BigQuery vs Azure Synapse Analytics

Last Updated:

Our analysts compared BigQuery vs Azure Synapse Analytics based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Big Data Analytics Tools, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Azure Synapse Analytics Software Tool

Product Basics

BigQuery, a cloud-based data warehouse offered by Google, provides businesses with a scalable and cost-effective solution for analyzing massive datasets. It eliminates the need for infrastructure management, allowing users to focus on extracting valuable insights from their data using familiar SQL and built-in machine learning capabilities. BigQuery's serverless architecture enables efficient scaling, allowing you to query terabytes of data in seconds and petabytes in minutes.

BigQuery is particularly well-suited for organizations dealing with large and complex datasets that require rapid analysis. Its ability to integrate data from various sources, including Google Cloud Platform and other cloud providers, makes it a versatile tool for businesses with diverse data landscapes. Key benefits include scalability, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. BigQuery offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model, allowing you to only pay for the resources you consume. You are billed based on the amount of data processed by your queries and the amount of data stored.

While BigQuery offers numerous advantages, it's important to consider factors such as your specific data analytics needs and budget when comparing it to similar products. User experiences with BigQuery have generally been positive, highlighting its speed, scalability, and ease of use. However, some users have noted that the pricing structure can become complex for highly demanding workloads.

read more...
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is a comprehensive cloud-based analytics service designed to empower organizations with robust data warehousing and data analytics capabilities. It seamlessly integrates data warehousing and big data analytics, enabling users to ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate business insights. Key features include scalable resources, real-time analytics, machine learning integration, and a collaborative workspace for data professionals. Azure Synapse Analytics offers benefits such as improved scalability, enhanced data security, and simplified data integration. It's particularly valuable for organizations looking to harness the power of data to make informed decisions and gain a competitive edge in today's data-driven landscape.
read more...
$6.25/TiB, Usage-Based
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
$1.25/Hour, Usage-Based
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Small 
i
Medium 
i
Large 
i
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Windows
Mac
Linux
Android
Chromebook
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile
Cloud
On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Forecast and Plan Ahead: Ingest large amounts of data quickly to strengthen forecasting and boost decision-making processes. 
  • Deliver Insights: Find discrepancies in data and act on them accordingly. 
  • Focus on Analytics and Not Infrastructure: Handles large volumes of data without putting strain on an organization’s IT resources. 
  • Provide a User-Friendly Environment: It’s user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users. High-level knowledge is not necessary to operate the software effectively. 
  • Speed Up Processes: Utilizes fast SQL databases to quickly and efficiently analyze terabytes worth of data. 
read more...
  • Scalability: Azure Synapse Analytics offers scalable data warehousing, allowing organizations to easily adjust resources to meet their specific needs. This scalability ensures optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
  • Unified Analytics: With Azure Synapse Analytics, users can seamlessly integrate data analytics and data warehousing. This unified approach simplifies data management, analytics, and reporting, leading to faster insights and smarter decision-making.
  • Advanced Security: Security is a top priority in Azure Synapse Analytics. It provides robust security features, including data encryption, authentication, and role-based access control, ensuring that sensitive data remains protected.
  • Data Integration: This platform offers powerful data integration capabilities, allowing users to easily ingest, transform, and load data from various sources. It supports a wide range of data formats and connectors, facilitating seamless data integration workflows.
