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Google BigQuery VS Python

Compare Google BigQuery VS Python and see what are their differences

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Google BigQuery logo Google BigQuery

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

Python logo Python

Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.
  • Google BigQuery Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03
  • Python Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17

Google BigQuery features and specs

  • Scalability
    BigQuery can effortlessly scale to handle large volumes of data due to its serverless architecture, thereby reducing the operational overhead of managing infrastructure.
  • Speed
    It leverages Google's infrastructure to provide high-speed data processing, making it possible to run complex queries on massive datasets in a matter of seconds.
  • Integrations
    BigQuery easily integrates with various Google Cloud Platform services, as well as other popular data tools like Looker, Tableau, and Power BI.
  • Automatic Optimization
    Features like automatic data partitioning and clustering help to optimize query performance without requiring manual tuning.
  • Security
    BigQuery provides robust security features including IAM roles, customer-managed encryption keys, and detailed audit logging.
  • Cost Efficiency
    The pricing model is based on the amount of data processed, which can be cost-effective for many use cases when compared to traditional data warehouses.
  • Managed Service
    Being fully managed, BigQuery takes care of database administration tasks such as scaling, backups, and patch management, allowing users to focus on their data and queries.

Possible disadvantages of Google BigQuery

  • Cost Predictability
    While the pay-per-use model can be cost-efficient, it can also make cost forecasting difficult. Unexpected large queries could lead to higher-than-anticipated costs.
  • Complexity
    The learning curve can be steep for those who are not already familiar with SQL or Google Cloud Platform, potentially requiring training and education.
  • Limited Updates
    BigQuery is optimized for read-heavy operations, and it can be less efficient for scenarios that require frequent updates or deletions of data.
  • Query Pricing
    Costs are based on the amount of data processed by each query, which may not be suitable for use cases that require frequent analysis of large datasets.
  • Data Transfer Costs
    While internal data movement within Google Cloud can be cost-effective, transferring data to or from other services or on-premises systems can incur additional costs.
  • Dependency on Google Cloud
    Organizations heavily invested in multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud strategies may find the dependency on Google Cloud limiting.
  • Cold Data Performance
    Query performance might be slower for so-called 'cold data,' or data that has not been queried recently, affecting the responsiveness for some workloads.

Python features and specs

  • Easy to Learn
    Python syntax is clear and readable, which makes it an excellent choice for beginners and allows for quick learning and prototyping.
  • Versatile
    Python can be used for web development, data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, and more, making it a highly versatile programming language.
  • Large Standard Library
    Python comes with a comprehensive standard library that includes modules and packages for various tasks, reducing the need to write code from scratch.
  • Strong Community Support
    Python has a large and active community, which means a wealth of third-party packages, tutorials, and documentation is available for assistance.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Python is compatible with major operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux, allowing for easy development and deployment across different platforms.
  • Good for Rapid Development
    The high-level nature of Python allows for quick development cycles and fast iteration, which is ideal for startups and prototyping.

Possible disadvantages of Python

  • Performance Limitations
    Python is generally slower than compiled languages like C or Java because it is an interpreted language, which can be a drawback for performance-critical applications.
  • Global Interpreter Lock (GIL)
    The GIL in CPython, the most used Python interpreter, prevents multiple native threads from executing Python bytecodes at once, limiting multi-threading capabilities.
  • Memory Consumption
    Python can be more memory-intensive compared to some other languages, which might be a concern for applications with tight memory constraints.
  • Mobile Development
    Python is not a primary choice for mobile app development, where languages like Java, Swift, or Kotlin are more commonly used.
  • Runtime Errors
    Being a dynamically typed language, Python code can sometimes lead to runtime errors that would be caught at compile-time in statically typed languages.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies in Python projects can sometimes be complex and cumbersome, especially when dealing with conflicting versions of libraries.

Analysis of Google BigQuery

Overall verdict

  • Google BigQuery is a powerful and flexible data warehouse solution that suits a wide range of data analytics needs. Its ability to handle large volumes of data quickly makes it a preferred choice for organizations looking to leverage their data effectively.

