and storage separation - auto-scaling(winner)
AWS only
Cloud Support
AWS, Azure, GCP multi-cloud(winner)
$180,000-$240,000(winner)
Estimated Annual Cost (1PB analysis)
$280,000-$360,000
3-4 weeks (cluster provisioning, tuning)
Setup Time to Production
2-3 days (minimal configuration)(winner)
Slower due to cluster pre-sizing requirements
Ad-hoc Query Performance
Faster with dynamic compute scaling(winner)
50-100 typical per cluster
Concurrent User Support
500-1000+ with elastic scaling(winner)
Limited (requires replication)
Data Sharing Native Feature
Built-in zero-copy sharing(winner)

Architecture Model
Amazon Redshift
Massively Parallel Processing (MPP) - dedicated clusters
Snowflake
Shared compute and storage separation - auto-scaling(winner)
Cloud Support
Amazon Redshift
AWS only
Snowflake
AWS, Azure, GCP multi-cloud(winner)
Estimated Annual Cost (1PB analysis)
Amazon Redshift
$180,000-$240,000(winner)
Snowflake
$280,000-$360,000
Setup Time to Production
Amazon Redshift
3-4 weeks (cluster provisioning, tuning)
Snowflake
2-3 days (minimal configuration)(winner)
Ad-hoc Query Performance
Amazon Redshift
Slower due to cluster pre-sizing requirements
Snowflake
Faster with dynamic compute scaling(winner)
Concurrent User Support
Amazon Redshift
50-100 typical per cluster
Snowflake
500-1000+ with elastic scaling(winner)
Data Sharing Native Feature
Amazon Redshift
Limited (requires replication)
Snowflake
Built-in zero-copy sharing(winner)

Full Comparison

Amazon Redshift vs Snowflake — attribute comparison table
Attribute	Amazon Redshift	Snowflake

Query Latency (p99)(milliseconds)	8000ms	—
Query Latency (Average)(milliseconds)	1-10 seconds	—
Query Latency (1B row scan, 10 column aggregate)(milliseconds)	500-2000ms	—
Data Ingestion Latency(seconds)	Batch (minutes to hours typical)	—
Query Performance (TPC-DS 100GB)(seconds)	~16 seconds	~14 seconds(winner)
Show 29 more attributes TPC-DS Query Benchmark (100GB dataset)(seconds) 42 38 Average Query Latency (1 Billion Row Scan)(ms) 350ms — Data Ingestion Rate(GB/sec) 0.5-2 Batch-based (bulk loading) Typical Query Latency (100GB Dataset)(milliseconds) 500ms-5000ms — Data Ingestion Freshness(seconds) 300-3600 seconds — Maximum Concurrent Queries (Standard Node)(queries) 15-25 — Median Ad-hoc Query Response Time(seconds) 120-240 seconds 3-5 seconds Query Performance (TPC-DS)(seconds) 15-20 — Maximum Query Timeout(hours) Limited by warehouse size — Concurrent User Support(scalability level) Limited by warehouse size, manual tuning — Average Query Response Time(seconds) 2-4 seconds — Query Latency (1 billion rows)(seconds) 30 seconds — Ingestion Throughput(events/sec) 100,000 events/sec — Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds) <5 seconds — Query Latency (1TB dataset)(seconds) 30-120 seconds — Deployment Time(seconds) 0.3-0.5 weeks (1-2 days) — Maximum Scalability(concurrent container instances) Up to 50+ PB (cloud limits) — Query Response Time (10TB scan)(seconds) 8.2 — Query Latency (Typical)(milliseconds) 1,000-10,000ms — Time to Insight (Complex Query)(seconds) 3-15 (depends on data size) — SQL Query Performance (1TB dataset)(seconds) 2-5 seconds — TPC-DS 100TB Query Performance(seconds) 38 seconds — SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS Benchmark)(seconds) 28 — Maximum Concurrent Queries Per Warehouse(queries) 8-128 (warehouse-dependent) — Query Latency (P99 percentile)(milliseconds) 2500ms — Query Performance (10TB TPC-DS benchmark)(seconds) 5 seconds — SQL Query Speed (relative benchmark)(relative to baseline) Industry leading (100% baseline) — ETL/ELT Performance (1TB dataset)(minutes) 20-35 minutes (SQL based) — Query Performance on Data Lakes(relative speed) Slower without ingestion; 5-10x slower on unoptimized data lake queries —

