Database & Data Management · head to head
Amazon Redshift vs Snowflake
Amazon Redshift
Database & Data Management
Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
Snowflake
Machine Learning & Data Science
The AI Data Cloud for enterprise data warehousing
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; Snowflake no flat subscription price is published - cost varies by edition, cloud provider, and region and requires a separate calculator or credit-consumption table
- They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Snowflake covers Separated Compute/Storage.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Amazon Redshift and Snowflake actually diverge.
| Attribute | Amazon Redshift | Snowflake |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | usage-based | Unknown |
| Platforms | Web | Web, API |
| Category | Database & Data Management | Machine Learning & Data Science |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), founded (2012).
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
- Federated Query
- Concurrency Scaling
- S3
- Glue
Only in Snowflake
- Separated Compute/Storage
- Near-zero Maintenance
- Time Travel
- Cloning
- Multi-cluster Warehouse
- Semi-structured Data
- dbt
- Fivetran
Both cover
- Data Sharing
- Web support
- Aws support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Amazon Redshift
- Business intelligencenot Snowflake
- Data warehousingnot Snowflake
- Real-time analyticsnot Snowflake
- Reportingnot Snowflake
- Machine learningnot Snowflake
Snowflake
- Cloud data warehousing and SQL analyticsnot Amazon Redshift
- Data engineering and ELT pipelinesnot Amazon Redshift
- Data sharing and marketplacenot Amazon Redshift
- AI/ML workloads via Snowpark and Cortexnot Amazon Redshift
- BI backend for tools such as Tableau and Power BInot 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
Snowflake
- No flat subscription price is published - cost varies by edition, cloud provider, and region and requires a separate calculator or credit-consumption table
- Free trial is capped at $400 in credits or 30 days, whichever comes first, not a perpetual free tier
- During the trial, certain features (external network access, hybrid tables, Openflow) are capped at 10 credits/day until a payment method is added
- Total cost combines compute credits, storage, and data transfer billed separately
Pricing, plan by plan
Amazon Redshift
Free- Free TrialFree
- 750 DC2.Large hours
- 2 months free
- Full features
- On-Demand$0.25/hour
- Pay per node hour
- All features
- Standard support
Snowflake
Free- Standard$undefined/mo
- Consumption-based, per-credit pricing
- Enterprise$undefined/mo
- Consumption-based, per-credit pricing
- Business Critical$undefined/mo
- Consumption-based, per-credit pricing
- Virtual Private Snowflake$undefined/mo
- Consumption-based, per-credit pricing
Which should you pick?
Choose Amazon Redshift if
- You need columnar storage.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want massively parallel.
Choose Snowflake if
- You need separated compute/storage.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, API.
- You also want near-zero maintenance.
Questions people ask
- Is Amazon Redshift or Snowflake better?
- Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Snowflake at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Snowflake?
- Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Snowflake at Free.
- Does Amazon Redshift or Snowflake run on more platforms?
- Amazon Redshift runs on Web. Snowflake runs on Web, API.
- 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 Snowflake is typically brought in for.
- What can Amazon Redshift do that Snowflake cannot?
- Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Snowflake covers Separated Compute/Storage, Near-zero Maintenance, Time Travel, Cloning. Both handle Data Sharing, Web support, Aws 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.
SourceAmazon 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.
SourceAmazon 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.
SourceAmazon 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