Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

SAP Business Warehouse 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

SAP Business Warehouse
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Snowflake Analytics
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
8th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of SAP Business Warehouse is 1.2%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Snowflake Analytics is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

JavedKhan1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers powerful analytics and integration capabilities but requires improved upgrade processes
SAP Business Warehouse could have been better. There is room for improvement from a technical perspective. So, from a technical perspective, when we are upgrading a Business Warehouse server or we are migrating from one place to another, the capability required for this upgradation has many manual activities. It took us around a month to streamline our server. Let’s say there are some transaction codes. Transaction code is a set of programs, and when you want to run a program from the backend, you need to hit the transaction code. It is called a T-code. So during the upgrade, many transaction codes get affected, and as a security consultant, it is my responsibility to recheck those transaction codes which are affected. Sometimes more than 100 codes may get affected, sometimes 500, and sometimes more as well. So, it takes a hell lot of time to integrate them again. That is a limitation or defect within the SAP Business Warehouse. SAP Business Warehouse should come up with proper solutions. Upgradation is an automatic activity. It should happen by itself. We just need to initiate it, and the backend SAP server is automatically upgraded. But it should handle the transactional code as well. They should not get absolutely, and any authorization object should not get deleted from the transaction codes. So, that functionality SAP Business Warehouse should come up with.
KamleshPant - PeerSpot reviewer
Data ecosystem thrives with advanced governance and streaming capabilities
It is a data offering where I can see data lineage, data governance, and data security. Snowflake has a streaming capability to work with real-time streaming data and delta tables. Additionally, task management, job scheduling, and connecting multiple data sources unify my data across internal and external sources. The system ecosystem for analytics is enhanced, and AI capabilities are incorporated.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The key element in this solution is its rapid response. If you have a question about prices, buyers, customers, providers, or services, you need the answer in a minute or two. That's the key benefit for us that a solution like BW gives us."
"The warehouse is the solution's most valuable feature."
"The product is very stable."
"Out-of-the-box reports are very useful."
"With the technical support, the response has been pretty good from the SAP side."
"The features that I have found most valuable are its capabilities to connect to Excel and to slice and dice."
"What I like most about SAP Business Warehouse is its ability to feed data into new, multiple systems in various formats. It can open its data to any system over gateway services or a portal or application that needs to consume and analyze data."
"The most useful feature is definitely the speed."
"It helps with business intelligence by providing analytics that can be reported."
"Snowflake has a streaming capability to work with real-time streaming data and delta tables."
"The most valuable features of Snowflake for our data analytics are its time travel capability, allowing easy data recovery, and its automatic optimization of partitioning and clustering."
"One of the valuable features is the solution’s time travel capability. The solution is highly stable. The solution is highly scalable. The initial setup is straightforward, and the deployment process is quick and efficient. I recommend the solution. Overall, I rate it a perfect ten."
"Considering everything I have accessed, the product's dashboard is good since it provides multiple good options, including customization options."
"The most valuable feature of Snowflake Analytics is the ability to control and manage the cost."
"I am impressed with the product's data-sharing feature."
"The solution auto-scales and it provides concurrency."
 

Cons

"What I'd like improved in SAP Business Warehouse is its setup. It could be more flexible, and it could be a configuration-based setup."
"The advanced structuring can be complicated and the interface is not very intuitive."
"Areas for improvement in SAP Business Warehouse include enhancing scheduling and monitoring tools, as well as improving communication about hidden features to make them more accessible to users."
"One of our requirements is the ability to easily get answers regarding trends and exceptions. In BW, it is not that easy to get such information. I expect better trend and exception detection, better pattern detection."
"I get all the information quickly, but it is one day old."
"It's a product that is at the end of life so they will not improve it anymore."
"What I'd like to improve in SAP Business Warehouse is its data structure, that's a little bit rigid. It could be a bit more flexible, so you can design your data structure and improve performance when creating a solution. Currently, the way data is stored in SAP Business Warehouse is rigid."
"There is room for improvement from a technical perspective."
"I cannot comment on the product's stability because we are still struggling with its performance."
"Snowflake Analytics should probably have more built-in tools for master data management."
"Implementing everything on-premise is challenging because it require proper support from advisors, DBAs, and others."
"If you have a lot of computations, it becomes very costly."
"AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhancement."
"The platform could work easier for AI implementation compared to one of its competitors."
"Snowflake could improve in the areas of advanced machine learning AML and generative AI."
"Moving data from legacy systems to Snowflake is not that easy. There are some cases where processors are not actually compatible with Snowflake."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's moderately expensive, but definitely has its branding and price value for it."
"I would not recommend it to small-scale companies. The price is too much."
"The license for SAP Business Warehouse is paid yearly, and there's no extra cost in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"Overall, the pricing is not fixed and is expensive."
"The licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse depends on your revenue. Its licensing structure is a little bit complicated. The more your revenue is, the higher the price, but SAP does have different pricing structures for various companies. For small businesses, licensing isn't based on revenue, but for big companies, it's revenue-based. There's some agreement regarding pricing for huge companies, so it's different, and SAP Business Warehouse pricing isn't fixed. On a scale of one to ten, I'm rating the licensing cost for SAP Business Warehouse as five because it's very high. As your revenue grows, your licensing cost also increases, so you have to factor that in when calculating your cost."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"It's quite pricey. SAP changed its pricing policy, so they give you one engine and then you have to buy everything next to it, like MSS, the BPC licenses, and everything else."
"SAP Business Warehouse licensing is a bit expensive compared to other products in the market."
"Snowflake Analytics is not an expensive solution, and its pricing is average."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
"The tool is quite expensive."
"The solution's price is high and I would rate it an eight out of ten."
"The solution's pricing is affordable."
"Snowflake Analytics is a little more costly than Azure."
"Snowflake charges per query, which amounts to a very minor cost, such as $0.015 per query."
"I have been using free trial version."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Computer Software Company
20%
Retailer
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SAP Business Warehouse?
The solution is quite expensive. We paid a yearly subscription fee.
What needs improvement with SAP Business Warehouse?
Over a period, we realized that the license and maintenance costs were quite expensive. Every day, we had to run the background job ODS. Eventually, we moved away from SAP Business Warehouse and bo...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake Analytics?
Snowflake is better and cheaper than Redshift and other cloud warehousing systems. It's economical.
What needs improvement with Snowflake Analytics?
Most features are already available. Perhaps AIML integration might be further needed, or Snowflake is already implementing it. AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhan...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Lionsgate, Adobe, Sony, Capital One, Akamai, Deliveroo, Snagajob, Logitech, University of Notre Dame, Runkeeper
Find out what your peers are saying about SAP Business Warehouse vs. Snowflake Analytics and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.