Softwr

Software · head to head

Amazon Redshift vs Timescale

Amazon Redshift logo

Amazon Redshift

Software

Fast, scalable cloud data warehouse from AWS

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Timescale logo

Timescale

Software

PostgreSQL platform for time-series and analytical workloads

From
$30/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; Timescale it is built on Postgres, so it inherits Postgres's vertical-scaling limits compared to purpose-built distributed time-series systems.
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Timescale covers Hypertables.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Amazon Redshift and Timescale differ
AttributeAmazon RedshiftTimescale
Starting priceFree$30/month
Pricing modelusage-basedsubscription
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebweb, api
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: 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

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

Only in Timescale

  • Hypertables
  • Native compression
  • Continuous aggregates
  • Point-in-time recovery
  • Read replicas
  • Private networking

What people use each for

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

Amazon Redshift

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

Timescale

  • IoT and sensor data storagenot Amazon Redshift
  • Operational and infrastructure metricsnot Amazon Redshift
  • Time-series analytics dashboardsnot Amazon Redshift
  • Financial and market tick datanot 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

Timescale

  • It is built on Postgres, so it inherits Postgres's vertical-scaling limits compared to purpose-built distributed time-series systems.
  • The free trial is time-limited (30 days) rather than a permanent free tier.
  • Enterprise features like HIPAA compliance and cross-region backups require custom-priced Enterprise plans, not available on entry tiers.
  • Multi-node horizontal scaling and read replicas are gated behind the higher-priced Scale plan.

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

Timescale

$30/month
  • Performance$30/month
    • 4 database services
    • Up to 8 CPU / 32GB memory per service
    • Up to 16TB disk per service
  • Scale$36/month
    • Unlimited database services
    • Up to 32 CPU / 128GB memory per service
    • Up to 64TB disk per service
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Up to 64 CPU / 256GB memory per service
    • Cross-region backups
    • SAML SSO, HIPAA compliance

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 Timescale if

  • You need hypertables.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want native compression.
Timescale review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon Redshift or Timescale better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon Redshift starts at Free and Timescale at $30/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon Redshift or Timescale?
Amazon Redshift has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Amazon Redshift and $30/month for Timescale.
Does Amazon Redshift or Timescale run on more platforms?
Amazon Redshift runs on Web. Timescale runs on web, api.
Can I use Amazon Redshift for free?
Yes. Amazon Redshift has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Timescale starts at $30/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 Timescale is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon Redshift do that Timescale cannot?
Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration. Timescale covers Hypertables, Native compression, Continuous aggregates, Point-in-time recovery.

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
Timescale: What does Timescale (Tiger Data) cost?

Tiger Cloud starts at $30/month for the Performance plan (4 database services, up to 8 CPU/32GB RAM), $36/month for Scale (unlimited services, multi-node HA), and custom Enterprise pricing for larger deployments.

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
Timescale: Is there a free trial and what does it include?

New users get a 30-day trial of the Performance plan with no credit card required, letting them test hypertables, compression and continuous aggregates before paying.

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
Timescale: How is usage billed?

Billing is monthly in arrears with hourly-metered compute and storage based on average GB consumed per hour; mid-month plan changes are pro-rated and customers can cancel anytime.

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
Share

Related pages

More on Amazon Redshift

More on Timescale

Keep looking

Other head to heads