The 3 Best Amazon Redshift Alternatives in 2026
Amazon Redshift is for teams already on AWS that want a warehouse inside the same account, IAM and network as everything else. If that isn’t you, these 3 Cloud Data Warehouses tools are the closest alternatives. A common reason to look elsewhere: you need to run on more than one cloud. Snowflake supports all three.
Category
Cloud Data Warehouses
Amazon Redshift pricing
From $0.375/mo
Free tier
No
Alternatives
3 compared
Choose Amazon Redshift if…
- Your data and apps already live on AWS.
- You want to choose between serverless and reserved clusters later.
- You want to query S3 data next to warehouse tables.
Look at an alternative if…
- You need to run on more than one cloud. Snowflake supports all three.
- You want queries billed by data scanned with a free tier. Try BigQuery or Amazon Athena.
Amazon Redshift vs Alternatives: Quick Comparison
| Tool | Pricing | Free tier | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon RedshiftYou searched | From $0.375/mo | — | 4.3 |
| 1.Google BigQuery | Free · paid from $6.25/mo | 4.6 | |
| 2.MotherDuck | Free · paid from $250/mo | 4.5 | |
| 3.Snowflake | Usage-based | — | 4.6 |
Ratings are App Stack Builder’s editorial score out of 5, not an average of user reviews.
Top Amazon Redshift Alternatives, Explained
1. Google BigQuery
Free tier4.6· Free · paid from $6.25/moBigQuery has no clusters to size. On-demand pricing charges $6.25 per TiB of data a query processes, and the first 1 TiB each month is free. Teams that want a fixed bill use capacity pricing instead, paying per slot-hour in the Standard, Enterprise or Enterprise Plus edition, with optional one or three-year commitments. Storage is billed separately; the first 10 GiB of active and long-term logical storage is free each month.
Best for: serverless, pay per query, Google Cloud
- Nothing to provision
- Monthly free tier for queries and storage
- Per-query pricing suits spiky workloads
2. MotherDuck
Free tier4.5· Free · paid from $250/moMotherDuck runs DuckDB in the cloud, so the same SQL works on your laptop and in the shared warehouse. Lite is free for up to 3 users, with 10 GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute a month. Business costs $250 per organization a month plus usage, for up to 10 users, larger instance types, read replicas and a 99.9% SLA. Pulse compute is $0.60 per CU-hour, dedicated instances run from $2.40 an hour, and storage is $0.04 per GB-month. There is a 7-day Business trial with no card.
Best for: DuckDB, startups, free plan
- Free plan with real storage
- Same DuckDB SQL locally and in the cloud
- Per-query Pulse billing for small workloads
3. Snowflake
4.6· Usage-basedSnowflake runs on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud and separates storage from compute, so several teams can query the same data on their own virtual warehouses without slowing each other down. You pay credits for compute and a monthly fee for average compressed storage, either on demand or as pre-paid capacity. Editions are Standard, Enterprise (adds features such as 90-day data recovery), Business Critical (customer-managed keys, HIPAA, PCI DSS and FedRAMP support) and Virtual Private Snowflake. The pricing page links to a calculator and consumption table rather than listing credit prices.
Best for: multi-team analytics, multi-cloud, compliance
- Storage and compute scale separately
- Runs on all three major clouds
- Several teams query the same data without contention
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best alternatives to Amazon Redshift in 2026?⌄
The best Amazon Redshift alternatives in 2026 are Google BigQuery, MotherDuck, Snowflake. Each is a cloud data warehouses option you can compare on pricing, free tiers, and features in the table above.
Is there a free alternative to Amazon Redshift?⌄
Yes. Google BigQuery, MotherDuck offer free tiers, making them strong free Amazon Redshift alternatives for bootstrapped startups.
When should I choose Amazon Redshift, and when an alternative?⌄
Choose Amazon Redshift when: Your data and apps already live on AWS. You want to choose between serverless and reserved clusters later. You want to query S3 data next to warehouse tables. Look at an alternative when: You need to run on more than one cloud. Snowflake supports all three. You want queries billed by data scanned with a free tier. Try BigQuery or Amazon Athena.
What is the cheapest Amazon Redshift alternative?⌄
Google BigQuery is among the most affordable Amazon Redshift alternatives: free · paid from $6.25/mo. Check the comparison table above for the full pricing breakdown.
Which Amazon Redshift alternative is rated highest?⌄
Google BigQuery has the highest editorial score among the Amazon Redshift alternatives here, at 4.6 out of 5. That is our own score, not an average of user reviews, so check it against your budget and stack before you pick.
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