The solution has use cases related to retail stores and sales.
Practice Head at Vyom Labs
Users can pay as they use and not worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud."
- "It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s pricing could be cheaper. It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports.
For how long have I used the solution?
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March 2026
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake is a scalable solution. We have four to five customers for Snowflake who use it regularly.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's deployment in a development environment takes only a couple of minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Users have to pay a licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Snowflake is deployed on the cloud. The solution is providing HIPAA compliance, which is sufficient. Users looking for a pay-as-you-use product available on Azure or AWS should consider Snowflake.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Junior Software Engineer at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Stable product with good analytics features
Pros and Cons
- "The product's most important feature is unloading data to S3."
- "The product's performance could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
Snowflake is good for analytical purposes when you have a lot of historical or sales data that you need to release and use for different types of analysis, such as tracking sales and measuring the performance of your sales team and product.
What is most valuable?
The product's most important feature is unloading data to S3. It provides a single syntax query to analyze data directly from a database to an S3 bucket.
What needs improvement?
The product's performance could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Snowflake for a couple of months. We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We did not need to scale our Snowflake environment beyond what we needed. We have a fixed amount of traffic from a fixed number of clients. We know the load we need to handle, and based on that, our subscription is made.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Snowflake is cost-effective. The pricing is better than Firebolt. Firebolt is better when there is idle time. If we run Snowflake all the time, the cost will be higher.
What other advice do I have?
We are working on two solutions for Snowflake, one for the cloud and one for on-premises. It has good documentation. If someone goes through it, they will quickly understand how it works. However, Firebolt's documentation is more comprehensive. If I need faster results, I'll prefer the Firebolt; if I need performance, I'll use Snowflake.
Overall, I rate it a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Buyer's Guide
Snowflake
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Snowflake. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Data Engineer at Natwest
Good scalability and has a simple query process
Pros and Cons
- "The solution's computing time is less."
- "Its stability could be better."
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to build the pipelines in stream sets, including data source, data warehouse, and destination endpoints.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable features are storage, run time, scalability, and minimum query time compared to other vendors.
What needs improvement?
The solution's stability needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for seven or eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Recently, I encountered an issue with the solution's data warehouse. The resource monitor had exceeded its quota. I rate its stability as an eight.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the solution's scalability as a nine.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We use Hive and Hadoop as well. Snowflake is more stable and scalable.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is more straightforward to use than the other IDBMS tools. It has a simple query process. Its computing time is less as well. One can easily have access to it. I rate it as a nine.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Data Engineer at YASH Technologies
Options to connect with extendable sources in three buckets comes in handy
Pros and Cons
- "This solution has helped our organization by being easy to maintain and having good technical support."
- "I think that Snowflake could improve its user interface. The current one is not interactive."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for Snowflake is inputting data generated by AWS.
How has it helped my organization?
This solution has helped our organization by being easy to maintain and having good technical support.
What is most valuable?
The features I have found most valuable are the options to connect with extendable sources in three buckets in which we can also create stages.
What needs improvement?
I think that Snowflake could improve its user interface. The current one is not interactive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability of this solution a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability of this solution a 10, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best. There are around five developers in our company and 500 end users for this solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously worked in AWS.
How was the initial setup?
I would rate the initial setup process an eight, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise other people trying to use this solution to build a skill balance as it's quite difficult to work in Snowflake.
I would rate this solution as a whole a nine, on a scale from one to 10, with one being the worst and 10 being the best.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
IT Consultant at Independent Consultant
Straightforward deployment, stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "Snowflake has three great features: Snowpiping is proving to be very valuable, Time Travel is excellent, and Snowpipes are another great functionality the solution has made available."
- "Snowflake needs transparency over costs and pricing."
What is our primary use case?
I mostly build or design data warehouse analytics solutions using Snowflake.
How has it helped my organization?
The productivity across the teams that use Snowflake I believe is higher than it would be without the solution.
What is most valuable?
Snowflake has three great features: Snowpiping is proving to be very valuable, Time Travel is excellent, and Snowpipes are another great functionality the solution has made available.
What needs improvement?
Snowflake needs transparency over costs and pricing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I give the stability an eight out of ten. We rarely have issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I give the scalability an eight out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used many on-premise solutions in the past and also Azure Synapse Analytics.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. I give the setup an eight out of ten.
A basic implementation is quick and we only have to set up Snowflake and the cloud service. We need one engineer and one designer for the implementation.
What about the implementation team?
