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Database & Data Management · head to head

Amazon Redshift vs Google Workspace

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Database & Data Management

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Google Workspace logo

Google Workspace

All industries

Everything you need to get work done, all in one place

From
€3.4/month
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 Workspace starter tier storage limited to 30 GB per user, requiring upgrade to Standard or higher for adequate document storage
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Google Workspace covers Gmail business email.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Google Workspace differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftGoogle Workspace
Starting priceFree€3.4/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
Free tierYesNo
CategoryDatabase & Data ManagementAll industries
Founded20122006

Identical on both: platforms (Web), 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 Workspace

  • Gmail business email
  • Google Drive storage
  • Google Docs, Sheets, Slides
  • Google Calendar
  • Google Meet video conferencing
  • Google Chat
  • Google Forms
  • Google Sites

What people use each for

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

Amazon Redshift

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

Google Workspace

  • Business email and calendar managementnot Amazon Redshift
  • Collaborative document editingnot Amazon Redshift
  • Video conferencing and meetingsnot Amazon Redshift
  • Secure document storage and sharingnot 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

Google Workspace

  • Starter tier storage limited to 30 GB per user, requiring upgrade to Standard or higher for adequate document storage
  • Starter and Standard tiers both capped at maximum 300 users per organisation
  • Video meetings limited to 100 participants on Starter tier, 150 on Standard tier
  • Recording capabilities only available on Standard tier and above
  • eDiscovery, Vault, and advanced security features only available on Plus and Enterprise tiers

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 Workspace

€3.4/month

No published plan breakdown. See the Google Workspace 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 Workspace if

  • You need gmail business email.
  • You also want google drive storage.
Google Workspace review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Google Workspace better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Google Workspace at €3.4/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Google Workspace?
Amazon Redshift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Amazon Redshift and €3.4/month for Google Workspace.
Does Amazon Redshift or Google Workspace 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. Google Workspace starts at €3.4/month.
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 Workspace is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Google Workspace cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Google Workspace covers Gmail business email, Google Drive storage, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Google Calendar.

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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Related pages

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