Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs Snowflake comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary
Updated on Mar 24, 2022

We performed a comparison between Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Snowflake based on our users’ reviews in four categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.

  • Ease of Deployment: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reviewers had mixed reviews on the deployment, with many feeling it was complex. On the other hand, Snowflake reviewers felt it was an easy setup and deployment.
  • Features: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics users felt the software helped them control expenditures and was very scalable, but they had security concerns and felt the software wasn’t intuitive. Reviewers of Snowflake liked the stability and scalability of the solution and felt the software addressed challenges for traditional data warehouses, but said the UI needed improvement, especially when it came to extracting data.
  • Pricing: Users of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics gave mixed reviews on the pricing, with many feeling it was expensive. Users of Snowflake liked the efficient pricing model and felt it was high yet fair.
  • Service and Support: Both Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Snowflake reviewers felt the support they received was helpful.

Comparison Results: Based on the parameters we compared, Snowflake had a better user rating regarding ease of deployment and pricing. Both softwares had the same rating when it came to service and support. In terms of features, Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics users felt the software had security issues and didn’t feel it was very intuitive. In contrast, users of Snowflake felt the UI needed improvement.

To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems.""Scaling this solution is easy and the uptime is okay.""Technical support is okay in terms of the help they provide.""The pricing seems to be quite fair.""The most valuable feature is performance gains.""I think the most valuable component is that pipelines are built into it and then the feature that you can mirror a cosmos BB for analytics.""The speed is great and the architecture is excellent.""The ability to scale out services on-demand and scale them down when they are not required is most valuable. You are in control of your expenditures, and you are also in control of the horsepower that you need. That's a major advantage."

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"The solution is very easy to use.""Its performance is a big advantage. When you run a query, its performance is very good. The inbound and outbound share features are also very useful for sharing a particular database. By using these features, you can allow others to access the Snowflake database and query it, which is another advantage of this solution. It has good security, and we can easily integrate it. We can connect it with multiple source systems.""My company wanted to have all our data in one single place and this what we use Snowflake for. Snowflake also allows us to build connectors to different data sources.""The technical support on offer is excellent.""The solution's computing time is less.""Data Science capabilities are the most valuable feature.""It is a cloud solution with many useful features. It has the data science capability. It can transform data and prepare data for a data science project with scalability.""The speed of data loading and being able to quickly create the environment are most valuable."

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Cons
"With respect to what needs to be improved, concurrent connectivity has some limitations.""I am pretty sure that there are areas that need improvement but I just can think of them off the top of my head.""One area that could be improved is the schema management.""They should provide a less expensive version with a smaller setup for small businesses. Currently, its price is quite high for entry-level or small businesses. In terms of integration, new connectors are always welcomed.""The need to improve a little bit in terms of user-friendliness.""We encountered data processing and transformation issues while working with Apache Spark languages for the product.""Unfortunately, we have had some issues with the dashboard reporting. Sometimes, the data for specific periods would just appear blank on the dashboard. To investigate this, we worked with a Microsoft incident agent and it turned out to be a result of bugs in the platform when dealing with specific types of queries in Azure Data Factory.""The initial setup process needs improvement. When you're moving to the cloud it takes a bit of time. It would be great if they could implement something that would make it faster."

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"These days, they are pushing users towards the GUI or graphical version. However, I am more familiar with the classic version. I'd like to continue to work with it using the older approach.""There are some challenges with loading unstructured data and integrating some message queues or brokers. In one project, we had a problem connecting to one of the message queues and we had to take a different route altogether on Microsoft Azure.""I would like to see more transparency in data processing, ATLs, and compute areas - which should give more comfort to the end users.""I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it.""The cost of the solution could be reduced.""The design of the product is easily misunderstood.""It needs a bit more rigor and governance, which is something you don't get with newer tools. This makes it less enterprise scalable. Its governance and structure can be enhanced, which would really be valuable. I would like to see some kind of prebuilt functionality in terms of having almost like a pre-built data warehouse. A functionality for generating automated kind of pieces would be good.""The cost is a bit high."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The price of this solution could be improved."
  • "The pricing is okay. You can pay as you go."
  • "This solution starts at €1000.00 a month for just the basics and can go up to €300,000.00 per month for the fastest version."
  • "When we are not using this solution we can simply shut it down saving us costs, which is a nice advantage."
  • "The licensing fees for this solution are on a pay-per-use basis, and not very expensive."
  • "All of the prices are available online."
  • "Our license is very expensive"
  • "They are cost aggressive, and it integrates well with other Microsoft tools."
  • More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Pricing can be confusing for customers."
  • "The whole licensing system is based on credit points. You can also make a license agreement with the company so that you buy credit points and then you use them. What you do not use in one year can be carried over to the next year."
  • "You pay based on the data that you are storing in the data warehouse and there are no maintenance costs."
  • "It is not cheap."
  • "The pricing for Snowflake is competitive."
  • "On average, with the number of queries that we run, we pay approximately $200 USD per month."
  • "Pricing is approximately $US 50 per DB. Terabyte is around $US 50 per month."
  • "The price of Snowflake is very reasonable."
  • More Snowflake Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different… more »
    Top Answer:It is a highly stable solution and it's easy to use.
    Top Answer:The best thing about Snowflake is its flexibility in changing warehouse sizes or computational power.
    Top Answer:The real-time streaming feature is limited with Snowflake and could be improved. Currently, Snowflake doesn't support unstructured data. With Snowflake, you need to be very particular about the type… more »
    Ranking
    2nd
    Views
    19,142
    Comparisons
    9,225
    Reviews
    37
    Average Words per Review
    462
    Rating
    8.1
    1st
    Views
    23,526
    Comparisons
    13,527
    Reviews
    40
    Average Words per Review
    455
    Rating
    8.4
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics
    Snowflake Computing
    Learn More
    Overview

    Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an end-to-end analytics solution that successfully combines analytical services to merge big data analytics and enterprise data warehouses into a single unified platform. The solution can run intelligent distributed queries among nodes, and provides the ability to query both relational and non-relational data.

    Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is built with these 4 components:

    1. Synapse SQL
    2. Spark
    3. Synapse Pipeline
    4. Studio

    Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Features

    Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics has many valuable key features, including:

    • Cloud Data Service: WIth Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can operate services (data analytics, machine learning, data warehousing, dashboarding, etc.) in a single workspace via the cloud.

    • Structured and unstructured data: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics supports both structured and unstructured data and allows you to manage relational and non-relational data - unlike data warehouses and lakes that tend to store them respectively.

    • Effective data storage: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers next-level data storage with high availability and different tiers.

    • Responsive data engine: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics uses Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) and is designed to handle large volumes of data and analytical workloads efficiently without any problems.

    • Several scripting languages: The solution provides language compatibility and supports different programming languages, such as Python, Java, Spark SQL, and Scala.

    • Query optimization: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics works well to facilitate limitless concurrency and performance optimization. It also simplifies workload management.

    Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Benefits

    Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics include:

    • Database templates: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers industry-specific database templates that make it easy to combine and shape data.

    • Better business insights: With Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can expand discovery of insights from all your data and apply machine learning models to all your intelligent apps.

    • Reduce project development time: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics makes it possible to have a unified experience for developing end-to-end analytics, which reduces project development time significantly.

    • Eliminate data barriers: By using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, you can perform analytics on operational and business apps data without data movement.

    • Advanced security: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics provides both advanced security and privacy features to ensure data protection.

    • Machine Learning: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics integrates Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, and Power BI.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics users who are currently using the solution.

    PeerSpot user Jael S., who is an Information Architect at Systems Analysis & Design Engineering, comments on her experience using the product, saying that it is “Scalable, intuitive, facilitates compliance and keeps your data secure”. She also says "We also like governance. It looks at what the requirements are for the company to identify the best way to ensure compliance is met when you move to the cloud."

    Michel T., CHTO at Timp-iT, mentions that "the features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems."

    A Senior Teradata Consultant at a tech services company says, "Microsoft provides both the platform and the data center, so you don't have to look for a cloud vendor. It saves you from having to deal with two vendors for the same task."


    Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehousing solution for storing and processing data, generating reports and dashboards, and as a BI reporting source. It is used for optimizing costs and using financial data, as well as for migrating data from on-premises to the cloud. The solution is often used as a centralized data warehouse, combining data from multiple sources.

    Snowflake has helped organizations improve query performance, store and process JSON and XML, consolidate multiple databases into one unified table, power company-wide dashboards, increase productivity, reduce processing time, and have easy maintenance with good technical support.

    Its platform is made up of three components:

    1. Cloud services - Snowflake uses ANSI SQL to empower users to optimize their data and manage their infrastructure, while Snowflake handles the security and encryption of stored data.
    2. Query processing - Snowflake's compute layer is made up of virtual cloud data warehouses that let you analyze data through requests. Each of the warehouses does not compete for computing resources, nor do they affect the performance of each other.
    3. Database storage - Snowflake automatically manages all parts of the data storage process, including file size, compression, organization, structure, metadata, and statistics.

