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Databases · head to head

Amazon Redshift vs Google Vertex AI

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Databases

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Google Vertex AI logo

Google Vertex AI

Machine Learning

Unified ML platform to build, deploy, and scale AI models

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; Google Vertex AI vendor lock-in to Google Cloud ecosystem makes migration to other platforms difficult
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Google Vertex AI covers AutoML.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and Google Vertex AI actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Google Vertex AI differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftGoogle Vertex AI
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelusage-basedUnknown
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebCloud, Web
CategoryDatabasesMachine Learning
Founded20122008

Identical on both: 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 Google Vertex AI

  • AutoML
  • Custom training
  • Feature Store
  • Model monitoring
  • Prediction serving
  • BigQuery
  • Cloud Storage
  • TensorFlow

Both cover

  • Web support

What people use each for

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

Amazon Redshift

  • Business intelligencenot Google Vertex AI
  • Data warehousingnot Google Vertex AI
  • Real-time analyticsnot Google Vertex AI
  • Reportingnot Google Vertex AI
  • Machine learning

Google Vertex AI

  • Machine learning
  • Data analysisnot Amazon Redshift
  • Model trainingnot Amazon Redshift
  • Predictive analyticsnot Amazon Redshift

Both are used for 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

Google Vertex AI

  • Vendor lock-in to Google Cloud ecosystem makes migration to other platforms difficult
  • Requires familiarity with Google Cloud Platform infrastructure and concepts
  • Cost can escalate quickly with large training and inference workloads

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

Google Vertex AI

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Google Vertex AI review.

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 Google Vertex AI if

  • You need automl.
  • You work on Cloud, Web.
  • You also want custom training.
Google Vertex AI review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Google Vertex AI better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Google Vertex AI at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Google Vertex AI?
Amazon Redshift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Amazon Redshift and On request for Google Vertex AI.
Does Amazon Redshift or Google Vertex AI run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. Google Vertex AI runs on Cloud, Web.
Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
Yes. Amazon Redshift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Google Vertex AI 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 Google Vertex AI is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Google Vertex AI cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Google Vertex AI covers AutoML, Custom training, Feature Store, Model monitoring. 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
Google Vertex AI: What is the pricing model for Google Vertex AI?

Vertex AI uses a pay-as-you-go model with no upfront costs or lock-in fees. Costs vary by service: training is billed by compute resources and time (30-second increments), online predictions by machine type per hour, and batch predictions by compute time or per-record for specific AutoML types.

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
Google Vertex AI: What types of data can Vertex AI handle?

Vertex AI supports image, video, text, and tabular data types with tools for uploading, storing, and managing large datasets.

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
Google Vertex AI: Does Vertex AI support custom model training?

Yes. Vertex AI supports both AutoML for automated machine learning and custom training code in Python, R, and other languages.

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
Google Vertex AI: What deployment options are available in Vertex AI?

Vertex AI supports online predictions for real-time use cases and batch predictions for large-scale processing.

Source
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