Amazon Athena vs Amazon Elasticsearch Service comparison

Amazon Athena and Amazon Elasticsearch Service are both solutions in the Search as a Service category. Amazon Athena is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.0, while Amazon Elasticsearch Service is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.7. Amazon Athena holds a 10.6% mindshare in SS, compared to Amazon Elasticsearch Service’s 8.6% mindshare. Additionally, 80% of Amazon Athena users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Amazon Elasticsearch Service users who would recommend it.

Amazon Athena

Read 5 Amazon Athena reviews

1,293 Views
1,081 Comparison Views

80% willing to recommend

Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Read 6 Amazon Elasticsearch Service reviews

1,509 Views
1,287 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Amazon Athena

Amazon Elasticsearch Service

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

Amazon Elasticsearch Service and Amazon Athena thrive in the data processing and analysis category. While Elasticsearch is unbeatable in search capabilities and scalability, Athena stands out with its ease of use and cost-effectiveness.

Features: Amazon Elasticsearch Service offers native JSON handling, efficient search grammar, and real-time data exploration. It provides rich analytics capabilities useful for a variety of use cases. Amazon Athena features serverless SQL querying, integrating easily with other AWS services. It allows partitioning of databases and federated query functions, making it adaptable for diverse analytical scenarios.

Room for Improvement: Amazon Elasticsearch Service could improve its complexity as managing clusters might be intricate for some users. They could also enhance better-guided user support. For Amazon Athena, improving the dashboarding tool and increasing on-premises compatibility could enhance user satisfaction. Expanding query documentation might also benefit users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon Elasticsearch Service requires careful cluster management, offering flexibility at the expense of setup complexity. Amazon Athena simplifies deployment as a serverless solution, eliminating the need for infrastructure management. Both have responsive customer support, though Elasticsearch may need more detailed guidance due to its intricate nature.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon Elasticsearch Service can be costly due to node and cluster expenses, but these are justified for applications requiring robust search functions. Amazon Athena's cost-efficient pay-per-query model is especially advantageous for infrequent queries, maximizing ROI with minimal expenditure.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon Athena vs. Amazon Elasticsearch Service Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Athena vs. Amazon Elasticsearch Service

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Amazon Athena

Ranking in Search as a Service

7th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Amazon Elasticsearch Service

Ranking in Search as a Service

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Search as a Service category, the mindshare of Amazon Athena is 10.6%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon Elasticsearch Service is 8.6%, down from 18.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Search as a Service

Featured Reviews

Manilal Kasera

Senior Software Engineer at Tiger Analytics

A great AWS application that is easy to set up and simple to expand

If you compare it with Palantir, if you have some data and you want to quickly have a look at it, then that feature is not available in Amazon Cloud. We'd like it better if, for example, when you have some data, you can easily query it and you can easily read it at a glance. We'd like it to just be almost like a drag-and-drop situation. In Amazon Cloud, you actually have first to upload the data into S3. For that, you have to create a bucket. Now you have to create a Glue service, which will get you the schema. Then that schema would create basically a database and a table. After that, you have to go to Athena to query the data. It's a three-step process in Amazon Cloud. In Palantir, you just have to drag and drop.

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Surjit Choudhury

Consultancy at Ebenezer International School

A solution beneficial for the streaming of data that needs to improve its configuration part

Not for all the projects I saw, but most of the projects were using Elasticsearch, which is very common. In my case, I have faced two scenarios with the solution. Other than that, generic solutions like SNS, SQS, and Lambda are some of the very generic tools we are using. Regarding what I would like to see improved in the solution, I would say that, basically, the configuration part is an area with a shortcoming. We have a DevOps person, so all these things are configured in the Terraform through the Terraform script we use. The DevOps team used to take care of it. To run the process or run the services and how to use the services are the parts for which we are using the solution. Some upgradation is required on the configuration side so that we can get to use it. In that case, I have to check on that area with the DevOps.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"One of the most valuable features is the ability to partition your databases. I also like the federal query functionality, for cases when you have to query outside your S3 storage, or even completely outside of the AWS platform."

"Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products."

"It's easy to set up the product."

"Amazon Athena is very stable. I never had any issues with it. The dashboarding tool is okay."