  • Optimized Performance: Azure Synapse Analytics leverages intelligent caching and query optimization to deliver exceptional query performance. Users can run complex queries on large datasets quickly and efficiently.
  • Real-time Analytics: Organizations can harness real-time data analytics with Azure Synapse Analytics. It supports streaming data, enabling businesses to gain insights from live data streams and make timely decisions.
  • Cost Management: With cost controls and optimization features, Azure Synapse Analytics helps organizations manage their data warehouse expenses effectively. Users can pause and resume resources as needed to control costs.
  • Integration with Azure Ecosystem: Azure Synapse Analytics seamlessly integrates with other Azure services, such as Azure Data Lake Storage and Azure Machine Learning. This integration enables organizations to build end-to-end data solutions within the Azure ecosystem.
  • AI and Machine Learning: Leveraging Azure's AI and machine learning capabilities, Synapse Analytics allows users to build and deploy advanced analytics models, unlocking valuable insights from their data.
  • Global Reach: Azure Synapse Analytics is available in multiple Azure regions worldwide, providing global accessibility and low-latency data processing for organizations with international operations.
read more...
  • Machine Learning: Comes with machine learning modules that can perform mass-segmentation and recommendations in seconds. These modules can be built and trained within minutes without ingesting data for training. 
  • Cloud Hosted: Handles all the hardware provisioning, warehousing and hardware management from the cloud. 
  • Real-Time Analytics: Large volumes of business data are quickly analyzed and presented to the user to ensure that insights and data discrepancies can be immediately uncovered. 
  • Automated Backups: Data is automatically stored and backed up multiple times a day. Data histories can be easily restored to prevent loss and major changes. 
  • Big Data Ecosystem Integrations: Integrate with other big data products such as Hadoop, Spark and Beam. Data can be directly written from the system into these products. 
  • Data Governance: Features such as access management, filter views, encryption and more are included in the software. The product is compliant with data regulations such as the GDPR. 
read more...
  • Data Warehousing: Azure Synapse Analytics offers a robust data warehousing solution, allowing organizations to store and manage large volumes of structured and unstructured data efficiently.
  • Analytics Workspace: It provides an integrated analytics workspace for data engineers, data scientists, and analysts to collaborate, explore data, and build advanced analytics models.
  • On-Demand Query Processing: Users can run on-demand queries to extract insights from their data in real-time, without the need for predefined structures or complex ETL processes.
  • Data Integration: Synapse Analytics supports data integration from a variety of sources, enabling users to ingest, transform, and load data with ease.
  • Auto-scaling: The platform offers auto-scaling capabilities, automatically adjusting resources to handle varying workloads, ensuring optimal performance and cost-effectiveness.
  • Security and Compliance: Azure Synapse Analytics includes robust security features, such as encryption, authentication, and access control, to protect sensitive data and maintain compliance with industry regulations.
  • Intelligent Caching: It employs intelligent caching to speed up query performance, reducing latency and enhancing overall data processing efficiency.
  • Real-time Analytics: Users can analyze streaming data in real-time, enabling timely insights and the ability to respond to changing conditions swiftly.
  • Machine Learning Integration: Synapse Analytics seamlessly integrates with Azure Machine Learning, allowing organizations to build, train, and deploy machine learning models for advanced predictive analytics.
  • Collaborative Workspace: It provides a collaborative workspace for teams to collaborate on data projects, facilitating efficient data exploration and analysis.
  • Serverless SQL Pools: Azure Synapse Analytics offers serverless SQL pools, enabling users to query data stored in data lakes without the need for provisioning dedicated resources.
read more...