Depending on the complexity of the implementation, we may need to use a third party or help from the vendor.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Part of the problem with the pricing is that it is very difficult for businesses to get an idea of how expensive it might be until they actually start using Snowflake. Until they start pushing large amounts of data through, we will not really know. I believe that it is very difficult for businesses to make a commitment.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
My advice is to start Snowflake and not spend too much time thinking about how we could use the solution or what it could be used for. The key is just getting started.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Increases productivity, is stable, and scalable
Pros and Cons
- "Snowflake is faster than on-premise systems and allows for variable compute power based on need."
- "Snowflake can improve its machine learning and AI capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
In our organization, data is often spread out over multiple on-premise and cloud-based platforms. Snowflake is an agnostic platform, meaning it can be used regardless of which cloud provider we use and can serve as a single source for all of our data. Our use case then is to ensure that all data is located in one place, utilizing Snowflake as the platform.
How has it helped my organization?
With Snowflake, productivity can be increased. Snowflake is faster than on-premise systems and allows for variable compute power based on need. We are currently experimenting with ways to reduce processing time from eight hours to six hours or even less.
What is most valuable?
The vendor claims that the provision of warming sensors quickly enables warmth to compute nodes, which is their Unique Selling Point. From my experience, this has proven to be true.
What needs improvement?
For the past year and a half, I have experimented with different proof of concept. I have wanted to use Snowflake, however, I have not been able to do so. Microsoft Azure is superior to Snowflake in terms of its machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Snowflake has its own unique products, but Azure surpasses it in those areas. Snowflake can improve its machine learning and AI capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I found that Snowflake is highly stable, which is a reflection of the quality of its network.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have gone to the extremes from a scalability perspective and I give Snowflake's scalability an eight out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
As a premium customer for all these solutions, we have received excellent support overall with no issues encountered thus far. However, it is possible that some users of the free version may be experiencing some issues. I cannot confirm this, but from my experience, there have been no difficulties.
How was the initial setup?
I give the initial setup a seven out of ten for ease and time required.
What about the implementation team?
We are leveraging Snowflake, a cloud-based platform, both independently and in collaboration with the vendor. Our objectives for utilizing Snowflake are distinct from those of the vendor.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Comparing Snowflake to on-prem options such as Oracle or SAP, it seemed more cost-effective. With Vantage, a one-time purchase allows for use as many times and to a large capacity, whereas Snowflake, Azure, and similar services become increasingly expensive as the scale increases. Determining the best point of cost-effectiveness requires further study.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have tested all the different alternatives to Snowflake as well. It is hard to determine which one is the most suitable, as each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
Deciding between Azure Synapse and Snowflake can be difficult, as the best choice depends on one's own use case. Ultimately, it comes down to the available connectors; the product with more connectors is likely the better option. When making a decision, one should consider which other sources they would want to get data from and where they want to send data to. This can help inform their product selection.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Vice President, Data Architecture and Management at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
SQL-driven and suitable for massive compute, but has REST API limitations and doesn't support extensive writebacks
Pros and Cons
- "It's user-friendly. It's SQL-driven. The fact that business can also go to this application and query because they know SQL is the biggest factor."
- "Room for improvement would be writebacks. It doesn't support extensively writing back to the database, and it doesn't support web applications effectively. Ultimately, it's a database call, so if we are building web applications using Snowflake, it isn't that effective because there is some turnaround time from the database."
What is our primary use case?
We're using it more for data warehousing and distribution.
Snowflake is a SaaS platform, so I'm using whatever is the latest version.
How has it helped my organization?
It's definitely for compute. The best use case of Snowflake is massive compute. With the parallel reads that we can do from Snowflake, we can combine data from disparate sources, consolidate it, and provide it to end clients through custom stored procedures.
What is most valuable?
It's user-friendly. It's SQL-driven. The fact that business can also go to this application and query because they know SQL is the biggest factor. So, we can provide all the data, and the analysts, data scientists, and product strategists can go and analyze the data themselves.
What needs improvement?
Room for improvement would be writebacks. It doesn't support extensively writing back to the database, and it doesn't support web applications effectively. Ultimately, it's a database call, so if we are building web applications using Snowflake, it isn't that effective because there is some turnaround time from the database.
I'd like them to look into the limitations of REST API. Snowflake came up with this native API concept, but it has got a lot of limitations. I'd like to see it provide better service-based APIs so that it can provide data as a service.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used Snowflake for over three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Its stability is fine, but of late, I get loads of messages saying there's some sort of outage or some sort of issue in the application. I keep getting these notifications from Snowflake, which gives a false impression that something wrong is happening, and it might be underlying in the backend. It doesn't seem that stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is high. I'd rate it an eight out of ten in terms of scalability.