Why this product is good

  • Google BigQuery is a fully-managed data warehouse that simplifies the analysis of large datasets. It is known for its scalability, speed, and integration with other Google Cloud services. It supports standard SQL, has built-in machine learning capabilities, and allows for seamless data integration from various sources. The serverless architecture means that users don't need to worry about infrastructure management, and its pay-as-you-go model provides cost efficiency.

Recommended for

  • Businesses requiring fast processing of large datasets
  • Organizations that already utilize Google Cloud services
  • Companies looking for a cost-effective, scalable analytics solution
  • Teams interested in using SQL for data analysis
  • Data scientists integrating machine learning with their data workflows

Google BigQuery videos

Cloud Dataprep Tutorial - Getting Started 101

More videos:

  • Review - Advanced Data Cleanup Techniques using Cloud Dataprep (Cloud Next '19)
  • Demo - Google Cloud Dataprep Premium product demo

Python videos

Creator of Python Programming Language, Guido van Rossum | Oxford Union

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google BigQuery and Python)
Data Dashboard
100 100%
0% 0
Programming Language
0 0%
100% 100
Big Data
100 100%
0% 0
OOP
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google BigQuery and Python

Google BigQuery Reviews

Database for Data Analytics
Processing typeDescriptionUse casesCommon databasesProcessing typesProcesses data in scheduled intervals (hours, days). High-latency but cost-efficient for large datasets.Financial reporting, trend analysis, historical analyticsSnowflake, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQueryContinuously ingests and processes data with minimal latency for real-time decision-making.Fraud...
Source: blog.devart.com
Data Warehouse Tools
Google BigQuery: Similar to Snowflake, BigQuery offers a pay-per-use model with separate charges for storage and queries. Storage costs start around $0.01 per GB per month, while on-demand queries are billed at $5 per TB processed.
Source: peliqan.io
Top 6 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
You can also use BigQueryโ€™s columnar and ANSI SQL databases to analyze petabytes of data at a fast speed. Its capabilities extend enough to accommodate spatial analysis using SQL and BigQuery GIS. Also, you can quickly create and run machine learning (ML) models on semi or large-scale structured data using simple SQL and BigQuery ML. Also, enjoy a real-time interactive...
Source: geekflare.com
Top 5 Cloud Data Warehouses in 2023
Google BigQuery is an incredible platform for enterprises that want to run complex analytical queries or โ€œheavyโ€ queries that operate using a large set of data. This means itโ€™s not ideal for running queries that are doing simple filtering or aggregation. So if your cloud data warehousing needs lightning-fast performance on a big set of data, Google BigQuery might be a great...
Top 5 BigQuery Alternatives: A Challenge of Complexity
BigQuery's emergence as an attractive analytics and data warehouse platform was a significant win, helping to drive a 45% increase in Google Cloud revenue in the last quarter. The company plans to maintain this momentum by focusing on a multi-cloud future where BigQuery advances the cause of democratized analytics.
Source: blog.panoply.io

Python Reviews

Pine Script Alternatives: A Comprehensive Guide to Trading Indicator Languages
Technical analysis in trading has come a long way, with various programming languages emerging to support traders in developing custom indicators. While Pine Script has been a popular choice for many, alternatives like Indie, ThinkScript, NinjaScript, MetaQuotes Language (MQL), and even general-purpose languages like Python and C++ are gaining traction. Letโ€™s explore these...
Source: medium.com
Top 5 Most Liked and Hated Programming Languages of 2022
No wonder Python is one of the easiest programming languages to work upon. This general-purpose programming language finds immense usage in the field of web development, machine learning applications, as well as cutting-edge technology in the software industry. The fact that Python is used by major tech giants such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc. is good enough proof as to...
Top 10 Rust Alternatives
This programming langue is typed statically and operates on a complied system. It works based on several computing languages Python, Ada, and Modula.
15 data science tools to consider using in 2021
Python is the most widely used programming language for data science and machine learning and one of the most popular languages overall. The Python open source project's website describes it as "an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics," as well as built-in data structures and dynamic typing and binding capabilities. The site...
The 10 Best Programming Languages to Learn Today
Python's variety of applications make it a powerful and versatile language for different use cases. Python-based web development frameworks like Django and Flask are gaining popularity fast. It's also equipped with quality machine learning and data analysis tools like Scikit-learn and Pandas.
Source: ict.gov.ge

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Python should be more popular than Google BigQuery. It has been mentiond 299 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.

