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Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs Snowflake Analytics 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Companies benefited from Azure Synapse's cost savings, flexibility, and improved efficiency, though financial specifics and satisfaction varied.
Sentiment score
5.6
Users experience mixed ROI with Snowflake; it often improves operational efficiency, time savings, and cost control.
Some of my customers have indeed seen a return on investment with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as they used it for analytics to drive decision-making, improving their processes or increasing revenue.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
Snowflake Analytics has positively impacted our organization by saving about eight to ten hours per week, which we can use for advanced analytics and automation tasks.
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics support experiences vary, with larger clients generally receiving faster, more knowledgeable assistance.
Sentiment score
6.9
Snowflake Analytics support is often responsive and competent, but accessibility issues exist for non-major partners, despite strong community resources.
They are slow to respond and not very knowledgeable.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
This is an underestimation of the real impact because we use big data also to monitor the network and the customer.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the support for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as an eight out of ten.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
The Snowflake Analytics documentation is excellent.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Recently we had a two-day session where the Snowflake Analytics team provided a demo on Cortex AI and its features.
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
The technical support for Snowflake Analytics is excellent based on what I have heard from others.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and auto-scaling, despite occasional cost and latency concerns.
Sentiment score
7.7
Snowflake Analytics offers exceptional scalability through auto-scaling, cloud integration, and efficient resource management, ideal for handling large data volumes.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is scalable, offering numerous opportunities for scalability.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For the scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, I would rate it a 10 until you remain in the Azure Cloud scalability framework.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Recovering from such scenarios becomes a bit problematic or time-consuming.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Storage is unlimited because they use S3 if it is AWS, so storage has no limit.
Senior Software Architect at USEReady
It supports both horizontal and vertical scaling effectively.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
Maintaining security and data governance becomes easier with an entire data lake in place, and the scalability improves performance.
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its stability, despite occasional minor outages and performance issues with large datasets.
Sentiment score
8.4
Snowflake Analytics is highly stable, supported by major cloud providers, with strong performance and minimal technical issues reported.
Performance and stability are absolutely fine because Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is a PaaS service.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
I find the service stable as I have not encountered many issues.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
We have never integrated Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics with Databricks, but we have mostly pulled data from on-premises systems into Azure Databricks.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
Snowflake Analytics has been stable and reliable in my experience.
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
Snowflake Analytics is very stable; I have never experienced any crash downs or server issues.
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Snowflake Analytics is stable, scoring around eight point five to nine out of ten.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Synapse needs improvements in integration, pricing, ease of use, setup, and advanced analytics features for better adoption.
Snowflake Analytics struggles with data migration, integration, performance, cost issues, and needs better UI, job scheduling, and AWS support.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
There is a need for better documentation, particularly for customized tasks with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
Databricks is a very rich solution, with numerous open sources and capabilities in terms of extract, transform, load, database query, and so forth.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhancement.
Senior Software Architect at USEReady
If it offered flexibility similar to Oracle and supported more heterogeneous data sources and database connectivity, it would be even better.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
I would prefer Snowflake Analytics to improve their support response times, as sometimes the responses we receive are not very prompt and ticket assignments may not be timely.
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers flexible pricing but requires careful cost management due to unpredictable expenses and competitive services.
Snowflake Analytics uses a pay-as-you-go model, emphasizing strategic design to manage costs, often seen as competitively priced.
The cheapest tier costs about $4,000 to $4,700 a year, while the most expensive tier can reach up to $300,000 a year.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
I think the price of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very expensive, but that's not only for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics—it's for the cloud in general.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I find the pricing of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reasonable.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Snowflake charges per query, which amounts to a very minor cost, such as $0.015 per query.
BI Developer at DivVerse LLC
Snowflake is better and cheaper than Redshift and other cloud warehousing systems.
Senior Software Architect at USEReady
Snowflake Analytics is quite economical.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers scalability, integration, and advanced analytics with easy management, data protection, and familiar Microsoft interface.
Snowflake Analytics provides scalable, secure, and user-friendly analytics with cloud integration, supporting diverse data needs and flexible data sharing.
One of the most valuable features in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the ability to write your own ETL code using Azure Data Factory, which is a component within Synapse.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers significant visibility, which helps us understand our usage more clearly.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, the integration is the most valuable feature, meaning that whatever you need is fast and easy to use.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Running a considerable query on Microsoft SQL Server may take up to thirty minutes or an hour, while Snowflake executes the same query in less than three minutes.
BI Developer at DivVerse LLC
Snowflake Analytics supports data security with a single sign-on feature and complies with framework regulations, which is highly beneficial.
Data Governance Architect at Sterlite Technologies Ltd
Previously, we faced issues with slow queries due to traditional systems, but within Snowflake, we can assign separate virtual warehouses for reporting as well as data processing, ensuring that it does not impact tool performance and does not delay reporting to business users.
Data engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Snowflake Analytics
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
12th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
44
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is 6.0%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Snowflake Analytics is 3.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics6.0%
Snowflake Analytics3.4%
Other90.6%
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

AnandTiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at New Turn Technologies
Has consistently supported integration across diverse environments and streamlined deployment processes
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve their pricing structure. They currently have two separate pricing tiers: full log and partial log. I suggest they implement a single price and reduce charges on logs. They could implement a cap with some free tier or price tier based on the GBs of log collected. This would help customers use Azure more effectively. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks, but the log management part is very costly. Regarding future improvements, I would appreciate more application connectors for integration, particularly for on-premise based solutions. Many customers still maintain on-premise infrastructure, so having more integration possibilities for these environments would be beneficial.
Garima Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
Have created secure cloud-based data lakes and improved real-time data processing using integrated AI features
There are many capabilities which Snowflake Analytics offers that I find valuable, such as the storage and compute engine that allows working with any cloud system such as AWS or Azure, alongside its efficiencies in storage computation and cost-effectiveness, which saves money compared to on-premise systems. We also have features such as pre-cached results, Time Travel, and fail-safe, which are very useful for restoring data if deleted accidentally, and the streams and data pipes that facilitate real-time ingestion are great features as well. Snowflake Analytics offers multiple new connectors, allowing me to connect it with Kafka, and with Snowpark, I can work with any programming language such as Python, Java, or Scala for data processing and analysis. The data sharing feature offered by Snowflake Analytics is good because it allows sharing specific sets of data to end customers or users from different Snowflake Analytics accounts without exposing the entire dataset for data security reasons. Snowflake Analytics' support for machine learning models and real-time insights has enhanced significantly. Originally, it wasn't strong in AI/ML, but now it has multiple models and forecasting capabilities, providing good competition to tools such as Databricks and Spark. In BI, I have worked majorly with Microsoft Power BI, and the integration with Snowflake Analytics is very easy. The way we integrate Snowflake Analytics with other on-premise systems just requires the warehouse details, username, passwords, and the account name, along with multiple options such as client ID and credentials for logging in and creating a session. The end-to-end encryption provided by Snowflake Analytics is very important because, in my previous firm, working in finance and investment management, data encryption is necessary due to the sensitive nature of customer data and the involvement of people's money. It's crucial to have encryption in transit and at rest, along with data masking features which Snowflake Analytics offers.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Construction Company
7%
Construction Company
17%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise60
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise23
 

Questions from the Community

How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I think the licensing cost for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very high, but I have a local system to support that, so I don't consider that in the near future.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I am hoping that in the future Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics may have AI support.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake Analytics?
The pricing for Snowflake Analytics is reasonable, but as I am not part of the management team, I am not certain about our organization's exact costs. Overall, the return on investment for this too...
What needs improvement with Snowflake Analytics?
One improvement Snowflake Analytics could benefit from is in cost, particularly during peak hours. Sometimes, due to its automatic scalability, we think it has scaled up, but it does not always hap...
What is your primary use case for Snowflake Analytics?
I am using Snowflake Analytics because we are already using Snowflake for data engineering and data warehousing tasks, and we are using it for analytics as well as business intelligence reporting. ...
 

Also Known As

Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe, 
Lionsgate, Adobe, Sony, Capital One, Akamai, Deliveroo, Snagajob, Logitech, University of Notre Dame, Runkeeper
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake Analytics and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.