
Amazon EMR Review: Is It The Right Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms For Your Team?
Best for SMB teams · Mid-market · Enterprise
Starts from $0.04 / hour

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What is Amazon EMR?
Introducing Amazon EMR, the leading big data platform in the cloud. With a powerful combination of open-source tools such as Apache Spark, Hive, HBase, Flink, Hudi, and Presto, EMR makes it easy to process large amounts of data. Plus, it automatically configures EC2 firewall settings and launches clusters within an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, ensuring secure network access. You can even personalize your EMR clusters with custom Amazon Linux AMIs and easily install third-party software using scripts. Streamline your big data processing with Amazon EMR and harness the full potential of the cloud.
Pricing
Starts from $0.04 / hour
Best For
Suited for solo users, small teams, SMBs, and enterprise
Security & Compliance
SSO & MFA supported
Data residency:Global
Amazon EMR Software Demo
Amazon EMR was reviewed internally using user feedback, in-house testing, and market research to assess its performance, reliability, and user experience. Learn how we review products and our evaluation process.
Who should consider Amazon EMR
- Use cases
- Big data processing and analytics, Data engineering and ETL pipelines, Real-time streaming data applications
- Team types
- Data engineers, Big data architects
- Company size
- Medium Business, Large Enterprises
- Workflow style
- Flexible and configurable
- Setup complexity
- Medium
Why teams choose Amazon EMR
Ease of launching and cloning EMR clusters with scalable resource management
Support for widely used open-source big data applications like Spark, Hive, and Flink
Robust configuration control and debugging support
Is Amazon EMR right for you?
Best for scalable, secure big data processing with broad open-source tool support.
Choose Amazon EMR if
- You need to run large-scale data engineering and ETL pipelines using Spark or Hive.
- Your team requires seamless integration with AWS services like EC2 and VPC for secure deployments.
- You want robust configuration control and debugging capabilities for managing complex clusters.
Consider alternatives if
- You have small teams lacking cloud infrastructure expertise and want minimal setup complexity.
- You require rapid cluster startup times for transient workloads or highly interactive environments.
What buyers should know before shortlisting Amazon EMR
Amazon EMR stands out as a versatile and powerful solution for running a variety of applications like Apache Spark, Flink, and Trino in a streamlined manner. Users commend its ease of launching and cloning EMR clusters, as well as its robust scaling capabilities and support for widely used applications.
The platform's control over configurations and debugging support are highlighted as key strengths, enabling users to efficiently run data pipeline jobs and enhance data processing speed. While some users find working with spot instances and troubleshooting incidents challenging, the overall consensus praises EMR for its user-friendly interface, scalability, and automation capabilities.
Additionally, users appreciate the platform's seamless integration with various services like S3 and its ability to process big data analytics efficiently. Although there are minor concerns about boot-up times and costs, Amazon EMR's efficient performance, scalability, and ability to handle complex data tasks make it a valuable tool for businesses looking to enhance their data processing capabilities with minimal setup complexities.
Its user-friendly interface and efficient processing capabilities position it as a top choice for big data operations in cloud environments.
Amazon EMR pros and cons
- Amazon EMR pros
Ease of launching and cloning EMR clusters with scalable resource management
Support for widely used open-source big data applications like Spark, Hive, and Flink
Robust configuration control and debugging support
- Amazon EMR cons
Complexity and unreliability when using Spot instances due to availability issues
Notebook interface lacks features like auto-completion
Ready to try it?
Get started with Amazon EMR
Connect with the team for a personalised demo.
Still comparing?
See how it stacks up
Compare Amazon EMR side-by-side with top Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms alternatives.
What is the pricing of Amazon EMR?
Amazon EMR Pricing Plans
Amazon EMR reviews and ratings
Buyer sentiment
Users generally appreciate Amazon EMR's powerful big data processing capabilities and ease of cluster management, though some express frustration with startup delays and troubleshooting challenges.
What buyers like
- Ease of launching and scaling clusters
- Support for popular big data frameworks
- Configuration control and debugging
Common complaints
- Complexity with Spot instances
- Slow cluster startup times
What users are saying
RS
Raghwendra S
12/15/23
"One stop compute solution to run all kinds of applications like apache spark , flink, trino"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? It is very easy to launch or clone EMR cluster. And EMR provides very easy scaling capabilities based on ...
Read more
GM
Gaurav M
08/03/23
"Best On Cloud solution for big data"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? Amazon EMR is a much more powerful product to deploy big data solutions on top of Spark, Flink, scoop, etc. It ...
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AT
Atin T
12/09/22
"Used EMR in our data platform"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? Control of specifying the configuration, and the debugging support What do you dislike about Amazon ...
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FL
Francisco L
12/08/22
"Makes big data analytics easier"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? My workloads run faster and I have more time to work on refining the code, instead of just sitting down ...
Read more
PM
Pechi Muthu A
09/03/22
"Great Tool for Big Data Operations"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? Great User Experience and User Interface Faster More scalable Can Automate Easily Read input from multiple ...
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NR
NEVIL RAYAN S
05/05/22
"EMR is a wonderful if you have headache on your application which is taking more resource issue"
What do you like best about Amazon EMR? No traditional multiprocess is required, distributes the work between the client node, best and earlier work ...
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Amazon EMR security and data handling
Key compliance certifications and security features for IT and security teams evaluating Amazon EMR.
Certifications
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Developer & data
Amazon EMR Customers
Amazon EMR Support Options
Frequently Asked Questions About Amazon EMR
Common questions buyers ask before choosing Amazon EMR.
Amazon EMR is a strong fit if: You need to run large-scale data engineering and ETL pipelines using Spark or Hive.; Your team requires seamless integration with AWS services like EC2 and VPC for secure deployments.. Consider alternatives if: You have small teams lacking cloud infrastructure expertise and want minimal setup complexity.; You require rapid cluster startup times for transient workloads or highly interactive environments..
Buyers commonly note the following limitations of Amazon EMR: Complexity and unreliability when using Spot instances due to availability issues; Notebook interface lacks features like auto-completion; Slow startup times for clusters requiring user patience.
Some top alternatives to Amazon EMR includes AWS Data Pipeline, Snowflake, Qubole, BigDataCloud and Data Mechanics.
Amazon EMR offers Subscription pricing model
The starting price of Amazon EMR is $0.04/hour
Ready to try it?
Get started with Amazon EMR
Get connected with the team for a personalised demo.
Disclaimer: This research has been collated from a variety of authoritative sources. We welcome your feedback at [email protected].









