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Amazon Redshift vs SingleStore

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Software

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
SingleStore logo

SingleStore

Software

The real-time distributed SQL database for data-intensive applications

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; SingleStore high licensing costs that increase with data scale and cluster size
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Massively Parallel, SingleStore covers Real-time Analytics.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and SingleStore differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftSingleStore
Pricing modelusage-basedUnknown
PlatformsWebCloud (SingleStoreDB Cloud), Self-Managed
Founded20122011

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

  • Massively Parallel
  • Machine Learning
  • AQUA Acceleration
  • Data Sharing
  • Federated Query
  • Concurrency Scaling
  • S3
  • Glue

Only in SingleStore

  • Real-time Analytics
  • Fast Data Ingest
  • In-memory Processing
  • Distributed Architecture
  • MySQL Compatible
  • Vector Search
  • Kafka
  • Spark

Both cover

  • Columnar Storage
  • Web support

What people use each for

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

Amazon Redshift

  • Business intelligencenot SingleStore
  • Data warehousingnot SingleStore
  • Real-time analyticsnot SingleStore
  • Reporting
  • Machine learningnot SingleStore

SingleStore

  • Transaction processingnot Amazon Redshift
  • Data storagenot Amazon Redshift
  • Application backendnot Amazon Redshift
  • Reporting
  • Data analyticsnot Amazon Redshift

Both are used for reporting, 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

SingleStore

  • High licensing costs that increase with data scale and cluster size
  • Eventual consistency in replication: secondary replicas may lag during high write loads
  • Complex operational setup requiring specialized knowledge for optimization
  • Vendor lock-in due to proprietary technology without open-source alternatives
  • Disorganized documentation and lack of online training resources

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

SingleStore

Free
  • Free Tier$0.99/month
    • Usage-based pricing
    • Limited resources

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon Redshift if

  • You need massively parallel.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want machine learning.
Amazon Redshift review

Choose SingleStore if

  • You need real-time analytics.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud (SingleStoreDB Cloud), Self-Managed.
  • You also want fast data ingest.
SingleStore review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or SingleStore better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and SingleStore at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or SingleStore?
Amazon Redshift starts at Free and SingleStore at Free.
Does Amazon Redshift or SingleStore run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. SingleStore runs on Cloud (SingleStoreDB Cloud), Self-Managed.
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 SingleStore is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that SingleStore cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration, Data Sharing. SingleStore covers Real-time Analytics, Fast Data Ingest, In-memory Processing, Distributed Architecture. Both handle Columnar Storage, 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
SingleStore: Does SingleStore offer a free tier?

Yes, SingleStore offers a free tier starting from $0.99/month with usage-based pricing. The free tier allows developers to evaluate the platform with limited resources before scaling to production workloads.

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
SingleStore: Can SingleStore handle both transactional and analytical workloads?

Yes, SingleStore is a hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) database that combines operational (OLTP) and analytical (OLAP) workloads in a single unified engine, eliminating the need for separate systems.

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
SingleStore: Does SingleStore integrate with Apache Spark?

Yes, SingleStore provides the Spark Connector 3.0 for bidirectional data integration with Apache Spark. The connector supports SQL, Python, Scala, Java, and R for data loading and extraction.

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
SingleStore: Can SingleStore ingest data from Kafka?

Yes, SingleStore supports high-throughput streaming ingestion from Apache Kafka and other sources, enabling millions of events per second without requiring ETL pipelines or data movement.

Source
SingleStore: Is SingleStore available as cloud or self-managed?

SingleStore offers both deployment options: SingleStoreDB Cloud (managed service) and SingleStore Self-Managed for on-premises or private cloud deployments. The managed service handles infrastructure, scaling, and maintenance automatically.

Source
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