Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ClickHouse VS Apache Parquet

Compare ClickHouse VS Apache Parquet and see what are their differences

ClickHouse logo ClickHouse

ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database management system that allows generating analytical data reports in real time.

Apache Parquet logo Apache Parquet

Apache Parquet is a columnar storage format available to any project in the Hadoop ecosystem.
  • ClickHouse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-06-18
  • Apache Parquet Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-17

ClickHouse features and specs

  • High Performance
    ClickHouse is designed for fast processing of analytical queries, often performing significantly faster than traditional databases due to its columnar storage format and optimized query execution.
  • Scalability
    The system is built to handle extensive datasets by scaling horizontally through distributed cluster configurations, making it suitable for big data applications.
  • Real-time Data Ingestion
    ClickHouse supports real-time data ingestion and can immediately reflect changes in query results, which is valuable for use cases requiring instant data processing and analysis.
  • Cost Efficiency
    The open-source nature of ClickHouse makes it a cost-effective option, especially when compared to other commercial data warehouses.
  • SQL Compatibility
    ClickHouse features strong SQL support, which makes it easier for individuals with SQL expertise to transition and use the platform effectively.
  • Compression
    ClickHouse employs advanced compression algorithms that reduce storage requirements and improve query performance.

Possible disadvantages of ClickHouse

  • Complexity in Setup
    Setting up and managing ClickHouse, particularly in a distributed cluster environment, can be complex and require a higher level of expertise compared to some other database systems.
  • Limited Transaction Support
    ClickHouse is optimized for read-heavy operations and analytics but does not support full ACID transactions, which limits its use for certain transactional use cases.
  • Ecosystem and Tooling
    While the ecosystem is growing, ClickHouse still has fewer tools and third-party integrations compared to more mature databases, which can limit its utility in some environments.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running ClickHouse, especially for large datasets, can be resource-intensive, requiring significant memory and CPU resources.
  • Limited User Management
    The platform has relatively basic user management and security features, which may not meet the needs of enterprises with strict compliance and governance requirements.

Apache Parquet features and specs

  • Columnar Storage
    Apache Parquet uses columnar storage, which allows for efficient retrieval of only the data you need, reducing I/O and improving query performance on large datasets.
  • Compression
    Parquet files support efficient compression and encoding schemes, resulting in significant storage savings and less data to transfer over the network.
  • Compatibility
    It is compatible with the Hadoop ecosystem, including tools like Apache Spark, Hive, and Impala, making it versatile for big data processing.
  • Schema Evolution
    Parquet supports schema evolution, allowing changes to the schema without breaking existing data, which helps in maintaining long-lived data pipelines.
  • Efficient Read Performance for Aggregations
    Due to its columnar layout, Parquet is highly efficient for processing queries that aggregate data across columns, such as SUM and AVERAGE.

Possible disadvantages of Apache Parquet

  • Write Performance
    Writing data to Parquet can be slower compared to row-based formats, particularly for small inserts or updates, due to the overhead of encoding and compression.
  • Complexity in File Management
    Managing and partitioning Parquet files to optimize performance can become complex, particularly as datasets grow in size and complexity.
  • Not Ideal for All Workloads
    Workloads that require frequent row-level updates or involve small queries might be less efficient with Parquet due to its columnar nature.
  • Learning Curve
    The need to understand the nuances of columnar storage, encoding, and compression can pose a learning curve for teams new to Parquet.

Analysis of ClickHouse

Overall verdict

  • ClickHouse is a powerful and capable columnar DBMS that offers excellent performance for analytical workloads. Its open-source nature allows for flexibility and community-driven improvements, making it a strong option for organizations needing a scalable analytics platform.

Why this product is good

  • ClickHouse is considered a good choice for many use cases due to its high performance in processing large volumes of data and its efficiency in executing complex analytical queries. It is designed to work well with large datasets and provides real-time query capabilities, making it ideal for applications like business intelligence, web analytics, and IoT.