At this time, we have no plans to increase its usage.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to Snowflake, it was a completely Greenfield requirement.
How was the initial setup?
It was very straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
It required just two people. One from the Snowflake perspective, and one from my team members' perspective to get the configuration running. That's it.
What was our ROI?
We haven't yet seen a return on investment because some of the applications are yet to be fruitful and make revenue. We have used Snowflake for the past three years at this point, but we have not yet made great revenue.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Snowflake is very useful as a data lake and as a data warehouse. Also, it has a lot of features with respect to data science. We are not there yet, but if there are any specific use cases around compute, data distribution, and data sharing, then Snowflake is a tool to be considered.
I'd rate Snowflake a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Reasonably priced, simple to set up, and expands well
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is stable."
- "Potential new users should just definitely give it a shot."
- "I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it."
- "I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it."
What is our primary use case?
Basically, if at all, we wanted to have an interface for data warehouses on the cloud which worked on Azure or AWS. Snowflake, provides a more intuitive, rapid user interface where people can connect and maintain warehouses and share data among the people in the companies easily. Its pricing model and the model have made maintaining virtual warehouses simpler.
What is most valuable?
I appreciate the Snowflake marketplace, where you can drop data and allow other people throughout the world to access it. You can go to the Snowflake marketplace and connect to some data. If somebody else publishes, for example, COVID-19 data or weather data, you can sign up for new data sets and bring them into your warehouse, which I found very interesting.
You can connect to different cloud sources, including Azure and AWS.
You can report out, and all the cloud technologies have connected to Snowflake, allowing you to move the data or get the data into Snowflake.
The initial setup was pretty simple.
It scales really well.
The solution is stable.
The solution is reasonably priced.
What needs improvement?
I don't know about GCP, if they have connected for GCP. If they don't, they should allow for it.
Overall, they're doing great. I don't have any specific complaints or improvements that need to happen.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for a couple of years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is quite stable since everything is in the cloud, and the data these days has become cheap with storage and everything in the cloud. Through clusters and warehouses, sizes can be increased or decreased based on usage, and they can be turned on and turned off. Sustainability-wise, I think it's a pretty good solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. The warehouses or auto-scaling features in the warehouses are great. You can go from small to medium to large all the way up to extra large, and there are different auto-scaling tasks that can happen. You can turn it on and turn it off based on the usage or auto-turn it on and turn it off. That's a pretty nice feature to have and we find it both sustainable and scalable for sure.
I work for clients, so last time when I worked for a client, there was a group of 100 people who were actually signed up to use Snowflake.
How are customer service and support?
I've never dealt with technical support. We did have people from Snowflake working with us directly, and we never ran into any issues that needed troubleshooting. The personnel from Snowflake, of course, would resolve whatever came up.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I come from an Azure background as well, so Microsoft also comes with Azure Synapse, where it's a similar functionality as Snowflake, where it's warehousing on the cloud. Azure Synapse is also good. I'm unaware of AWS or GCP, and I heard that Google Cloud Platform also has Big Query and big data capabilities, which are tough competitors for Snowflake and other cloud warehousing tools.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation process was pretty straightforward. I didn't set it up, though. I used an already set up version. I just had to connect. I had to push data from Azure to Snowflake, create tables there, and have data loaded into those tables, and that's it. I wasn't doing anything else, so I didn't work on the infrastructure of Snowflake.
You would need a group of two or three people to maintain the product.
What about the implementation team?
I work for a consulting firm, so I don't work for the client, so I really don't know what the company used for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing was based on the warehouse. I don't recall it being very expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a consultant and end-user.
I'm not currently using the solution right now and do not recall the last version I was on.
Now, I'm working for a different client on a different platform altogether. My company, as such, doesn't use Snowflake since we are in consulting. We have expertise in something, and then we help the clients deliver that solution on the technology.
Potential new users should just definitely give it a shot. They should start off with a POC, proof of concept, for the data that they have, and then, if everything works well and they can migrate in a cost-effective way.
I would recommend Snowflake to start off with since it's just picking up over the last couple of years. If I have to recommend anything, however, it would be more Microsoft tools I would recommend since that all comes as a package. You can do Synapse and Azure Data Factory, which is for ETL. You can also do Azure Data Lake Storage. There are different things that you can do when you buy something in a package like that. That said, I definitely recommend Snowflake if someone wants to give it a shot.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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