Teradata is used for many use cases, such as clickstream, website support, and manufacturing control.
Principal at Insight Data Consulting
Excellent native features, highly stable, and impressive automation
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of Teradata are that it is a massively parallel platform and I can receive a lot of data and get the queries out correctly, especially if it's been appropriately designed. The native features make it very suitable for multiple large data tasks in a structured data environment. Additionally, the automation is very good."
- "I've been using the same UI for 20 years in Teradata. It could use some updating. Adding more stability around Teradata Studio would be outstanding. Teradata Studio is a Java-based version of their tool. It's much better now, but it still has some room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Teradata has helped our organization accelerate substantially the decision-making that happens.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of Teradata are that it is a massively parallel platform and I can receive a lot of data and get the queries out correctly, especially if it's been appropriately designed. The native features make it very suitable for multiple large data tasks in a structured data environment. Additionally, the automation is very good.
What needs improvement?
I've been using the same UI for 20 years in Teradata. It could use some updating. Adding more stability around Teradata Studio would be outstanding. Teradata Studio is a Java-based version of their tool. It's much better now, but it still has some room for improvement.
Buyer's Guide
Teradata
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Teradata. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
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For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Teradata for approximately 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Teradata is outstanding.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Teradata is highly scalable, it is excellent.
We have approximately hundreds of users using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
I have not used support recently, but I have previously.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used SQL Server.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Teradata is complex. The business layers on top of Teradata add to the complexity. The way the business uses Teradata adds to the complexity that the software itself doesn't necessarily have.
You can do an upgrade for Teradata in a couple of days. Deploying it is not difficult at all, nor is it time-consuming.
I rate the ease of setup for Teradata a one out of five.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of Teradata is expensive. However, what they deliver they are outstanding. If you're looking for an inexpensive solution to run a database, this isn't your tool. It's the Ferrari of databases for data warehousing.
There are add-ons that you can purchase, such as special features. Teradata likes to sell an industry logical data model that's customized for just about every industry they have clients in. That is an extremely expensive add-on, but it does give you a step up in getting your logical modeling created. They've also done some work towards being able to go from logical to physical in an automated fashion with that ILM.
What other advice do I have?
Teradata is being used on-premise, but we're moving to the cloud and I don't know that we'll retain Teradata further. We might be switching to the Google platform and their native databases.
Make sure that your data volumes are large enough for it and that you follow their standards. The modeling for Teradata is slightly different than anything else out there. Match your primary indexes if you can. These PI-to-PI joins are incredibly fast, even with massive amounts of data. I've worked on Teradata installations in the petabyte range.
I rate Teradata a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

End-End Technical Manager Teradata/Netezza/Greenplum DBA Group at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
You can schedule any testing you want to do in production.
Pros and Cons
- "In Data Lab, you can schedule any testing you want to do in production. You can take a small subset of data from production, copy it there, and run all your tests. It reduces your testing costs because it's all in the lab."
- "If I want to implement an upgrade, I'd like to see how it will be different. Ideally, Data Lab should help me test production items and also do future things. Future releases should be downloadable and testable in Data Lab."
What is our primary use case?
Teradata Data Lab is used for simulations.
What is most valuable?
In Data Lab, you can schedule any testing you want to do in production. You can take a small subset of data from production, copy it there, and run all your tests. It reduces your testing costs because it's all in the lab.
What needs improvement?
If I want to implement an upgrade, I'd like to see how it will be different. Ideally, Data Lab should help me test production items and also do future things. Future releases should be downloadable and testable in Data Lab.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Data Lab is very stable. It has been in the market for 25 years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Data Lab is highly scalable. My organization has a lot of users, but each company has more than 30,000 users. More than a thousand customers are using it, so there are more than 300,000 users out there.
How are customer service and support?
Teradata technical support is excellent.
How was the initial setup?
You don't have to do any installation. It is an out-of-the-box solution. It's low maintenance. We have one person, but if you need 24/7 coverage, you need four or five people.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have a subscription. Nowadays, everything is cloud-based, so you pay for the subscription, and it is pretty affordable. There aren't any additional costs. So what you see is what you get.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Teradata Data Lab nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Teradata
March 2025

Learn what your peers think about Teradata. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,466 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Data Engineer III at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Fast with good monitoring and able to handle big queries
Pros and Cons
- "Teradata's pretty fast."
- "Teradata is an old data warehouse, and they're not improving in terms of new, innovative features."
What is our primary use case?
I am a Teradata administrator as well as a developer. I have about 700 users who are using our system, and we are maintaining the system in terms of tuning and in terms of all end-to-end items above the Teradata system.
We are using it as a data warehouse. In the data warehouse, we have got so many users who are doing their reporting and different types of analytics work using the solution.
What is most valuable?
Teradata's pretty fast. That is one very important aspect of the solution.
There are other tools, like Viewpoint, in Teradata, which is a monitoring tool.
The integration is pretty easy here in Teradata.
It can scale.
We have found the solution to be stable.
What needs improvement?
