AWS Lake Formation vs Apache Hadoop comparison

Apache and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are both solutions in the Cloud Data Warehouse category. Additionally, 89% of Apache users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users who would recommend it.

Apache Hadoop

Read 41 Apache Hadoop reviews

2,310 Views
1,409 Comparison Views

89% willing to recommend

AWS Lake Formation

Read 21 AWS Lake Formation reviews

1,610 Views
1,385 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Apache Hadoop

AWS Lake Formation

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between AWS Lake Formation and Apache Hadoop based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Data Warehouse solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Lake Formation vs. Apache Hadoop Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation vs. Apache Hadoop

March 2026

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Helped 884,873 peers since 2012

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

Apache Hadoop

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Warehouse (7th)

AWS Lake Formation

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Data Warehouse (8th)

Featured Reviews

Nick Rapoport

Financial Advisor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Reliable performance maintained but requires ongoing management and support

Hadoop was used for years, but there were problems since the people who originally set it up left the firm. The group that owned it later didn't have the technical resources to properly maintain it. Although there was nothing wrong with Hadoop itself, issues arose without proper management and upgrades.

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Ciro Baldim Guerra

Sr Analytics Engineer at Itau Unibanco S.A.

Has improved data governance by enabling clear ownership and structured access across teams

In my company, Itaú, we don't utilize all AWS offerings due to rigorous security measures. We operate approximately six to eight months behind other available services. I'm uncertain if gaps exist because of this limitation, though the system functions effectively for us. AWS Lake Formation offers column-level access control for databases, but we haven't implemented this feature either because it hasn't been approved by our compliance, governance, or security areas. In our current setup, everyone from my business unit uses the same consumer account. When access is requested for a table, everyone using that business unit account receives access. This could present a security concern, though it benefits new team members who automatically receive all necessary access permissions. However, I struggle to identify specific improvements needed in AWS Lake Formation.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the database."

"The most valuable features are the ability to process the machine data at a high speed, and to add structure to our data so that we can generate relevant analytics."

"It's open-source, so it's very cost-effective."

"The performance is pretty good."

"The tool's stability is good."

"The best thing about this solution is that it is very powerful and very cheap."

"Apache Hadoop helps us in cases of hardware failure because it works 24/7, and sometimes servers crash in the field."

"It is a file system for data collection. There are nodes in this cluster that contain all the information, directories, and other files. The nodes are based on the MySQL database."

More Apache Hadoop pros

"We use AWS Lake Formation typically for the data warehouse."

"In the shortest form, what I appreciated about AWS Lake Formation was that the schema definition and data cataloging were quite good."

"We use this to reduce latency from minutes to seconds, as we aim for real-time visibility into patient healthcare monitoring."

"The most valuable features of AWS Lake Formation were the access model itself, as it allows implementation of filters, Blueprints, and row-level and column-level security to mask data that shouldn't be accessed by certain entities, enabling granular control without exposing PII data."

"AWS Lake Formation lets you see all your data and tables on one screen."

"We have observed measurable benefits in terms of cost savings, time savings, resource savings, and efficiency improvements in our workflows."

"The main benefits that I have seen from using AWS Lake Formation are related to FinOps because you have control of your data and can track your costs since AWS Lake Formation is integrated into a unique platform, which is AWS Cloud Service."

"AWS Lake Formation has several valuable features that enhance data management, and one particularly beneficial aspect is how it facilitates better collaboration within data teams."

More AWS Lake Formation pros

Cons

"Hadoop's security could be better."

"In the next release, I would like to see Hive more responsive for smaller queries and to reduce the latency."

"It could be more user-friendly."

"The stability of the solution needs improvement."

"The solution needs a better tutorial. There are only documents available currently. There's a lot of YouTube videos available. However, in terms of learning, we didn't have great success trying to learn that way. There needs to be better self-paced learning."

"The load optimization capabilities of the product are an area of concern where improvements are required."

"The main thing is the lack of community support. If you want to implement a new API or create a new file system, you won't find easy support."

"It would be good to have more advanced analytics tools."

More Apache Hadoop cons

"Rather than creating an additional hundred tools, optimizing a tool to have a centralized location to do governance would be beneficial."

"For the end-users, it's not as user-friendly as it could be."

