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Snowplow VS Google BigQuery

Compare Snowplow VS Google BigQuery and see what are their differences

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Snowplow logo Snowplow

Snowplow is an enterprise-strength event analytics platform.

Google BigQuery logo Google BigQuery

A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.
  • Snowplow Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-05

Our Mission is to empower data teams to build a strategic data capability that delivers high-quality, complete, and relevant data across the business. Our users and customers use Snowplow for numerous use cases – from web and mobile analytics to advanced analytics and the production of AI & ML ready data, whilst maintaining data privacy compliance. Our customers reflect the diversity of use cases that Snowplow solves and includes Strava, The Wall Street Journal, CapitalOne, WeTransfer, Nordstrom, DataDog, Auto Trader, GitLab and many more.

  • Google BigQuery Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-03

Snowplow features and specs

  • Data Ownership
    Snowplow allows organizations to own their data end-to-end, providing more control over data collection, storage, and usage compared to third-party analytics platforms.
  • Flexibility
    The platform offers a high degree of customization, allowing businesses to track custom events and define their own data structures, which is ideal for complex or unique data needs.
  • Real-time Analytics
    Snowplow supports real-time data processing, which enables organizations to make swift, data-driven decisions and insights.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source solution, Snowplow can be adopted without licensing costs, and there is a community for support and continuous development.
  • Cross-Platform Tracking
    Snowplow allows for tracking across multiple platforms and devices, providing a unified view of the customer journey.
  • Data Enrichment
    The solution offers capabilities to enrich event data with additional context such as geo-location or user session data, adding more value to raw data.

Possible disadvantages of Snowplow

  • Complex Setup
    Setting up Snowplow requires significant technical expertise, including infrastructure management, which may be a barrier for smaller teams or companies without specialized resources.
  • Maintenance Effort
    Ongoing maintenance and updates to the Snowplow setup can be labor-intensive, requiring continuous monitoring and management.
  • Infrastructure Costs
    While Snowplow itself is open source, the infrastructure required to run it (e.g., servers, databases, data storage) can be costly.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its flexibility and customization options, there is a steep learning curve for new users, which may delay the onboarding process.
  • Data Privacy Responsibility
    Since organizations own their data, they are also fully responsible for compliance with data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR), necessitating additional efforts in data governance.

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.

Analysis of Snowplow

Overall verdict

  • Snowplow is a robust and flexible data collection platform that is well-suited for organizations looking for a customizable and scalable analytics solution. Its open-source nature and comprehensive feature set make it a strong contender in the analytics space.

Why this product is good

  • Snowplow Analytics is considered a good choice due to its ability to offer highly customizable and granular data collection, which allows businesses to gather and analyze data tailored to their specific needs. It provides real-time event tracking, offers a wide range of integration options, and supports multiple programming languages and third-party services. Additionally, it is open-source, giving users control over their data infrastructure and reducing dependency on third-party vendors.

Recommended for

    Snowplow is recommended for data-driven organizations, particularly those with technical expertise and resources to manage an open-source solution. It is suitable for businesses that require detailed tracking and analysis of customer journeys, complex data pipelines, and those seeking to integrate data across various platforms and touchpoints.

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

Snowplow videos

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What is Snowplow

Google BigQuery videos

+ Add

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Snowplow and Google BigQuery)

Snowplow

Google BigQuery

Analytics
100 100%
Analytics
0% 0
Data Dashboard
9 9%
Data Dashboard
91% 91
Web Analytics
100 100%
Web Analytics
0% 0
Big Data
0 0%
Big Data
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 Snowplow and Google BigQuery

Snowplow Reviews

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Google BigQuery Reviews

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 BigQuery’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 “heavy” queries that operate using a large set of data. This means it’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...
Source: www.shipyardapp.com
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
16 Top Big Data Analytics Tools You Should Know About
Google BigQuery is a fully-managed, serverless data warehouse that enables scalable analysis over petabytes of data. It is a Platform as a Service that supports querying using ANSI SQL. It also has built-in machine learning capabilities.
Source: www.analytixlabs.co.in

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Google BigQuery should be more popular than Snowplow. It has been mentiond 42 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.

Snowplow mentions (10)

  • Open-source data collection & modeling platform for product analytics
    We’ve also thought about Ops :-). There’s a backend 'Collector' that stores data in Postgres, for instance to use while developing locally, or if you want to get set up quickly. But there’s also full integration with Snowplow, which works seamlessly with an existing Snowplow setup as well. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • What are the different ways to collect large amounts of data, like millions of rows?
    Sure thing! Say you run an online store. Your source systems could be the inventory, orders or customer databases. You could also track click/site behavior with something like snowplow. An ERP system is essentially just a combination of what I mentioned previously. Another good example is a CRM such as Salesforce or Zendesk. Hopefully that helps! Source: almost 3 years ago
  • The Big Data Game – Because even a simple query can send you on an unexpected journey. Help the 8-bit data engineer to get the data
    Well if you have to structure and create Schema and manage Data Warehouses, you need a tool to do that, so in the background you see SnowPlow, which helps you do just that. Make the data into some kind of sensible structure so that later on business analysts can come see whats up. Want to do a quarterly report on how you performed, go to the application that goes to the data warehouse and builds your report for... Source: about 3 years ago
  • Reference Data Stack for Data-Driven Startups
    We also have telemetry set up on our Monosi product which is collected through Snowplow,. As with Airbyte, we chose Snowplow because of its open source offering and because of their scalable event ingestion framework. There are other open source options to consider including Jitsu and RudderStack or closed source options like Segment. Since we started building our product with just a CLI offering, we didn’t need a... - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Ask HN: Best alternatives to Google Analytics in 2021?
    Https://matomo.org That's the only full featured open source competitor I am aware of, so it should be mentioned. https://snowplowanalytics.com/ Somewhat FOSS. There was a story there, but I don't remember the details. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

Google BigQuery mentions (42)

  • Every Database Will Support Iceberg — Here's Why
    This isn’t hypothetical. It’s already happening. Snowflake supports reading and writing Iceberg. Databricks added Iceberg interoperability via Unity Catalog. Redshift and BigQuery are working toward it. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • RisingWave Turns Four: Our Journey Beyond Democratizing Stream Processing
    Many of these companies first tried achieving real-time results with batch systems like Snowflake or BigQuery. But they quickly found that even five-minute batch intervals weren't fast enough for today's event-driven needs. They turn to RisingWave for its simplicity, low operational burden, and easy integration with their existing PostgreSQL-based infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to Pitch Your Boss to Adopt Apache Iceberg?
    If your team is managing large volumes of historical data using platforms like Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, or Google BigQuery, you’ve probably noticed a shift happening in the data engineering world. A new generation of data infrastructure is forming — one that prioritizes openness, interoperability, and cost-efficiency. At the center of that shift is Apache Iceberg. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Study Notes 2.2.7: Managing Schedules and Backfills with BigQuery in Kestra
    BigQuery Documentation: Google Cloud BigQuery. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Docker vs. Kubernetes: Which Is Right for Your DevOps Pipeline?
    Pro Tip: Use Kubernetes operators to extend its functionality for specific cloud services like AWS RDS or GCP BigQuery. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

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

Google Analytics - Improve your website to increase conversions, improve the user experience, and make more money using Google Analytics. Measure, understand and quantify engagement on your site with customized and in-depth reports.

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

Glass Analytics - Google Analytics alternative that shows you exactly how visitors become customers.

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

Simple Analytics - The privacy-first Google Analytics alternative located in Europe.

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.

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