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AWS Lake Formation vs Snowflake Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

AWS Lake Formation
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Snowflake Analytics
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
10th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of AWS Lake Formation is 4.7%, down from 5.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Snowflake Analytics is 2.5%, up from 0.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
AWS Lake Formation4.7%
Snowflake Analytics2.5%
Other92.8%
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

Ciro Baldim Guerra - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
Garima Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Principal Engineer at Nagarro
Have created secure cloud-based data lakes and improved real-time data processing using integrated AI features
There are many capabilities which Snowflake Analytics offers that I find valuable, such as the storage and compute engine that allows working with any cloud system such as AWS or Azure, alongside its efficiencies in storage computation and cost-effectiveness, which saves money compared to on-premise systems. We also have features such as pre-cached results, Time Travel, and fail-safe, which are very useful for restoring data if deleted accidentally, and the streams and data pipes that facilitate real-time ingestion are great features as well. Snowflake Analytics offers multiple new connectors, allowing me to connect it with Kafka, and with Snowpark, I can work with any programming language such as Python, Java, or Scala for data processing and analysis. The data sharing feature offered by Snowflake Analytics is good because it allows sharing specific sets of data to end customers or users from different Snowflake Analytics accounts without exposing the entire dataset for data security reasons. Snowflake Analytics' support for machine learning models and real-time insights has enhanced significantly. Originally, it wasn't strong in AI/ML, but now it has multiple models and forecasting capabilities, providing good competition to tools such as Databricks and Spark. In BI, I have worked majorly with Microsoft Power BI, and the integration with Snowflake Analytics is very easy. The way we integrate Snowflake Analytics with other on-premise systems just requires the warehouse details, username, passwords, and the account name, along with multiple options such as client ID and credentials for logging in and creating a session. The end-to-end encryption provided by Snowflake Analytics is very important because, in my previous firm, working in finance and investment management, data encryption is necessary due to the sensitive nature of customer data and the involvement of people's money. It's crucial to have encryption in transit and at rest, along with data masking features which Snowflake Analytics offers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is quite good at handling analytics. It's done a good job at helping us centralize them."
"AWS Lake Formation works hand in hand with other products."
"A favorite feature of AWS Lake Formation is that it provides us with visibility into who has access to a particular table or database in Glue."
"We use this to reduce latency from minutes to seconds, as we aim for real-time visibility into patient healthcare monitoring."
"AWS Lake Formation significantly improves the structure of the data mesh, making it superior to previous structures we used."
"I can easily move data from cold storage to regular storage."
"We have observed measurable benefits in terms of cost savings, time savings, resource savings, and efficiency improvements in our workflows."
"AWS Lake Formation lets you see all your data and tables on one screen."
"The solution auto-scales and it provides concurrency."
"One of the valuable features is the solution’s time travel capability. The solution is highly stable. The solution is highly scalable. The initial setup is straightforward, and the deployment process is quick and efficient. I recommend the solution. Overall, I rate it a perfect ten."
"It's cloud-based technology, so users can spin it up a lot faster"
"Its structure aids in storing, managing, and analyzing large datasets in the cloud, using various relationships like one-to-one and many-to-one, ensuring consistency in the data structure."
"One of the distinctive features of Snowflake is its ability to handle large datasets efficiently."
"The latest interface of Snowsight UI has added good capabilities and the interface is excellent."
"It's a scalable solution because you can analyze a huge amount of data in the solution."
"The platform not only provides ease of use but also stands out for its speedy execution, conveying a sense of robustness and reliability that I find appealing."
 

Cons

"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."
"I think AWS Lake Formation could improve by enforcing the least privilege by design, moving from ad hoc grants to role-based access controls."
"In our experience what could be improved are not the support, performance or monitoring, but at a managerial level, the very expensive professional services of AWS. This could be an area of improvement for them. It's too expensive to acquire their support."
"If I could improve AWS Lake Formation, I would add more integrations with SageMaker."
"You need to have data experience to use the product."
"I would appreciate online support, which I don't have access to in my corporation at the bank, so that is important."
"Despite following official documentation, configuration problems persisted, requiring weeks of support from multiple AWS engineers to resolve."
"It falls short when it comes to more granular access control, such as cell-level or row-level entitlements which is a significant drawback for organizations that require precise control over who can access specific rows of data."
"Improvements are needed in importing and exporting large datasets to and from reporting tools."
"The UI could be more user-friendly."
"A room for improvement in Snowflake Analytics is Spark, particularly its connector for Spark. An additional feature I'd like to see in the next release of the solution is built-in analytics."
"Navigating the user console can be challenging, particularly when looking for details like the account ID."
"When we insert data into a large table, it takes a lot of time."
"However, if it offered flexibility similar to Oracle and supported more heterogeneous data sources and database connectivity, it would be even better."
"I don't see many drawbacks with Snowflake Analytics, but it's not as mature as other tools. It is evolving and needs to integrate various features, like data loading and analytics, better. These components are not fully connected, so the tool should become a more integrated application."
"One area that could benefit from enhancement is the user interface for more visual ESM features."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"AWS Lake Formation is a bit expensive."
"The solution's price is high and I would rate it an eight out of ten."
"The product's pricing is subjective."
"I have been using free trial version."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price, I rate the pricing a seven. The solution's pricing is high."
"It is not overly expensive. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"The pricing is on the higher side."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
"The cost of Snowflake Analytics is low, any small organization can use it."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
23%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Computer Software Company
13%
Marketing Services Firm
9%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise15
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business11
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise20
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake Analytics?
Snowflake Analytics is quite economical. It does not appear to incur significant extra expenses beyond the solution's initial cost. However, a complete pricing analysis is still in progress.
What needs improvement with Snowflake Analytics?
In my opinion, Snowflake Analytics can be improved by introducing more features, such as additional integration options. I remember using Snowflake Pro, which allows exporting direct data into the ...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday
Lionsgate, Adobe, Sony, Capital One, Akamai, Deliveroo, Snagajob, Logitech, University of Notre Dame, Runkeeper
Find out what your peers are saying about AWS Lake Formation vs. Snowflake Analytics and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,797 professionals have used our research since 2012.