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InterSystems IRIS vs Snowflake comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

InterSystems IRIS
Ranking in Database Management Systems (DBMS)
10th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
4.5
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
Relational Databases Tools (14th)
Snowflake
Ranking in Database Management Systems (DBMS)
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
107
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (1st), Cloud Data Warehouse (1st), AI Synthetic Data (1st), AI Software Development (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Database Management Systems (DBMS) category, the mindshare of InterSystems IRIS is 2.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Snowflake is 8.2%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Database Management Systems (DBMS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Snowflake8.2%
InterSystems IRIS2.1%
Other89.7%
Database Management Systems (DBMS)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2892648 - PeerSpot reviewer
Developer/Database Administrator at a transportation company with 201-500 employees
Robust multidimensional database has enabled smooth API integrations and modern data workflows
I think InterSystems IRIS is a continuation of the Caché legacy. Since I have been working with it since 2005 with Caché, I think it is a really amazing tool. It is a very robust and very scalable database. It is very good to work with, and I am already used to working with it. Where it falls a bit short is in the availability of manpower and professionals who work with InterSystems IRIS or Caché. There are few professionals who work with it. Another thing is the cost and the license cost. I think there could be some kind of package that could serve smaller companies and small and medium-sized companies. That would reach a larger slice of the market, because the cost to work with Caché, InterSystems IRIS, and so on is high. I would make this remark about putting together a package and a new product that could serve small and medium-sized companies. The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost. The licensing cost is the main issue I have already mentioned.
SunilPatil1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Asset Builder at Genpact - Headstrong
Have prioritized security while managing multi-agent data migration and cloud adoption
We utilize Time Travel with Snowflake because this is a very useful feature. Everyone finds it crucial because in conventional data platforms, it's very difficult to handle these kinds of things. This feature is essential, though I don't have the use cases currently; it is just there for implementation. Regarding Snowflake's automated scaling and suspension features, this auto-scaling is very significant. We had a comparison with Databricks and Snowflake a few months back, and this auto-scaling takes an edge within Snowflake; that's what our observation reflects.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The best features that InterSystems IRIS offers in my opinion are the speed in querying data, and due to our system, which requires a large query with a large volume of data, InterSystems IRIS stands out for its query speed, making my work easier."
"InterSystems IRIS as a database is very efficient, with its best features being its speed and high performance, along with an easy understanding of its data searching functionalities."
"The best features that InterSystems IRIS offers are its capability to function as both a relational and non-relational database, with performance and speed as specific functionalities that serve as differentiators."
"In my opinion, the best features that InterSystems IRIS offers are its very optimized database, which I found amazing, and the observability it provides for checking messages and how the data is being transferred, which I find very interesting."
"The best features InterSystems IRIS offers, in my experience, include being a really powerful engine and a really good database."
"InterSystems IRIS has had a positive impact on my organization by improving performance and data security."
"The best features InterSystems IRIS offers are its powerful database and speed, which contribute greatly to my work."
"My final observation is that everyone should use InterSystems IRIS; it is an amazing tool on the market."
"The most valuable feature has been the Snowflake data sharing and dynamic data masking."
"Its performance is a big advantage, and when you run a query, its performance is very good."
"Snowflake is user-friendly and reliable in creating the data warehouse and carrying out data modeling."
"Snowflake has positively impacted us by making everything cloud-native, significantly reducing the systems and application running process."
"Snowflake is a database, and it is very good and useful. The most interesting part is that memory management is very good in Snowflake. For a business intelligence project, SQL Server is taking a lot of time for reporting services. There are a lot of calculations, and the reporting time is shown as two minutes, whereas Snowflake is taking just two seconds for the same reporting services."
"As long as you don't need to worry about the storage or cost, this solution would be one of the best ones on the market for scalability purposes."
"The adaptation to development languages is most valuable. Our developers can SQL code or something else. It has been convenient in that regard."
"We utilize Time Travel with Snowflake because this is a very useful feature; everyone finds it crucial because in conventional data platforms, it's very difficult to handle these kinds of things."
 

