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Amazon EMR vs Vertica comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EMR
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Hadoop (3rd)
Vertica
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
11th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
86
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Amazon EMR is 3.3%, down from 3.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Vertica is 5.7%, up from 5.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Prashant  Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Seamless data integration enhances reporting efficiency and an easy setup
Amazon EMR has multiple connectors that can connect to various data sources. The service charges are based on processing only, depending on the resources used, which can help save money. It is easy to integrate with other services for storage, allowing data to be shifted to cheaper storage based on usage.
T Venkatesh - PeerSpot reviewer
Processes query faster through multiple systems simultaneously, but it could support different data types
We use the solution for various tasks, including preparing data marts and generating offers. It helps extract data based on rules from the policy team and provides insights to enhance business operations. We also analyze transactions to target customers and improve business performance The…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The initial setup is pretty straightforward."
"The solution is scalable."
"The project management is very streamlined."
"We are using applications, such as Splunk, Livy, Hadoop, and Spark. We are using all of these applications in Amazon EMR and they're helping us a lot."
"The solution is pretty simple to set up."
"The initial setup is straightforward."
"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."
"The solution helps us manage huge volumes of data."
"We are able to integrate our Vertica data warehouse with Tableau to create numerous reports quickly and efficiently."
"Its projections and encoding are excellent tools for tuning large volumes."
"It maximizes cloud economics with Eon Mode by scaling cluster size to meet variable workload demands."
"The solution is quick, has good compression data, and is not expensive."
"Vertica uses advanced Azure technologies to compress raw data using indexing, allowing a large amount of data to be stored with minimal physical space. Advanced algorithms are employed in data compression."
"It's the fastest database I have ever tested. That's the most important feature of Vertica."
"Vertica is a great product because customers can compress and code data. The infrastructure that data warehouse solutions need is a commodity server so that customers don't have to invest in infrastructure."
"Vertica gives knowledgeable users and DBAs excellent tools for tuning."
 

Cons

"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."
"There is no need to pay extra for third-party software."
"The most complicated thing is configuring to the cluster and ensure it's running correctly."
"The dashboard management could be better. Right now, it's lacking a bit."
"There is room for improvement with respect to retries, handling the volume of data on S3 buckets, cluster provisioning, scaling, termination, security, and integration between services like S3, Glue, Lake Formation, and DynamoDB."
"As people are shifting from legacy solutions to other technologies, Amazon EMR needs to add more features that give more flexibility in managing user data."
"The legacy versions of the solution are not supported in the new versions."
"The product must add some of the latest technologies to provide more flexibility to the users."
"I would personally like to see extended developer tooling suited to Vertica – think published PowerDesigner SQL dialect support."
"I have found that coding support could be simplified."
"Pricing could be more competitive."
"We faced some challenges when trying to use the temporary tables feature."
"Whatever's out, the core is not always as great as the engine, especially their first version."
"In a future release, we would like to have artificial intelligence capabilities like neural networks. Customers are demanding this type of analytics."
"The integration of this solution with ODI could be improved."
"It would be great if this were a managed service in AWS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is no need to pay extra for third-party software."
"The product is not cheap, but it is not expensive."
"The price of the solution is expensive."
"There is a small fee for the EMR system, but major cost components are the underlying infrastructure resources which we actually use."
"Amazon EMR is not very expensive."
"Amazon EMR's price is reasonable."
"The cost of Amazon EMR is very high."
"You don't need to pay for licensing on a yearly or monthly basis, you only pay for what you use, in terms of underlying instances."
"Work with a vendor, if possible, and take advantage of more aggressive discounts at mid-fiscal year (April) and fiscal year-end (October).​"
"The pricing could improve, it is a little expensive."
"The first TB is free and you can use all the Vertica features. After 1TB you have to pay for licensing. The product is worth it, but be aware of this condition, and plan. The compression ratio is explained in the documentation."
"Start with license per 1TB. Starting from hundreds of TB there is unlimited licensing to be considered. Move historical data to HDFS/S3 which are significantly cheaper or even free."
"Vertica has a perpetual license, but they are currently trying to convert all those licenses to subscription-based licenses on a yearly basis."
"It's free up to three nodes and 1TB, and then get in contact with their sales guys."
"Vertica is an expensive tool."
"It is fast to purchase through the AWS Marketplace."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
14%
Educational Organization
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
18%
Manufacturing Company
7%
University
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon EMR?
Amazon EMR is a good solution that can be used to manage big data.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EMR?
Compared to others, Amazon seems efficient and is considered good for Big Data workloads. Costs are involved based on cluster resources, data volumes, EC2 ( /products/amazon-ec2-reviews ) instances...
What needs improvement with Amazon EMR?
There is room for improvement with respect to retries, handling the volume of data on S3 ( /products/amazon-s3-reviews ) buckets, cluster provisioning, scaling, termination, security, and integrati...
What do you like most about Vertica?
Vertica is easy to use and provides really high performance, stability, and scalability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Vertica?
The solution is relatively cost-effective. Pricing and licensing are reasonable compared to other solutions.
What needs improvement with Vertica?
The product could improve by adding support for a wider variety of data types and enhancing features to better compete with other databases.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Amazon Elastic MapReduce
Micro Focus Vertica, HPE Vertica, HPE Vertica on Demand
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Yelp
Cerner, Game Show Network Game, Guess by Marciano, Supercell, Etsy, Nascar, Empirix, adMarketplace, and Cardlytics.
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EMR vs. Vertica and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.