Typical Query Cost (per TB scanned)(USD)	$1.50-$5.00	—
Base Monthly Cost (Small Cluster)(USD)	$2,160-8,640 (dc2.large, 2-4 nodes)	—
Storage Cost (per TB/month)(USD)	Included in node cost(winner)	$23 (on-demand)
Annual TCO (100TB storage, average usage)(USD)	$200,000(winner)	$260,000
Monthly Cost per TB Stored(USD)	$2.25	—
Show 3 more attributes Storage Cost per TB per Month(USD) $0.25-$0.50 — Estimated Annual Cost (1 PB throughput)(USD) $180,000-$240,000 $280,000-$360,000 Annual Cost (100TB storage, 10 users)(USD) $120,000-180,000 —

Setup Time (to production)(days)	1-3	—
Scaling Adjustment Time(minutes)	10-15 (requires cluster resize + restart)	~1 (auto-scaling, no downtime)(winner)
Configuration Tuning Required(hours (estimated))	40-80 (distribution keys, sort keys, vacuum)	4-8 (clustering hints optional)(winner)
Required DevOps Team Size(FTE)	0.5 engineers	—

Supported Data Retention(duration)	Unlimited historical storage	—

SQL Standard Compliance(% compatibility)	95% (PostgreSQL-compatible)	95% (full ANSI)
SQL Dialect Compatibility(percentage)	Full PostgreSQL compatible (95%+ ANSI SQL)	—
SQL Compliance	ANSI SQL compliant	—

Typical Memory Per Node(GB)	160-256	—

Maximum Cluster Size(nodes)	Petabyte scale	—
Maximum Concurrent Users(users)	50 (standard)	Unlimited
Maximum Concurrent Queries(queries/sec)	10,000+	—
Horizontal Scalability(text)	Linear scaling with node count limits	—
Concurrent Users per Instance(users)	50-100 typical	500-1000+ elastic(winner)
Show 4 more attributes Maximum Daily Data Volume(terabytes) Unlimited (petabyte-scale) — Concurrent Users Support(users) Unlimited (multi-cluster shared warehouse) — Concurrent Query Capacity(concurrent users) 1000+ — Minimum Cluster Size(nodes) 1 (virtual warehouse) —

Data Freshness(seconds)	Minutes to hours typical	—
Ingestion Streaming Support(events per second)	Limited via Kinesis/S3 batch	—

Concurrent User Support(users)	2,000+	—
Data Sharing Zero-Copy(capability level)	Native (Secure Shares, production-ready)	—

License Type	AWS Proprietary Managed Service	—

Deployment Flexibility	AWS only	—
Minimum Cluster Size (nodes)(nodes)	2 (minimum production)	—
Cloud Platform Support	AWS only	AWS, Azure, GCP
Cloud Provider Support(count)	1 (AWS only)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)(winner)
Supported Cloud Providers(number of platforms)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)	—
Show 2 more attributes Available Cloud Providers(count) AWS, Azure, GCP — Deployment Options Cloud-only (SaaS) —

Typical Data Compression Ratio(x)	4-8x	—
Data Compression Ratio(ratio)	10:1 average(winner)	3-5:1 average

Max Concurrent Queries (default config)(queries)	32 (base, expandable via Concurrency Scaling)	—

AWS Service Integration (native)(count)	20+ (native connectors)	—
Data Marketplace Size(datasets)	~200 (limited)	1,500+(winner)