Google BigQuery mentions (47)

  • Ruby on Rails Performance: 7 Lessons from Scaling FirstPromoter
    We migrated the analytics layer to Google BigQuery. Same queries that timed out in PostgreSQL now run in under 2 seconds. But not everything belongs in BigQuery โ€” we initially moved too aggressively and actually reverted some queries back when the added complexity wasn't justified. Our rule of thumb: if a query scans hundreds of thousands of rows or involves complex time-series aggregations, BigQuery. Everything... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to Analyze 47 Million Hacker News Posts: A Data Scientist's Dream Dataset Just Got Better
    Google BigQuery - For large-scale data processing and SQL-based analysis. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • What if ML pipelines had a lock file?
    Data Pipelines usually read from tables that change over time. Most of these tables are stored in a data warehouse like Amazon Redshift or Google BigQuery. Rows are added or removed. Backfills happen. A column gets renamed or its meaning changes. Even when teams snapshot data, those snapshots are often implicit, not recorded as part of the pipeline run itself. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Best SQL Courses with Certificates for 2026
    SQL endures because it's the non-negotiable interface for relational data. Enterprise data storage still relies heavily on relational databases despite new alternatives. What makes SQL valuable for learners is transferabilityโ€”while dialects differ across PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and BigQuery, the fundamentals stay consistent. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Why Your Snowflake Bill is High and How to Fix It with a Hybrid Approach
    Within classic cloud data warehouses, Google BigQuery presents a different pricing model. Its on-demand, per-terabyte-scanned pricing can be cost-effective for sporadic forensic queries. But it carries the risk of a runaway query where a single mistake leads to a massive bill. - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
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Python mentions (299)

  • How to Build a Dependency Map of a Legacy Codebase Using AI Tools
    137Foundry provides legacy modernization services that include dependency mapping as a foundational assessment phase. Prettier and ESLint are useful companion tools for enforcing code style consistency as the refactoring proceeds. Node.js and Python.org official documentation are authoritative references for understanding the import and module systems of those runtimes. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • How to Prepare a Legacy Codebase for AI-Assisted Refactoring
    For Python codebases, tools like Python's built-in ast module and import analysis scripts can generate call graphs. For JavaScript, ESLint and module analysis tools serve a similar purpose. GitHub advanced search can help you find all internal references to a specific function across a large repository. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Async Web Scraping in Python: asyncio + aiohttp + httpx (Complete 2026 Guide)
    Import asyncio Import aiohttp From bs4 import BeautifulSoup Async def scrape_and_parse(url: str, session: aiohttp.ClientSession) -> dict: async with session.get(url) as response: html = await response.text() # BeautifulSoup parsing happens after the await โ€” no issue soup = BeautifulSoup(html, "html.parser") return { "url": url, "title": soup.title.string if soup.title... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Don't Be Afraid of Git: A Beginner's Guide to Saving and Sharing
    **_Beginner mistake to avoid_** - Writing SQL only inside DBeaver - Always save SQL files in VS Code and commit them **Using PostgreSQL with Python** _**What Python does here**_ Python talks to PostgreSQL and says: - โ€œSave this dataโ€ - โ€œGet this dataโ€ - PostgreSQL listens. Python works. _**Step 1: Install Python **_ - Download from https://python.org - During install, check Add Python to PATH Screenshot... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Asyncio: Interview Questions and Practice Problems
    Import time Import requests Import asyncio Import aiohttp Urls = [ 'https://example.com', 'https://httpbin.org/get', 'https://python.org' ] # Synchronous version Def sync_fetch(): for url in urls: response = requests.get(url) print(f"{url} fetched with {len(response.text)} characters") # Async version Async def async_fetch(): async with aiohttp.ClientSession() as session: ... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google BigQuery and Python, you can also consider the following products

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

JavaScript - Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiencesโ€”so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

Java - A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible

Jupyter - Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for interactive computing across dozens of programming languages. Ready to get started? Try it in your browser Install the Notebook.

C++ - Has imperative, object-oriented and generic programming features, while also providing the facilities for low level memory manipulation