Amazon Athena vs Trino: Which is Better in 2026?

Name: App Stack Builder
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Distributed SQL Query Engines

Amazon Athena and Trino are both Distributed SQL Query Engines tools, made for different people. Amazon Athena is for teams on AWS that want to run SQL on files in S3 occasionally or on a schedule, with nothing to manage. Trino is for data platform teams that want free, federated SQL across lakes and databases and can run a cluster.

Quick verdict

There’s no single winner; pick on your constraint. Choose Amazon Athena if your data is already in S3 and you want SQL on it today. Choose Trino if you want to query several data stores with one SQL engine.

Amazon Athena vs Trino: Side by Side

	Amazon Athena	Trino
Category	Distributed SQL Query Engines	Distributed SQL Query Engines
What it is	Serverless SQL on S3 (AWS)	Open-source distributed SQL engine
Licence	Managed AWS service	Apache 2.0
How you pay	$5 per TB scanned	Free; you pay for the servers
Where it runs	AWS	Your infrastructure
Managed option	Fully managed	Starburst Galaxy and Enterprise
Pricing	From $0.3/mo	Free
Starting price	From $0.3/mo	Free tier available
Free tier	—
Rating	4.4	4.6
Best for	Distributed SQL Query Engines: serverless, S3, pay per scan	Distributed SQL Query Engines: federated SQL, open source, data lakes

Ratings are App Stack Builder’s editorial score out of 5, not an average of user reviews.

Pros & Cons

Amazon Athena

Nothing to provision
Pay only for data scanned
Works on existing S3 data
Spark option on the same service

Scanning uncompressed data gets expensive
AWS only
Less control over performance than your own cluster

Trino

Free and vendor-neutral
Joins across many data sources
Large connector set
Active foundation

You run and size the cluster
Memory-hungry on big joins
No storage of its own

Key Features Compared

Amazon Athena

SQL queries: $5 per TB scanned
Federated queries on non-S3 sources: rounded up per MB, 10 MB minimum
Capacity Reservations: $0.30 per DPU-hour
Athena for Apache Spark: $0.35 per DPU-hour

Trino

Apache 2.0, run by the non-profit Trino Software Foundation
Queries Hadoop, S3, Cassandra, MySQL and many other sources in place
Joins across sources in one query
Managed versions from Starburst, founded by Trino’s creators

Choose Amazon Athena if…

Your data is already in S3 and you want SQL on it today.
Your query volume is irregular, so paying per TB scanned beats a running cluster.
You don’t want to operate any servers.

Amazon Athena review & pricing

Choose Trino if…

You want to start free. Trino has a free tier and Amazon Athena does not.
You want to query several data stores with one SQL engine.
You want no licence fee and a neutral foundation behind the project.
Your team can operate a coordinator and workers.

Trino review & pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Amazon Athena better than Trino?⌄

What is the difference between Amazon Athena and Trino?⌄

What it is. Amazon Athena: Serverless SQL on S3 (AWS). Trino: Open-source distributed SQL engine. Licence. Amazon Athena: Managed AWS service. Trino: Apache 2.0. How you pay. Amazon Athena: $5 per TB scanned. Trino: Free; you pay for the servers. Where it runs. Amazon Athena: AWS. Trino: Your infrastructure. Managed option. Amazon Athena: Fully managed. Trino: Starburst Galaxy and Enterprise.

Amazon Athena vs Trino: which is cheaper?⌄

Amazon Athena pricing: From $0.3/mo. Trino pricing: Free. Confirm current pricing on each tool's official site, as plans change.

Which is rated higher, Amazon Athena or Trino?⌄

On our editorial score, Amazon Athena is 4.4 out of 5 and Trino is 4.6 out of 5, so Trino is slightly ahead. This is our own score, not an average of user reviews.

When should I skip both Amazon Athena and Trino?⌄

Skip Amazon Athena if you query across clouds or on-prem sources. Trino or Starburst connect to more places. Skip Trino if you don’t want to run a cluster. Amazon Athena is serverless, and Starburst manages Trino for you.

Sources · tool facts checked November 2026