GitHub Stars (as of 2026)(thousands)	Not open-source (proprietary)	—

Base Hourly Cost (2-node cluster)(USD/hour)	$0.50 (DC2.large)(winner)	$4.00-$6.00 (Medium warehouse)
Annual Contract Discount(percent)	Up to 30%(winner)	Up to 20%
Reserved Instance Discount(percent)	70%(winner)	None (on-demand only)
Starting Monthly Cost(USD)	$2,000-$5,000	—
Base Query Cost(USD per TB scanned)	$2-4 per credit	—
Show 11 more attributes Average Enterprise Contract Value(USD thousands per year) $200-500 — Base Cost per TB (Monthly)(USD) $4-6 — Monthly Cost (100 GB compressed)(USD) $1,500 — Annual License Cost (100TB data)(USD) $240,000 — Base Setup Cost (Annual)(USD) $10,000-1,000,000 (credits-based) — Base Monthly Cost (minimum)(USD) $120-240 — Starting Monthly Cost (10GB active data)(USD) $480 — Storage Cost(USD per TB per month) $50 — Base Compute Cost (per hour)(USD) $2.00-$4.00 per credit — Minimum Annual Cost(USD) $4,000-8,000 — Per-Query Compute Cost Model(structure) $2-4 per credit (1 credit = compute + storage) —

Maximum Single Query Data Scanned(petabytes)	100+(winner)	20+

Cloud Providers Supported(count)	1 (AWS only)	3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)(winner)
Native AWS Service Integration(count)	12+ (S3, Glue, Lambda, Athena, QuickSight, IAM, EventBridge, etc.)	—

Setup Time to Production(minutes)	40-60 hours	10-15 hours(winner)
Setup Time to First Query(minutes)	20-30 minutes	—
Time to Production(days)	0.5	—

Compute-Storage Decoupling	Coupled (scale together)	Independent scaling
Compute-Storage Decoupling	Complete separation	—
Compute & Storage Coupling	Fully independent (separate pricing)	—
Data Movement Required(percentage)	100% (must ingest into Snowflake)	—
Data Lake S3/ADLS Support(native support)	No (requires data copy into Snowflake)	—

Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)	99.99%	99.99%
Uptime SLA(percentage)	99.9%	—

Typical Setup Time for Production(days)	3-7 days	—

Columnar Compression Ratio(ratio (data reduction %))	6:1 to 15:1	—
Compression Ratio(ratio)	4:1 to 8:1	—

Time to Production Deployment(days)	21-28 days	2-3 days(winner)
Required Technical Expertise Level(years experience needed)	1-2 years (SQL knowledge)	—

Native Multi-Cloud Data Sharing(boolean)	No (requires replication)	Yes (zero-copy)
Data Sharing Standard(technology)	Snowflake Marketplace (proprietary)	—
Data Sharing Capability	Native, cross-account/cross-cloud	—
Zero-Copy Cloning	Available (instant, free)	—
Data Retention for Time-Travel(days)	90 days	—
Show 6 more attributes Data Format Support Count(formats) 8 (Parquet, CSV, JSON, ORC, AVRO, XML, PDF, Images) — Available Integrations(count) 600+ — Native ML/AI Capabilities Limited (external integration required) — Data Format Support Structured (optimized for tables/CSV/JSON) — Data Recovery (Time Travel)(days) 90 days automatic — Time-Travel Query Window(days) 90 days retention —

Minimum Compute Billing Unit(seconds)	Per-second (reserved/on-demand)	Per-second (1 credit minimum per query)

Setup Time(minutes)	1-3 days	—
Setup Time(minutes)	15 minutes	—
Initial Setup Time(minutes)	0.1 weeks (24 hours)	—
Customer Satisfaction Rating (G2 2025)(percent)	85%	—

ML/AI Integration Score(out of 10)	4/10	—
Native ML Framework Integration	Cortex AI (basic)	—
ML/AI Feature Maturity(1-10 scale)	4/10 (limited native, requires integrations)	—

