Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apache Pinot VS Snowflake

Compare Apache Pinot VS Snowflake and see what are their differences

Apache Pinot logo Apache Pinot

Apache Pinot is a real-time distributed OLAP datastore, built to deliver scalable real-time analytics with low latency.

Snowflake logo Snowflake

Snowflake is the only data platform built for the cloud for all your data & all your users. Learn more about our purpose-built SQL cloud data warehouse.
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  • Snowflake Homepage
    Homepage //
    2024-07-19

Apache Pinot features and specs

  • Real-time Analytics
    Apache Pinot is designed for real-time analytics on large-scale data. It is capable of ingesting data from streaming sources like Apache Kafka, providing low-latency query capabilities on freshly ingested data.
  • High Throughput
    Pinot can handle high query loads and large datasets efficiently. Its architecture is optimized for distributed processing and fast query execution, making it suitable for use cases with high query throughput requirements.
  • Columnar Storage
    Pinot utilizes a columnar storage format, which allows efficient compression and fast retrieval of highly selective query results, reducing I/O and improving query performance.
  • Scalability
    Pinot is highly scalable and can be deployed across a distributed infrastructure. This makes it suitable for both growing startups and large enterprises with expanding data needs.
  • Integration with Big Data Ecosystem
    Apache Pinot integrates seamlessly with other big data technologies like Apache Kafka, Hadoop, and Spark, making it easier for organizations to adopt it in existing tech stacks.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Pinot

  • Complex Setup
    Deploying and configuring a Pinot cluster can be complex, especially for organizations without experience in distributed systems, requiring careful planning and resources.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Running a Pinot cluster involves ongoing maintenance tasks such as monitoring, scaling, and upgrading the system, which can add to the operational overhead.
  • Learning Curve
    Organizations may encounter a steep learning curve when adopting Apache Pinot, especially if team members are not familiar with its architecture and operational procedures.
  • Limited Use Cases
    While Pinot is powerful for real-time analytics, it may not be the best choice for transactional or general-purpose database use cases, limiting its applicability in certain scenarios.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Pinot efficiently requires a significant amount of computational resources, which might be a concern for organizations with limited infrastructure or budget.

Snowflake features and specs

  • Scalability
    Snowflake offers virtually unlimited scalability. It separates compute and storage, so both can scale independently according to the needs of the workload.
  • Performance
    Snowflake's architecture is optimized for performance, offering automatic clustering and parallel processing which enable faster query execution.
  • Ease of Use
    The platform provides a user-friendly interface and automates many maintenance tasks, such as indexing and partitioning, making it easier for both data engineers and analysts to use.
  • Data Sharing
    Snowflake enables seamless data sharing among different accounts without the need to duplicate data, improving collaboration and data management.
  • Security
    Snowflake includes comprehensive security features such as end-to-end encryption, role-based access control, and VPC/VPN network policies.
  • Multi-Cloud Support
    Snowflake supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, giving organizations flexibility in choosing their infrastructure.

Possible disadvantages of Snowflake

  • Cost
    While powerful, Snowflake can become expensive, especially if not managed properly, due to its pay-as-you-go pricing model.
  • Vendor Lock-In
    Once an organization is deeply integrated with Snowflake, switching to another solution can be complex and costly, contributing to vendor lock-in.
  • Learning Curve
    Though easier than many traditional databases, there is still a learning curve associated with mastering Snowflakeโ€™s unique architecture and features.
  • Third-Party Ecosystem
    While Snowflake integrates well with many third-party tools, it may not support all the tools and services you are currently using, requiring additional effort for integration.
  • Network Performance
    Snowflake's performance can be impacted by network latency, especially if large datasets are being transferred over the internet between Snowflake and on-premises systems.

Analysis of Snowflake

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Snowflake is considered a good solution for businesses looking for a modern data warehousing solution that is easy to use, requires minimal infrastructure management, and provides strong performance for big data analytics.

Why this product is good

  • Snowflake is a cloud-based data warehousing platform known for its scalability, flexibility, and speed. It offers a unique architecture that separates storage and computing, allowing for on-demand scaling and efficient data management. Its support for structured and semi-structured data, along with a wide range of integrations and robust security features, makes it a popular choice for many organizations.

