Databricks vs Snowflake
Databricks meters compute in Databricks Units per second and publishes a list price per SKU, while Snowflake meters credits inside four editions and keeps its rates in a separate table. The practical split is where the data sits: Databricks is built around a lakehouse with MLflow in the box, Snowflake around its own managed tables with Iceberg support at the edge. Both vendors are listed in the United States.
Sebastiaan SmitsFounderVendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Choose Databricks ifyou already run pipelines and model work on a lakehouse, want per-second compute billing with a public price list, and can plan for cloud-provider charges on top.
Choose Snowflake ifyou want governance and disaster-recovery steps sold as named editions, accept that rates sit in a separate table, and mostly keep data in Snowflake's own tables.
Databricks and Snowflake side by side
| Databricks | Snowflake | |
|---|---|---|
| Our data lake software rank | #7 of 11 | #8 of 11 |
| Established in | United States | United States |
| List price, 3 November 2026 | Pay as you go per Databricks Unit, billed per second; list price per SKU published; committed-use discounts via sales | Consumption credits plus monthly storage; Standard, Enterprise, Business Critical and Virtual Private Snowflake editions; rates in a separate table |
| Free tier | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Self-hostable | — | — |
| Built for | Teams whose data and pipelines already run on the Databricks lakehouse | Larger organisations sharing data across many business units |
| Not for | Small teams wanting a flat monthly price for tracking only | Small teams that want a single predictable monthly bill |
Both are reviewed in full in our data lake software ranking: Databricks and Snowflake.
Where they differ
Databricks 2 · Snowflake 2 · open 0- 01
Which price list can you read before signing?
Databricks points to a Price List showing the undiscounted rate for every SKU by cloud and region, with committed-use discounts agreed through sales. Snowflake's pricing options page names the billing model and four editions, yet leaves credit rates to a linked consumption table. Both leave you to build a forecast from workload sizes. Databricks hands you the numbers earlier.
Edge: Databricks
- 02
What lands on a second invoice?
Databricks says storage and networking vary by cloud provider, and a trial connected to your own cloud account still triggers provider charges. Snowflake bills storage on average monthly compressed bytes, either on demand or as pre-paid capacity, so the main meters stay with one vendor. If one invoice matters, Snowflake is simpler; Databricks asks you to add the cloud bill yourself.
Edge: Snowflake
- 03
Does an edition decide your security setup?
Snowflake ties features to editions: multi-cluster compute and extended Time Travel start at Enterprise, while private connectivity, Tri-Secret Secure and failover with failback start at Business Critical. Virtual Private Snowflake requires contacting sales. The pages we read for Databricks show no such ladder, but they also list no equivalent features, so we cannot score that part. For buyers who want a clear map, Snowflake is explicit.
Edge: Snowflake
- 04
Open lake files or managed tables first?
Snowflake's documentation lets Iceberg tables sit in your own bucket, yet then you carry protection and recovery, and external-catalog tables get limited platform support. Databricks offers managed MLflow, which extends an open source project, plus Model Serving for models and agents inside the same platform. A lake-first design with machine learning fits Databricks better.
Edge: Databricks
When neither fits
If you want a lake you assemble from separate parts, or an engine centred on Iceberg, look at Dremio or Starburst in this category.
Databricks or Snowflake: questions
3 answersDo both bill for compute by usage?
Yes. Databricks counts Databricks Units billed per second, and Snowflake counts credits, with rates in a consumption table outside its pricing page.
Can I try either before buying?
Both vendors offer a trial. Databricks says eligibility, credit amount and expiry are set by Databricks, and Snowflake's page does not state the trial length.
Which one runs on several clouds?
Our data lists Databricks on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, with Azure billed directly by Microsoft. Snowflake's documentation names external volumes on S3, GCS and Azure for Iceberg tables.
Sources
Checked 3 November 2026- Databricks pricing page: per-second DBU billing, published price list, committed-use discounts, cloud provider charges, trial terms.
- Snowflake pricing options: editions and their features, storage billing basis, rates held in a separate table, trial length not stated.
- Snowflake Iceberg tables documentation: external volumes, limited support for external-catalog tables, own-storage responsibility.