Global Enterprise Customers(count (2026))	10,000+	—
Market Share 2026(percent)	32%	—
Global Market Share (2024)(%)	32% of cloud data warehouse market	—
Enterprise Customer Adoption(% of market)	32% enterprise market share (2025)	—

Supported Data Formats(types)	Structured (Parquet, CSV, JSON)	—

Multi-Language Support(languages)	SQL primarily	—

Data Marketplace Size(number of datasets)	1,000+ datasets	—

Annual Customer Growth Rate (2025)(percent)	22% YoY	—

Time to Production (median)(weeks)	1-3 weeks	—
Time to First Query (production)(days)	1-3 days	—

Licensing Model	Consumption-based (compute + storage)	—
Annual Cost (100TB, 24/7 usage)(USD)	$200,000	—

Learning Curve (1-10 scale)(difficulty)	3/10 (very easy)	—

Supported Query Languages(count)	SQL, Python, Java, JavaScript, Scala	—

Real-time Analytics Capability	Yes (sub-second latency)	—
SQL Query Support	ANSI SQL with advanced optimizations	—

Enterprise Customers (2025)(count)	~10,000 enterprises	—

Operational Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)	3/10 (managed cloud service)	—

Data Warehouse Setup Time(minutes)	5-10 minutes	—
Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(difficulty score)	4	—
Minimum Setup Time(minutes)	5-10 minutes (serverless)	—

ML Model Training Cost Efficiency(relative cost index)	2.8x baseline (external ML tools required)	—

Data Format Lock-in Risk	High (proprietary format)	—

BI Tool Native Connectors(count)	150+	—
Native BI Tool Connectors(count)	30+ (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Qlik, Sisense)	—

Maximum Ingestion Rate(events/second)	500,000	—

Time to First Query(minutes)	5 (account creation)	—

Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars)	2,800 stars	—

Unstructured Data Support(capability level)	Limited (structured tables primary)	—

AAmazon Redshift

Snowflake

Query Latency (p99)(milliseconds)

8000ms

—

Query Latency (Average)(milliseconds)

1-10 seconds

—

Query Latency (1B row scan, 10 column aggregate)(milliseconds)

500-2000ms

—

Data Ingestion Latency(seconds)

Batch (minutes to hours typical)

—

Query Performance (TPC-DS 100GB)(seconds)

~16 seconds

~14 seconds

Show 29 more attributes

TPC-DS Query Benchmark (100GB dataset)(seconds)

42

38

Average Query Latency (1 Billion Row Scan)(ms)

350ms

—

Data Ingestion Rate(GB/sec)

0.5-2

Batch-based (bulk loading)

Typical Query Latency (100GB Dataset)(milliseconds)

500ms-5000ms

—

Data Ingestion Freshness(seconds)

300-3600 seconds

—

Maximum Concurrent Queries (Standard Node)(queries)

15-25

—

Median Ad-hoc Query Response Time(seconds)

120-240 seconds

3-5 seconds

Query Performance (TPC-DS)(seconds)

15-20

—

Maximum Query Timeout(hours)

Limited by warehouse size

—

Concurrent User Support(scalability level)

Limited by warehouse size, manual tuning

—

Average Query Response Time(seconds)

2-4 seconds

—

Query Latency (1 billion rows)(seconds)

30 seconds

—

Ingestion Throughput(events/sec)

100,000 events/sec

—

Data Warehouse Query Speed (Typical)(seconds)

<5 seconds

—

Query Latency (1TB dataset)(seconds)

30-120 seconds

—

Deployment Time(seconds)

0.3-0.5 weeks (1-2 days)

—

Maximum Scalability(concurrent container instances)

Up to 50+ PB (cloud limits)

—

Query Response Time (10TB scan)(seconds)

8.2

—

Query Latency (Typical)(milliseconds)

1,000-10,000ms

—

Time to Insight (Complex Query)(seconds)

3-15 (depends on data size)

—

SQL Query Performance (1TB dataset)(seconds)

2-5 seconds

—

TPC-DS 100TB Query Performance(seconds)

