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Apache Avro VS Apache Pig

Compare Apache Avro VS Apache Pig and see what are their differences

Apache Avro logo Apache Avro

Apache Avro is a comprehensive data serialization system and acting as a source of data exchanger service for Apache Hadoop.

Apache Pig logo Apache Pig

Pig is a high-level platform for creating MapReduce programs used with Hadoop.
  • Apache Avro Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-10-21
  • Apache Pig Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-12-31

Apache Avro features and specs

  • Schema Evolution
    Avro supports seamless schema evolution, allowing you to add fields and change data types without impacting existing data. This flexibility is advantageous in environments where data structures frequently change.
  • Compact Binary Format
    Avro uses a compact binary format for data serialization, leading to efficient storage and faster data transmission compared to text-based formats like JSON or XML.
  • Language Agnostic
    Avro is designed to be language agnostic, with support for multiple programming languages, including Java, Python, C++, and more. This makes it easier to integrate with various systems.
  • No Code Generation Required
    Unlike other serialization frameworks such as Protocol Buffers and Thrift, Avro does not require generating code from the schema, simplifying the development process.
  • Self Describing
    Each Avro data file contains its schema, making the data self-describing. This helps maintain consistency between data producers and consumers.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Avro

  • Lack of Human Readability
    Avro's binary format is not human-readable, making it challenging to debug or inspect data without specialized tools.
  • Schema Management Overhead
    While Avro supports schema evolution, managing and maintaining these schemas across multiple services can become complex and require additional coordination.
  • Limited Support for Complex Data Types
    Avro has limitations when it comes to the representation of certain complex data types, which might necessitate workarounds or transformations that add complexity.
  • Learning Curve
    Users who are new to Apache Avro may face a learning curve to understand schema creation, evolution, and integration within their data pipelines.
  • Dependency on Schema Registry
    Using Avro effectively often requires integrating with a schema registry, adding an extra layer of infrastructure and potential points of failure.

Apache Pig features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Apache Pig provides a high-level scripting language called Pig Latin that is much easier to write and understand than complex MapReduce code, enabling faster development time.
  • Abstracts Hadoop Complexity
    Pig abstracts the complexity of Hadoop, allowing developers to focus on data processing rather than worrying about the intricacies of Hadoop’s underlying mechanisms.
  • Extensibility
    Pig allows user-defined functions (UDFs) to process various types of data, giving users the flexibility to extend its functionality according to their specific requirements.
  • Optimized Query Execution
    Pig includes a rich set of optimization techniques that automatically optimize the execution of scripts, thereby improving performance without needing manual tuning.
  • Error Handling and Debugging
    The platform has an extensive error handling mechanism and provides the ability to make debugging easier through logging and stack traces, making it simpler to troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Pig

  • Performance Limitations
    While Pig simplifies writing MapReduce operations, it may not always offer the same level of performance as hand-optimized, low-level MapReduce code.
  • Limited Real-Time Processing
    Pig is primarily designed for batch processing and may not be the best choice for real-time data processing requirements.
  • Steeper Learning Curve for SQL Users
    Developers who are already familiar with SQL might find Pig Latin to be less intuitive at first, resulting in a steeper learning curve for building complex data transformations.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    As Pig scripts grow in complexity and number, maintaining and managing these scripts can become challenging, particularly in large-scale production environments.
  • Growing Obsolescence
    With the rise of more versatile and performant Big Data tools like Apache Spark and Hive, Pig’s relevance and community support have been on the decline.

Apache Avro videos

CCA 175 : Apache Avro Introduction

More videos:

  • Review - End to end Data Governance with Apache Avro and Atlas

Apache Pig videos

Pig Tutorial | Apache Pig Script | Hadoop Pig Tutorial | Edureka

More videos:

  • Review - Simple Data Analysis with Apache Pig

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache Avro and Apache Pig)
Development
73 73%
27% 27
Data Dashboard
26 26%
74% 74
Database Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Tool
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apache Avro should be more popular than Apache Pig. It has been mentiond 14 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache Avro mentions (14)

  • Pulumi Gestalt 0.0.1 released
    A schema.json converter for easier ingestion (likely supporting Avro and Protobuf). - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Why Data Security is Broken and How to Fix it?
    Security Aware Data Metadata Data schema formats such as Avro and Json currently lack built-in support for data sensitivity or security-aware metadata. Additionally, common formats like Parquet and Iceberg, while efficient for storing large datasets, don’t natively include security-aware metadata. At Jarrid, we are exploring various metadata formats to incorporate data sensitivity and security-aware attributes... - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Open Table Formats Such as Apache Iceberg Are Inevitable for Analytical Data
    Apache AVRO [1] is one but it has been largely replaced by Parquet [2] which is a hybrid row/columnar format [1] https://avro.apache.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Generating Avro Schemas from Go types
    The most common format for describing schema in this scenario is Apache Avro. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • gRPC on the client side
    Other serialization alternatives have a schema validation option: e.g., Avro, Kryo and Protocol Buffers. Interestingly enough, gRPC uses Protobuf to offer RPC across distributed components:. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

Apache Pig mentions (2)

  • In One Minute : Hadoop
    Pig, a platform/programming language for authoring parallelizable jobs. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Spark is lit once again
    In the early days of the Big Data era when K8s hasn't even been born yet, the common open source go-to solution was the Hadoop stack. We have written several old-fashioned Map-Reduce jobs, scripts using Pig until we came across Spark. Since then Spark has became one of the most popular data processing engines. It is very easy to start using Lighter on YARN deployments. Just run a docker with proper configuration... - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache Avro and Apache Pig, you can also consider the following products

Apache Ambari - Ambari is aimed at making Hadoop management simpler by developing software for provisioning, managing, and monitoring Hadoop clusters.

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiences—so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

Apache HBase - Apache HBase – Apache HBase™ Home

Jupyter - Project Jupyter exists to develop open-source software, open-standards, and services for interactive computing across dozens of programming languages. Ready to get started? Try it in your browser Install the Notebook.

Apache Mahout - Distributed Linear Algebra

Presto DB - Distributed SQL Query Engine for Big Data (by Facebook)