Amazon Athena vs Elastic Search comparison

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) Logo
2,284 views|2,060 comparisons
83% willing to recommend
Elastic Logo
3,993 views|1,325 comparisons
98% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Amazon Athena and Elastic Search based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Search as a Service solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Athena vs. Elastic Search Report (Updated: March 2024).
768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Rajesh Nagaral
Basem Mahmoud
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The solution is very easy to use and integrations are very smooth.""One of the most valuable features is the ability to partition your databases. I also like the federal query functionality, for cases when you have to query outside your S3 storage, or even completely outside of the AWS platform.""It's easy to set up the product.""Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products.""Amazon Athena is very stable. I never had any issues with it. The dashboarding tool is okay.""You can perform SQL queries in S3 using Athena."

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"Search is really powerful.""It gives us the possibility to store and query this data and also do this efficiently and securely and without delays.""The most valuable feature of Elastic Enterprise Search is the opportunity to search behind and between different logs.""The observability is the best available because it provides granular insights that identify reasons for defects.""The product is scalable with good performance.""Dashboard is very customizable.""There's lots of processing power. You can actually just add machines to get more performance if you need to. It's pretty flexible and very easy to add another log. It's not like 'oh, no, it's going to be so much extra data'. That's not a problem for the machine. It can handle it.""The AI-based attribute tagging is a valuable feature."

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Cons
"If you compare it with Palantir, if you have some data and you want to quickly have a look at it, then that feature is not available in Amazon Cloud.""You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud.""I think it would be better if the product were more mature. It's still a young product compared to Power BI or Qlik. I find that development is a bit difficult, but it might be because I'm used to other tools. The dashboarding capabilities could be better. The reporting and statement generation could be better. I couldn't technically initiate picture-perfect reporting, for example, to send out statements every month for banking customers.""I would like to use Spark or Python-based queries in Athena.""The solution should include a better API for query services.""One improvement I can suggest is that Athena needs to work better with third-parties. For example, the process of querying a Microsoft SQL warehouse could be improved."

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"The documentation regarding customization could be better.""I would like to be able to do correlations between multiple indexes.""There are a lot of manual steps on the operating system. It could be simplified in the user interface.""Its licensing needs to be improved. They don't offer a perpetual license. They want to know how many nodes you will be using, and they ask for an annual subscription. Otherwise, they don't give you permission to use it. Our customers are generally military or police departments or customers without connection to the internet. Therefore, this model is not suitable for us. This subscription-based model is not the best for OEM vendors. Another annoying thing about Elasticsearch is its roadmap. We are developing something, and then they say, "Okay. We have removed that feature in this release," and when we are adapting to that release, they say, "Okay. We have removed that one as well." We don't know what they will remove in the next version. They are not looking for backward compatibility from the customers' perspective. They just remove a feature and say, "Okay. We've removed this one." In terms of new features, it should have an ODBC driver so that you can search and integrate this product with existing BI tools and reporting tools. Currently, you need to go for third parties, such as CData, in order to achieve this. ODBC driver is the most important feature required. Its Community Edition does not have security features. For example, you cannot authenticate with a username and password. It should have security features. They might have put it in the latest release.""The different applications need to be individually deployed.""Technical support should be faster.""There are some features lacking in ELK Elasticsearch.""The one area that can use improvement is the automapping of fields."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The solution operates on a serverless model so you only pay for data that you consume."
  • "I am happy with what they are charging and how they charge it, especially because they charge you per query, and not per series."
  • "It doesn't cost much if you are already part of the AWS ecosystem."
  • "Athena is very inexpensive for being a cloud tool."
  • More Amazon Athena Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "ELK has been considered as an alternative to Splunk to reduce licensing costs."
  • "An X-Pack license is more affordable than Splunk."
  • "​The pricing and license model are clear: node-based model."
  • "This is a free, open source software (FOSS) tool, which means no cost on the front-end. There are no free lunches in this world though. Technical skill to implement and support are costly on the back-end with ELK, whether you train/hire internally or go for premium services from Elastic."
  • "We are using the free version and intend to upgrade."
  • "It can be expensive."
  • "This product is open-source and can be used free of charge."
  • "We are using the open-sourced version."
  • More Elastic Search Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products.
    Top Answer:You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud.
    Top Answer:Logsign provides us with the capability to execute multiple queries according to our requirements. The indexing is very high, making it effective for storing and retrieving logs. The real-time… more »
    Top Answer:I don't see improvements at the moment. The current setup is working well for me, and I'm satisfied with it. Integrating with different platforms is also fine, and I'm not recommending any changes or… more »
    Ranking
    4th
    out of 13 in Search as a Service
    Views
    2,284
    Comparisons
    2,060
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    377
    Rating
    7.7
    1st
    out of 13 in Search as a Service
    Views
    3,993
    Comparisons
    1,325
    Reviews
    27
    Average Words per Review
    501
    Rating
    8.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Elastic Enterprise Search, Swiftype, Elastic Cloud
    Learn More
    Overview

    Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run.

    Elasticsearch is a prominent open-source search and analytics engine known for its scalability, reliability, and straightforward management. It's a favored choice among enterprises for real-time data search, analysis, and visualization. Open-source Elasticsearch is free, offering a comprehensive feature set and scalability. It allows full control over deployments but requires managing and maintaining the infrastructure. On the other hand, Elastic Cloud provides a managed service with features like automated provisioning, high availability, security, and global reach.

    Elasticsearch excels in handling time-sensitive data and complex search requirements across large datasets. Its scalability allows it to handle growing data volumes efficiently, maintaining high performance and fast response times. Integrated with Kibana, Elasticsearch enables powerful data visualization, providing real-time insights crucial for data-driven decision-making.

    Elastic Cloud reduces operational overhead and improves scalability and performance, though it comes with associated costs. It is available on your preferred cloud provider — AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Customers who want to manage the software themselves, whether on public, private, or hybrid cloud, can download the Elastic Stack.

    At its core, Elasticsearch is renowned for its full-text search capabilities, capable of performing complex queries and supporting features like fuzzy matching and auto-complete.

    Peer reviews from various professionals highlight its strengths and weaknesses. Pros include its detection and correlation features, flexibility, cloud-readiness, extensibility, and efficient search capabilities. However, users have noted challenges like steep learning curves, data analysis limitations, and integration complexities. The platform is generally viewed as stable and scalable, with varying degrees of satisfaction regarding its usability and feature set.

    In summary, Elasticsearch stands out for its high-speed search, scalability, and versatile analytics, making it a go-to solution for organizations managing large datasets. Its adaptability to different enterprise needs, robust community support, and continuous development keep it at the forefront of enterprise search and analytics solutions. However, potential users should be aware of its learning curve and the need for skilled personnel for optimization.

    Sample Customers
    bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday
    T-Mobile, Adobe, Booking.com, BMW, Telegraph Media Group, Cisco, Karbon, Deezer, NORBr, Labelbox, Fingerprint, Relativity, NHS Hospital, Met Office, Proximus, Go1, Mentat, Bluestone Analytics, Humanz, Hutch, Auchan, Sitecore, Linklaters, Socren, Infotrack, Pfizer, Engadget, Airbus, Grab, Vimeo, Ticketmaster, Asana, Twilio, Blizzard, Comcast, RWE and many others.
    Top Industries
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Computer Software Company18%
    Manufacturing Company8%
    Government8%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm33%
    Computer Software Company27%
    Manufacturing Company10%
    Insurance Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company18%
    Financial Services Firm15%
    Government7%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Company Size
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise71%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business41%
    Midsize Enterprise11%
    Large Enterprise48%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise63%
    Buyer's Guide
    Amazon Athena vs. Elastic Search
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon Athena vs. Elastic Search and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Amazon Athena is ranked 4th in Search as a Service with 6 reviews while Elastic Search is ranked 1st in Search as a Service with 59 reviews. Amazon Athena is rated 7.6, while Elastic Search is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Amazon Athena writes "A great AWS application that is easy to set up and simple to expand". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Elastic Search writes "Played a crucial role in enhancing our cybersecurity efforts ". Amazon Athena is most compared with Amazon Elasticsearch Service, Amazon AWS CloudSearch, Azure Search and Solr, whereas Elastic Search is most compared with Faiss, Milvus, Azure Search and Pinecone. See our Amazon Athena vs. Elastic Search report.

    See our list of best Search as a Service vendors.

    We monitor all Search as a Service reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.