BigQuery vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics comparison

Google and Microsoft are both solutions in the Cloud Data Warehouse category. Google is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5, while Microsoft is ranked #7 with an average rating of 7.7. Google holds a 8.0% mindshare in CDW, compared to Microsoft’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Google users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 94% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

BigQuery

Read 43 BigQuery reviews

3,228 Views
2,615 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...

Read 98 Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reviews

4,513 Views
2,843 Comparison Views

94% willing to recommend

BigQuery

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and Google BigQuery compete in the cloud data warehousing category. Based on feature integration and scalability, Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics may have the upper hand for enterprise users.

Features: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is known for easy setup, seamless integration with Power BI, and scalability through its Massively Parallel Processing architecture. BigQuery stands out for its storage capabilities, performance speed, and seamless machine-learning integration.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve in pricing transparency, interface usability, and better integration with Active Directory. BigQuery's enhancements could include better handling of special characters during data migration, query caching, and more diverse data source integration options.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers flexibility with deployment options across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments, although tech support experiences vary. BigQuery is praised for its straightforward deployment in the public cloud, with generally positive experiences with Google's technical support.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers a flexible pricing structure but can lead to cost unpredictability, impacting smaller business adoption. However, it shows good ROI through reduced operational costs. BigQuery is reasonably priced, using a pay-as-you-go model based on data usage, but careful cost planning is necessary despite its competitive pricing for large data volumes.

To learn more, read our detailed BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Report (Updated: March 2026).

Buyer's Guide

BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

March 2026

Download the complete report

Helped 884,656 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score

4.9

BigQuery offers improved performance, cost savings, and intuitive features, with some users reporting up to 75% cost reductions.

Sentiment score

6.1

Companies benefited from Azure Synapse's cost savings, flexibility, and improved efficiency, though financial specifics and satisfaction varied.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

Some of my customers have indeed seen a return on investment with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as they used it for analytics to drive decision-making, improving their processes or increasing revenue.

SarathBoppudi

Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Customer Service

Sentiment score

7.2

Customers find Google BigQuery support effective but sometimes limited, relying on documentation, forums, and expert assistance for issues.

Sentiment score

6.5

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics support experiences vary, with larger clients generally receiving faster, more knowledgeable assistance.

rating the customer support at ten points out of ten

Jitesh Rathod

Sr. Team Lead - IT at InfoStretch

I have been self-taught and I have been able to handle all my problems alone.

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

I would rate their customer service pretty good on a scale of one to 10, as they gave me access to the platform on a grant.

Mikah Sellers

Principal at Sgt Suds

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

They are slow to respond and not very knowledgeable.

ArjunAlva

IT Manager at KONGSBERG

This is an underestimation of the real impact because we use big data also to monitor the network and the customer.

reviewer1976679

Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

I would rate the support for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics as an eight out of ten.

SarathBoppudi

Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.8

BigQuery offers excellent scalability and efficiency, supporting vast data seamlessly, though cost and integration challenges may arise.

Sentiment score

7.4

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its scalability, flexibility, and auto-scaling, despite occasional cost and latency concerns.

It is a 10 out of 10 in terms of scalability.

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

We have not seen problems with scaling.

reviewer2807520

Director at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

The scalability is definitely good because we are migrating to the cloud since the computers on the premises or the big database we need are no longer enough.

reviewer2641596

Expert Analyst at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is scalable, offering numerous opportunities for scalability.

ArjunAlva

IT Manager at KONGSBERG

For the scalability of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, I would rate it a 10 until you remain in the Azure Cloud scalability framework.

reviewer1976679

Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

Recovering from such scenarios becomes a bit problematic or time-consuming.

Joy Maitra

Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

8.3

BigQuery is stable and reliable, with efficient data handling, few bugs, and strong support, despite occasional slow queries.

Sentiment score

7.4

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is praised for its stability, despite occasional minor outages and performance issues with large datasets.

In the past one and a half years that I have been running with BigQuery, I have not needed to raise any technical support with BigQuery or with Google.

reviewer2807520

Director at a consultancy with 11-50 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

Performance and stability are absolutely fine because Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is a PaaS service.

AnandTiwari

CTO at New Turn Technologies

I find the service stable as I have not encountered many issues.

ArjunAlva

IT Manager at KONGSBERG

We have never integrated Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics with Databricks, but we have mostly pulled data from on-premises systems into Azure Databricks.

Jaya Prakasha Sarma

Practice Head BI at Nous Infosystems

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Room For Improvement

BigQuery struggles with cost, accessibility, scalability, and lacks data residency, needing better integration, performance, and machine learning features.