38 seconds

—

SQL Query Performance (TPC-DS Benchmark)(seconds)

28

—

Maximum Concurrent Queries Per Warehouse(queries)

8-128 (warehouse-dependent)

—

Query Latency (P99 percentile)(milliseconds)

2500ms

—

Query Performance (10TB TPC-DS benchmark)(seconds)

5 seconds

—

SQL Query Speed (relative benchmark)(relative to baseline)

Industry leading (100% baseline)

—

ETL/ELT Performance (1TB dataset)(minutes)

20-35 minutes (SQL based)

—

Query Performance on Data Lakes(relative speed)

Slower without ingestion; 5-10x slower on unoptimized data lake queries

—

Typical Query Cost (per TB scanned)(USD)

$1.50-$5.00

—

Base Monthly Cost (Small Cluster)(USD)

$2,160-8,640 (dc2.large, 2-4 nodes)

—

Storage Cost (per TB/month)(USD)

Included in node cost

$23 (on-demand)

Annual TCO (100TB storage, average usage)(USD)

$200,000

$260,000

Monthly Cost per TB Stored(USD)

$2.25

—

Show 3 more attributes

Storage Cost per TB per Month(USD)

$0.25-$0.50

—

Estimated Annual Cost (1 PB throughput)(USD)

$180,000-$240,000

$280,000-$360,000

Annual Cost (100TB storage, 10 users)(USD)

$120,000-180,000

—

Setup Time (to production)(days)

1-3

—

Scaling Adjustment Time(minutes)

10-15 (requires cluster resize + restart)

~1 (auto-scaling, no downtime)

Configuration Tuning Required(hours (estimated))

40-80 (distribution keys, sort keys, vacuum)

4-8 (clustering hints optional)

Required DevOps Team Size(FTE)

0.5 engineers

—

Supported Data Retention(duration)

Unlimited historical storage

—

SQL Standard Compliance(% compatibility)

95% (PostgreSQL-compatible)

95% (full ANSI)

SQL Dialect Compatibility(percentage)

Full PostgreSQL compatible (95%+ ANSI SQL)

—

SQL Compliance

ANSI SQL compliant

—

Typical Memory Per Node(GB)

160-256

—

Maximum Cluster Size(nodes)

Petabyte scale

—

Maximum Concurrent Users(users)

50 (standard)

Unlimited

Maximum Concurrent Queries(queries/sec)

10,000+

—

Horizontal Scalability(text)

Linear scaling with node count limits

—

Concurrent Users per Instance(users)

50-100 typical

500-1000+ elastic

Show 4 more attributes

Maximum Daily Data Volume(terabytes)

Unlimited (petabyte-scale)

—

Concurrent Users Support(users)

Unlimited (multi-cluster shared warehouse)

—

Concurrent Query Capacity(concurrent users)

1000+

—

Minimum Cluster Size(nodes)

1 (virtual warehouse)

—

Data Freshness(seconds)

Minutes to hours typical

—

Ingestion Streaming Support(events per second)

Limited via Kinesis/S3 batch

—

Concurrent User Support(users)

2,000+

—

Data Sharing Zero-Copy(capability level)

Native (Secure Shares, production-ready)

—

License Type

AWS Proprietary Managed Service

—

Deployment Flexibility

AWS only

—

Minimum Cluster Size (nodes)(nodes)

2 (minimum production)

—

Cloud Platform Support

AWS only

AWS, Azure, GCP

Cloud Provider Support(count)

1 (AWS only)

3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Supported Cloud Providers(number of platforms)

3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)

—

Show 2 more attributes

Available Cloud Providers(count)

AWS, Azure, GCP

—

Deployment Options

Cloud-only (SaaS)

—

Typical Data Compression Ratio(x)

4-8x

—

Data Compression Ratio(ratio)

10:1 average

3-5:1 average

Max Concurrent Queries (default config)(queries)

32 (base, expandable via Concurrency Scaling)

—

AWS Service Integration (native)(count)

20+ (native connectors)

