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Head-to-head · Query Engine Software

Amazon Athena vs Azure Synapse Analytics

  • Updated Oct 2026
  • Both researched from official sources
  • 1 check side by side
Higher score Amazon Athena #4 in Query Engine Software 8.9/10 Paid ✓ 0 of 4 features Visit Amazon Athena
Azure Synapse Analytics #5 in Query Engine Software 8.8/10 Pricing on request ✓ 0 of 4 features Visit Microsoft

Amazon Athena leads on 0 checks, Azure Synapse Analytics on 0, and 1 is even. Who comes out ahead on the 1 yes/no, price and count check where we have data for both products. The editor score weighs everything else too.

Our verdict

  • Highest scoreAmazon Athena · 8.9/10

Amazon Athena scores higher on our rubric for query engine software: 8.9 against 8.8 out of 10; our editors rank them #4 and #5.

Amazon Athena is the better fit for S3-centric serverless SQL. Azure Synapse Analytics is the better fit for microsoft-centric enterprise analytics.

  • Amazon Athena fits best

    S3-centric serverless SQL

  • Azure Synapse Analytics fits best

    Microsoft-centric enterprise analytics

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Side by side

Feature Amazon Athena 8.9/10 Visit ↗ Azure Synapse Analytics 8.8/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score 8.9 8.8
Ranking #4 in Query Engine Software #5 in Query Engine Software
Best for S3-centric serverless SQL Microsoft-centric enterprise analytics
Pricing model Paid Paid
Starting price $0.30/unit usage-based —
Free plan — —
Free trial — —
Deployment Cloud Cloud
Platforms Web Web
Support Docs Docs, Community
Integrations 30+ integrations 90+ integrations
Built for Mid-market, Enterprise Mid-market, Enterprise
Features Amazon Athena 0/4 · Azure Synapse Analytics 0/4
Federated queries Not checked yet Not checked yet
Heterogeneous sources Not checked yet Not checked yet
Result caching Not checked yet Not checked yet
Streaming sources Not checked yet Not checked yet
Specs
Deployment Cloud Not checked yet
SQL support Not checked yet Not checked yet
Source connectors Not checked yet Not checked yet
Our review
Pros
  • Queries Amazon S3 data with standard SQL without managing infrastructure
  • Supports federated queries across relational, non-relational, and custom sources
  • Includes Glue Catalog, JDBC/ODBC, Spark, and workgroup cost controls
  • Combines dedicated and serverless SQL with Apache Spark and Data Explorer
  • Queries Parquet, CSV, TSV, JSON, and Delta Lake data
  • Connects with Power BI, Azure services, pipelines, and machine learning tools
Cons
  • SQL queries are billed by data scanned rather than fixed user plans
  • Advanced governance depends on AWS services such as Lake Formation
  • Its broad AWS ecosystem may be more than narrow SQL use cases need
  • Pricing requires contacting sales and varies by region, agreement, and usage
  • No free plan is available
  • Its broad feature set may exceed the needs of focused query workloads
Our verdict

Amazon Athena is a cloud-based, serverless query service for analysts, data engineers, developers, and organizations that need interactive analytics without managing query infrastructure. It uses standard SQL to query data stored in Amazon…

Read the review →

Azure Synapse Analytics is Microsoft’s cloud analytics service for enterprise data warehousing, data lake exploration, big data processing, and data integration. It is aimed at teams working across SQL analytics, data engineering,…

Read the review →
  1. Amazon AthenaQuery Engine Software 8.9Paid
  2. Azure Synapse AnalyticsQuery Engine Software 8.8Pricing on request

Strengths and trade-offs

  • Amazon Athena — where it wins

    • Queries Amazon S3 data with standard SQL without managing infrastructure
    • Supports federated queries across relational, non-relational, and custom sources
    • Includes Glue Catalog, JDBC/ODBC, Spark, and workgroup cost controls

    Where it doesn't

    • SQL queries are billed by data scanned rather than fixed user plans
    • Advanced governance depends on AWS services such as Lake Formation
    • Its broad AWS ecosystem may be more than narrow SQL use cases need

  • Azure Synapse Analytics — where it wins

    • Combines dedicated and serverless SQL with Apache Spark and Data Explorer
    • Queries Parquet, CSV, TSV, JSON, and Delta Lake data
    • Connects with Power BI, Azure services, pipelines, and machine learning tools

    Where it doesn't

    • Pricing requires contacting sales and varies by region, agreement, and usage
    • No free plan is available
    • Its broad feature set may exceed the needs of focused query workloads

More comparisons

All query engine software comparisons → · Full ranking →

Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026

Last updated · How we research and update