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Databases · head to head

BigQuery vs RavenDB

BigQuery logo

BigQuery

Databases

Google Cloud's serverless analytical warehouse, billed either by bytes scanned per query or by reserved compute slots.

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
RavenDB logo

RavenDB

Databases

The fully transactional NoSQL document database

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: BigQuery on-demand billing charges for bytes read from every column a query references, so an unqualified select or a missing partition filter turns a routine query into a large bill, and the cost is discovered after the fact rather than at review time.; RavenDB the free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal
  • They diverge on capability: BigQuery covers Serverless compute, RavenDB covers ACID Transactions.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which BigQuery and RavenDB actually diverge.

Attributes where BigQuery and RavenDB differ
AttributeBigQueryRavenDB
Pricing modelusage-basedfreemium
PlatformsWeb, Cloud APILinux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web
Founded20082010

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

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 BigQuery

  • Serverless compute
  • Separation of storage and compute
  • Two pricing models
  • Partitioning and clustering
  • Materialised views
  • BigQuery ML
  • Storage Write API
  • BI Engine

Only in RavenDB

  • ACID Transactions
  • Auto-indexing
  • Full-text Search
  • Graph Queries
  • Distributed Counters
  • Time Series
  • Document Compression
  • .NET

What people use each for

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

BigQuery

  • A warehouse for an organisation already on Google Cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same placenot RavenDB
  • Bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster runningnot RavenDB
  • Event and clickstream analytics ingested continuously through the Storage Write API and queried without a load windownot RavenDB
  • Analytics teams with no infrastructure staff, where the absence of anything to tune or patch is worth more than dialect portabilitynot RavenDB

RavenDB

  • Running a distributed document database with ACID transactionsnot BigQuery
  • Self hosting a multi node database cluster on your own hardwarenot BigQuery
  • Replicating operational data out to analytics systems through ETLnot BigQuery

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

BigQuery

  • On-demand billing charges for bytes read from every column a query references, so an unqualified select or a missing partition filter turns a routine query into a large bill, and the cost is discovered after the fact rather than at review time.
  • There is no way to join tables that live in different regions, so a data estate split across regions for residency reasons has to be reconciled with copies and the storage and transfer that implies.
  • It is not built for point lookups; retrieving a single row has latency measured in hundreds of milliseconds or more, so BigQuery cannot serve an application's read path and always needs a second store in front of it.
  • Frequent small mutations run into DML concurrency limits and the cost of rewriting storage blocks, so a workload that updates individual rows continuously behaves badly compared with an append-only design.
  • The compute exists only inside Google Cloud, so while tables can be exported, the accumulated GoogleSQL, scheduled queries, authorised views, ML models and IAM structure do not move, and switching warehouses is a rewrite of the analytical layer.

RavenDB

  • The free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal
  • The free Community licence caps a customer at 60 cores and forces you to stay on the latest major version
  • The Professional licence is limited to a single database, a 5 node cluster, 40 cores and 240 GB RAM
  • Sharding across nodes, ETL to OLAP, Elasticsearch and Kafka, and data archival are Enterprise only
  • Enterprise and AI licence pricing is contact us only with no published rate

Pricing, plan by plan

BigQuery

Free
  • Free TierFree
    • 1TB queries/month
    • 10GB storage/month
    • Standard support
  • On-demand$6.25/TB
    • Pay per query
    • Pay per storage
    • All features

RavenDB

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • 3 cores
    • 6GB RAM
    • Community support
  • Professional$499/year
    • Production use
    • Professional support
    • Advanced features

Which should you pick?

Choose BigQuery if

  • You need serverless compute.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud API.
  • You also want separation of storage and compute.
BigQuery review

Choose RavenDB if

  • You need acid transactions.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web.
  • You also want auto-indexing.
RavenDB review

Questions people ask

Is BigQuery or RavenDB better?
Neither clearly leads. BigQuery starts at Free and RavenDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, BigQuery or RavenDB?
BigQuery starts at Free and RavenDB at Free.
Does BigQuery or RavenDB run on more platforms?
BigQuery runs on Web, Cloud API. RavenDB runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web.
Can I use BigQuery for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is BigQuery best used for?
BigQuery is most often used for a warehouse for an organisation already on google cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same place, bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster running, event and clickstream analytics ingested continuously through the storage write api and queried without a load window, analytics teams with no infrastructure staff, where the absence of anything to tune or patch is worth more than dialect portability. Of those, a warehouse for an organisation already on google cloud, where identity, logging and billing are consolidated in the same place and bursty analytical workloads with long idle periods, where paying per query beats keeping a cluster running are not what RavenDB is typically brought in for.
What can BigQuery do that RavenDB cannot?
BigQuery covers Serverless compute, Separation of storage and compute, Two pricing models, Partitioning and clustering. RavenDB covers ACID Transactions, Auto-indexing, Full-text Search, Graph Queries.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

BigQuery: How is BigQuery actually billed?

Storage is billed separately from compute. Compute is either on-demand, priced by the bytes a query reads from the referenced columns, or capacity-based, where you reserve autoscaling slots. Most cost surprises come from on-demand queries that scan more than expected.

RavenDB: Is RavenDB free or open source?

RavenDB is open source under the AGPLv3 license and available on GitHub. It also offers a free developer license with enterprise-level features limited to 9 cores, 36GB max RAM, 3 nodes, and non-commercial use.

Source
BigQuery: How do I control query cost?

Partition and cluster tables so queries prune data, select only the columns needed, use materialised views for repeated aggregations, and set maximum bytes billed on queries so a runaway scan fails instead of billing.

RavenDB: Can I use RavenDB commercially for free?

RavenDB offers a free Community License that permits commercial deployment with unlimited databases and sizes, subject to a 60-core maximum per customer and requirement to run the latest major version.

Source
BigQuery: Can I use it without being on Google Cloud?

The service only runs on Google Cloud. BigQuery Omni can query data held in S3 or Azure storage, but the compute is still Google's and the account relationship is still with Google.

RavenDB: What commercial licensing options does RavenDB offer?

RavenDB offers Professional, Enterprise, and AI tiers for commercial use. Pricing for these tiers requires contacting their sales team at [email protected].

Source
BigQuery: Is it suitable for serving application queries?

No. Latency for single-row reads is far too high. BigQuery is an analytical warehouse and application read paths need a transactional database or a cache in front of it.

RavenDB: Does RavenDB offer a cloud hosting option?

RavenDB Cloud provides a fully managed cloud database with maintenance, failover, and backups included. Pricing is available at cloud.ravendb.net/pricing.

Source
BigQuery: When should I move from on-demand to capacity pricing?

When on-demand spend becomes both large and predictable, or when unpredictable spend is a bigger problem than query queueing. The switch trades a variable bill for a fixed one plus contention between workloads.

RavenDB: Is there a refund window if I purchase RavenDB?

RavenDB offers a 30-day refund window for purchased licenses.

Source
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