Vertica pricing guide details
Pricing Overview
Rocket Software publishes no prices for Vertica. Rocket has owned Vertica since May 2026, and its product page explains how Vertica is licensed, not what it costs. Vertica pricing is "tailored to compute, storage, or transfer requirements", so the bill follows the cluster you run and the data you keep and move, not the number of users.
There are three licensing models: an Enterprise bring-your-own-license (BYOL), a DBaaS subscription, and OEM or ISV licensing. Vertica is also available through AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, where cloud marketplace deployments are billed per node-hour on a pay-as-you-go basis. Rocket does not publish that rate either.
The free Community Edition is no longer offered. New evaluations use a 30-day trial license, so there is no free way to run Vertica for longer than a month. This is a sales-led enterprise model: it works if you can bring clear sizing numbers to a negotiation, and it is hard to budget for if you want a price first.
Plan Comparison
Vertica has no plan tiers. You choose a licensing model, and each one is quoted.
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| Licensing model | What Rocket says you get | Pricing basis | Published price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise license (BYOL) | A license you can run and move to any environment: on-premises, any major cloud, or hybrid | Compute, storage or transfer required | None; quote only |
| DBaaS subscription | Vertica as a service; Rocket experts manage the infrastructure, security and maintenance | Compute, storage or transfer required | None; quote only |
| OEM or ISV license | Rights to embed Vertica in your own enterprise or commercial applications | Compute, storage or transfer required | None; quote only |
| Cloud marketplace | Pay-as-you-go deployment through AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud | Per node-hour | No rate published by Rocket |
| 30-day trial license | Evaluation for new users | Time-limited | Not stated |
Rocket lists features for Vertica as a whole, not per model: columnar storage, massively parallel processing (MPP), in-database machine learning with 650+ built-in analytics functions, and SQL, Python, R and Java support. Confirm in the quote that your model covers what you plan to use.
Architecture matters more for cost than the licence name. Eon mode separates compute and storage; Enterprise mode keeps them together. Since the price follows compute and storage, Eon mode lets you size each one on its own instead of adding nodes just to hold data. Pick BYOL if you must run on-premises or move between clouds, DBaaS if you have no team to run clusters, and the marketplace to avoid a long contract once you have the node-hour rate.
Hidden Costs and Considerations
- No rate to plan with. Even the marketplace route has no node-hour rate published by Rocket. Get it in writing, and ask whether it covers only the Vertica software or also the cloud instance.
- Your infrastructure is extra. On an Enterprise license you run Vertica on your own hardware or cloud account, so servers, storage and network are on your bill too.
- Transfer is priced. Rocket names transfer as a pricing input, so ask how data moved in and out is charged before heavy loads or exports.
- No free tier. With Community Edition gone, the 30-day trial is the only way to test without a contract. Prepare a representative workload before it starts.
- Ownership change. If you bought Vertica before May 2026, confirm with Rocket who now holds your contract and support terms at renewal.
Cost Estimates by Team Size
Vertica is not priced per user, so there is no honest dollar figure for a solo user, a team of 5 or a team of 20. Size the inputs Rocket prices on instead:
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| Workload | Node-hours per month | Ask the quote for |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of concept: 1 node, 8 hours a day, 22 working days | 1 x 8 x 22 = 176 | Fits inside the 30-day trial license |
| Small production cluster: 3 nodes running all month (730 hours) | 3 x 730 = 2,190 | Node-hour rate and storage rate |
| Larger cluster: 10 nodes running all month | 10 x 730 = 7,300 | Node-hour rate, storage rate and term discounts |
Multiply the node-hours by the quoted rate, then add storage for your compressed data in terabytes and any transfer charge. Ask for each as a separate line.
How Vertica Pricing Compares
Most of Vertica's rivals publish rates, which gives you a yardstick for a quote. Figures come from each vendor's own pricing page.
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| Tool | Compute | Storage | Entry route |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertica | Quote only; marketplace per node-hour, rate not published | Quote only | 30-day trial license |
| Teradata | Teradata Cloud from $4.80 per hour on a 3-year commitment billed annually | From $23 per TB per month | Fixed + Flex contract |
| Snowflake | $2.00 per credit (Standard), $3.00 (Enterprise), $4.00 (Business Critical), AWS US East | $23.00 per TB per month on demand, AWS US East | On demand, no per-user price |
| ClickHouse | ClickHouse Cloud billed per compute-unit-hour, no monthly minimum | $25.30 per TB per month (varies by region) | Open source, or $300 in Cloud credits over 30 days |
| Firebolt | One Small (S) node at $0.92 per hour, US East | $0.0264 per GB per month | $200 in free credits |
As a storage yardstick, Snowflake charges 10 x $23.00 = $230 per month for 10 TB in AWS US East. ClickHouse charges 10 x $25.30 = $253 per month for the same 10 TB. If a Vertica quote prices storage well above that, ask why.
Vertica is now the only tool here with no public rate at all. Teradata, its closest peer as an enterprise MPP warehouse that also runs on-premises, now publishes starting rates. ClickHouse is the nearest open-source columnar option and the one to try if you need a free start. Vertica's case rests on running anywhere under one license, plus Eon mode and in-database machine learning. If you need that, take the trial and get a quote; if you only need a cloud warehouse, Snowflake or Firebolt let you estimate cost before you talk to sales.