--- title: Amazon Athena Reviews meta_title: 'Amazon Athena Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 173 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Amazon Athena works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.4 review_count: 173 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-09' parent_category: name: Database Software url: https://www.g2.com/categories/database-software --- # Amazon Athena Reviews **Vendor:** Amazon Web Services (AWS) **Category:** [Database as a Service (DBaaS) Providers](https://www.g2.com/categories/database-as-a-service-dbaas) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 173 ## About Amazon Athena Amazon Athena is a serverless, interactive query service that enables users to analyze large datasets directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. With no infrastructure to manage, Athena allows for quick, ad-hoc querying without the need for complex ETL processes. It automatically scales to execute queries in parallel, delivering fast results even for complex queries and large datasets. Key Features and Functionality: - Serverless Architecture: Athena requires no server management, automatically handling infrastructure scaling and maintenance. - Standard SQL Support: Users can run ANSI SQL queries, facilitating easy data analysis without learning new languages. - Broad Data Format Compatibility: Supports various data formats, including CSV, JSON, ORC, Avro, and Parquet, allowing flexibility in data storage and analysis. - Integration with AWS Glue: Seamlessly integrates with AWS Glue Data Catalog for metadata management, enabling schema discovery and versioning. - Security and Compliance: Provides robust security features, including data encryption at rest and in transit, and integrates with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for fine-grained access control. Primary Value and User Solutions: Amazon Athena simplifies the process of analyzing vast amounts of data stored in Amazon S3 by eliminating the need for complex infrastructure setup and management. Its serverless nature and support for standard SQL make it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. By enabling quick, cost-effective querying of large datasets, Athena addresses challenges related to data analysis speed, scalability, and operational overhead, empowering organizations to derive insights efficiently. ## Amazon Athena Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users find **Amazon Athena's analytics capabilities** effective for analyzing data stored in S3 efficiently. (1 reviews) - Users find Amazon Athena to be a **great solution for analyzing data stored in S3** efficiently and effectively. (1 reviews) - Users find Athena ideal for **running data analysis** on S3 storage efficiently and effectively. (1 reviews) - Users find Amazon Athena to be **very easy to use** , thanks to its user-friendly interface and versatile querying capabilities. (1 reviews) - Users appreciate the **user-friendly interface** of Amazon Athena, making it accessible for both tech and non-tech individuals. (1 reviews) - Users value the **ease of querying various data sources** with Amazon Athena, making it accessible for everyone. (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users experience **function limitations** with Amazon Athena, finding it unhelpful for querying and updating data. (1 reviews) - Users struggle with **limited SQL capabilities** in Amazon Athena, hindering their ability to efficiently query and update data. (1 reviews) - Users experience **poor usability** , finding it unhelpful when querying data and making updates in Amazon Athena. (1 reviews) ## Amazon Athena Reviews ### 1. Great Concept - Still Needs Some Work **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Amy S. | Senior Creative Director, Marketing and Advertising, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Amazon Athena?** Great for one off queries on existing data stored in S3. Athena's Interface allows to save queries, review and download results and easily access all meta store data (DBs, Tables, Columns etc.). Which is great, because I hate having to replicate my data, or rerun reports. Supports syntax and reading of all file formats including TSV, CSV, Parquet, ORC, and Logs. Also supports access based on AWS IAM policies to restrict external or even internal access to the service. **What do you dislike about Amazon Athena?** Works only with External Tables. No support of UDFs (User Defined Functions). No support of stored procedures. Athena (for now) is only available in - Us-east1, us-east2, us-west-2, WW will be available by summer (Theoretically, You can query data from a different region - but you will need to pay for the data transfer between regions). LZO compression not supported. No support of Restful API for automation. No support in any kind of Scheduling Solutions. **Recommendations to others considering Amazon Athena:** Athena still does not support many crucial elements that allow you to fulfill it's potential and make it your Analytical service of choice like allowing to build custom UDFs, schedule and automate jobs and most importantly - you cannot write back to S3! **What problems is Amazon Athena solving and how is that benefiting you?** Basic reporting. ### 2. Great for simple debugging; terrible for analytics **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Malina K. | Principal Technical Architect, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Amazon Athena?** Works very well for simple diagnostic queries that process small data samples. Quite useful for general debugging or light data exploration. **What do you dislike about Amazon Athena?** Hard timeouts and large data scans mean that complex analytic queries are a non-starter on Athena. **Recommendations to others considering Amazon Athena:** Great for simple diagnostics. **What problems is Amazon Athena solving and how is that benefiting you?** Has been very useful for debugging ETL pipeline issues. Also good for simple examinations of data in a friendly format. ## Amazon Athena Discussions - [Is AWS Athena free?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-aws-athena-free) - 1 comment - [How do I use AWS Athena?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-use-aws-athena) - 1 comment - [View Amazon Athena pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-athena/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=2§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+00%3A05%3A46+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=2f06da06-7182-406b-9c49-457a5a81c454&secure%5Btoken%5D=32953568af23d2b5abe974227a7af1ce962d1bf45cc68b056718ac4b28814bb0&format=llm_user) ## Amazon Athena Integrations - [Amazon QuickSight](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-quicksight/reviews) - [Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)](https://www.g2.com/products/amazon-simple-storage-service-s3/reviews) - [AWS Glue](https://www.g2.com/products/aws-glue/reviews) - [Microsoft Power BI](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-microsoft-power-bi/reviews) - [Python](https://www.g2.com/products/python/reviews) ## Amazon Athena Features **Management** - Data dictionary - Data Replication - Query Language - Data Modeling - Performance Analysis - Data Synchronization - Real-Time Data - Data Storage Management **Configuration** - Application Performance - Orchestration - Database Monitoring - Anomaly Detection - Network Security **Maintenance** - Data Migration - Backup and Recovery - Multi-User Environment - Automatic Backup - Database Conversion **Database Administration** - Provisioning - Governance - Auditing **Security** - Data Encryption - User Access Control - Mobile Access **Additional Functionality** - Workflow Management - Third-Party Integrations - Data Extraction - Relational Database Management - SSL Security - API - Data Connectors - Search/Filter - Reporting & Statistics - Customizable Templates - AI Copilot - Full Text Search - Data Virtualization - Data Import/Export - Generative AI - Drag & Drop - Customizable Fields - Authentication - Data Visualization - Secure Data Storage - Activity Dashboard - Data Mapping - Multiple Programming Languages Supported - Data Capture and Transfer - User Management - NOSQL Database Management - Access Controls/Permissions - Calendar Management - Real-Time Monitoring - Document Storage - Audit Management - Charting **Availability** - Scalability - Backup - Archiving - Indexing **Security** - Data Masking - Authentication And Single Sign-On - Data Anonymization **Data Management** - Data Replication - Advanced Data Analytics ## Top Amazon Athena Alternatives - [Snowflake](https://www.g2.com/products/snowflake/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (714 reviews) - [Microsoft SQL Server](https://www.g2.com/products/microsoft-sql-server/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (2,128 reviews) - [DBeaver](https://www.g2.com/products/dbeaver/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (169 reviews)