Software · head to head
Vitess vs Amazon Redshift
Vitess
Software
Scalable database clustering system for horizontal scaling of MySQL
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Vitess vTGate scatter queries without sharding key incur significant performance penalties; Amazon Redshift on-demand pricing runs up to 75% higher than competitors like Snowflake and BigQuery
- They diverge on capability: Vitess covers Horizontal Sharding, Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Vitess and Amazon Redshift actually diverge.
| Attribute | Vitess | Amazon Redshift |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Unknown | usage-based |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes | Web |
| Founded | 2010 | 2012 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Vitess
- Horizontal Sharding
- Connection Pooling
- Query Routing
- Online Schema Changes
- Shard Management
- Replication Management
- Automated Failover
- MySQL
Only in Amazon Redshift
- Columnar Storage
- Massively Parallel
- Machine Learning
- AQUA Acceleration
- Data Sharing
- Federated Query
- Concurrency Scaling
- S3
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Vitess
- Transaction processingnot Amazon Redshift
- Data storagenot Amazon Redshift
- Application backendnot Amazon Redshift
- Reporting
- Data analyticsnot Amazon Redshift
Amazon Redshift
- Business intelligencenot Vitess
- Data warehousingnot Vitess
- Real-time analyticsnot Vitess
- Reporting
- Machine learningnot Vitess
Both are used for reporting, on those jobs the choice comes down to price and fit rather than capability.
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Vitess
- VTGate scatter queries without sharding key incur significant performance penalties
- Foreign key constraints not enforced across shards, requiring application-level integrity handling
- Single primary per keyspace limits multi-region write capabilities
- Distributed transactions without proper sharding key routing suffer performance degradation
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
Pricing, plan by plan
Vitess
FreeNo published plan breakdown. See the Vitess review.
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
Which should you pick?
Choose Vitess if
- You need horizontal sharding.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes.
- You also want connection pooling.
Choose Amazon Redshift if
- You need columnar storage.
- You want to start without paying.
- You also want massively parallel.
Questions people ask
- Is Vitess or Amazon Redshift better?
- Neither clearly leads. Vitess starts at Free and Amazon Redshift at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Vitess or Amazon Redshift?
- Vitess starts at Free and Amazon Redshift at Free.
- Does Vitess or Amazon Redshift run on more platforms?
- Vitess runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes. Amazon Redshift runs on Web.
- Can I use Vitess for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Vitess best used for?
- Vitess is most often used for transaction processing, data storage, application backend, reporting. Of those, transaction processing and data storage are not what Amazon Redshift is typically brought in for.
- What can Vitess do that Amazon Redshift cannot?
- Vitess covers Horizontal Sharding, Connection Pooling, Query Routing, Online Schema Changes. Amazon Redshift covers Columnar Storage, Massively Parallel, Machine Learning, AQUA Acceleration.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Vitess: Is Vitess free to use?
Yes. Vitess is completely free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license. It is a graduated CNCF project with no licensing costs or pricing tiers.
SourceAmazon 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.
SourceVitess: What databases does Vitess support?
Vitess supports MySQL and MariaDB as backend databases. It acts as a middleware layer that adds sharding and orchestration capabilities on top of these databases.
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.
SourceVitess: Does Vitess require Kubernetes to run?
No. Vitess can run on Kubernetes using the Vitess Operator, but it can also be deployed on traditional infrastructure. Kubernetes integration is optional and provides additional automation benefits.
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.
SourceVitess: How does Vitess handle cross-shard transactions?
Vitess supports distributed transactions across shards, but they require queries to be routed through the sharding key. Transactions without a proper sharding key can result in slower performance.
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.
SourceVitess: Does Vitess enforce foreign key constraints?
Vitess does not enforce foreign key constraints across shards by default. Referential integrity must be managed at the application layer, though per-database support can be enabled with limitations.
Source