Amazon Athena vs Amazon OpenSearch Service comparison

Amazon Athena and Amazon OpenSearch Service are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Amazon Athena is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.0, while Amazon OpenSearch Service is ranked #2 with an average rating of 7.4. Amazon Athena holds a 7.3% mindshare in SS, compared to Amazon OpenSearch Service’s 5.4% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Amazon Athena users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Amazon OpenSearch Service users who would recommend it.

Amazon Athena

Read 5 Amazon Athena reviews

941 Views
941 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Read 12 Amazon OpenSearch Service reviews

3,841 Views
845 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Amazon Athena

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Aug 11, 2025

Amazon Athena and Amazon OpenSearch Service operate in the analytics and search domains, respectively. Athena appears more cost-effective for ad-hoc queries, while OpenSearch offers additional value with its advanced features for search and log analytics.

Features: Amazon Athena features a serverless architecture, S3 integration for cost-effective large dataset queries, and compatibility with standard SQL. Amazon OpenSearch Service handles both structured and unstructured data, provides real-time analytics, and powerful full-text search capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Amazon Athena could enhance query optimization and expand capabilities beyond ad-hoc queries. It may also benefit from better integration with non-AWS data sources. Amazon OpenSearch Service might improve in simplifying its deployment process. More intuitive management tools and reducing overhead costs could enhance its offering.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Athena offers a simple deployment model with easy S3 data repository integration and a serverless nature that minimizes setup complexity. Amazon OpenSearch Service requires a more managed deployment model given its intricate setup and broader feature set. Both tools provide robust customer service, but OpenSearch may need more technical support due to its complexity.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Athena charges based on data scanned during queries, offering a cost-effective solution for large volumes of transitory data. Amazon OpenSearch Service, though potentially higher in setup costs, can deliver ROI through advanced search and analytics features, making it valuable for specific use cases.

To learn more, read our detailed Search as a Service Report (Updated: July 2025).

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Search as a Service

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Athena

Ranking in Search as a Service

7th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Amazon OpenSearch Service

Ranking in Search as a Service

2nd

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Performance Monitoring (APM) and Observability (25th), Log Management (20th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon Athena is 7.3%, down from 14.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon OpenSearch Service is 5.4%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

Manilal Kasera

Senior Software Engineer at Tiger Analytics

A great AWS application that is easy to set up and simple to expand

If you compare it with Palantir, if you have some data and you want to quickly have a look at it, then that feature is not available in Amazon Cloud. We'd like it better if, for example, when you have some data, you can easily query it and you can easily read it at a glance. We'd like it to just be almost like a drag-and-drop situation. In Amazon Cloud, you actually have first to upload the data into S3. For that, you have to create a bucket. Now you have to create a Glue service, which will get you the schema. Then that schema would create basically a database and a table. After that, you have to go to Athena to query the data. It's a three-step process in Amazon Cloud. In Palantir, you just have to drag and drop.

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Johnny Suleiman

MS AWS expert at Bespin Global MEA, an e& enterprise Company

Scalability is a key feature as it allows easy scaling of the platform without downtime

OpenSearch is used as a search engine for specific logs, mainly in e-commerce and monitoring the logs themselves. It is very valuable for e-commerce, enabling data analysis on application logs and customer behavior, and can be integrated with other services, including AI and machine learning…

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's easy to set up the product."

"The solution is very easy to use and integrations are very smooth."

"Amazon Athena is very stable. I never had any issues with it. The dashboarding tool is okay."

"Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products."

"One of the most valuable features is the ability to partition your databases. I also like the federal query functionality, for cases when you have to query outside your S3 storage, or even completely outside of the AWS platform."

"The stability of the product is good."

"The business analytics capabilities are the most important feature it provides."

"The initial set up is very easy...We really appreciate Amazon!"

"I would definitely recommend Amazon OpenSearch Service to other professionals due to its fast and reliable search capabilities."

"Our customers have seen tangible benefits from Amazon OpenSearch Service, especially in terms of their applications running smoothly, so they do get a return on investment."

"This service already sorts data like vectors. They have classified the storage pre-defined."

"The customer service is excellent, rated nine out of ten."

"It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs."

More Amazon OpenSearch Service pros

Cons

"The solution should include a better API for query services."

"If you compare it with Palantir, if you have some data and you want to quickly have a look at it, then that feature is not available in Amazon Cloud."

"I think it would be better if the product were more mature. It's still a young product compared to Power BI or Qlik. I find that development is a bit difficult, but it might be because I'm used to other tools. The dashboarding capabilities could be better. The reporting and statement generation could be better. I couldn't technically initiate picture-perfect reporting, for example, to send out statements every month for banking customers."

