Head-to-Head Specification Audit
Snowflake vs AWS
Enterprise Analytics & Data Science Teams · Global
Specification Matrix
| Metric | Snowflake | AWS |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | CustomBetter | Custom |
| API Rate Limit | 500 req/min | N/A |
| Target Country | Global | Global |
| Category | Data Engineering | Cloud Hosting & Edge |
| Compliance | SOC2, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, ISO27001 | GDPR, CCPA, POPIA, SOC2, ISO27001, HIPAA, FedRAMP |
| Hosting Regions | US-East, US-West, EU-West, EU-Central, AP-Southeast, AP-Northeast, AU-East | US-East, US-West, EU-West, AP-Southeast, AU-East, AF-South-ZA |
| Native Integrations | 8 listedBetter | 7 listed |
Snowflake — Key Specs
- ✓Separate compute and storage scaling — pay only for queries you run
- ✓Data Sharing enables live data sharing across organizations without copying data
- ✓Snowpark supports Python, Java, and Scala for ML workloads directly in Snowflake
- ✓Marketplace has 2,000+ live data sets from commercial providers
AWS — Key Specs
- ✓Cape Town region (af-south-1) provides local ZA data residency for POPIA compliance
- ✓200+ cloud services covering compute, storage, AI, databases, and IoT
- ✓99.99% uptime SLA on core services including S3, RDS, and EC2
- ✓Spot Instances reduce compute costs by up to 90% for fault-tolerant workloads
Frequently Asked Questions
What is cheaper, Snowflake or AWS?+
Both tools start at $0/mo on their entry plans.
Which tool is better for compliance — Snowflake or AWS?+
Both support SOC2, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, ISO27001. AWS additionally supports POPIA, FedRAMP.
Is Snowflake or AWS compliant with South Africa's POPIA?+
AWS supports POPIA compliance. Snowflake does not list POPIA as a supported framework.
Which tool is better suited for Global?+
Snowflake is evaluated for Enterprise Analytics & Data Science Teams in Global with hosting regions: US-East, US-West, EU-West, EU-Central, AP-Southeast, AP-Northeast, AU-East. AWS has hosting regions: US-East, US-West, EU-West, AP-Southeast, AU-East, AF-South-ZA. For data residency in Global, check each vendor's data processing agreements.
Data last verified: 25 June 2026
Related Data Engineering Comparisons
Is this your tool?
Claim or upgrade your VektorIndex listing
Get a Verified badge, add your own specs, and appear at the top of comparison pages.