"Athena can be a bit clunky when writing queries, indicating a potential enhancement point for easier user interaction with query tools such as DataGrip using provided driver JARs."

"Lake Formation could enhance its capabilities in audit logs, real-time monitoring, and advanced data governance."

"The main challenge we faced with AWS Lake Formation was related to cross-account sharing. Granting access to other AWS accounts for tables or databases in a different AWS account was somewhat difficult."

"In our current setup, everyone from my business unit uses the same consumer account. When access is requested for a table, everyone using that business unit account receives access. This could present a security concern, though it benefits new team members who automatically receive all necessary access permissions."

"I would appreciate online support, which I don't have access to in my corporation at the bank, so that is important."

"The solution could make improvements around orchestration and doing some automation stuff on AWS front automation. It would be useful if we could use automation to build images and use hardened images which are CIS compliant."

More AWS Lake Formation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We just use the free version."

"This is a low cost and powerful solution."

"It's reasonable, but there's room for improvement in cost-effectiveness."

"We don't directly pay for it. Our clients pay for it, and they usually don't complain about the price. So, it is probably acceptable."

"If my company can use the cloud version of Apache Hadoop, particularly the cloud storage feature, it would be easier and would cost less because an on-premises deployment has a higher cost during storage, for example, though I don't know exactly how much Apache Hadoop costs."

"Do take into consider that data storage and compute capacity scale differently and hence purchasing a "boxed" / 'all-in-one" solution (software and hardware) might not be the best idea."

"The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level."

"The price could be better. Hortonworks no longer exists, and Cloudera killed the free version of Hadoop."

More Apache Hadoop pricing and cost advice

"AWS Lake Formation is a bit expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

31%

Computer Software Company

Government

University

Financial Services Firm

23%

Manufacturing Company

Retailer

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	14
Midsize Enterprise	8
Large Enterprise	21

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	15

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Apache Hadoop?

It's primarily open source. You can handle huge data volumes and create your own views, workflows, and tables. I can also use it for real-time data streaming.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Apache Hadoop?

The product is open-source, but some associated licensing fees depend on the subscription level. While it might be free for students, organizations typically need to pay for their subscriptions. Th...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Apache Hadoop?

The problem with Apache Hadoop arose when the guys that originally set it up left the firm, and the group that later owned it didn't have enough technical resources to properly maintain it. This wa...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for AWS Lake Formation?

I don't understand much about the pricing of AWS Lake Formation, but I know how to search for the cost of Glue jobs, and I use the calculator in Amazon. I use a tool to preview the cost based on th...

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What needs improvement with AWS Lake Formation?

Regarding areas of AWS Lake Formation that could be improved or enhanced, I prefer not to answer, mainly because I do not believe that I would be the most valuable person to ask, as I have not used...

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What is your primary use case for AWS Lake Formation?

My usual use cases for AWS Lake Formation involved securing and governing the data resources that we configured in AWS, but we did not use the analytics or machine learning capabilities specificall...

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Oracle Exadata vs Apache Hadoop

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Compared 14% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 13% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 11% of the time

Oracle Exadata vs AWS Lake Formation

Compared 3% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Apache Hadoop

March 2026

Download Apache Hadoop product report

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation

March 2026

Download AWS Lake Formation product report

Overview

The Apache Hadoop project develops open-source software for reliable, scalable, distributed computing. The Apache Hadoop software library is a framework that allows for the distributed processing of large data sets across clusters of computers using simple programming models. It is designed to scale up from single servers to thousands of machines, each offering local computation and storage. Rather than rely on hardware to deliver high-availability, the library itself is designed to detect and handle failures at the application layer, so delivering a highly-available service on top of a cluster of computers, each of which may be prone to failures.

Apache

AWS Lake Formation is a service that makes it easy to set up a secure data lake in days. A data lake is a centralized, curated, and secured repository that stores all your data, both in its original form and prepared for analysis.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

Amazon, Adobe, eBay, Facebook, Google, Hulu, IBM, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Spotify, AOL, Twitter, University of Maryland, Yahoo!, Cornell University Web Lab

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

Buyer's Guide

AWS Lake Formation vs. Apache Hadoop

March 2026

Free Report: AWS Lake Formation vs. Apache Hadoop

Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Lake Formation vs. Apache Hadoop and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

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