Azure Synapse Analytics vs. Firebolt

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Synapse Analytics
Score 7.6 out of 10
N/A
Azure Synapse Analytics is described as the former Azure SQL Data Warehouse, evolved, and as a limitless analytics service that brings together enterprise data warehousing and Big Data analytics. It gives users the freedom to query data using either serverless or provisioned resources, at scale. Azure Synapse brings these two worlds together with a unified experience to ingest, prepare, manage, and serve data for immediate BI and machine learning needs.
$4,700
per month 5000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Firebolt
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Firebolt's Cloud Data Warehouse is designed to deliver extreme speed and elasticity at any scale to solve impossible data challenges. The vendor states it combines the best of high performance database architecture with the infinite scale of the data lake, enabling you to perform analytics at jaw-dropping speed across terabyte and petabyte scale. Built on a decoupled storage and compute architecture, Firebolt allows users to scale up or down to support any workload.N/A
Pricing
Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
Editions & Modules
Tier 1
$4,700
per month 5,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 2
$9,200
per month 10,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 3
$21,360
per month 24,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 4
$50,400
per month 60,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 5
$117,000
per month 150,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
Tier 6
$259,200
per month 360,000 Synapse Commit Units (SCUs)
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Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—Firebolt introduces a new business model that ensures true alignment of interests with customers. You can now rely on Firebolt to support your ever growing data and compute requirements, enabling you to run more queries faster, without breaking the bank. Firebolt pricing includes a fixed annual cost (described in the tiers below) as well as AWS cloud costs for resources you decide to use (fully transparent AWS compute and storage at the baseline cost. We don't make any profit here).
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
Top Pros
Top Cons

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Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
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Score 8.6 out of 10
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Score 8.6 out of 10
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Snowflake
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Oracle Exadata
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Score 8.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Synapse AnalyticsFirebolt
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
It's well suited for large, fastly growing, and frequently changing data warehouses (e.g., in startups). It's also suited for companies that want a single, relatively easy-to-use, centralized cloud service for all their data needs. Larger, more structured organizations could still benefit from this service by using Synapse Dedicated SQL Pools, knowing that costs will be much higher than other solutions. I think this product is not suited for smaller, simpler workloads (where an Azure SQL Database and a Data Factory could be enough) or very large scenarios, where it may be better to build custom infrastructure.
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Pros
Microsoft
  • Create data pipelines to connect with multiple data workspace(s) and external data
  • Ability to connect with Azure Data Lake (sequentially) for data warehousing
  • Being able to manage connections and create integration runtimes (for onPrem data capture)
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Cons
Microsoft
  • It takes some time to setup a proper SQL Datawarehouse architecture. Without proper SSIS/automation scripts, this can be a very daunting task.
  • It takes a lot of foresight when designing a Data Warehouse. If not properly designed, it can be very troublesome to use and/or modify later on.
  • It takes a lot of effort to maintain. Businesses are continually changing. With that, a full time staff member or more will be required to maintain the SQL Data Warehouse.
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Usability
Microsoft
The data warehouse portion is very much like old style on-prem SQL server, so most SQL skills one has mastered carry over easily. Azure Data Factory has an easy drag and drop system which allows quick building of pipelines with minimal coding. The Spark portion is the only really complex portion, but if there's an in-house python expert, then the Spark portion is also quiet useable.
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
Microsoft does its best to support Synapse. More and more articles are being added to the documentation, providing more useful information on best utilizing its features. The examples provided work well for basic knowledge, but more complex examples should be added to further assist in discovering the vast abilities that the system has.
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
When client is already having or using Azure then it’s wise to go with Synapse rather than using Snowflake. We got a lot of help from Microsoft consultants and Microsoft partners while implementing our EDW via Synapse and support is easily available via Microsoft resources and blogs. I don’t see that with Snowflake
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Microsoft
Basically, the billing is predictable, and this all about it.
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • We have had an improvement in our overall processing time
  • Cost was much lower than most of its competitors
  • Our reporting needs have grown and housing the data here has been great
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Firebolt
No answers on this topic
ScreenShots