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Amazon EMR pros and cons

3.9 out of 5

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Amazon EMR stands out with its ability to resize clusters and offers flexibility and scalability for managing big data.
The managed services provide stability and scalability, offering valuable features including support for Apache Hudi and out-of-the-box functionality for leveraging big data tools like Spark and Hadoop.
Setup is straightforward, allowing for easy transitions of big jobs from on-prem to EMR with Spark, demonstrating good fault tolerance and streamlined project management.
Amazon EMR excels in processing speed and data storage capacity, offering a variety of options and strong security features derived from its managed services model.
Multiple connectors in Amazon EMR enable seamless integration with various data sources, and it facilitates faster insights by efficiently cleaning and transforming data.

CONS

Legacy versions are not supported in new versions, and new releases often break old versions.
Dashboard management and control over user scaling and costs are lacking.
Configuring and ensuring correct cluster operation is complicated.
Spark jobs run slower on Amazon EMR compared to previous experiences.
Initial setup is time-consuming, with pricing strategy and module notification improvements needed.
 

Amazon EMR Pros review quotes

it_user744720 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Engineer
Sep 27, 2017
The ability to resize the cluster is what really makes it stand out over other Hadoop and big data solutions.
FN
Responsable sofware factory at BOX AFRICA
Mar 6, 2021
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
reviewer1612005 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy CTO at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 25, 2021
This is the best tool for hosts and it's really flexible and scalable.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon EMR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1724670 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineering Manager/Solution architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Dec 2, 2021
One of the valuable features about this solution is that it's managed services, so it's pretty stable, and scalable as much as you wish. It has all the necessary distributions. With some additional work, it's also possible to change to a Spark version with the latest version of EMR. It also has Hudi, so we are leveraging Apache Hudi on EMR for change data capture, so then it comes out-of-the-box in EMR.
Prashant  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President -Product Management at Paytm
May 18, 2022
The solution is pretty simple to set up.
Ilya Afanasyev - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Development Engineer at Yahoo!
Aug 3, 2022
When we grade big jobs from on-prem to the cloud, we do it in EMR with Spark.
AO
Lead Data Scientist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 27, 2022
The solution is scalable.
RahulJadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Hadoop Administrator at Capgemini
Oct 17, 2022
In Amazon EMR it is easy to rebuild anything, easy to upgrade and has good fault tolerance.
ArnabChatterjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Development Engineer at Signify
Jan 18, 2023
The project management is very streamlined.
VV
Technology Analyst at Proodlehospitatilityservicesltd
Jul 27, 2023
Amazon EMR's most valuable features are processing speed and data storage capacity.
 

Amazon EMR Cons review quotes

it_user744720 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Science Engineer
Sep 27, 2017
There were times where they would release new versions and it seemed to end up breaking old versions, which is very strange.
FN
Responsable sofware factory at BOX AFRICA
Mar 6, 2021
The dashboard management could be better. Right now, it's lacking a bit.
reviewer1612005 - PeerSpot reviewer
Deputy CTO at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Jun 25, 2021
The most complicated thing is configuring to the cluster and ensure it's running correctly.
Learn what your peers think about Amazon EMR. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
880,901 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1724670 - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineering Manager/Solution architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Dec 2, 2021
Amazon EMR is continuously improving, but maybe something like CI/CD out-of-the-box or integration with Prometheus Grafana.
Prashant  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President -Product Management at Paytm
May 18, 2022
We don't have much control. If we have multiple users, if they want to scale up, the cost will go and increase and we don't know how we can restrict that price part.
Ilya Afanasyev - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Development Engineer at Yahoo!
Aug 3, 2022
The problem for us is it starts very slow.
AO
Lead Data Scientist at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Sep 27, 2022
The initial setup was time-consuming.
RahulJadhav - PeerSpot reviewer
Hadoop Administrator at Capgemini
Oct 17, 2022
Amazon EMR can improve by adding some features, such as megastore services and HiveServer2. Additionally, the user interface could be better, similar to what Apache service provides, cross-platform services.
ArnabChatterjee - PeerSpot reviewer
Development Engineer at Signify
Jan 18, 2023
The legacy versions of the solution are not supported in the new versions.
VV
Technology Analyst at Proodlehospitatilityservicesltd
Jul 27, 2023
The product's features for storing data in static clusters could be better.