Software · head to head
Amazon Redshift vs BigQuery
BigQuery
Software
Serverless, highly scalable enterprise data warehouse
- 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; BigQuery query costs can become substantial for organizations with high query volumes
- They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, BigQuery covers Serverless Architecture.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and BigQuery actually diverge.
| Attribute | Amazon Redshift | BigQuery |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web | Web, Cloud API |
| Founded | 2012 | 2008 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), pricing model (usage-based), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Unknown).
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
- AQUA Acceleration
- Data Sharing
- Federated Query
- Concurrency Scaling
- S3
- Glue
Only in BigQuery
- Serverless Architecture
- Petabyte Scale
- Real-time Analytics
- Geospatial Analysis
- Streaming Ingestion
- Standard SQL
- Looker
- Data Studio
Both cover
- Machine Learning
- Web support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Amazon Redshift
- Business intelligence
- Data warehousing
- Real-time analytics
- Reporting
- Machine learning
BigQuery
- Business intelligence
- Data warehousing
- Real-time analytics
- Reporting
- Machine learning
Both are used for business intelligence, data warehousing, real-time analytics, reporting, machine learning, on those jobs the choice comes down to price and fit rather than capability.
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
BigQuery
- Query costs can become substantial for organizations with high query volumes
- Data egress from Google Cloud incurs additional charges
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
BigQuery
Free- Free TierFree
- 1TB queries/month
- 10GB storage/month
- Standard support
- On-demand$6.25/TB
- Pay per query
- Pay per storage
- All features
Which should you pick?
Choose Amazon Redshift if
- You need columnar storage.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want massively parallel.
Choose BigQuery if
- You need serverless architecture.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Cloud API.
- You also want petabyte scale.
Questions people ask
- Is Amazon Redshift or BigQuery better?
- Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and BigQuery at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or BigQuery?
- Amazon Redshift starts at Free and BigQuery at Free.
- Does Amazon Redshift or BigQuery run on more platforms?
- Amazon Redshift runs on Web. BigQuery runs on Web, Cloud 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.
- What can Amazon Redshift do that BigQuery cannot?
- Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, AQUA Acceleration, Data Sharing. BigQuery covers Serverless Architecture, Petabyte Scale, Real-time Analytics, Geospatial Analysis. Both handle Machine Learning, 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.
SourceBigQuery: How is BigQuery priced?
BigQuery charges $5 per terabyte of data processed in on-demand queries. Storage is billed separately: active storage is charged per GB, and data inactive for 90+ days moves to long-term storage at reduced rates.
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.
SourceBigQuery: What is BigQuery's architecture?
BigQuery separates compute and storage, using Google's Colossus for distributed storage and Borg for computation, allowing independent scaling of each.
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.
Source