I use this solution to create a proof of concept. I also create training for companies on Snowflake.
Director - Data Engineering expert at Sankir Technologies
Amazingly simple documentation, easy setup, and user-friendly
Pros and Cons
- "It is a very easy-to-use solution. It is user-friendly, and its setup time is very less."
- "They have a new console, but I couldn't figure out anything in the new console. So, if I shift to the old console, I can figure out where to create the database schema and other things, but I have no idea where to go in the new console. That's one thing they can improve. I don't know why they created a new console to confuse. The old, classic console is much better."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
It is a very easy-to-use solution. It is user-friendly, and its setup time is very less.
What needs improvement?
They have a new console, but I couldn't figure out anything in the new console. So, if I shift to the old console, I can figure out where to create the database schema and other things, but I have no idea where to go in the new console. That's one thing they can improve. I don't know why they created a new console to confuse. The old, classic console is much better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I started using Snowflake three months ago.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
It is so easy that I didn't have to look for technical support. Its documentation is amazingly simple.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use Databricks for proof of concept and training. I have used Databricks much longer than Snowflake. Both have their own pros and cons.
In terms of ease of use, UI, and setup time, Snowflake is good. I would rate Snowflake a nine out of 10 from these aspects. In terms of workload, Databricks has higher points. The underlying infrastructure is faster for Databricks, which is not the case with Snowflake. Snowflake is a cloud database. So, in terms of processing power, Databricks has an advantage over Snowflake. Databricks is more suitable for larger workloads, whereas, for a regular or typical data warehouse that you want to run on the cloud, Snowflake is more suitable.
How was the initial setup?
Its setup was easy. You can create a connection and be up and running within half an hour.
What about the implementation team?
I set it up myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I have not been billed yet, but it should be less. I'm still running the trial version, but it seems to be less than Databricks.
What other advice do I have?
You must try it out. It is a wonderful product. I would also recommend trying out other products, such as Yellowbrick, and doing a comparison. Redshift has also come up with some serverless options. BigQuery is also there. BigQuery is as easy as Snowflake. So, my recommendation or advice is to try out these things and then pick the one that suits you. I don't have any bias towards any of the products. I have an impartial opinion about all the cloud data warehousing products.
I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Sr. Solution Architect at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Great features with excellent virtual warehousing and good architecture
Pros and Cons
- "For us, the virtual warehousing is likely the most valuable aspect."
- "I would like to see a client version of the GUI."
What is our primary use case?
We're running a POC to test scalability, performance, on-demand resource management, workload management, et cetera. The security aspect will also be important for us.
What is most valuable?
The product offers a lot of great features.
Architectural-wise, it's got great architecture. That's what we are looking for. It's kind of decoupled from storage and has virtual warehouses. We like that we can travel and keep things virtual. For us, the virtual warehousing is likely the most valuable aspect. You can spin up as many virtual warehouses that you want. That's quite useful as a feature.
What needs improvement?
I haven't found that the solution is lacking any features. It's quite complete.
I would like to see a client version of the GUI. Right now, it is a web GUI, which has stored the SQL, the worksheets. We are asking for that from Snowflake. We'd like to understand how can we save these worksheets on our local desktop. That is not there at this point.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for about the past year as part of a POC.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past, we've used an SQL server. On the cloud side of it, we do have some experience. Snowflake, however, is the new data warehouse solution that we are looking into it.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
If necessary, we may have to get into Synapse, and do a kind of a pilot project with that as well. We may evaluate them both to see which is better. We are not there yet. We are just working on Snowflake.
What other advice do I have?
We are a direct customer and end-user.
We've been using the solution during a POC for the last year or so. It's a pilot project to test its feasibility for our company. We're just starting to get performance stats and stuff like that.
I'm not sure which version of the solution we are currently using. I don't recall the exact version number. Usually, people are running the latest version. Whatever the latest available option is is likely the number we are on.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We're still in the POC phase, however, based on what we have seen, we are quite satisfied.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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April 2025

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Associate Vice President - Database Management (Principal Solutions Architect) at Northbay
Highly scalable, full featured, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of Snowflake is it's an all-in-one data warehousing solution."
