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Data warehouse software · head to head

Snowflake vs Databricks

Sebastiaan Smits Editor Sebastiaan Smits · Published October 20, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026

Snowflake is the more direct choice for a company whose main job is SQL analytics and BI, where analysts want a managed warehouse and warehouse-size billing. Databricks wins when engineers and data scientists share the same data as analysts and the team wants Spark, notebooks and machine learning on open table formats. Both bill by consumption and both are US vendors.

Side by side

SnowflakeDatabricks
What it isCredit-metered cloud data warehouse and platformLakehouse platform for data engineering, SQL and AI
Best forMid-sized firms with several data teamsTeams combining warehousing with machine learning
HeadquartersUnited StatesUnited States
Pricing modelUsage-basedUsage-based
PricingConsumption-based: compute is billed in credits on Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical or Virtual Private Snowflake editions, plus monthly storage on-demand or pre-paid; the credit rates sit in a separate consumption table.Pay as you go with per-second billing in Databricks Units (DBUs), a 14-day free trial and committed-use contracts for discounts; the rate table renders client-side, so we quote no per-DBU figure.
Free optionFree trialFree trial
List price
as listed on October 20, 2026		Consumption-based: credits billed per second for virtual warehouses (Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical and Virtual Private Snowflake editions) plus a monthly storage fee, with rates in a separate consumption table that the page we fetched does not show.Pay as you go in Databricks Units (DBUs) billed per second by product, 14-day free trial, committed-use contracts for discounts; the per-DBU rate table renders client-side, so we quote no figure.
Place in our data warehouse software ranking#4 of 12#6 of 12
Websitesnowflake.comdatabricks.com

Both are reviewed in full in Best Data Warehouse Software in 2026. Position in that ranking can be paid for; the wording of a review or of this comparison cannot. Placement disclosure.

Which one to choose

Choose Snowflake if

most of your users are analysts and BI tools writing SQL, you want a managed warehouse with editions and warehouse-size billing, and you would rather not learn clusters, catalogs and notebooks.

Snowflake, #4 in the ranking · Visit Snowflake →

Choose Databricks if

data engineers and machine-learning staff work on the same data as your analysts, you want Spark, notebooks and SQL on one platform, and open table formats under your control matter to you.

Databricks, #6 in the ranking · Visit Databricks →

Where they differ

Starting point and daily users

Snowflake's documentation describes virtual warehouses that run queries and load data, sized from X-Small upward, with the engine operated by Snowflake. An analyst can open a worksheet and query. Databricks arrives from the other side: its SQL product is described as a warehouse on a lakehouse, with notebooks, jobs and catalogs around it. For a SQL-only team, Snowflake has fewer concepts to learn.

Edge: Snowflake

Engineering and machine learning

Databricks sells data engineering, pipelines, model serving, AI functions and Genie dashboards as parts of one platform, and describes the lakehouse as built on Apache Spark, Delta Lake and MLflow. Snowflake offers Snowpark, Cortex functions and Cortex Agents, which keep AI work inside the warehouse's governance perimeter. A team that trains and serves its own models has more tools on the Databricks side.

Edge: Databricks

Open formats and where the files live

Both support Apache Iceberg with Parquet files. Snowflake's Iceberg tables can sit in storage you manage through an external volume, but then Snowflake gives no Fail-safe for them, while ordinary tables live in Snowflake's own storage. Databricks bills compute and leaves storage with the cloud provider, and its pitch is that data stays in open formats under your control. For portability, Databricks has the cleaner story.

Edge: Databricks

How compute is metered

Snowflake bills credits per second with a 60-second minimum each time a warehouse starts, and each size up doubles the hourly rate; storage carries a separate monthly fee. Databricks bills Databricks Units per second by product, and the rate table renders client-side, so we quote no figure. Neither prices a query. Both reward auto-suspend, committed use and cost monitoring, so the winner is whichever team watches the meter.

Edge: even

Trial and entry point

Snowflake documents a trial of 30 days or until the free balance is used, and you choose edition, cloud and region at sign-up. Databricks offers a 14-day free trial, and a separate Free Edition that its own page says is not for production or commercial use. The Snowflake trial is closer to a real proof of concept, while Databricks' free tier is a place to learn rather than to run a workload.

Edge: Snowflake

Tally: Snowflake 2, Databricks 2, even 1.

When neither fits

A company with a few hundred gigabytes and one analyst should look at MotherDuck, which carries less machinery than either. A team that already runs on Google Cloud and wants serverless SQL without sizing warehouses should look at Google BigQuery.

See Google BigQuery, MotherDuck and Amazon Redshift among the 12 products in Best Data Warehouse Software in 2026.

Questions and answers

Is Snowflake or Databricks better for business intelligence?

Snowflake is the simpler choice if BI is the main workload, because virtual warehouses, SQL and an analyst-friendly interface are the core of the product. Databricks also sells a SQL warehouse and AI-assisted dashboards, and suits teams that want BI on the same data as engineering and machine learning, at the cost of more concepts to manage.

Do Snowflake and Databricks both support Apache Iceberg?

Yes. Snowflake supports Iceberg tables stored in its own storage or in your cloud storage through an external volume, and Databricks supports managed and foreign Iceberg tables on Parquet using versions 1, 2 and 3 of the specification. Each page lists limitations, so test the specific features you need before you commit data to either.

How long are the free trials?

Snowflake's trial runs for 30 days or until your free usage balance is gone, whichever comes first. Databricks gives a 14-day free trial on its pricing page, and the amount of any trial credit is decided by Databricks after sign-up. Databricks' Free Edition is for learning and is not for production or commercial use.

Which one publishes its rates?

Neither shows a complete rate card in the page text we fetched. Snowflake points to a consumption table and lists four editions, and Databricks says its rate table renders client-side and offers a calculator. Expect to use each vendor's calculator or sales team to get a number for your own workload.

Sources

Prices, plan limits and product facts on this page were checked against the vendors' own pages on October 20, 2026. Vendors change both without notice, so treat the figures as of that date.