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Reviews onCapterra
16 reviews tracked·2 press mentions

The Bottom Line

Entry price

From $0.25/mo

Biggest pro

Deep AWS integration

Biggest con

AWS lock-in

TL;DR - Amazon Redshift

  • AWS cloud data warehouse
  • Petabyte-scale analytics
  • Serverless or provisioned options
Pricing: Paid only
Best for: Enterprises & pros
4.4/5 across review platforms

What is Amazon Redshift?

Editorial review
Amazon Redshift is AWS's fully managed, petabyte-scale cloud data warehouse. It uses columnar storage and massively parallel processing (MPP) to deliver fast query performance on large datasets. Redshift integrates deeply with the AWS ecosystem including S3, Kinesis, and SageMaker. The service offers both provisioned clusters and serverless options, making it accessible for various workloads. Redshift is one of the most popular data warehouses, competing with Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks.

Available on: Web

Pros & Cons

Pros

  • Deep AWS integration
  • Mature and proven
  • Serverless option
  • Cost-effective for AWS users
  • Strong SQL support

Cons

  • AWS lock-in
  • Complex pricing
  • Cluster management (provisioned)
  • Slower than newer alternatives

Ratings Across the Web

4.4(16 reviews)

Ratings aggregated from independent review platforms. Learn more

Key Features

Columnar storageMassively parallel processingRedshift ServerlessML integration (SageMaker)Spectrum (query S3)Concurrency scalingAutomatic backupsEncryption

Pricing Plans

Free Trial

Free Trial

Free

2 months free

  • 750 DC2.Large hours/month
  • Try before you buy
  • Full features
Most Popular

Provisioned

$0.25/hour

DC2.Large node

  • Dedicated clusters
  • Reserved pricing available
  • Full control

Serverless

Variable

Pay per RPU-hour

  • Auto-scaling
  • No cluster management
  • Pay for usage only

How Amazon Redshift's pricing compares

At $0.25/mo, Amazon Redshift is the most affordable of its 2 direct competitors.

Amazon Redshift
$0.25

Entry paid plan, monthly.

Reviews

4.4/5

Across 16 verified user reviews on Capterra

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Amazon Redshift FAQ

How does Redshift compare to Snowflake?

Snowflake has better separation of storage/compute and easier scaling. Redshift has deeper AWS integration and is often cheaper for AWS-heavy workloads. Snowflake is cloud-agnostic; Redshift is AWS-only.

What is Redshift Serverless?

Redshift Serverless automatically provisions and scales capacity based on your workload. You pay only for the compute you use, measured in Redshift Processing Units (RPUs). Good for variable or unpredictable workloads.

Is Redshift expensive?

Redshift can be cost-effective, especially with reserved instances. Serverless pricing is based on usage. Costs vary widely based on cluster size and usage patterns - start small and scale.

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