Database & Data Management · head to head
Amazon Redshift vs AppDynamics

Amazon Redshift
Database & Data Management
Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
AppDynamics
Log Management
Enterprise Application Performance Management
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; AppDynamics appdynamics.com/pricing returns a 301 redirect to Splunk's observability pricing page; the product is now sold as Splunk AppDynamics
- They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, AppDynamics covers Application performance monitoring.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and AppDynamics actually diverge.
| Attribute | Amazon Redshift | AppDynamics |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web | Web, Api |
| Category | Database & Data Management | Log Management |
| Founded | 2012 | 2008 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (usage-based), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Amazon Redshift
- Columnar Storage
- Massively Parallel
- Machine Learning
- AQUA Acceleration
- Data Sharing
- Federated Query
- Concurrency Scaling
- S3
Only in AppDynamics
- Application performance monitoring
- Distributed tracing
- Real-time analytics
- Alert management
- API
- Webhooks
- REST
- Api support
Both cover
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Amazon Redshift
- Business intelligencenot AppDynamics
- Data warehousingnot AppDynamics
- Real-time analyticsnot AppDynamics
- Reportingnot AppDynamics
- Machine learningnot AppDynamics
AppDynamics
- Application performance monitoring for Java, .NET and other enterprise application stacksnot Amazon Redshift
- Business transaction tracing across distributed application tiersnot Amazon Redshift
- Infrastructure monitoring priced per vCPUnot Amazon Redshift
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Amazon Redshift
- On-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery
- Requires significant manual tuning including managing concurrency scaling costs and configuring Workload Management queues
- Performance degrades without proper design of distribution keys and sort keys
- Limited elastic resize options - can only halve or double current cluster size
- AWS lock-in makes it unsuitable for multi-cloud architectures
AppDynamics
- appdynamics.com/pricing returns a 301 redirect to Splunk's observability pricing page; the product is now sold as Splunk AppDynamics
- Infrastructure Edition starts at $6 per vCPU per month billed annually, so cost scales with core count rather than host count
- Premium Edition starts at $33 per host per month and Enterprise Edition at $50 per host per month, both billed annually
- The published figures are starting prices only, with volume pricing requiring a sales quote
Pricing, plan by plan
Amazon Redshift
Free- Free TrialFree
- 750 DC2.Large hours
- 2 months free
- Full features
- On-Demand$0.25/hour
- Pay per node hour
- All features
- Standard support
AppDynamics
Free- FreeFree
- Application performance monitoring
- Distributed tracing
- Real-time analytics
Which should you pick?
Choose Amazon Redshift if
- You need columnar storage.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want massively parallel.
Choose AppDynamics if
- You need application performance monitoring.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Api.
- You also want distributed tracing.
Questions people ask
- Is Amazon Redshift or AppDynamics better?
- Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and AppDynamics at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or AppDynamics?
- Amazon Redshift starts at Free and AppDynamics at Free.
- Does Amazon Redshift or AppDynamics run on more platforms?
- Amazon Redshift runs on Web. AppDynamics runs on Web, Api.
- Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Amazon Redshift best used for?
- Amazon Redshift is most often used for business intelligence, data warehousing, real-time analytics, reporting. Of those, business intelligence and data warehousing are not what AppDynamics is typically brought in for.
- What can Amazon Redshift do that AppDynamics cannot?
- Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. AppDynamics covers Application performance monitoring, Distributed tracing, Real-time analytics, Alert management. Both handle Web support.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Amazon Redshift: What deployment options does Amazon Redshift offer?
Redshift offers Provisioned Cluster (with RA3 or DC2 nodes) and Serverless options to match varying workloads. The new Redshift RG instance family, powered by Graviton, delivers 2.4x faster performance than RA3 at 30% lower cost per vCPU.
SourceAmazon Redshift: What does Amazon Redshift cost?
Provisioned cluster pricing: RA3 on-demand starts at $1.086/hour for ra3.xlplus. Serverless costs approximately $0.375 per RPU-hour with 4-RPU minimum (roughly $1.50/hour active workload). Managed storage costs $0.024/GB-month.
SourceAmazon Redshift: Does Redshift work with data lakes?
Yes, Redshift's integrated data lake query engine processes workloads on Apache Iceberg tables and other supported formats in Amazon S3, allowing you to run SQL analytics across your data warehouse and data lake from the same engine.
SourceAmazon Redshift: Is there a free tier for Amazon Redshift?
AWS offers a free trial with $300 USD in Serverless credits valid for 90 days, but Redshift is not part of the permanent AWS Free Tier.
SourceRelated pages
More on Amazon Redshift
More on AppDynamics
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