Recommended for

  • Organizations with large and diverse datasets that require scalable storage and computing solutions.
  • Data-driven companies looking for a platform that supports real-time analytics and machine learning workloads.
  • Businesses seeking a cost-effective solution with pay-as-you-go pricing and minimal infrastructure overhead.
  • Enterprises needing to integrate data from various sources, including cloud services, IoT devices, and relational databases.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Pinot and Snowflake)
Databases
48 48%
52% 52
Big Data
17 17%
83% 83
Data Warehousing
9 9%
91% 91
Data Dashboard
12 12%
88% 88

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apache Pinot and Snowflake

Apache Pinot Reviews

Rockset, ClickHouse, Apache Druid, or Apache Pinot? Which is the best database for customer-facing analytics?
The biggest value behind Apache Pinot is that you can index each column, which allows it to process data at a super fast speed. โ€œItโ€™s like taking a pivot table and saving it to disk. So you can get this highly dimensional data with pre-computed aggregations and pull those out in what seems like supernaturally fast time,โ€ says Tim Berglund, Developer Relations at StarTree....
Source: embeddable.com

Snowflake Reviews

Top 6 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
Snowflake accommodates data analysts of all levels since it does not use Python or R programming language. It is also well known for its secure and compressed storage for semi-structured data. Besides this, it allows you to spin multiple virtual warehouses based on your needs while parallelizing and isolating individual queries boosting their performance. You can interact...
Source: geekflare.com
Top 5 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
Snowflake is one of the most popular data warehousing solutions on the market and delivers an incredible experience across multiple public clouds. By using Snowflake, companies can pull data from various business intelligence tools to do reporting and analytics without any database administration, thus avoiding high overhead costs. Unlike other data warehousing services,...
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
Plus, Snowflake doesnโ€™t include data integrations, so teams will have to bolt on an ETL tool to pipe their data into the warehouse. Those third-party pipelines add extra cost and overhead in the form of setup and maintenance that some teams may not want to absorb.
Source: blog.panoply.io
Top Big Data Tools For 2021
This platform can be used for data warehousing, data science, data engineering, sharing, and application development. It enables you to easily secure your data and execute various analytic workloads. Snowflake also ensures a seamless experience when working with multiple public clouds.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Snowflake seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 4 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Pinot mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Apache Pinot yet. Tracking of Apache Pinot recommendations started around May 2025.

Snowflake mentions (4)

  • DeWitt Clause, or Can You Benchmark %DATABASE% and Get Away With It
    Snowflake, a data warehousing company founded by ex-Oracle and ex-VectorWise experts, responded with a blog post that critically reviewed Databricks' findings, reported different results for the same benchmark, and claimed comparable price/performance to Databricks. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Personal Support at Internet Scale
    Snowflake: Snowflake is fast, and works well as a product analytics database. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • Less than 1TB of data what tools should I get better at?
    If you just go to snowflake.com you can sign up for a demo account for free for a month and I'm fairly certain you can get more than one of these accounts (I would recycle emails doing it all the time.) Once you have an account there's lots of docs and videos out there either using the Database via their UI or via python using their connector. They also have a pyspark connector but you might want to just learn... Source: about 4 years ago
  • *BOMATO*
    Early stage funding & VCs clearly demarcate between tech companies and tech enabled companies. But, once the PE comes into the picture at the scale of BlackStone, the border between doordash.com and snowflake.com starts to blur. The motivation is to make some bucks by going to IPO and they know how to get it done. Source: about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Pinot and Snowflake, you can also consider the following products

ClickHouse - ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database management system that allows generating analytical data reports in real time.

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

Hashquery - A Python framework for defining and querying BI models in your data warehouse.

Databricks - Databricks provides a Unified Analytics Platform that accelerates innovation by unifying data science, engineering and business.โ€ŽWhat is Apache Spark?

ViyaDB - In-Memory Analytical Database

Qubole - Qubole delivers a self-service platform for big aata analytics built on Amazon, Microsoft and Google Clouds.