Comparison
BigQuery vs Snowflake
Scored side by side on data-analytics, using the same criteria we apply across the category.
BigQuery
Serverless warehouse with no cluster management and pricing by bytes scanned.
4.4(5,200)$6.25 per TB scanned
Snowflake
Cloud data warehouse with separated storage and compute and per-second billing.
4.5(6,100)$2 per credit, consumption-based
Scored side by side
Query performance
BigQuery
4.4
Snowflake
4.6
Cost predictability
BigQuery
3.6
Snowflake
3.3
Governance
BigQuery
4.2
Snowflake
4.6
Ecosystem
BigQuery
4.1
Snowflake
4.7
Ease of operation
BigQuery
4.9
Snowflake
4.8
Value for money
BigQuery
4.2
Snowflake
3.7
BigQuery verdict
The simplest warehouse to operate, especially inside Google Cloud. Enforce partitioning early.
- Genuinely serverless with nothing to manage
- Machine learning directly in SQL
- Strong fit inside Google Cloud
Snowflake verdict
The lowest-operations warehouse available. Budget for a FinOps owner from the start.
- Almost no operational overhead
- Zero-copy cloning transforms development workflows
- Best-in-class cross-organisation data sharing