What is the difference between Azure Synapse Data Explorer and Azure Data Explorer? (Preview)

Azure Data Explorer is a stand-alone, fast, and highly scalable data exploration service for log and telemetry data. The same underlying technology that runs the service is available in Azure Synapse as an integrated analytics service to complement its existing SQL and Spark services geared for data warehouse and data engineering machine learning scenarios.

The native integration of Data Explore capabilities brings analytics log and time series workloads to Synapse in the form of Synapse Data Explorer pools. These pools offer close integration with, and easier management of connectivity to, other Synapse capabilities. Having all your machine and user data available and accessible in one place, and by leveraging the near real-time exploratory capabilities of Data Explorer, enables you to build solutions that drive business value.

We recommend starting with Synapse Data Explorer if you are looking for a unified solution that combines big data and analytics capabilities.

Capability support

Category Capability Azure Data Explorer Synapse Data Explorer
Security VNET Supports VNet Injection and Azure Private Link Support for Azure Private link automatically integrated as part of Synapse Managed VNET
CMK Automatically inherited from Synapse workspace configuration
Firewall Automatically inherited from Synapse workspace configuration
Business Continuity Availability Zones Optional Enabled by default where Availability Zones are available
SKU Compute options 22+ Azure VM SKUs to choose from Simplified to Synapse workload types SKUs
Integrations Built-in ingestion pipelines Event Hub, Event Grid, IoT Hub Event Hub, Event Grid, and IoT Hub supported via the Azure portal for non-managed VNet
Spark integration Azure Data Explorer linked service: Built-in Kusto Spark integration with support for Microsoft Entra pass-through authentication, Synapse Workspace MSI, and Service Principal Built-in Kusto Spark connector integration with support for Microsoft Entra pass-through authentication, Synapse Workspace MSI, and Service Principal
KQL artifacts management Save KQL queries and integrate with Git
Metadata sync
Features KQL queries
API and SDKs
Connectors
Query tools
Pricing Business Model Cost plus billing model with multiple meters: Azure Data Explorer IP markup, Compute, Storage, and Networking VCore billing model with two meters: VCore and Storage
Reserved Instances

Next steps

Data Explorer in Azure Synapse Analytics