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Amazon Redshift vs Clay

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Software

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Clay logo

Clay

Software

Data platform for sales teams

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Amazon Redshift has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; Clay two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Clay covers Data enrichment.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and Clay actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Clay differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftClay
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelusage-basedquote
Free tierYesNo
Founded20122021

Identical on both: platforms (Web), 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
  • Machine Learning
  • AQUA Acceleration
  • Data Sharing
  • Federated Query
  • Concurrency Scaling
  • S3

Only in Clay

  • Data enrichment
  • Contact management
  • Workflow automation
  • Integration
  • API access
  • Salesforce
  • HubSpot
  • Zapier

Both cover

  • Web support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon Redshift

  • Business intelligencenot Clay
  • Data warehousingnot Clay
  • Real-time analyticsnot Clay
  • Reportingnot Clay
  • Machine learningnot Clay

Clay

  • Enriching prospect lists from multiple data providers in one tablenot Amazon Redshift
  • Building automated outbound research and outreach workflowsnot 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

Clay

  • Two separate meters run at once, actions and data credits, and a plan can exhaust either independently
  • Data credit overage is sold at a 30% premium over the plan rate, so exceeding the allowance costs more per unit than planning for it
  • The free plan allows 500 actions, 100 data credits and 200 rows per table
  • The entry paid plan starts at $167 a month, and both paid prices are starting figures rather than fixed
  • The free plan cannot buy overage at all, so hitting the limit stops work rather than billing for it

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

Clay

On request
  • Pricing upon request$undefined/month
    • Data enrichment
    • Integration
    • Support

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon Redshift if

  • You need columnar storage.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want massively parallel.
Amazon Redshift review

Choose Clay if

  • You need data enrichment.
  • You also want contact management.
Clay review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Clay better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Clay at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Clay?
Amazon Redshift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Amazon Redshift and On request for Clay.
Does Amazon Redshift or Clay run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
Yes. Amazon Redshift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Clay starts at On request.
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 Clay is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Clay cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Clay covers Data enrichment, Contact management, Workflow automation, Integration. 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.

Source
Amazon 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.

Source
Amazon 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.

Source
Amazon 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
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