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Amazon Redshift vs Elasticsearch

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Software

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Elasticsearch logo

Elasticsearch

Software

The heart of the Elastic Stack for search and analytics

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; Elasticsearch eventual consistency model with 1-second default refresh interval, not suitable for real-time transactional requirements
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Elasticsearch covers Full-text Search.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Elasticsearch differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftElasticsearch
Pricing modelusage-basedUnknown
PlatformsWebLinux, Windows, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes
Founded20122010

Identical on both: starting price (Free), 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 Elasticsearch

  • Full-text Search
  • Real-time Analytics
  • Distributed Architecture
  • RESTful API
  • Schema-free JSON
  • Aggregations
  • Kibana
  • Logstash

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 intelligencenot Elasticsearch
  • Data warehousingnot Elasticsearch
  • Real-time analyticsnot Elasticsearch
  • Reportingnot Elasticsearch
  • Machine learningnot Elasticsearch

Elasticsearch

  • Real-time applicationsnot Amazon Redshift
  • Content managementnot Amazon Redshift
  • User profilesnot Amazon Redshift
  • Mobile backendsnot Amazon Redshift
  • Cachingnot 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

Elasticsearch

  • Eventual consistency model with 1-second default refresh interval, not suitable for real-time transactional requirements
  • No support for ACID transactions or rollbacks; updates delete and re-insert documents
  • JVM-dependent architecture requires careful memory management and monitoring to prevent garbage collection issues at scale

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

Elasticsearch

Free
  • Self-ManagedFree
    • Open source
    • Self-hosted
  • Elasticsearch Cloud$16.4/month
    • Managed service
    • 14-day free trial

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 Elasticsearch if

  • You need full-text search.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.
  • You also want real-time analytics.
Elasticsearch review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Elasticsearch better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Elasticsearch at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Elasticsearch?
Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Elasticsearch at Free.
Does Amazon Redshift or Elasticsearch run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. Elasticsearch runs on Linux, Windows, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.
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 Elasticsearch is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Elasticsearch cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, AQUA Acceleration, Data Sharing. Elasticsearch covers Full-text Search, Real-time Analytics, Distributed Architecture, RESTful API. 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.

Source
Elasticsearch: Is Elasticsearch free?

Yes, Elasticsearch can be deployed as free and open-source software for self-managed installations. Elastic Cloud managed service starts at $16.40 per month, with a free 14-day trial available.

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
Elasticsearch: Can I use Elasticsearch without Kibana?

Yes, Elasticsearch is a search engine independent of Kibana. Kibana is a visualization and analytics tool that works with Elasticsearch but is optional. You can use the Elasticsearch API directly for searching.

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
Elasticsearch: Does Elasticsearch support real-time indexing?

Elasticsearch indexes data with a refresh interval, typically 1 second. Data becomes searchable after the refresh cycle, making it near-real-time but not instantaneous. This can be configured but impacts performance.

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
Elasticsearch: What are Elasticsearch's scaling limitations?

Elasticsearch requires careful operational management at scale, including shard balancing, heap sizing, and monitoring. Large clusters can suffer from garbage collection issues and become expensive to operate.

Source
Elasticsearch: Does Elasticsearch support transactions and rollbacks?

No, Elasticsearch does not support ACID transactions or rollbacks. Updates are expensive operations that delete and re-insert documents, making it unsuitable for transactional workloads.

Source
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