AWS Glue DataBrew review
A capable AWS-native choice for visual preparation, profiling, and scheduled data jobs.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
AWS Glue DataBrew is a visual, serverless data-preparation service for data analysts and data scientists. Its point-and-click interface supports profiling, cleaning, normalizing, and transforming datasets without writing code. Users can create reusable recipes, inspect data lineage, run profile or recipe jobs, and schedule recurring work. Prepared outputs can go to Amazon S3, the AWS Glue Data Catalog, or supported JDBC databases.
Pricing is usage-based and split between interactive sessions and jobs. DataBrew interactive sessions cost $1 per 30 minutes and provide interactive project sessions. DataBrew jobs cost $0.48 per node-hour and include recipe jobs and profile jobs. AWS states that the first 40 interactive sessions are free for first-time DataBrew users, while pricing can vary by AWS Region. The feature set supports a broad preparation workflow, including anomaly detection, more than 250 built-in transformations, versioned recipes, visual lineage, dataset analysis, and scheduled recipe jobs.
The strongest fit is for organizations already working with AWS services such as Amazon S3, AWS Lake Formation, AWS CloudFormation, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Step Functions. DataBrew is available through the web and API, with outputs designed for AWS data stores and supported data stores. Choose it when visual preparation, profiling, and recurring jobs matter within an AWS-centered environment. Teams seeking a data-preparation tool with a broader platform ecosystem should consider an alternative.
AWS Glue DataBrew pros and cons
- Where it wins
- More than 250 built-in transformations
- Reusable, versioned recipes with visual data lineage
- Scheduled profile and recipe jobs at usage-based prices
- Where it doesn't
- Integrations are primarily focused on AWS services
- No unlimited free plan
- Interactive sessions are billed per 30 minutes
AWS Glue DataBrew fact sheet, pricing and score →
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