Cons

"The area where InterSystems IRIS falls a bit short is in the cost and the licensing cost."
"InterSystems IRIS can be improved by addressing the lack of libraries, mainly mathematical ones, where we would save a lot of time on some formulas that we have to build by hand every time we need them."
"I cannot determine a very positive impact or a beneficial result from InterSystems IRIS, although this observability part is important because we were able to find problems much faster."
"InterSystems IRIS could be improved, particularly the internal interface of the database."
"Python support can be enhanced further, as it's really clunky at the moment, considering that the use of Python is pretty much all over the world and nobody knows ObjectScript really thoroughly and deeply."
"InterSystems IRIS can be improved since its studio is very poor."
"Sometimes, I face some issues like not having permissions. These aren't as crucial, but there are common errors sometimes where the database is down, or a table is nullified and a new table is added and you are not given access to that."
"I see room for improvement when it comes to credit performance. The other thing I'd like to be improved is the warehouse facility."
"There is room for improvement in Snowflake's integration with Python. We do a lot of SQL programming in Snowflake, but we go to a different tool to program when we have to in Python."
"They don't have any SLAs in place. It would be better if they did."
"Snowflake needs transparency over costs and pricing."
"The user interface continues to be an issue, especially when we need to get data out of Snowflake. It's very easy to get data in, but it's not too easy to get it out or extract it."
"It's difficult to know how to size everything correctly."
"Its transaction application needs improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I have worked with multiple clouds, and cost-wise, it is a bit costlier than others, such as Redshift. Its price should be reduced."
"We use Snowflake pretty heavily. We pay a significant amount of money for the tool. I'd say we pay $300k to $400K every year."
"Oracle is less expensive than Snowflake."
"The pricing part is based on the computing and storage. The costs are different and then there are services costs as well."
"Snowflake has consumption-based costs; users only pay for storage and computing."
"Snowflake is expensive, but when I consider what we get for that price, it's fair. I rate the solution three out of five for affordability, right in the middle."
"We used Snowflake to see if it is cheaper than using BigQuery. It was just to maintain the cost or the KPI regarding the cost of connectivity by users. Snowflake wasn't cheaper than BigQuery, and its affordability was the main issue."
"The pricing for Snowflake is competitive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
31%
Comms Service Provider
17%
Healthcare Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Construction Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business30
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with InterSystems IRIS?
InterSystems IRIS can be improved by addressing the lack of libraries, mainly mathematical ones, where we would save a lot of time on some formulas that we have to build by hand every time we need ...
What is your primary use case for InterSystems IRIS?
My main use case for InterSystems IRIS is hospital integrations. In hospital integrations, I use InterSystems IRIS for object conversions. Regarding this use case, I utilize TCP/IP, REST, and SOAP ...
What advice do you have for others considering InterSystems IRIS?
My advice to others who are considering using InterSystems IRIS is to use it without fear, take advantage of all the platform's resources, and follow the community that has many tips and solutions ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake?
I am not the person who manages pricing, setup cost, and licensing. Our team is not limited in pricing. The only experience we have had in terms of running and reprocessing a large number of histor...
What needs improvement with Snowflake?
One main area for improvement in Snowflake is cost visibility and optimization; while it's flexible and scalable, costs can increase quickly if warehouses are left running unnecessarily or workload...
What is your primary use case for Snowflake?
As a Data Engineer, I primarily use Snowflake for data warehousing tasks as well as ETL processing, and sometimes I also use it for data sharing. I personally find Snowflake better than other tools...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Snowflake Computing, Snowflake Data Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Global Investment Bank, Parkview Medical Center
Accordant Media, Adobe, Kixeye Inc., Revana, SOASTA, White Ops
Find out what your peers are saying about InterSystems IRIS vs. Snowflake and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
915,341 professionals have used our research since 2012.