"You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud."

"One improvement I can suggest is that Athena needs to work better with third-parties. For example, the process of querying a Microsoft SQL warehouse could be improved."

"One glaring issue was with our mapping configuration as the system accepted the data we posted, but after a few months, when we attempted complex queries, we realized the date formatting had become problematic."

"The price is fair yet leans towards the expensive side. I'd rate it five out of ten with respect to capabilities vs. cost."

"I want to see a new feature in Amazon Elasticsearch Service that allows users to create default filters for filtered levels."

"In terms of data handling capabilities with Amazon OpenSearch Service, they can be complex and managing data in comparison to other SIM solutions is a major drawback, as it is very hard to handle the data."

"One improvement I would like to see is support for auto-scaling."

"There is a problem with the database. Amazon only provides the hosting to run our applications bias, but there is no option to manage the database within the Elasticsearch product."

"The configuration should be more straightforward because we had to select a lot of things."

More Amazon OpenSearch Service cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am happy with what they are charging and how they charge it, especially because they charge you per query, and not per series."

"Athena is very inexpensive for being a cloud tool."

"The solution operates on a serverless model so you only pay for data that you consume."

"It doesn't cost much if you are already part of the AWS ecosystem."

"Compared to other cloud platforms, it is manageable and not very expensive."

"You only pay for what you use."

"The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say."

"There is a community edition available and the price of the commercial offering is reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

16%

Government

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

16%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Athena?

Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Athena?

Athena is very inexpensive for being a cloud tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Athena?

You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud.

See all answers

What do you like most about Amazon OpenSearch Service?

We retrieve historical data with just a click of a button to move it from cold to hot or warm because it's already stored in the backend storage

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon OpenSearch Service?

I would consider the pricing as a six based on how much data we are handling; if we handle minimal data, it's cheap, but for large data, it becomes costly. Our clients usually pay between $1,000 to...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon OpenSearch Service?

In terms of data handling capabilities with Amazon OpenSearch Service, they can be complex and managing data in comparison to other SIM solutions is a major drawback, as it is very hard to handle t...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Amazon Athena

Compared 10% of the time

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Grafana Loki vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 26% of the time

Datadog vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 13% of the time

Amazon CloudWatch vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 11% of the time

Dynatrace vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 5% of the time

Wazuh vs Amazon OpenSearch Service

Compared 4% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

July 2025

Download Amazon Athena product report

Buyer's Guide

Amazon OpenSearch Service

August 2025

Download Amazon OpenSearch Service product report

Also Known As

No data available

Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Overview

Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon OpenSearch Service provides scalable and reliable search capabilities with efficient data processing, supporting easy domain configuration and integration with numerous systems for enhanced performance.

Amazon OpenSearch Service offers advanced features for handling JSON, diverse search grammars, quick historical data retrieval, and ultra-warm storage. It also includes customizable dashboards and seamless tool integration for large enterprises. With its managed infrastructure, OpenSearch Service supports efficient system analysis and business analytics, improving overall performance and flexibility. Despite these features, areas like configuration complexity, lack of auto-scaling, and integration with Kibana require attention. Users seek enhanced documentation, better pricing options, and more flexible data handling. Desired improvements include default filters, mapping configuration, and alerting capabilities. Enhanced data visualization and Compute Optimizer Service integration are also recommended for future updates.

What features define Amazon OpenSearch Service?

Scalable Search: Offers reliable search capabilities across vast datasets.
JSON Handling: Supports efficient management of JSON data.
Ultra-warm Storage: Enables cost-effective historical data retrieval.
Dashboard Customization: Supports tool integration and tailored visuals.
System Upgrades: Allows for seamless infrastructure upgrades.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Performance Enhancement: Significant improvement in search and data retrieval.
Cost-Effectiveness: Provides a cloud-native solution optimized for AWS environments.
Comprehensive Analytics: Delivers detailed insights for business applications.

Amazon OpenSearch Service is utilized in various industries for log management, data storage, and search capabilities. It supports infrastructure and embedded management, analyzing logs from AWS Lambda, Kubernetes, and other services. Companies use it for application debugging, monitoring security and performance, and customer behavior analysis, integrating it with tools like DynamoDB and Snowflake for a cost-effective solution.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday

VIDCOIN, Wyng, Yellow New Zealand, zipMoney, Cimri, Siemens, Unbabel

Find out what your peers are saying about Elastic, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Algolia and others in Search as a Service. Updated: July 2025.

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