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google-cloud-platformgoogle-bigquerycloudbigtablegoogle-cloud-spanner

What's the difference between BigQuery and Bigtable?


Is there any reason why someone would use Bigtable instead of BigQuery? Both seem to support Read and Write operations with the latter offering also advanced 'Query' operations.

I need to develop an affiliate network (thus I need to track clicks and 'sales') so I'm quite confused by the difference because BigQuery seems to be just Bigtable with a better API.


Solution

  • The difference is basically this:

    BigQuery is a query Engine for datasets that don't change much, or change by appending. It's a great choice when your queries require a "table scan" or the need to look across the entire database. Think sums, averages, counts, groupings. BigQuery is what you use when you have collected a large amount of data, and need to ask questions about it.

    BigTable is a database. It is designed to be the foundation for a large, scaleable application. Use BigTable when you are making any kind of app that needs to read and write data, and scale is a potential issue.