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Amazon Redshift vs SolarWinds

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Databases

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
S

SolarWinds

Energy

Solar asset performance monitoring and management

From
$2/kW/month
Rated
-
Full review

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Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery; SolarWinds website uses outdated NetObjects Fusion 2015 tools, suggesting legacy technical infrastructure
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, SolarWinds covers Real-time monitoring.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and SolarWinds differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftSolarWinds
Starting priceFree$2/kW/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Mobile, Api
CategoryDatabasesEnergy
Founded20122015

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 SolarWinds

  • Real-time monitoring
  • Performance analytics
  • Alarm management
  • O&M workflows
  • Reporting
  • Benchmarking
  • Weather integration
  • Financial tracking

What people use each for

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

Amazon Redshift

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

SolarWinds

  • Solar monitoringnot Amazon Redshift
  • Performance optimizationnot Amazon Redshift
  • O&M managementnot Amazon Redshift
  • Portfolio reportingnot Amazon Redshift
  • Investor reportingnot 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

SolarWinds

  • Website uses outdated NetObjects Fusion 2015 tools, suggesting legacy technical infrastructure
  • No specific product models, brands, or technical specifications listed for offered solutions
  • Geographic service area boundaries unclear; only mentions San Francisco Bay Area and Central California
  • Minimal customer engagement features; lacks testimonials, project galleries, financing calculators, or online quote forms
  • Email contact discrepancy between display text ([email protected]) and actual mailto link ([email protected])

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

SolarWinds

$2/kW/month
  • Monitor$2/kW/month
    • Real-time monitoring
    • Performance tracking
    • Alerts
  • Optimize$4/kW/month
    • Advanced analytics
    • Degradation analysis
    • Benchmarking
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Portfolio management
    • Custom integrations
    • Financial modeling

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 SolarWinds if

  • You need real-time monitoring.
  • You work on Web, Mobile, Api.
  • You also want performance analytics.
SolarWinds review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or SolarWinds better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and SolarWinds at $2/kW/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or SolarWinds?
Amazon Redshift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Amazon Redshift and $2/kW/month for SolarWinds.
Does Amazon Redshift or SolarWinds run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. SolarWinds runs on Web, Mobile, Api.
Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
Yes. Amazon Redshift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. SolarWinds starts at $2/kW/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 SolarWinds is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that SolarWinds cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. SolarWinds covers Real-time monitoring, Performance analytics, Alarm management, O&M workflows.

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
SolarWinds: What geographic areas does SolarWinds Energy serve?

SolarWinds Energy serves the San Francisco Bay Area and Central California regions, but the exact service area boundaries are not clearly defined on their website.

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
SolarWinds: What solar and renewable products does SolarWinds Energy offer?

SolarWinds Energy specializes in energy efficiency and renewable technologies including solar energy systems and attic ventilation solutions, but specific product models and technical specifications are not published online.

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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