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Amazon Redshift vs Greenplum

Amazon Redshift: AWS's MPP columnar data warehouse, available as provisioned RA3 clusters or Serverless. Greenplum: PostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data.

key differences

  • Amazon Redshift is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; Greenplum is relational.
  • Amazon Redshift is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Greenplum (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only Amazon Redshift has encryption at rest, online schema changes, streaming ingest.
  • Only Greenplum has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search.
  • Amazon Redshift has a serverless option; Greenplum does not.

choose amazon-redshift for

  • +Enterprise data warehouse on AWS
  • +BI dashboards over curated marts
  • +Lakehouse queries over S3 with Spectrum
  • +Near-real-time analytics on Aurora data via zero-ETL

best at · Warehouse, OLAP, Lakehouse

choose greenplum for

  • +Existing Greenplum estates
  • +On-prem Postgres-compatible MPP warehousing
  • +In-database analytics with MADlib

best at · Warehouse, OLAP

Amazon RedshiftAWS's MPP columnar data warehouse, available as provisioned RA3 clusters or Serverless.
GreenplumPostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Relational
Also supports
Relational, Document, Spatial
Columnar / OLAP, Spatial, Document
Type
Managed service
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
Broadcom (VMware Tanzu)
First release
2012
2005
Latest version
–
7.8.0 (May 7, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary
ProprietaryProprietary (open source until May 2024)
Free tier
—
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
55.8
20.7
Rank
#21
#151
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
8.8K
796
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Serverless
Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
—
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
–
capabilities
Transactions
✓
✓
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
—
✓
Full-text search
—
✓
Vector search
—
✓
Geospatial
✓
✓
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
✓
✓
Materialized views
✓
✓
TTL / expiry
—
—
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
✓
✓
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
—
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
✓
—
Streaming ingest
✓
—
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL (PostgreSQL dialect), PL/pgSQL
SQL, PL/pgSQL, PL/Python, PL/R
Client languages
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, .NET, C
C, Java, Python, Go, JavaScript
Best for
Warehouse, OLAP, Lakehouse
Warehouse, OLAP
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Amazon Redshift vs Greenplum: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon Redshift and Greenplum?

Amazon Redshift: AWS's MPP columnar data warehouse, available as provisioned RA3 clusters or Serverless. Greenplum: PostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data. Amazon Redshift is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; Greenplum is relational. Amazon Redshift is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Greenplum (≤ 1 PB). Only Amazon Redshift has encryption at rest, online schema changes, streaming ingest.

When should I choose Amazon Redshift over Greenplum?

Choose Amazon Redshift for enterprise data warehouse on AWS, BI dashboards over curated marts and lakehouse queries over S3 with Spectrum. Choose Greenplum for existing Greenplum estates, on-prem Postgres-compatible MPP warehousing and in-database analytics with MADlib.

Is Amazon Redshift or Greenplum more popular?

Amazon Redshift ranks #21 on the WhichDB Score (55.8/100) and Greenplum ranks #151 (20.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon Redshift and Greenplum open source?

No. Amazon Redshift is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Greenplum is proprietary, closed-source software.