Microsoft Azure Synapse needs improvements in integration, pricing, ease of use, setup, and advanced analytics features for better adoption.

Troubleshooting requires opening each pipeline individually, which is time-consuming.

Jitesh Rathod

Sr. Team Lead - IT at InfoStretch

In general, if I know SQL and start playing around, it will start making sense.

reviewer2641596

Expert Analyst at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees

BigQuery is already integrating Gemini AI into the data extraction process directly in order to reduce costs.

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks.

AnandTiwari

CTO at New Turn Technologies

There is a need for better documentation, particularly for customized tasks with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.

ArjunAlva

IT Manager at KONGSBERG

Databricks is a very rich solution, with numerous open sources and capabilities in terms of extract, transform, load, database query, and so forth.

reviewer1976679

Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Setup Cost

BigQuery uses a pay-as-you-go model, balancing affordability with strategic expense management for data storage and query execution.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers flexible pricing but requires careful cost management due to unpredictable expenses and competitive services.

Being able to optimize the queries to data is critical. Otherwise, you could spend a fortune.

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

The price is perceived as expensive, rated at eight out of ten in terms of costliness.

Jitesh Rathod

Sr. Team Lead - IT at InfoStretch

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

The cheapest tier costs about $4,000 to $4,700 a year, while the most expensive tier can reach up to $300,000 a year.

SarathBoppudi

Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects

I think the price of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very expensive, but that's not only for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics—it's for the cloud in general.

reviewer1976679

Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

I find the pricing of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics reasonable.

Joy Maitra

Sr. Technical Architect at Hexaware Technologies Limited

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Valuable Features

BigQuery provides scalable, serverless data processing with fast query capabilities, seamless GCP integration, SQL support, and competitive pricing.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers scalability, integration, and advanced analytics with easy management, data protection, and familiar Microsoft interface.

It is really fast because it can process millions of rows in just a matter of one or two seconds.

reviewer2641596

Expert Analyst at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees

BigQuery processes a substantial amount of data, whether in gigabytes or terabytes, swiftly producing desired data within one or two minutes.

Jitesh Rathod

Sr. Team Lead - IT at InfoStretch

The features I find most valuable in this solution are the ability to run and handle large data sets in a very efficient way with multiple types of data, relational as SQL data.

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

For more quotes and insights, download the BigQuery report

One of the most valuable features in Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is the ability to write your own ETL code using Azure Data Factory, which is a component within Synapse.

SarathBoppudi

Data Strategist, Cloud Solutions Architect at Strategic Architects

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers significant visibility, which helps us understand our usage more clearly.

ArjunAlva

IT Manager at KONGSBERG

For Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, the integration is the most valuable feature, meaning that whatever you need is fast and easy to use.

reviewer1976679

Director Information Technology Services at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

For more quotes and insights, download the Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Categories and Ranking

BigQuery

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure Synapse Ana...

Ranking in Cloud Data Warehouse

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Cloud Data Warehouse category, the mindshare of BigQuery is 8.0%, up from 7.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is 6.0%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Data Warehouse Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
BigQuery	8.0%
Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics	6.0%
Other	86.0%

Cloud Data Warehouse

Featured Reviews

Luís Silva

Chief Technical Lead at a consultancy with 201-500 employees

Handles large data sets efficiently and offers flexible data management capabilities

The features I find most valuable in this solution are the ability to run and handle large data sets in a very efficient way with multiple types of data, relational as SQL data. It is kind of difficult to explain, but structured data and the ability to handle large data sets are key features. The data integration capabilities in BigQuery were, in fact, an issue at the beginning. There are two types of integrations. As long as integration is within Google, it is pretty simple. When you start to try to connect external clients to that data, it becomes more complex. It is not related to BigQuery, it is related to Google security model, which is not easy to manage. I would not call it an integration issue of BigQuery, I would call it an integration issue of Google security model.

Read full review

AnandTiwari

CTO at New Turn Technologies

Has consistently supported integration across diverse environments and streamlined deployment processes

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics could improve their pricing structure. They currently have two separate pricing tiers: full log and partial log. I suggest they implement a single price and reduce charges on logs. They could implement a cap with some free tier or price tier based on the GBs of log collected. This would help customers use Azure more effectively. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an excellent product because it includes both SIEM and orchestration capabilities with playbooks, but the log management part is very costly. Regarding future improvements, I would appreciate more application connectors for integration, particularly for on-premise based solutions. Many customers still maintain on-premise infrastructure, so having more integration possibilities for these environments would be beneficial.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Data Warehouse solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

884,656 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

14%

Computer Software Company

10%

Media Company

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	20

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	29
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	56

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BigQuery?

