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Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs Snowflake comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Feb 1, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.1
Companies benefited from Azure Synapse's cost savings, flexibility, and improved efficiency, though financial specifics and satisfaction varied.
Sentiment score
5.6
Snowflake's scalability offers mixed financial benefits, with some organizations achieving savings while others face higher costs and varied satisfaction.
Some of my customers have indeed seen a return on investment with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as they used it for analytics to drive decision-making, improving their processes or increasing revenue.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
Snowflake undoubtedly cost us more money and provided almost no value to us.
We experience savings of about 15%.
DevOps Consultant at cognizarnt
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.5
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics support experiences vary, with larger clients generally receiving faster, more knowledgeable assistance.
Sentiment score
5.5
Snowflake's support is praised for responsiveness and expertise, though some mention delays and desire improved documentation.
They are slow to respond and not very knowledgeable.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
This is an underestimation of the real impact because we use big data also to monitor the network and the customer.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I would rate the support for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as an eight out of ten.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
We sought this documentation multiple times but faced difficulty in obtaining it.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
I received great support in migrating data to Snowflake, with quick responses and innovative solutions.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
I am satisfied with the work of technical support from Snowflake; they are responsive and helpful.
Asset Builder at Genpact - Headstrong
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and auto-scaling, despite occasional cost and latency concerns.
Sentiment score
7.6
Snowflake provides scalable architecture with automatic adjustments, supporting diverse data sizes and user volumes, despite cost concerns.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is scalable, offering numerous opportunities for scalability.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For the scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, I would rate it a 10 until you remain in the Azure Cloud scalability framework.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Recovering from such scenarios becomes a bit problematic or time-consuming.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
Snowflake is very scalable and has a dedicated team constantly improving the product.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
The billing doubles with size increase, but processing does not necessarily speed up accordingly.
Data Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Recently, Snowflake has introduced streaming capabilities, real-time and dynamic tables, along with various connectors.
Senior Data Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its stability, despite occasional minor outages and performance issues with large datasets.
Sentiment score
8.3
Snowflake is praised for stability, reliability, and performance, handling large data efficiently with rare, minor outages.
Performance and stability are absolutely fine because Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is a PaaS service.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
I find the service stable as I have not encountered many issues.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
We have never integrated Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics with Databricks, but we have mostly pulled data from on-premises systems into Azure Databricks.
Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems
Snowflake is highly stable and performs well even with large data sets exceeding terabytes, maintaining stability throughout.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Snowflake is very stable, especially when used with AWS.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
Snowflake as a SaaS offering means that maintenance isn't an issue for me.
Data Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure Synapse needs improvements in integration, pricing, ease of use, setup, and advanced analytics features for better adoption.
Snowflake users desire UI, statistical modeling, GCP integration, error visibility, reporting tools, better ETL, AI features, and SQL-based procedures.
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks.
CTO at New Turn Technologies
There is a need for better documentation, particularly for customized tasks with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
Databricks is a very rich solution, with numerous open sources and capabilities in terms of extract, transform, load, database query, and so forth.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
A specific example is when they told us they fully support Iceberg, and then they have over three thousand words of bullet point text with a link to reference articles with all the limitations of their Iceberg support.
Enhancements in user experience for data observability and quality checks would be beneficial, as these tasks currently require SQL coding, which might be challenging for some users.
Data Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
What things you are going with to ask the support and how we manage the relationship matters a lot.
Asset Builder at Genpact - Headstrong
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers flexible pricing but requires careful cost management due to unpredictable expenses and competitive services.
Snowflake's pay-as-you-go model offers competitive pricing and flexibility, appealing to enterprises despite licensing complexity and cost unpredictability.
The cheapest tier costs about $4,000 to $4,700 a year, while the most expensive tier can reach up to $300,000 a year.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
I think the price of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very expensive, but that's not only for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics—it's for the cloud in general.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
I find the pricing of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reasonable.
Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited
When it comes to cloud support, the setup cost is very cheap compared to other platforms, such as Oracle or PostgreSQL, which typically require higher costs.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Snowflake's pricing is on the higher side.
Technology Leader at eTCaaS
Snowflake lacks transparency in estimating resource usage.
Data Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers scalability, integration, and advanced analytics with easy management, data protection, and familiar Microsoft interface.
Snowflake excels in data sharing, recovery, scalability, and integration with major cloud platforms, offering robust and cost-effective performance.
One of the most valuable features in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the ability to write your own ETL code using Azure Data Factory, which is a component within Synapse.
Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers significant visibility, which helps us understand our usage more clearly.
IT Manager at KONGSBERG
For Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, the integration is the most valuable feature, meaning that whatever you need is fast and easy to use.
Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
We had a comparison with Databricks and Snowflake a few months back, and this auto-scaling takes an edge within Snowflake; that's what our observation reflects.
Asset Builder at Genpact - Headstrong
I have used the Snowflake Zero-Copy Cloning feature in the past while prototyping data in lower environments. This feature is helpful as it saves a lot of time during the data replication process.
Senior Data Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Snowflake has contributed to significant cost savings.
Data Integration Developer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
7th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
98
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Snowflake
Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
108
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (1st), AI Synthetic Data (1st), Database Management Systems (DBMS) (4th), AI Software Development (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is 6.2%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Snowflake is 15.3%, down from 17.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Snowflake15.3%
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics6.2%
Other78.5%
Cloud Data Warehouse
 

Featured Reviews

AnandTiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at New Turn Technologies
Has consistently supported integration across diverse environments and streamlined deployment processes
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve their pricing structure. They currently have two separate pricing tiers: full log and partial log. I suggest they implement a single price and reduce charges on logs. They could implement a cap with some free tier or price tier based on the GBs of log collected. This would help customers use Azure more effectively. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks, but the log management part is very costly. Regarding future improvements, I would appreciate more application connectors for integration, particularly for on-premise based solutions. Many customers still maintain on-premise infrastructure, so having more integration possibilities for these environments would be beneficial.
SunilPatil1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Asset Builder at Genpact - Headstrong
Have prioritized security while managing multi-agent data migration and cloud adoption
We utilize Time Travel with Snowflake because this is a very useful feature. Everyone finds it crucial because in conventional data platforms, it's very difficult to handle these kinds of things. This feature is essential, though I don't have the use cases currently; it is just there for implementation. Regarding Snowflake's automated scaling and suspension features, this auto-scaling is very significant. We had a comparison with Databricks and Snowflake a few months back, and this auto-scaling takes an edge within Snowflake; that's what our observation reflects.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Outsourcing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Construction Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business28
Midsize Enterprise18
Large Enterprise60
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business31
Midsize Enterprise20
Large Enterprise61
 

Questions from the Community

How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I think the licensing cost for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very high, but I have a local system to support that, so I don't consider that in the near future.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?
I am hoping that in the future Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics may have AI support.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake?
We find the metering and billing experience for Snowflake to be expensive because there are many limitations to what it can do. When we compared performance-wise and cost-wise to Bedrock for some o...
What needs improvement with Snowflake?
Lessons learned about our main use case or how Snowflake performed in those areas include that the sales representatives do not really understand the product, and that the solutions consultants bas...
What is your primary use case for Snowflake?
Our main use case for Snowflake was to ingest data, use it for search, analytics, and data sharing with our customers; however, in reality, those use cases did not work. When it came to our challen...
 

Also Known As

Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics
Snowflake Computing, Snowflake Data Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe, 
Accordant Media, Adobe, Kixeye Inc., Revana, SOASTA, White Ops
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Snowflake and other solutions. Updated: October 2026.
917,403 professionals have used our research since 2012.