Fireboltvs
Cockroach Labs
Cockroach Labs: The cloud-native distributed SQL database
Firebolt
Sub-second analytics at cloud data warehouse scale
As of 30 August 2026, Firebolt starts at $1.84/hour. Firebolt is a cloud data warehouse built for high performance analytics at scale. Softwr lists it under Databases. Firebolt is made by Firebolt Analytics, launched in 2019, available on Web, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Firebolt does
Firebolt is a cloud data warehouse built for high performance analytics at scale. It delivers sub-second query performance on terabytes and petabytes of data, with a cost-efficient architecture. Firebolt is designed for data engineers and analysts who need fast, interactive analytics.
What people use it for
- Data analytics teams running gigabyte-to-petabyte datasets with sub-second query requirements
- Real-time business intelligence platforms requiring ACID transactions and snapshot isolation
- Applications needing vector search on analytical data for similarity queries
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Firebolt.
- Compute billed per second on Arm-based processors; small instances still incur measurable costs during idle periods despite auto-stop
- Storage pass-through charged at $0.0264/GB monthly on compressed data; uncompressed storage could exceed this
- Azure deployment currently in Preview status; production recommendations unclear
- Vector indexes limited to float arrays; other data types require alternative indexing strategies
- Free tier credits ($200) limited; no perpetual free tier for production use
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Firebolt
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- FireboltvsPostgreSQL
PostgreSQL: The world's most advanced open source relational database
- FireboltvsAirtable
Airtable: Create apps that perfectly fit your team's needs
- FireboltvsAmazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora: MySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
Capabilities
Features
Sub-second Queries
Sparse Indexes
Data Pruning
Decoupled Storage/Compute
SQL Support
Semi-structured Data
Workload Isolation
Airflow
Integration with Airflow
dbt
Integration with dbt
Fivetran
Integration with Fivetran
Looker
Integration with Looker
Tableau
Integration with Tableau
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
How does Firebolt's compute billing model work?
Firebolt uses per-second billing with scale-to-zero capability. The smallest S tier costs $1.84 per hour with 8 vCPU and 64GB memory, while the largest 4XL tier costs $58.88 per hour with 256 vCPU. Users only pay when compute is running.
SourceWhat is the cost for data storage on Firebolt?
Storage costs $0.0264 per GB per month on object storage, billed as pass-through cost at cloud provider rates.
SourceWhat free credits or trial does Firebolt offer new users?
New users receive $200 free credits to get started with the platform.
SourceDoes Firebolt publish pricing for commitment-based discounts?
The pricing FAQ lists a question about commitment-based discounts but does not provide published answers on the pricing page. This requires direct inquiry with sales.
SourceWhat deployment options does Firebolt offer besides managed service?
Firebolt offers self-hosted open source deployment (unlimited) and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) options in addition to managed service.
SourceBehind it
Who makes Firebolt
- Company
- Firebolt Analytics
- Based in
- Tel Aviv, Israel
Keep looking
Where to go from Firebolt
- Firebolt alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Firebolt pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Firebolt badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Databases softwareThe full category
- Best Databases softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Databases software for
Compare Firebolt with
- BigQuery
- Amazon Redshift
- Airtable
- Cockroach Labs
- PostgreSQL
- Apache Druid
- DuckDB
- QuestDB
- MotherDuck
- ClickHouse
- dbt
- EMQX
- FaunaDB
- Firebase Realtime Database
- Memcached
- Amazon Aurora
- Apache Pinot
- Firestore
Other Databases software
Google Cloud's serverless analytical warehouse, billed either by bytes scanned per query or by reserved compute slots.
Free plan13 researched notesCreate apps that perfectly fit your team's needs
Free, then $20/month per editor11 researched notesMIT-licensed analytical SQL database that runs inside your process, with no server, no dependencies and one writer at a time.
Free plan14 researched notesFast open source time-series database for high throughput ingestion
Free plan10 researched notesFast open-source column-oriented database for real-time analytics
Free plan12 researched notesSQL transformation framework enabling analytics engineers to version, test and deploy models
Free plan12 researched notesErlang MQTT broker for large IoT fleets, relicensed to BSL with production free use limited to one node
Free, then $234/mo12 researched notesDocument-relational database whose hosted service closed in 2025 and whose core is now unmaintained Apache 2.0 code.
Free plan14 researched notesStore and sync data in real-time across all clients
Free plan12 researched notesMySQL and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud
Free plan12 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Firebolt, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Firebolt
Firebolt alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Firebolt pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Firebolt
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Firebolt badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
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