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Databases · head to head

Cockroach Labs vs Teradata

Cockroach Labs logo

Cockroach Labs

Databases

The cloud-native distributed SQL database

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Teradata logo

Teradata

Databases

Long-established enterprise MPP data warehouse, rebranded in 2026 as the Autonomous Knowledge Platform, sold for cloud, on-premises and hybrid.

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Cockroach Labs has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Cockroach Labs basic and Standard tiers limited to AWS and GCP (select regions only); Teradata licensing is negotiated rather than published, so there is no way to compare total cost against a consumption-priced warehouse without entering a sales cycle, and the comparison is only ever as good as the workload profile you gave them.
  • They diverge on capability: Cockroach Labs covers Distributed SQL, Teradata covers Massively parallel architecture.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cockroach Labs and Teradata actually diverge.

Attributes where Cockroach Labs and Teradata differ
AttributeCockroach LabsTeradata
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelfreemiumquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsAWS, GCP, AzureWeb
Founded2015Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Cockroach Labs

  • Distributed SQL
  • Automatic Sharding
  • Multi-region Replication
  • Geo-partitioning
  • ACID Transactions
  • Horizontal Scaling
  • Survivability
  • PostgreSQL Compatibility

Only in Teradata

  • Massively parallel architecture
  • Workload management
  • Mature cost-based optimiser
  • Cloud, on-premises and hybrid
  • Bulk load utilities
  • BTEQ scripting
  • In-database analytics
  • Enterprise Vector Store

What people use each for

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

Cockroach Labs

  • Distributed SQL database for scalable applicationsnot Teradata
  • Multi-region deployment and failovernot Teradata

Teradata

  • A large existing Teradata estate where the practical question is which workloads to migrate first rather than whether to adoptnot Cockroach Labs
  • High-concurrency mixed workloads where hundreds of analysts and scheduled jobs contend and predictable prioritisation matters more than peak single-query speednot Cockroach Labs
  • Regulated reporting where the same query must produce the same answer for years and the audit trail of the existing implementation has valuenot Cockroach Labs
  • Hybrid deployments where regulatory or data-residency rules keep a portion of the warehouse on-premises while the rest moves to cloudnot Cockroach Labs

Where each one falls short

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

Cockroach Labs

  • Basic and Standard tiers limited to AWS and GCP (select regions only)
  • Azure support restricted to Advanced tier only
  • Basic tier limited to 50 million RUs and 10 GiB storage per month
  • Advanced tier starts at $0.60/hour for 4 vCPUs minimum
  • 3 TiB maximum storage on Basic and Standard tiers, 10 TiB per node on Advanced

Teradata

  • Licensing is negotiated rather than published, so there is no way to compare total cost against a consumption-priced warehouse without entering a sales cycle, and the comparison is only ever as good as the workload profile you gave them.
  • The SQL dialect and the loading utilities are Teradata-specific, so every stored procedure, macro and BTEQ script written against the platform is migration debt that grows with each release you ship.
  • Primary index choice determines data distribution, and a poorly chosen index concentrates rows on a few processing units, which surfaces as one slow query rather than an error and needs a specialist to diagnose.
  • The skills market is contracting, so DBA and workload-management expertise is expensive to hire, hard to replace when someone retires, and increasingly hard to buy from consultancies whose own bench has moved to cloud warehouses.
  • The 2026 renaming of Vantage, VantageCloud, ClearScape and QueryGrid split documentation, runbooks and vendor material across two naming systems, so searching for an error or a configuration now returns results for a product that is described under a different name.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cockroach Labs

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Cockroach Labs review.

Teradata

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Teradata review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Cockroach Labs if

  • You need distributed sql.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on AWS, GCP, Azure.
  • You also want automatic sharding.
Cockroach Labs review

Choose Teradata if

  • You need massively parallel architecture.
  • You also want workload management.
Teradata review

Questions people ask

Is Cockroach Labs or Teradata better?
Neither clearly leads. Cockroach Labs starts at Free and Teradata at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cockroach Labs or Teradata?
Cockroach Labs has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Cockroach Labs and On request for Teradata.
Does Cockroach Labs or Teradata run on more platforms?
Cockroach Labs runs on AWS, GCP, Azure. Teradata runs on Web.
Can I use Cockroach Labs for free?
Yes. Cockroach Labs has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Teradata starts at On request.
What is Cockroach Labs best used for?
Cockroach Labs is most often used for distributed sql database for scalable applications, multi-region deployment and failover. Of those, distributed sql database for scalable applications and multi-region deployment and failover are not what Teradata is typically brought in for.
What can Cockroach Labs do that Teradata cannot?
Cockroach Labs covers Distributed SQL, Automatic Sharding, Multi-region Replication, Geo-partitioning. Teradata covers Massively parallel architecture, Workload management, Mature cost-based optimiser, Cloud, on-premises and hybrid.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cockroach Labs: What does the free Basic tier include?

The Basic tier is free and includes 50 million RUs and 10 GiB storage per month, with a maximum compute of 30K RU/sec. No credit card is required to start.

Source
Teradata: Is Teradata only on-premises?

No. It is sold for cloud, on-premises and hybrid deployment, and the cloud offering is now branded Teradata Cloud. A large part of the installed base is still on-premises or hybrid.

Cockroach Labs: How much do the paid tiers cost?

Standard tier starts at $0.18 per hour for 2 vCPUs, and Advanced tier starts at $0.60 per hour for 4 vCPUs. Both tiers support additional resources with higher costs for increased compute and storage.

Source
Teradata: How does it compare to Snowflake or BigQuery?

On raw elasticity and cost transparency the cloud warehouses win. On mixed-workload concurrency management against a large existing query estate Teradata is still hard to replace, which is why migrations off it take years rather than quarters.

Cockroach Labs: What are the storage limits for each tier?

Basic plan supports up to 3 TiB storage, Standard tier up to 3 TiB, and Advanced tier up to 10 TiB per node with unlimited total storage.

Source
Teradata: Why do organisations stay on it?

Because the cost of leaving is the estate, not the data. Thousands of procedures, scripts and extracts written in a proprietary dialect have to be rewritten and revalidated, and in regulated reporting that revalidation is the expensive part.

Cockroach Labs: Can I get trial credits before paying?

Yes, new users can try CockroachDB free with $400 in credits. The Basic and Standard plans do not require a credit card to start.

Source
Teradata: What changed in the 2026 rebrand?

Vantage became the Autonomous Knowledge Platform, VantageCloud became Teradata Cloud, ClearScape Analytics became AI Studio and QueryGrid became Fabric. The underlying products are continuous with what came before.

Cockroach Labs: Do legacy contracts have different pricing?

Customers with annual or multi-year contracts entered before December 1, 2024 can view legacy pricing terms on a separate page, which apply until their contract renewal date.

Source
Teradata: Can it handle AI and vector workloads?

It has added an Enterprise Vector Store and in-database analytics branded AI Studio. Whether that is preferable to moving the data into a purpose-built vector store depends on how much of your data already lives in the warehouse.

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