Google BigQuery vs Amazon Redshift
BigQuery is best for true serverless simplicity, Redshift for AWS-native teams an. Side-by-side pricing & verdict.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Google BigQuery | Amazon Redshift |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Serverless cloud data warehouse with pay-per-query pricing and deep GCP integration | Amazon Redshift |
| Architecture | Cloud-native | Web-based platform |
| Pricing Model | First 1 TB processed per month: free; $5/GB over 1 TB | Free tier (3 nodes, 2 TB storage), Pro $299/mo (10 nodes, 30 TB storage) |
| Ease of Use | Moderate — standard setup and configuration | Moderate — standard setup and configuration |
| Scalability | High — built for enterprise workloads | Scales with usage and infrastructure |
| Community/Support | Commercial support included | Documentation and community forums |
Google BigQuery
- Best For:
- Serverless cloud data warehouse with pay-per-query pricing and deep GCP integration
- Architecture:
- Cloud-native
- Pricing Model:
- First 1 TB processed per month: free; $5/GB over 1 TB
- Ease of Use:
- Moderate — standard setup and configuration
- Scalability:
- High — built for enterprise workloads
- Community/Support:
- Commercial support included
Amazon Redshift
- Best For:
- Amazon Redshift
- Architecture:
- Web-based platform
- Pricing Model:
- Free tier (3 nodes, 2 TB storage), Pro $299/mo (10 nodes, 30 TB storage)
- Ease of Use:
- Moderate — standard setup and configuration
- Scalability:
- Scales with usage and infrastructure
- Community/Support:
- Documentation and community forums
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Google BigQuery | Amazon Redshift |
|---|---|---|
| Querying & Performance | ||
| SQL Support | ✅ | — |
| Real-time Analytics | ⚠️ | — |
| Scalability | ✅ | — |
| Platform & Integration | ||
| Multi-cloud Support | ✅ | — |
| Data Sharing | ⚠️ | — |
| Ecosystem & Integrations | ✅ | — |
| General | ||
| Documentation Quality | Good | Good |
| API Availability | ✅ | ✅ |
| Community Support | Active | Active |
| Enterprise Support | ✅ | ✅ |
Querying & Performance
SQL Support
Real-time Analytics
Scalability
Platform & Integration
Multi-cloud Support
Data Sharing
Ecosystem & Integrations
General
Documentation Quality
API Availability
Community Support
Enterprise Support
Legend:
Our Verdict
BigQuery is Google's serverless data warehouse with no cluster management and per-query pricing. Redshift is AWS's data warehouse with provisioned clusters and a newer serverless option. Choose BigQuery for true serverless simplicity, Redshift for AWS-native teams and predictable provisioned pricing.
💡 This verdict is based on general use cases. Your specific requirements, existing tech stack, and team expertise should guide your final decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is BigQuery cheaper than Redshift?
Depends on usage pattern. BigQuery on-demand ($6.25/TB scanned) is cheaper for sporadic queries. Redshift provisioned ($0.25/hour for dc2.large) is cheaper for consistent, heavy workloads. BigQuery capacity pricing and Redshift Serverless are more comparable.
Which is faster, BigQuery or Redshift?
For ad-hoc queries on large datasets, BigQuery is typically faster due to its serverless architecture that scales automatically. For optimized, repeated queries on well-tuned clusters, Redshift can match or exceed BigQuery performance.
Can I use BigQuery with AWS?
BigQuery runs on Google Cloud only. You can query data in AWS S3 via BigQuery Omni (cross-cloud queries), but the compute runs on GCP. For AWS-native teams, Redshift or Athena are more natural choices.