- "Snowflake could improve migration. It should be made easier. It would be beneficial if it could offer some OLTP features. One of our customers was using Oracle for both data warehousing and OLTP workloads, and they were able to migrate their data warehousing workloads to Snowflake without major issues. However, for some of their OLTP requirements, such as needing a response time of fewer than 10 milliseconds for certain queries, Snowflake is currently unable to provide that."
What is our primary use case?
I am using Snowflake for all our apps and data warehousing requirements.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Snowflake is it's an all-in-one data warehousing solution.
What needs improvement?
Snowflake could improve migration. It should be made easier. It would be beneficial if it could offer some OLTP features. One of our customers was using Oracle for both data warehousing and OLTP workloads, and they were able to migrate their data warehousing workloads to Snowflake without major issues. However, for some of their OLTP requirements, such as needing a response time of fewer than 10 milliseconds for certain queries, Snowflake is currently unable to provide that.
It would be beneficial to see more integration and reporting tools embedded within the platform, similar to what Microsoft offers with its data warehouse and database solutions. Oracle, on the other hand, does not have such features. While Snowflake has a lot of options available on its marketplace, it would be helpful if it could provide more optimal options for users who are migrating from other environments. It would be great if they could follow the same path as Microsoft in this regard.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Snowflake for approximately one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Snowflake is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have two clients using this solution.
The solution is highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We don't have direct support for Snowflake as we support our clients. If any support is required, our clients connect with Snowflake's support team and get the necessary assistance. They own the support account.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Snowflake is easy. We only need to create a login, there is no conventional setup.
When it comes to migrating from a previous platform to Snowflake, it largely depends on the size of the data warehouse, the number of integrations, the existing data pipelines, and the type of data sources. The complexity and size of the current deployment will determine how difficult the migration process will be.
What was our ROI?
The ROI appears good on paper, particularly in terms of cost reduction in operations. However, as companies have only been using Snowflake for a year and it's hard to say for sure. It looks promising for now, but it will take a year or so to see if it holds up in practice.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Snowflake is a cloud-based solution that uses a pay-as-you-go model. The storage and processing are separated, and you are mainly charged for the processing power you use. Additionally, there is a charge for storage, but the primary cost comes from the processing. You can choose different sizes of processing units, also known as warehouses, for your specific workload or requirements. You pay for the per-second utilization of those computing resources.
Snowflake is cost-effective. However, the cost can depend on how it's being used and how efficiently the code is written. If engineers don't write efficient code and usage is billed based on processing, it can become costly. If they write optimal code and choose the best solution, it can reduce costs in comparison to other options, such as Oracle.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Snowflake an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
CEO and Founder at BAssure Solutions
Useful ETL provisions, continually evolving, and high availability
Pros and Cons
- "Snowflake has a variety of other ETL provisions that they provide. You can use your own ETL pipeline. Additionally, they provide adapters, and they are always evolving, it is a well-developed solution."
- "Snowflake has to build more capabilities because they have only built very few adapters, but they're growing and they're building. They should provide provisions to collect ETL pipeline capabilities, reduce developer work, and make more rapid application development, rather than some customizations. There are very few options, but they are building. I hope they will build ETL rapid application development provisions with more variety."
What is our primary use case?
Snowflake is a real-time and cloud-based complete ETL tool. You can receive the beta from various sources from Amazon. You can run your reports and do analysis in Snowflake. Informatica and Tableau should have done this. Snowflake is a modern version of Informatica which is 100 percent in the cloud.
What is most valuable?
Snowflake has a variety of other ETL provisions that they provide. You can use your own ETL pipeline. Additionally, they provide adapters, and they are always evolving, it is a well-developed solution.
What needs improvement?
Snowflake has to build more capabilities because they have only built very few adapters, but they're growing and they're building. They should provide provisions to collect ETL pipeline capabilities, reduce developer work, and make more rapid application development, rather than some customizations. There are very few options, but they are building. I hope they will build ETL rapid application development provisions with more variety.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Snowflake for approximately eight months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Snowflake is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake is a cloud solution that provides great scalability. However, I am not sure if it is cost-effective.