The initial setup process is easy.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for BigQuery?

I believe the cost of BigQuery is competitive versus the alternatives in the market, but it can become expensive if the tool is not used properly. It is on a per-consumption basis, the billing, so ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with BigQuery?

There are areas that could be improved with BigQuery, such as more bolt-on capabilities and the ability to use more bolt-ons for APIs. Having more of a library of connectors would be really benefic...

See all answers

How does Amazon Redshift compare with Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

Amazon Redshift is very fast, has a very good response time, and is very user-friendly. The initial setup is very straightforward. This solution can merge and integrate well with many different dat...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

The product is easy to use, and anybody can easily migrate to advanced DB.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics?

I think the licensing cost for Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is very high, but I have a local system to support that, so I don't consider that in the near future.

See all answers

Comparisons

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse vs BigQuery

Compared 16% of the time

Snowflake vs BigQuery

Compared 10% of the time

Teradata vs BigQuery

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Analytics Database (Vertica) vs BigQuery

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Exadata vs BigQuery

Compared 3% of the time

More BigQuery Competitors

Snowflake vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 20% of the time

Amazon Redshift vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 7% of the time

Azure Data Factory vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 5% of the time

Microsoft Analytics Platform System vs Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

BigQuery

March 2026

Download BigQuery product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

February 2026

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report

Download Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure Synapse Analytics, Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Microsoft Azure SQL DW, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, MS Azure Synapse Analytics

Overview

BigQuery is an enterprise data warehouse that solves this problem by enabling super-fast SQL queries using the processing power of Google's infrastructure. ... You can control access to both the project and your data based on your business needs, such as giving others the ability to view or query your data.

Google

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is an end-to-end analytics solution that successfully combines analytical services to merge big data analytics and enterprise data warehouses into a single unified platform. The solution can run intelligent distributed queries among nodes, and provides the ability to query both relational and non-relational data.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics is built with these 4 components:

Synapse SQL
Spark
Synapse Pipeline
Studio

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Features

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics has many valuable key features, including:

Cloud Data Service: WIth Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can operate services (data analytics, machine learning, data warehousing, dashboarding, etc.) in a single workspace via the cloud.
Structured and unstructured data: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics supports both structured and unstructured data and allows you to manage relational and non-relational data - unlike data warehouses and lakes that tend to store them respectively.
Effective data storage: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers next-level data storage with high availability and different tiers.
Responsive data engine: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics uses Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) and is designed to handle large volumes of data and analytical workloads efficiently without any problems.
Several scripting languages: The solution provides language compatibility and supports different programming languages, such as Python, Java, Spark SQL, and Scala.
Query optimization: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics works well to facilitate limitless concurrency and performance optimization. It also simplifies workload management.

Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics Benefits

Some of the benefits of using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics include:

Database templates: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics offers industry-specific database templates that make it easy to combine and shape data.
Better business insights: With Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics you can expand discovery of insights from all your data and apply machine learning models to all your intelligent apps.
Reduce project development time: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics makes it possible to have a unified experience for developing end-to-end analytics, which reduces project development time significantly.
Eliminate data barriers: By using Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics, you can perform analytics on operational and business apps data without data movement.
Advanced security: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics provides both advanced security and privacy features to ensure data protection.
Machine Learning: Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics integrates Azure Machine Learning, Azure Cognitive Services, and Power BI.

Reviews from Real Users

Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics users who are currently using the solution.

PeerSpot user Jael S., who is an Information Architect at Systems Analysis & Design Engineering, comments on her experience using the product, saying that it is “Scalable, intuitive, facilitates compliance and keeps your data secure”. She also says "We also like governance. It looks at what the requirements are for the company to identify the best way to ensure compliance is met when you move to the cloud."

Michel T., CHTO at Timp-iT, mentions that "the features most valuable are the simplicity, how easy it is to create a dashboard from different information systems."

A Senior Teradata Consultant at a tech services company says, "Microsoft provides both the platform and the data center, so you don't have to look for a cloud vendor. It saves you from having to deal with two vendors for the same task."

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Toshiba, Carnival, LG Electronics, Jet.com, Adobe,

Buyer's Guide

BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

March 2026

Free Report: BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics

Find out what your peers are saying about BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.

DOWNLOAD NOW

884,656 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our BigQuery vs. Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics report.

See our list of best Cloud Data Warehouse vendors.

We monitor all Cloud Data Warehouse reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.