Product Ranking

#10

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

#40

among all
Big Data Analytics Tools

Find out who the leaders are

Analyst Rating Summary

we're gathering data
78
we're gathering data
54
we're gathering data
63
we're gathering data
93
Show More Show More

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

BigQuery
Azure Synapse Analytics
+ Add Product + Add Product
Augmented Analytics Computer Vision And Internet Of Things (IoT) Dashboarding And Data Visualization Data Management Data Preparation Geospatial Visualizations And Analysis Machine Learning Mobile Capabilities Platform Capabilities Reporting 54 63 93 93 78 75 0 57 0 25 50 75 100
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
4%
83%
13%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
13%
75%
12%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
88%
13%
-1%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
86%
0%
14%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
90%
10%
0%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
71%
14%
15%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
43%
53%
4%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
0%
0%
100%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
100%
0%
0%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
14%
71%
15%

Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
100%
0%
0%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
89%
0%
11%
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
we're gathering data
N/A
100%
0%
0%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 724 reviews
we're gathering data
90%
of users recommend this product

BigQuery has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 724 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

we're gathering data
4.4 (292)
n/a
4.6 (283)
n/a
4.4 (149)
n/a

Awards

BigQuery stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

we're gathering data

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Performance: The system can execute queries on massive amounts of data with agility, as specified by about 89% of users who mentioned performance.
Functionality: About 68% of users who reviewed functionality talked about its robust inbuilt features.
Ease of Use: The UI is simple and easy to navigate, according to about 72% of users who talked about user-friendliness.
Integration: Approximately 75% of reviewers who talked about integration said that it connects to numerous other tools seamlessly.
Scalability: All users who reviewed scalability said that the platform scales to thousands of servers.
Show more
Scalability: Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its ability to seamlessly scale resources to handle growing data volumes and complex workloads.
Integration: Users appreciate the tight integration with other Azure services, making it easy to build end-to-end data solutions within the Azure ecosystem.
Real-time Insights: The platform's support for real-time data analytics enables users to gain timely insights from streaming data sources, improving decision-making.
Data Security: Azure Synapse Analytics is lauded for its robust security features, including encryption and access controls, ensuring data privacy and compliance.
Data Integration: Users find it user-friendly for integrating data from various sources, simplifying data preparation and analysis.
Performance Optimization: The platform's query optimization and caching mechanisms enhance query performance, even with complex analytical workloads.
Collaboration: Its collaborative workspace fosters teamwork among data professionals, improving productivity and knowledge sharing.
Machine Learning Capabilities: Users appreciate the integration with Azure Machine Learning, allowing them to leverage AI and machine learning for advanced analytics.
Cost Management: Azure Synapse Analytics offers cost-control features that help users manage their data analytics expenses effectively, ensuring cost-efficiency.
Global Reach: Its availability in multiple Azure regions ensures global accessibility and low-latency data processing for organizations with international operations.
Show more
Cost: Approximately 76% of users who mentioned cost complained that it’s expensive, and charges can rack up quickly if queries aren’t properly constructed.
Learning Curve: About 82% of users mentioned that the software has a steep learning curve.
Resources: About 89% of users who spoke about resources said that documentation and video tutorials are lacking and need improvement.
Visualization: Data visualization capabilities aren’t up to the mark, according to all users who talked about visualization.
Show more
Cost Complexity: Some users find managing costs in Azure Synapse Analytics complex, as resource scaling and query optimization may require careful monitoring to avoid unexpected expenses.
Learning Curve: There's a learning curve associated with the platform, especially for users new to Azure services, which can slow down initial adoption and implementation.
Data Volume Challenges: Handling extremely large data volumes can be challenging and may require additional resources, impacting overall cost-effectiveness.
Integration Complexity: While Azure Synapse Analytics integrates well with Azure services, some users have reported challenges when integrating with external systems, which may require custom solutions.
Resource Scaling Time: Scaling resources up or down can take time, affecting immediate query performance during resource adjustments.
Storage Costs: Users have noted that storing data in Azure Data Lake Storage, a common practice, can add to overall costs that need to be carefully managed.
Complex Queries: Executing complex queries may lead to longer processing times and higher resource consumption, impacting query performance and costs.
Resource Provisioning: Some users have experienced challenges when provisioning resources, requiring careful planning and allocation.
Offline Work Limitations: Certain features may require an active internet connection, limiting offline work capabilities, which could be a drawback in specific scenarios.
Support: A few users have reported concerns about the level of support provided, particularly for resolving complex technical issues.
Show more

Bigquery is a scalable big data warehouse solution. It enables users to pull correlated data streams using SQL like queries. Queries are executed fast regardless of the size of the datasets. It manages the dynamic distribution of workloads across computational clusters. The easy-to-navigate UI is robust and allows the user to create and execute machine learning models seamlessly. Users liked that it can connect to a variety of data analytics and visualization tools. However, users complained that query optimization is an additional hassle they have to deal with, as the solution is expensive and poorly constructed queries can quickly accumulate charges. It can be overwhelming for the non-technical user, and SQL coding knowledge is required to leverage its data analysis capabilities. Data visualization features are lacking and in need of improvement.

Show more

User reviews for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics generally highlight its strengths in scalability, integration, and real-time analytics. Many users appreciate its ability to seamlessly scale resources and integrate with other Azure services, simplifying end-to-end data solutions. The support for real-time data analytics also receives positive feedback for enabling timely decision-making. However, some users note challenges associated with cost management, citing complexity in monitoring and controlling expenses. There's a learning curve for newcomers, which can slow down initial implementation. Handling large data volumes and complex queries may require extra resources and careful optimization. Integration with external systems can be complex, and resource scaling may impact query performance temporarily. In comparison to similar products, users find Azure Synapse Analytics competitive due to its tight integration within the Azure ecosystem and its machine learning capabilities. Despite some limitations, it is viewed favorably for its potential to deliver scalable, real-time insights and drive data-driven decision-making within organizations.

Show more

Screenshots

we're gathering data

Top Alternatives in Big Data Analytics Tools


Alteryx

Azure Synapse Analytics

Dataiku

H2O.ai

IBM Watson Studio

KNIME

Looker Studio

Oracle Analytics Cloud

Qlik Sense

RapidMiner

SageMaker

SAP Analytics Cloud

SAS Viya

Spotfire

Tableau

WE DISTILL IT INTO REAL REQUIREMENTS, COMPARISON REPORTS, PRICE GUIDES and more...

Compare products
Comparison Report
Just drag this link to the bookmark bar.
?
Table settings