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Dremio vs Snowflake

Dremio: Iceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026. Snowflake: Fully managed cloud data warehouse with separate storage and compute, now spanning AI and apps.

key differences

  • Dremio is primarily a relational database; Snowflake is columnar / OLAP.
  • Snowflake is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Dremio (≤ 1 PB).
  • Transactions: Dremio offers limited ACID; Snowflake offers full.
  • Only Snowflake has transactions, full-text search, vector search, geospatial, change data capture.
  • Snowflake has a serverless option; Dremio does not.

choose dremio for

  • +Iceberg lakehouse BI acceleration
  • +Semantic layer over a data lake
  • +SAP-centric data platforms
  • +Warehouse offload

best at · Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse

choose snowflake for

  • +Enterprise data warehouse
  • +ELT pipelines with dbt
  • +Cross-company data sharing
  • +BI and reporting at scale

best at · Warehouse, OLAP, Lakehouse

DremioIceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026.
SnowflakeFully managed cloud data warehouse with separate storage and compute, now spanning AI and apps.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP
Relational, Document, Vector, Spatial
Type
Database engine
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Dremio (SAP)
Snowflake Inc.
First release
2017
2014
Latest version
–
–
License
ProprietaryProprietary (legacy Community Edition under Apache-2.0)
ProprietaryProprietary
Free tier
—
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
12.7
74.4
Rank
#262
#7
GitHub stars
1.5K
–
Stack Overflow questions
74
12.2K
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
Limited
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Client server
Distributed, Shared storage, Serverless
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
—
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
✓
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
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
SQL, Snowflake Scripting, Python (Snowpark), JavaScript
Client languages
Python, Java, Go, JavaScript
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, .NET, C, PHP
Best for
Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse
Warehouse, OLAP, Lakehouse
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Dremio vs Snowflake: FAQ

What is the difference between Dremio and Snowflake?

Dremio: Iceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026. Snowflake: Fully managed cloud data warehouse with separate storage and compute, now spanning AI and apps. Dremio is primarily a relational database; Snowflake is columnar / OLAP. Snowflake is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Dremio (≤ 1 PB). Transactions: Dremio offers limited ACID; Snowflake offers full.

When should I choose Dremio over Snowflake?

Choose Dremio for iceberg lakehouse BI acceleration, semantic layer over a data lake and SAP-centric data platforms. Choose Snowflake for enterprise data warehouse, ELT pipelines with dbt and cross-company data sharing.

Is Dremio or Snowflake more popular?

Snowflake ranks #7 on the WhichDB Score (74.4/100) and Dremio ranks #262 (12.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Dremio and Snowflake open source?

No. Dremio is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Snowflake is proprietary, closed-source software.