The market is enhancing, and every day, BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, and all these competitors are moving very, very fast. They're bringing out many new features. For example, Snowflake now has Time Travel and cloning and all these very interesting features. Teradata is an old data warehouse, and they're not improving in terms of new, innovative features. Basically, they're pretty much consistent and unchanging. They're not bringing new features. I've been working with it for eight years, and I have not seen so many new features. Maybe there have been only one or two in the last eight years. Innovation is something that is a bit slow with respect to Teradata. Other competitors are better in terms of new innovations. I'd like to see Teradata add features like cloning or time travel.
There is a query tool. However, we need to install the tool in order to fetch records. With other data warehouses, they have a web-based tool that allows for queries without having to download.
The initial setup is not too easy.
When we want to scale, we need to go to Teradata to initiate the process.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for around eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and reliable. I'd rate it nine out of ten. There are no bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
While the solution is scalable, and you can add new nodes if you want to, it's not instantaneous. We need to reach out to Teradata and they will handle the changes we require. Scaling is a process.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been very good. We have been pleased with the level of attention we receive.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use BigQuery and Snowflake. They are more complex, and therefore, it can be harder to integrate using them.
Teradata is a better monitoring tool, and it offers better performance with respect to bigger data queries. However, it continues to lack innovation.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is not straightforward to set up. For example, if I target the users, the users need to install things and set up things up. Even the LDAP integration and all those things are not easy with respect to Teradata if I compare it with BigQuery, Snowflake, and Redshift.
If I want to spin off a new node or anything like that with Teradata, it's a bit tricky compared to other data warehouses where we can easily spin off new nodes and work on them.
Since our system is like a fixed system, when we did this deployment, it didn't take that much time. However, it was not easy. If I wanted to add additional load into the system, I needed to hand over the Teradata system to Teradata, and they had to do it, and that would take a day to do. Now, if I compare it with BigQuery or Snowflake, I can spin off new clusters without any issues. I can just add the number of nodes in that new warehouse, and I can run it.
How long it takes to deploy depends on how big the system is. That said, compared to others, it definitely takes a little bit of extra time.
Since Teradata takes care of the implementation, I'm not sure how many people are ultimately involved in the deployment. From our side, we had two or three people involved in the setup.
We have five to six admins to manage a 24/7 project.
What about the implementation team?
Teradata handled a lot fo the implementation for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not overly aware of pricing. That said, my understanding is that it is reasonable. While it has a bit of an edge in pricing, everyone is relatively close in pricing.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a customer.
I'd advise potential users to do a proper POC first.
Teradata is beneficial when we have a huge amount of data, and queries are complex. It works well with small queries as well. However, companies won't benefit that much from Teradata if they are only focused on small queries.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. If they were more innovative, I would rate them higher.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Data warehouse consultant at Profinit
Powerful, good for large amounts of data, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
- "Designing the database is easy."
- "It's primarily designed for big projects and therefore, the pricing is pretty high. It's not suitable for smaller companies."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution as a relational database. We use it mainly for logistics.
What is most valuable?
The solution offers very good features. It's useful when you are working with data.
The level of complexity is okay.
It can handle very large amounts of data. It is very powerful.
Designing the database is easy.
The solution is stable.
It is easy to set up.
The scalability is good.
Technical support was fine to deal with.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see a better relationship with the business itself. Business users have trouble finding solutions when they run into issues in the data warehouse.
It can be a bit complex to work with.
Regarding data warehousing, I'd like to see more data and business analysis to help with the design and development.
It's primarily designed for big projects and therefore, the pricing is pretty high. It's not suitable for smaller companies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable and reliable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. As long as it was designed well, a company shouldn't have issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale well.
I'm not sure how many users are on the solution. Likely, it is up to hundreds of users.
We do not have plans to increase usage. We stopped using it this summer.
How are customer service and support?
We've used support in the past. I had worked closely with them. The technical team was fine to deal with.
How was the initial setup?
It's not too complex. It's designed for huge amounts of data, and it's planned out well. As long as you follow some principles, it won't be too complicated.
I've used the solution for more than a decade. It was a while since I deployed the solution.
You start with business analysis and design the database structure from there. After that, you can start populating and developing.
How many people you need for deployment or maintenance would depend on how big the implementation is.
What about the implementation team?
Typically, we handle the initial setup in-house. It is possible to get help if we need it. Whether or not a company needs help depends on the customer and their level of comfort with the setup.
What was our ROI?
I have witnessed an ROI while using the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing makes sense for bigger projects. It wouldn't make sense for smaller companies or smaller projects.
What other advice do I have?
We are primarily using the latest version of the solution.
It works well both on-premises and on the cloud.
I would recommend the solution. However, it depends on the project itself. Based on the stability alone, I would recommend it. It's good for bigger projects. If it is used for small projects, the complexity and price may be too high.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at DNA Payroll Outsourcing
Superior solution for optimizing data
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features are the large volume of data and the structuring of the data to optimize it and get very optimal data warehouse solutions for customers."
- "Teradata needs to pay attention to the cloud-based solution to make sure it runs smoothly."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the large volume of data and the structuring of the data to optimize it and get very optimal data warehouse solutions for customers.