We have approximately 30 engineers using this solution. We have plans to scale our usage in the future. This is going to be a futuristic solution.
How are customer service and support?
We have not had any problems with the technical support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Snowflake is straightforward. To set up the ETL pipeline, pull the data, and then generate the reports takes approximately two hours, end to end.
What about the implementation team?
I did the implementation in-house. We have a three-member team that does the maintenance of Snowflake. However, the amount of people needed depends on the size of the pipeline.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Snowflake licensing is more flexible and it is cheaper than other solutions. I can use it for only 10 days for MVP, or three years, and for flexible models. I can scale up, or down, and the pricing is based on the volume and duration. There are many licensing permutation combinations available.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Snowflake a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
AVP Enterprise Architecture at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
A perfect solution that delivers as promised and makes it easy to manage the overall ecosystem
Pros and Cons
- "The overall ecosystem was easy to manage. Given that we weren't a very highly technical group, it was preferable to other things we looked at because it could do all of the cloud tunings. It can tune your data warehouse to an appropriate size for controlled billing, resume and sleep functions, and all such things. It was much more simple than doing native Azure or AWS development. It was stable, and their support was also perfect. It was also very easy to deploy. It was one of those rare times where they did exactly what they said they could do."
- "Their strategy is just to leverage what you've got and put Snowflake in the middle. It does work well with other tools. You have to buy a separate reporting tool and a separate data loading tool, whereas, in some platforms, these tools are baked in. In the long-term, they'll need to add more direct partnerships to the ecosystem so that it's not like adding on tools around Snowflake to make it work. They can also consider including Snowflake native reporting tools versus partnering with other reporting tools. It would kind of change where they sit in the market."
What is our primary use case?
I have used it in my previous company. It was just a SQL server data warehouse using reporting tools on top of it. It was an on-premise SQL server environment, and it was a typical data warehouse use case, but we wanted to do things faster and more cost-effectively.
We used it to modernize our data warehouse. We didn't want to invest more in on-premise servers, and we were looking for a way to quickly get more data joined together.
How has it helped my organization?
It had definitely improved the way our organization functioned at the time.
What is most valuable?
The overall ecosystem was easy to manage. Given that we weren't a very highly technical group, it was preferable to other things we looked at because it could do all of the cloud tunings. It can tune your data warehouse to an appropriate size for controlled billing, resume and sleep functions, and all such things. It was much more simple than doing native Azure or AWS development.
It was stable, and their support was also perfect. It was also very easy to deploy. It was one of those rare times where they did exactly what they said they could do.
What needs improvement?
Their strategy is just to leverage what you've got and put Snowflake in the middle. It does work well with other tools. You have to buy a separate reporting tool and a separate data loading tool, whereas, in some platforms, these tools are baked in. In the long-term, they'll need to add more direct partnerships to the ecosystem so that it's not like adding on tools around Snowflake to make it work. They can also consider including Snowflake native reporting tools versus partnering with other reporting tools. It would kind of change where they sit in the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We didn't run into anything. We had outages for a couple of seconds, but they were related to Amazon or AWS. They weren't related to Snowflake.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We scaled it a little bit. We didn't have a lot of data to scale, as a lot of companies do. We only had a couple of terabytes of data, which is insignificant for a cloud platform.
The development team had three or four people getting data in. Then report people were also using the platform, but they didn't really have to know that it was Snowflake because they were going at it through a reporting tool. There were probably 30 or 40 people writing queries against our reporting tools, which were, in turn, using Snowflake.
How are customer service and technical support?
They were really good. They were very responsive. There were never any issues with them. I would give them a ten out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used a lot of different data warehousing solutions at different companies.
How was the initial setup?
It was easy as pie. In a couple of hours, it was up and running, and we were loading the data in. We had a fairly senior developer for that. He knew SQL server and queries very well. If you're used to developing in any type of SQL environment, you can jump in and use Snowflake really quickly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is per credit. It has a use-it-as-you-go model. We bought a chunk of 20,000 credits, and they were lasting us for at least a year. We didn't have the scale of data like a much larger company to consume more credits. For us, it was very inexpensive.