"The solution is very easy to use and integrations are very smooth."

"The most valuable features of Amazon Elasticsearch are ease of use, native JSON, and efficiency. Additionally, handles many use cases and search grammar was useful."

"They have the good documentation in the help text and that is the reason the Amazon is the perfect solution in the current market."

"In case there is a failure, Elastic manages everything well, and there no major downtime."

"The initial set up is very easy...We really appreciate Amazon!"

"It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs."

"The stability of the product is good."

"Regarding valuable features of the solution, we found with the process, which we have used in both cases where we used the solution that while you're seeing the streaming of data, you can analyze in the initial phase what sort of data you are streaming and whether it is valuable."

"It's a good log management platform. In terms of infrastructure management, it's good."

Cons

"The solution should include a better API for query services."

"If you compare it with Palantir, if you have some data and you want to quickly have a look at it, then that feature is not available in Amazon Cloud."

"I think it would be better if the product were more mature. It's still a young product compared to Power BI or Qlik. I find that development is a bit difficult, but it might be because I'm used to other tools. The dashboarding capabilities could be better. The reporting and statement generation could be better. I couldn't technically initiate picture-perfect reporting, for example, to send out statements every month for banking customers."

"You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud."

"One improvement I can suggest is that Athena needs to work better with third-parties. For example, the process of querying a Microsoft SQL warehouse could be improved."

"The configuration should be more straightforward because we had to select a lot of things."

"I want to see a new feature in Amazon Elasticsearch Service that allows users to create default filters for filtered levels."

"There is a problem with the database. Amazon only provides the hosting to run our applications bias, but there is no option to manage the database within the Elasticsearch product."

"Amazon Elasticsearch can improve the bullion in the near search and the ease of integration with Kibana. Additionally, there could be more flexibility in the configuration and documentation."

"I would say that, basically, the configuration part is an area with a shortcoming...Some upgradation is required on the configuration side so that we can get to use it."

"One glaring issue was with our mapping configuration as the system accepted the data we posted, but after a few months, when we attempted complex queries, we realized the date formatting had become problematic."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am happy with what they are charging and how they charge it, especially because they charge you per query, and not per series."

"Athena is very inexpensive for being a cloud tool."

"The solution operates on a serverless model so you only pay for data that you consume."

"It doesn't cost much if you are already part of the AWS ecosystem."

"You only pay for what you use."

"There is a community edition available and the price of the commercial offering is reasonable."

"Compared to other cloud platforms, it is manageable and not very expensive."

"The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Government

10%

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Athena?

Athena has a really good UI and is very compatible with on-prem products.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Athena?

Athena is very inexpensive for being a cloud tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Athena?

You have to build out the metadata yourself because of the nature of the cloud.

See all answers

What do you like most about Amazon Elasticsearch Service?

It enables us to efficiently search and retrieve our event data, offering us a versatile approach to locate specific information within these logs.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon Elasticsearch Service?

The solution is not expensive, but priced averagely, I will say. Regarding the pricing part based on the use cases, we used to sometimes see or do some of the costing parts also in that case. Depar...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon Elasticsearch Service?

One glaring issue was with our mapping configuration as the system accepted the data we posted, but after a few months, when we attempted complex queries, we realized the date formatting had become...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Amazon Kendra vs Amazon Athena

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Amazon AWS CloudSearch vs Amazon Athena

Compared 10% of the time

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Compared 9% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

April 2025

Download Amazon Athena product report

Buyer's Guide

Search as a Service

April 2025

Download Amazon Elasticsearch Service product report

Overview

Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. Athena is serverless, so there is no infrastructure to manage, and you pay only for the queries that you run.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Elasticsearch Service is a managed service that makes it easy to deploy, operate, and scale Elasticsearch clusters in the AWS Cloud.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Sample Customers

bp, Cerner, Expedia, Finra, HESS, intuit, Kellog's, Philips, TIME, workday

VIDCOIN, Wyng, Yellow New Zealand, zipMoney, Cimri, Siemens, Unbabel

Buyer's Guide

Amazon Athena vs. Amazon Elasticsearch Service

April 2025

Free Report: Amazon Athena vs. Amazon Elasticsearch Service

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