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IBM Db2 Warehouse vs Snowflake Analytics comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

IBM Db2 Warehouse
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
11
Ranking in other categories
Data Warehouse (12th)
Snowflake Analytics
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (1st), Cloud Data Warehouse (8th)
 

Featured Reviews

Ismail Aboulezz - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhancements in data analysis and decision-making elevate overall performance
The most valuable features of IBM Db2 Warehouse ( /products/ibm-db2-warehouse-reviews ) include its availability, easy integration, ability to deal with a large size of data, excellent performance with no delays, powerful security mechanisms, and effective support. The response time is very quick, and the technical manuals and support from IBM are of high quality. Additionally, it is easy to install, troubleshoot, operate, and secure the environment.
KamleshPant - PeerSpot reviewer
Data ecosystem thrives with advanced governance and streaming capabilities
It is a data offering where I can see data lineage, data governance, and data security. Snowflake has a streaming capability to work with real-time streaming data and delta tables. Additionally, task management, job scheduling, and connecting multiple data sources unify my data across internal and external sources. The system ecosystem for analytics is enhanced, and AI capabilities are incorporated.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It can be mounted on the cloud, which is a huge plus. If the client, for example, starts small with on-premise deployment and then it rapidly needs to grow, we can transfer this to the cloud easily."
"Some of the best features are stored procedures, parallelism, and different indexing strategies."
"The solution is stable."
"Provides good security and reliability."
"It can scale effectively as long as resources are available."
"The most valuable features of IBM Db2 Warehouse include its availability, easy integration, ability to deal with a large size of data, excellent performance with no delays, powerful security mechanisms, and effective support."
"I think it scales really well and as long as you take enough time to learn a little bit about it, it works really well."
"The analytics engine is not bad at forecasting predictions."
"I am impressed with the product's data-sharing feature."
"Considering everything I have accessed, the product's dashboard is good since it provides multiple good options, including customization options."
"The performance has been good."
"It can run complex workloads with varied compute."
"Its structure aids in storing, managing, and analyzing large datasets in the cloud, using various relationships like one-to-one and many-to-one, ensuring consistency in the data structure."
"It helps with business intelligence by providing analytics that can be reported."
"Scaling is very high – there's no problem for scaling purposes. The learning curve is very small. And there are a lot of advanced features like handling duplicates, security, data governance, data sharing, and data cloning."
"The advanced features like time travel, zero copy cloning and scalability have been most useful. Snowflake requires zero maintenance for Data Warehousing on the cloud system."
 

Cons

"Responding to support tickets takes a lot of time. It can range from two to four days, even for critical issues."
"The biggest challenge anyone could have with Db2 Warehouse is their references or online resources and documentation. They are very, very, very limited on the web."
"In terms of improvement, IBM Db2 Warehouse should be more scalable."
"It takes a long time to have a new version or release, similar to Oracle."
"IBM Db2 Warehouse needs to improve its interface."
"The biggest problems we have is when the backup solution is failing or slow and we run out of log space, which has happened probably a couple of times in the last four years."
"There were some initial challenges with IBM Db2 Warehouse about eight months ago when I worked in this environment. When I coordinated with IBM support, they mentioned that the memory was insufficient for our needs. Our business environment required significantly more memory than the previous cluster could provide. Consequently, we have worked closely with on-site IBM technical personnel to address this issue."
"The areas of the solution that is needing the most improvement are separating compute from storage, elasticity, which means scaling up and then retracting."
"There are issues while loading data from Snowflake Analytics to the Power BI reporting."
"Snowflake's Snowpark is an area of concern where improvements are required."
"End-to-end execution of jobs isn't possible with Snowflake, which means we have to do some customization."
"Snowflake could improve in the areas of advanced machine learning AML and generative AI."
"Improvements are needed in importing and exporting large datasets to and from reporting tools."
"One area that could benefit from enhancement is the user interface for more visual ESM features."
"Machine learning in Snowflake isn't as advanced as in other products. I haven't heard of any successful industry-wide use cases of machine learning implemented in Snowflake. It might take a couple of years to reach the same level as Databricks."
"The solution’s interface is good but it could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In a traditional on-prem database, in a data warehouse, the solution is probably on the expensive side."
"It is an expensive solution, but the kind of usability and flexibility it proactively provides for the organizations justify the price."
"It's not costly if you configure it properly to ensure optimal performance. People don't configure it properly, which is why costs go up."
"The pricing is on the higher side."
"The solution's price is high and I would rate it an eight out of ten."
"It is not overly expensive. I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, with ten being expensive."
"Snowflake Analytics is not an expensive solution, and its pricing is average."
"The solution's pricing is affordable."
"I rate the product price a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one is low price, and ten is high price."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
58%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
5%
Government
5%
Computer Software Company
18%
Retailer
12%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Db2 Warehouse?
The standout feature of IBM Db2 Warehouse, which is particularly valuable for large enterprises, is its ability to handle big data.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Db2 Warehouse?
Db2 Warehouse or IBM products are pretty expensive. There are cheaper tools on the market. However, if the client is satisfied with paying for the Db2 Warehouse license, especially for cloud-based ...
What needs improvement with IBM Db2 Warehouse?
Responding to support tickets takes a lot of time. It can range from two to four days, even for critical issues. The technical support quality is good, but the response time needs improvement.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Snowflake Analytics?
Snowflake is better and cheaper than Redshift and other cloud warehousing systems. It's economical.
What needs improvement with Snowflake Analytics?
Most features are already available. Perhaps AIML integration might be further needed, or Snowflake is already implementing it. AIML-based SQL prompt and query generation could be an area for enhan...
 

Also Known As

InfoSphere Warehouse, IBM InfoSphere Warehouse
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Alameda County Social Services Agency, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited
Lionsgate, Adobe, Sony, Capital One, Akamai, Deliveroo, Snagajob, Logitech, University of Notre Dame, Runkeeper
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Db2 Warehouse vs. Snowflake Analytics and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
846,617 professionals have used our research since 2012.