Amazon Redshift vs MotherDuck
SEPT 2026 auditA comparison of Amazon Redshift and MotherDuck built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.
The short answer
Choose Amazon Redshift if…
Constant, predictable query load already inside AWS. At $0.543 an hour a provisioned cluster costs the same whether it serves one query or a million, so heavy continuous use is where the hourly model pays.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Choose MotherDuck if…
Analytics that fit on one machine, priced per organisation rather than per query: $250 a month flat plus usage, so adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not move the floor. A 99.9% SLA comes with it.
Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved
Consider something else if…
- Amazon Redshift: The warehouse sits idle. A provisioned cluster bills around $391 a month doing nothing; serverless shuts down when inactive but starts at $1.50 an hour, so the cheaper rate and the cheaper bill are not the same option.
- MotherDuck: You have more than ten people or need an SLA cheaply. Business caps internal active users at ten, and both the SLA and custom roles arrive only at $250 — the free Lite plan allows three users and publishes no availability commitment.
3 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.
Pick the criteria you care about. The chart counts how many of them lean toward each provider — the same read as scanning the bars below, just totalled for the ones you chose.
Amazon Redshift 0
MotherDuck 0
At a glance.
| Criterion | Amazon Redshift | MotherDuck |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | ||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| What the free plan includes | A two-month free trial for provisioned clusters, capped at 750 hours a month — so one cluster running continuously exhausts it almost exactly. Serverless is offered with a credit instead, drawn down at a rate that depends on the endpoint capacity. | Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts, 10 GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute a month, with community support and preset role-based access control. A standing plan rather than a trial. |
| Entry paid plan | $0.543 an hour for a provisioned cluster, or $1.50 an hour for serverless — about $391 and $1,080 a month if left running. Serverless shuts down when idle and bills per second with a 60-second minimum, so the higher hourly rate can be the cheaper one. | $250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor. |
| Pricing model | Two deployment options priced on time rather than data. Provisioned bills per node-hour for a cluster you size yourself; Serverless bills Redshift Processing Unit hours per second, with a 60-second minimum and no charge for start-up time, shutting down when inactive. Managed storage is billed independently of compute in both. | Per organisation per month plus usage, with seats rather than scans as the limiting dimension: up to 10 internal active users on Business against 3 on Lite, and unlimited service accounts. Five instance types and read-scaling replicas sit above that. |
Where they differ.
What the free plan includes
- Amazon Redshift
- A two-month free trial for provisioned clusters, capped at 750 hours a month — so one cluster running continuously exhausts it almost exactly. Serverless is offered with a credit instead, drawn down at a rate that depends on the endpoint capacity.
- MotherDuck
- Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts, 10 GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute a month, with community support and preset role-based access control. A standing plan rather than a trial.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon Redshift pricing ↗
“Once your two month free trial expires or your usage exceeds 750 hours per month”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- MotherDuck Pricing ↗
“Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts 10 GB free storage 10 hrs Pulse compute per month included”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Entry paid plan
- Amazon Redshift
- $0.543 an hour for a provisioned cluster, or $1.50 an hour for serverless — about $391 and $1,080 a month if left running. Serverless shuts down when idle and bills per second with a 60-second minimum, so the higher hourly rate can be the cheaper one.
- MotherDuck
- $250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon Redshift pricing ↗
“Redshift Provisioned starts at $0.543 per hour, while Redshift Serverless begins at $1.50 per hour.”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- MotherDuck Pricing ↗
“Business $250 PER ORG / MONTH + USAGE”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
Pricing model
- Amazon Redshift
- Two deployment options priced on time rather than data. Provisioned bills per node-hour for a cluster you size yourself; Serverless bills Redshift Processing Unit hours per second, with a 60-second minimum and no charge for start-up time, shutting down when inactive. Managed storage is billed independently of compute in both.
- MotherDuck
- Per organisation per month plus usage, with seats rather than scans as the limiting dimension: up to 10 internal active users on Business against 3 on Lite, and unlimited service accounts. Five instance types and read-scaling replicas sit above that.
Sources (2) →Sources ↓
- Amazon Redshift pricing ↗
“You pay for the workloads you run in RPU-hours on a per-second basis (with a 60-second minimum charge)”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
- MotherDuck Pricing ↗
“Up to 10 internal active users and unlimited service accounts”
Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing
When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.
Documented by only one.
These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.
Questions this comparison answers.
Entry paid plan: Amazon Redshift or MotherDuck?
Amazon Redshift: $0.543 an hour for a provisioned cluster, or $1.50 an hour for serverless — about $391 and $1,080 a month if left running. Serverless shuts down when idle and bills per second with a 60-second minimum, so the higher hourly rate can be the cheaper one.
MotherDuck: $250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor.
Should I choose Amazon Redshift or MotherDuck?
Pick Amazon Redshift if Constant, predictable query load already inside AWS. At $0.543 an hour a provisioned cluster costs the same whether it serves one query or a million, so heavy continuous use is where the hourly model pays.
Pick MotherDuck if Analytics that fit on one machine, priced per organisation rather than per query: $250 a month flat plus usage, so adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not move the floor. A 99.9% SLA comes with it.