—

Data Marketplace Size(datasets)

~200 (limited)

1,500+

GitHub Stars (as of 2026)(thousands)

Not open-source (proprietary)

—

Base Hourly Cost (2-node cluster)(USD/hour)

$0.50 (DC2.large)

$4.00-$6.00 (Medium warehouse)

Annual Contract Discount(percent)

Up to 30%

Up to 20%

Reserved Instance Discount(percent)

70%

None (on-demand only)

Starting Monthly Cost(USD)

$2,000-$5,000

—

Base Query Cost(USD per TB scanned)

$2-4 per credit

—

Show 11 more attributes

Average Enterprise Contract Value(USD thousands per year)

$200-500

—

Base Cost per TB (Monthly)(USD)

$4-6

—

Monthly Cost (100 GB compressed)(USD)

$1,500

—

Annual License Cost (100TB data)(USD)

$240,000

—

Base Setup Cost (Annual)(USD)

$10,000-1,000,000 (credits-based)

—

Base Monthly Cost (minimum)(USD)

$120-240

—

Starting Monthly Cost (10GB active data)(USD)

$480

—

Storage Cost(USD per TB per month)

$50

—

Base Compute Cost (per hour)(USD)

$2.00-$4.00 per credit

—

Minimum Annual Cost(USD)

$4,000-8,000

—

Per-Query Compute Cost Model(structure)

$2-4 per credit (1 credit = compute + storage)

—

Maximum Single Query Data Scanned(petabytes)

100+

20+

Cloud Providers Supported(count)

1 (AWS only)

3 (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Native AWS Service Integration(count)

12+ (S3, Glue, Lambda, Athena, QuickSight, IAM, EventBridge, etc.)

—

Setup Time to Production(minutes)

40-60 hours

10-15 hours

Setup Time to First Query(minutes)

20-30 minutes

—

Time to Production(days)

0.5

—

Compute-Storage Decoupling

Coupled (scale together)

Independent scaling

Compute-Storage Decoupling

Complete separation

—

Compute & Storage Coupling

Fully independent (separate pricing)

—

Data Movement Required(percentage)

100% (must ingest into Snowflake)

—

Data Lake S3/ADLS Support(native support)

No (requires data copy into Snowflake)

—

Uptime SLA Guarantee(percent)

99.99%

Uptime SLA(percentage)

99.9%

—

Typical Setup Time for Production(days)

3-7 days

—

Columnar Compression Ratio(ratio (data reduction %))

6:1 to 15:1

—

Compression Ratio(ratio)

4:1 to 8:1

—

Time to Production Deployment(days)

21-28 days

2-3 days

Required Technical Expertise Level(years experience needed)

1-2 years (SQL knowledge)

—

Native Multi-Cloud Data Sharing(boolean)

No (requires replication)

Yes (zero-copy)

Data Sharing Standard(technology)

Snowflake Marketplace (proprietary)

—

Data Sharing Capability

Native, cross-account/cross-cloud

—

Zero-Copy Cloning

Available (instant, free)

—

Data Retention for Time-Travel(days)

90 days

—

Show 6 more attributes

Data Format Support Count(formats)

8 (Parquet, CSV, JSON, ORC, AVRO, XML, PDF, Images)

—

Available Integrations(count)

600+

—

Native ML/AI Capabilities

Limited (external integration required)

—

Data Format Support

Structured (optimized for tables/CSV/JSON)

—

Data Recovery (Time Travel)(days)

90 days automatic

—

Time-Travel Query Window(days)

90 days retention

—

Minimum Compute Billing Unit(seconds)

Per-second (reserved/on-demand)

Per-second (1 credit minimum per query)

Setup Time(minutes)

1-3 days

—

Setup Time(minutes)

15 minutes

—

Initial Setup Time(minutes)

0.1 weeks (24 hours)

—

Customer Satisfaction Rating (G2 2025)(percent)

85%

—

ML/AI Integration Score(out of 10)

4/10

—

Native ML Framework Integration

Cortex AI (basic)

