Amazon Quicksight vs Azure Synapse: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Amazon Quicksight and Azure Synapse

1. Cost Structure: Amazon Quicksight offers a subscription-based pricing model, charging users based on a monthly fee plus additional charges for additional features and data sources. In contrast, Azure Synapse follows a usage-based pricing model, where users pay for the computing power and storage resources they consume.

2. Data Integration and Transformation Capabilities: Amazon Quicksight focuses primarily on visualizing data and lacks advanced data integration and transformation capabilities. On the other hand, Azure Synapse provides robust data integration and transformation capabilities through its built-in ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tools, which allows users to easily process and transform data before visualization.

3. Scalability and Performance: Both Amazon Quicksight and Azure Synapse offer high scalability. However, Azure Synapse provides better performance for handling large-scale data workloads due to its distributed processing capabilities and parallel execution of queries.

4. Data Sources and Connectivity: Amazon Quicksight supports a wide range of data sources, including Amazon S3, RDS, Redshift, and more. In contrast, Azure Synapse offers seamless integration with various Azure data services, such as Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and more, making it an ideal choice for organizations already using the Azure ecosystem.

5. Advanced Analytics and Machine Learning Capabilities: Azure Synapse provides advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities through integration with Azure Machine Learning, enabling users to build and deploy powerful data analytics models. While Amazon Quicksight allows integration with AWS services, it currently lacks direct integration with machine learning tools.

6. Security and Compliance: Both Amazon Quicksight and Azure Synapse prioritize security and compliance. However, Azure Synapse offers more robust security features, including advanced threat detection, data encryption at rest and in transit, and built-in compliance certifications such as HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 27001.

In summary, Amazon Quicksight and Azure Synapse differ in terms of their cost structure, data integration and transformation capabilities, scalability and performance, supported data sources and connectivity, advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities, and security and compliance features.