What needs improvement?
An area that needs improvement is the cloud-based version of the solution because it's designed for on-prem and then transferred to the cloud version. Teradata needs to pay attention to the cloud-based solution to make sure it runs smoothly. In the next release, I would like Teradata to be cloud-agnostic in order to not limit customers' choices.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for fifteen to twenty years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Teradata is superior, stable, and has no problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Teradata is easily scalable.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is complex and requires specialized people for implementation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost of running Teradata is quite high, but you get a good return on investment.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've also evaluated Snowflake, which allows you to expose your data to multiple sources for monitoring without additional work.
What other advice do I have?
For the on-prem solution, there isn't really anyone who can compete with Teradata. I would rate it as eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
Data Architect, Section Head at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees
Good data warehousing, scalable, and offers good functionality
Pros and Cons
- "The functionality of the solution is excellent."
- "I'm not sure about the unstructured data management capabilities. It could be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for data warehousing.
What is most valuable?
The loading time of the solution is quite good.
What really impressed me is their approach to design the data warehouse. It's very different from other solutions. They have their own methodologies for doing things, and they can come up with a very solid and good design that can stand the test of time.
The functionality of the solution is excellent.
The solution can scale.
It's quite a stable product.
On the product side, I don't think anyone can actually beat them with data warehousing.
What needs improvement?
I'm not sure about the unstructured data management capabilities. It could be improved.
They should, I think, try to do more of this open-source initiative to encourage more people to use it. Otherwise, it's my opinion that they might lose our business in the long run.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for about three years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
As one of the top companies in the world, the solution is very stable. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Product-wise the scalability and usability, is all excellent. They are the top players in this with their new database. The cloud helps make it so scalable. We're catching up and starting to scale, however, we aren't there yet.
How was the initial setup?
I don't recall if the solution had a complex or straightforward setup. I wasn't part of the process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure if we would want to keep paying for the solution. They should make some of the software a community edition or something like that to encourage more people to use it.
What other advice do I have?
This is a very good solution.
After looking at the recent price drops, they need to offer very good discounts for people that bought it. The value proposition is actually quite good compared to many years ago. For most of the enterprises out there, they're focusing mainly on structure data. This solution ticks that box.
As long as they can control the price incrementally in the future, I think they're a very good strong platform.
I'd rate this product in terms of its functionality, stability, and scalability, as almost perfect. It's a nine out of ten. I don't think there's anything to complain about. It's only the price that's a sticking point for us.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Data Engineer at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
It was easy for us to migrate from on-premise Teradata to AWS Teradata
Pros and Cons
- "I like writing preformance queries for preprocessing on AWS Cloud."
- "I would like more security and speed."
What is our primary use case?
We have been using the on-premise PostgreSQL, and most of our data comes from SAP. We have all our Oracle logs being pushed to Teradata, which is where we take the data, then skim it. We pass it through whatever it is we are using, then turn it back to the customers.
Therefore, our primary use case is to distribute the data across all types of commercial and personal consumers, making it available as fast as possible.
How has it helped my organization?
We are able to distribute Teradata in different regions to increase availability. As we are slowly moving everything to AWS cloud, we haven't had to worry about anything.
What is most valuable?
I like writing preformance queries for preprocessing on AWS Cloud.
What needs improvement?
I would like more security and speed. These days, everyone is not just moving to cloud, but they are moving to clout. In a multi-cloud environment, you have to be cognizant of data transfer, bandwidth, and egress charges, not just from a performance and scalability point of view, but also how to keep costs low.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is fine. We did not see a lot of downtime while migrating. It was a pretty clean transfer from on-premise to the cloud.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is great. AWS is all about the scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
I have not used the technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Since we also use the AWS PostgreSQL, and some of our data is in there too, we came to the conclusion to move solutions within Teradata. Because already had the on-premise Teradata, it was easy for us to migrate from on-premise Teradata to AWS Teradata.
How was the initial setup?
The integration and configuration of Teradata in our AWS environment was great. This lead us to use all the databases after making the move to AWS Cloud in Teradata.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know about the pricing and licensing.
What other advice do I have?
Initially, the whole infrastructure was on-premise. For the past year, we have started moving over to the cloud. The support that we receive from AWS is great.
The on-premise version is fairly to use. We don't have to scale it up nor scale it down.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Teradata DBA at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
It's complex in terms of physical data modeling, but it can process large amounts of data quickly.
What is most valuable?
- The ability to process large amounts of data very quickly
- Its adaptability
How has it helped my organization?
Our business processes are much more efficient with Teradata's speed.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see better processing on a transactional level and star schema optimization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for 13 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
It's excellent, 10/10.
Technical Support:It's excellent, 10/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No other previous solution for these applications was used.
How was the initial setup?
It's complex in terms of physical data modeling.
What about the implementation team?
We used a hybrid team of both in-house staff, and a vendor team.
What was our ROI?
It's more than 100%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's not cheap but definitely worth it. It's been chosen by companies that tried cheaper solutions.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We also looked at DB2.
What other advice do I have?
Know your data.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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