Their strategy is just to leverage what you've got and put Snowflake in the middle. It doesn't make it expensive because most of the organizations already have reporting tools. Now, if you were starting from scratch, it might be cheaper to go a different way.
What other advice do I have?
If time to value is your primary goal, then I would recommend going for Snowflake over one of the other cloud providers.
I would rate Snowflake a ten out of ten. It is one of the few products in which everything demos well. It actually did everything they showed in the demos. We really couldn't find any gotchas in it. It kind of delivered as promised.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Stable and capable of processing data in bulk but needs to have SLAs in place
Pros and Cons
- "The solution is very stable."
- "They don't have any SLAs in place. It would be better if they did."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution in order to have the daily transactions of trades. It's to manipulate and find out the benchmark of every broker and institutional manager.
What is most valuable?
The solution's most valuable aspect is the ability to process the bulk amount of data and try to clone the database. We try to clone the production database. Instead of syncing the whole database, we can just clone it up and start working on it. Basically, the cloning and the database are very user-friendly.
The solution is very stable.
What needs improvement?
Right now, Snowflake doesn't have any analytical functions, especially in comparison to Oracle and other databases. The analytical performance needs to improve. It would be ideal if Snowflake was able to use the analytical functions, and what we have in the relational database. That would be really helpful.
They don't have any SLAs in place. It would be better if they did.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been working with the solution for two years now. The company, however, has been using it for three years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is quite stable. It's reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is definitely scalable. We're able to add nodes to grow it out when we need to. If an organization needs to expand the solution, they can do so easily. We find it to be very reliable.
There are about 300 people using the solution at this time. We don't plan on increasing usage at this time.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very, very good. It's a responsive and knowledgable team. We're quite satisfied with the level of service we receive.
That said, Snowflake technical support doesn't have any SLAs. If they had a small amount of SLAs, then it would be helpful for us to clear or solve any production issues, etc. that we may run into.
How was the initial setup?
We need about 50-60 people to maintain the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Snowflake's pricing is a bit higher than other competitors.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We were looking at Amazon Redshift previously. However, we decided that Snowflake was more reliable and scalable.
What other advice do I have?
We're a customer. We don't have a business relationship with the solution.
Users considering adding the solution should understand that Snowflake can be used only for transactional processing, not for analytical processing. If they want to go for transaction processing, they can go for Snowflake and if they want to go for analytical processing, they should look at or go for an Oracle database.
I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Practice Head at Vyom Labs
Users can pay as they use and not worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud."
- "It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports."
What is our primary use case?
The solution has use cases related to retail stores and sales.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Snowflake are that you have to pay per usage, and you don't have to worry about the maintenance of the data warehouse because it is on the cloud.
What needs improvement?
The solution’s pricing could be cheaper. It would be helpful if Snowflake could create good reports instead of using Power BI reports.
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the solution a nine out of ten for stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Snowflake is a scalable solution. We have four to five customers for Snowflake who use it regularly.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
The solution's deployment in a development environment takes only a couple of minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Users have to pay a licensing fee for the solution, which is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Snowflake is deployed on the cloud. The solution is providing HIPAA compliance, which is sufficient. Users looking for a pay-as-you-use product available on Azure or AWS should consider Snowflake.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Senior data architect at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
It is very fast and the performance is great but has some technical quirks
Pros and Cons
- "It is very fast and the performance is great."
- "It doesn't enforce typical relational database constraints. Quite expensive."
What is our primary use case?
I use it for data warehousing. I just design databases, put data in there, and get data out.
What is most valuable?
Although I haven't used it much, it is very fast and the performance is great.
What needs improvement?
It has some technical quirks that whoever is using it needs to be aware of. It doesn't enforce typical relational database constraints. If you're not aware of that, you can really put some bad data in there.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for about three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would give it a ten out of ten. I haven't seen it failover.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I've never had any issues with it. It is being extensively used. We have between a hundred and a thousand users using Snowflake.
How are customer service and support?
I have not had any experience with customer support, but I've heard it's good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I've heard it's quite expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I would give Snowflake a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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