    Snowflake has many valuable vital features. Some of the most useful ones include:

    • Snowflake architecture provides nearly unlimited scalability and high speed because it uses a single elastic performance engine. The solution also supports unlimited concurrent users and workloads, from interactive to batch.
    • Snowflake makes automation easy and enables enterprises to automate data management, security, governance, availability, and data resiliency.
    • With seamless cross-cloud and cross-region connections, Snowflake eliminates ETL and data silos. Anyone who needs access to shared secure data can get a single copy via the data cloud. In addition, Snowflake makes remote collaboration and decision-making fast and easy via a single shared data source.
    • Snowflake’s Data Marketplace offers third-party data, which allows you to connect with Snowflake customers to extend workflows with data services and third-party applications.

    There are many benefits to implementing Snowflake. It helps optimize costs, reduce downtime, improve operational efficiency, and automate data replication for fast recovery, and it is built for high reliability and availability.

      Below are quotes from interviews we conducted with users currently using the Snowflake solution:

      Sreenivasan R., Director of Data Architecture and Engineering at Decision Minds, says, "Data sharing is a good feature. It is a majorly used feature. The elastic computing is another big feature. Separating computing and storage gives you flexibility. It doesn't require much DBA involvement because it doesn't need any performance tuning. We are not doing any performance tuning, and the entire burden of performance and SQL tuning is on Snowflake. Its usability is very good. I don't need to ramp up any user, and its onboarding is easier. You just onboard the user, and you are done with it. There are simple SQL and UI, and people are able to use this solution easily. Ease of use is a big thing in Snowflake."

      A director of business operations at a logistics company mentions, "It requires no maintenance on our part. They handle all that. The speed is phenomenal. The pricing isn't really anything more than what you would be paying for a SQL server license or another tool to execute the same thing. We have zero maintenance on our side to do anything and the speed at which it performs queries and loads the data is amazing. It handles unstructured data extremely well, too. So, if the data is in a JSON array or an XML, it handles that super well."

      A Solution Architect at a wholesaler/distributor comments, "The ability to share the data and the ability to scale up and down easily are the most valuable features. The concept of data sharing and data plumbing made it very easy to provide and share data. The ability to refresh your Dev or QA just by doing a clone is also valuable. It has the dynamic scale up and scale down feature. Development and deployment are much easier as compared to other platforms where you have to go through a lot of stuff. With a tool like DBT, you can do modeling and transformation within a single tool and deploy to Snowflake. It provides continuous deployment and continuous integration abilities. There is a separation of storage and compute, so you only get charged for your usage. You only pay for what you use. When we share the data downstream with business partners, we can specifically create compute for them, and we can charge back the business."

      Sample Customers
      Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe, 
      Accordant Media, Adobe, Kixeye Inc., Revana, SOASTA, White Ops
      Top Industries
      REVIEWERS
      Computer Software Company19%
      Financial Services Firm13%
      Manufacturing Company11%
      Comms Service Provider11%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Educational Organization31%
      Computer Software Company11%
      Financial Services Firm8%
      Manufacturing Company5%
      REVIEWERS
      Computer Software Company29%
      Financial Services Firm20%
      Healthcare Company6%
      Manufacturing Company6%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Educational Organization26%
      Financial Services Firm13%
      Computer Software Company10%
      Manufacturing Company6%
      Company Size
      REVIEWERS
      Small Business29%
      Midsize Enterprise18%
      Large Enterprise53%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Small Business14%
      Midsize Enterprise39%
      Large Enterprise47%
      REVIEWERS
      Small Business24%
      Midsize Enterprise20%
      Large Enterprise55%
      VISITORS READING REVIEWS
      Small Business15%
      Midsize Enterprise33%
      Large Enterprise52%
      Buyer's Guide
      Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake
      March 2024
      Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
      765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

      Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is ranked 2nd in Cloud Data Warehouse with 85 reviews while Snowflake is ranked 1st in Cloud Data Warehouse with 92 reviews. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is rated 8.0, while Snowflake is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics writes "No competitors provide the entire solution to one place ". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Snowflake writes "Good usability, good data sharing and elastic compute features, and requires less DBA involvement". Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is most compared with Azure Data Factory, SAP BW4HANA, Amazon Redshift, Teradata and Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse, whereas Snowflake is most compared with BigQuery, Azure Data Factory, Teradata, Vertica and Oracle Exadata. See our Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake report.

      See our list of best Cloud Data Warehouse vendors and best Data Warehouse vendors.

      We monitor all Cloud Data Warehouse reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.