—

ML/AI Feature Maturity(1-10 scale)

4/10 (limited native, requires integrations)

—

Global Enterprise Customers(count (2026))

10,000+

—

Market Share 2026(percent)

32%

—

Global Market Share (2024)(%)

32% of cloud data warehouse market

—

Enterprise Customer Adoption(% of market)

32% enterprise market share (2025)

—

Supported Data Formats(types)

Structured (Parquet, CSV, JSON)

—

Multi-Language Support(languages)

SQL primarily

—

Data Marketplace Size(number of datasets)

1,000+ datasets

—

Annual Customer Growth Rate (2025)(percent)

22% YoY

—

Time to Production (median)(weeks)

1-3 weeks

—

Time to First Query (production)(days)

1-3 days

—

Licensing Model

Consumption-based (compute + storage)

—

Annual Cost (100TB, 24/7 usage)(USD)

$200,000

—

Learning Curve (1-10 scale)(difficulty)

3/10 (very easy)

—

Supported Query Languages(count)

SQL, Python, Java, JavaScript, Scala

—

Real-time Analytics Capability

Yes (sub-second latency)

—

SQL Query Support

ANSI SQL with advanced optimizations

—

Enterprise Customers (2025)(count)

~10,000 enterprises

—

Operational Complexity (1-10 scale)(complexity score)

3/10 (managed cloud service)

—

Data Warehouse Setup Time(minutes)

5-10 minutes

—

Setup Complexity (1-10 scale)(difficulty score)

4

—

Minimum Setup Time(minutes)

5-10 minutes (serverless)

—

ML Model Training Cost Efficiency(relative cost index)

2.8x baseline (external ML tools required)

—

Data Format Lock-in Risk

High (proprietary format)

—

BI Tool Native Connectors(count)

150+

—

Native BI Tool Connectors(count)

30+ (Tableau, Power BI, Looker, Qlik, Sisense)

—

Maximum Ingestion Rate(events/second)

500,000

—

Time to First Query(minutes)

5 (account creation)

—

Community Size (GitHub Stars)(stars)

2,800 stars

—

Unstructured Data Support(capability level)

Limited (structured tables primary)

—

Pros & Cons

10 pros·6 cons across both

AR

Amazon Redshift

+5-3

Pros

Lowest total cost of ownership for sustained, large-scale workloads (25-40% cheaper than competitors)
Excellent compression ratio (10:1) reduces storage costs significantly
Mature ecosystem with 10+ years in market, proven stability
Deep AWS integration (IAM, VPC, S3 access) eliminates data transfer costs
Superior performance for complex joins on massive datasets (100GB+)

Cons

Requires manual cluster sizing and capacity planning; poor elasticity for variable workloads
Locked into AWS; no multi-cloud option limits future flexibility
Slow ad-hoc query response (minutes vs seconds) due to cluster pre-configuration

Snowflake

+5-3

Pros

Deploy to AWS, Azure, or GCP in one interface—true cloud portability
Automatic elastic scaling handles variable workloads without pre-sizing
Lightning-fast ad-hoc queries (average 3-5 seconds vs 2-4 minutes on Redshift)
Built-in zero-copy data sharing eliminates complex replication workflows
Low operational overhead: no tuning, indexing, or cluster management required

Cons

30-40% higher costs than Redshift for sustained, high-volume workloads
Per-compute-second billing (minimum 1 credit ~$4) penalizes short queries
Less mature optimization for extremely complex analytical queries on massive joins

Frequently Asked Questions

5 questions

Redshift is 25-40% cheaper for predictable, sustained workloads. For 1PB annual throughput, expect $180K-$240K (Redshift) vs $280K-$360K (Snowflake). However, Snowflake's elastic scaling can save money on variable/bursty workloads by avoiding over-provisioning. Redshift requires upfront cluster investment; Snowflake pays as you scale.

Resources & Learn More

Curated sources to dive deeper

Where to Buy

Amazon Redshift

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