Recommended for

  • Large-scale data analysis
  • Real-time analytics dashboards
  • Businesses needing high-speed query performance
  • Web analytics platforms
  • IoT data processing
  • Financial industry for quick data aggregation

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ClickHouse and Apache Parquet)
Databases
80 80%
20% 20
Relational Databases
100 100%
0% 0
Big Data
48 48%
52% 52
Data Warehousing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using ClickHouse and Apache Parquet. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ClickHouse and Apache Parquet

ClickHouse Reviews

Rockset, ClickHouse, Apache Druid, or Apache Pinot? Which is the best database for customer-facing analytics?
โ€ClickHouse is an open-source, column-oriented, distributed, and OLAP database thatโ€™s very easy to set up and maintain. โ€œBecause itโ€™s columnar, itโ€™s the best architectural approach for aggregations and for โ€˜sort byโ€™ on more than one column. It also means that group byโ€™s are very fast. Itโ€™s distributed, replication is asynchronous, and itโ€™s OLAPโ€”which means itโ€™s meant for...
Source: embeddable.com
ClickHouse vs TimescaleDB
Recently, TimescaleDB published a blog comparing ClickHouse & TimescaleDB using timescale/tsbs, a timeseries benchmarking framework. I have some experience with PostgreSQL and ClickHouse but never got the chance to play with TimescaleDB. Some of the claims about TimescaleDB made in their post are very bold, that made me even more curious. I thought itโ€™d be a great...
20+ MongoDB Alternatives You Should Know About
ClickHouse may be a great contender for moving analytical workloads from MongoDB. Much faster, and with JSON support and Nested Data Structures, it can be great choice for storing and analyzing document data.
Source: www.percona.com

Apache Parquet Reviews

We have no reviews of Apache Parquet yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ClickHouse should be more popular than Apache Parquet. It has been mentiond 60 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.

ClickHouse mentions (60)

  • Setting up ClickHouse on macOS and Testing with Node.js
    ClickHouse is an open-source columnar database built for high-performance analytical queries. This guide shows how I installed ClickHouse on macOS, ran it in the background using a lightweight nohup setup that stores logs and PID in hidden user folders, and tested it with a minimal Node.js + TypeScript example using @clickhouse/client. - Source: dev.to / 15 days ago
  • From Go to Rust: Supercharging Our ClickHouse UDFs with Alloy
    At Agnostic, we build open-source infrastructure for collaborative blockchain data platforms. One of our flagship tools is clickhouse-evm, a suite of high-performance User Defined Functions (UDFs) that brings native Ethereum decoding and querying capabilities directly into ClickHouse. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • ๐Ÿง  From Hive and Elastic to ClickHouse: What Surprised Me
    Over the past few weeks, Iโ€™ve been diving into ClickHouse โ€” and itโ€™s been full of surprises. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Cross-Compiling Haskell under NixOS with Docker
    I attended the AWS Summit 2025 in Singapore. I enjoyed the event. There were booths from various companies which I found interesting, such as GitLab and ClickHouse. More importantly, I got to meet very interesting people. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • How to Build a Streaming Deduplication Pipeline with Kafka, GlassFlow, and ClickHouse
    ClickHouse: A fast columnar database. It will be our final destination for clean data. And, for simplicity in this tutorial, we'll cleverly use it as our "memory" or state store to remember which events we've already seen recently. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

Apache Parquet mentions (25)

  • ๐Ÿ”ฅ Simulating Course Schedules 600x Faster with Web Workers in CourseCast
    If there was a way to package and compress the Excel spreadsheet in a web-friendly format, then there's nothing stopping us from loading the entire dataset in the browser!1 Sure enough, the Parquet file format was specifically designed for efficient portability. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to Pitch Your Boss to Adopt Apache Iceberg?
    Iceberg decouples storage from compute. That means your data isnโ€™t trapped inside one proprietary system. Instead, it lives in open file formats (like Apache Parquet) and is managed by an open, vendor-neutral metadata layer (Apache Iceberg). - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Processing data with โ€œData Prep Kitโ€ (part 2)
    Data prep kit github repository: https://github.com/data-prep-kit/data-prep-kit?tab=readme-ov-file Quick start guide: https://github.com/data-prep-kit/data-prep-kit/blob/dev/doc/quick-start/contribute-your-own-transform.md Provided samples and examples: https://github.com/data-prep-kit/data-prep-kit/tree/dev/examples Parquet: https://parquet.apache.org/. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • ๐Ÿ”ฌPublic docker images Trivy scans as duckdb datas on Kaggle
    Deliver nice ready-to-use data as duckdb, parquet and csv. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Introducing Promptwright: Synthetic Dataset Generation with Local LLMs
    Push the dataset to hugging face in parquet format. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ClickHouse and Apache Parquet, you can also consider the following products

MySQL - The world's most popular open source database

Apache Arrow - Apache Arrow is a cross-language development platform for in-memory data.

Apache Doris - Apache Doris is an open-source real-time data warehouse for big data analytics.

Apache Spark - Apache Spark is an engine for big data processing, with built-in modules for streaming, SQL, machine learning and graph processing.

PostgreSQL - PostgreSQL is a powerful, open source object-relational database system.

DuckDB - DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system