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ClickHouse VS DuckDB

Compare ClickHouse VS DuckDB 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.

DuckDB logo DuckDB

DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system
  • ClickHouse Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-06-18
  • DuckDB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-18

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.

DuckDB features and specs

  • Lightweight
    DuckDB is a lightweight database that is easy to install and use without requiring a separate server process.
  • In-Memory Processing
    It supports efficient in-memory execution, which makes it suitable for analytical queries that require quick data processing.
  • Columnar Storage
    DuckDB uses a columnar storage format that optimizes for analytical workloads by improving read performance for large datasets.
  • Integration with Data Science Tools
    The database integrates well with popular data science tools and libraries such as Pandas, R, and Jupyter Notebooks.
  • SQL Support
    DuckDB offers full support for SQL, allowing users to leverage their existing SQL knowledge without having to learn new query languages.
  • Open Source
    DuckDB is open-source, enabling users to inspect the code, contribute to its development, and use it without licensing costs.

Possible disadvantages of DuckDB

  • Limited Scalability
    DuckDB is optimized for single-node operations, which may not be suitable for scaling out to large, distributed data workloads.
  • Relatively New
    As a newer database system, DuckDB might lack some features and optimizations found in more mature database systems.
  • Lack of Advanced Features
    DuckDB may not support some advanced database management features like complex transactions and user permissions found in other database systems.
  • Community and Support
    Being a less mature project, it might not have as large a community or extensive documentation and support as other established database systems.
  • Limited Distributed Processing
    DuckDB currently focuses more on local data processing and may not be the best choice for applications needing distributed computing capabilities.

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

ClickHouse videos

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DuckDB videos

DuckDB An Embeddable Analytical Database

More videos:

  • Review - DuckDB: Hi-performance SQL queries on pandas dataframe (Python)
  • Review - DuckDB An Embeddable Analytical Database

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ClickHouse and DuckDB)
Databases
75 75%
25% 25
Relational Databases
83 83%
17% 17
Big Data
45 45%
55% 55
Data Warehousing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

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

DuckDB Reviews

We have no reviews of DuckDB yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ClickHouse should be more popular than DuckDB. 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
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DuckDB mentions (37)

  • From OLTP to OLAP: Streaming Databases into MotherDuck with Estuary
    DuckDB is an open source analytical database designed with a clear goal: to make complex queries fast and simple without heavy infrastructure. Instead of being a traditional client-server database, DuckDB is embedded. It runs inside the host process, which reduces overhead and makes it easy to integrate directly into applications, notebooks, or scripts. Several features stand out:. - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • DuckDB + Iceberg: The ultimate synergy
    Apache Iceberg and DuckDB have established themselves as key players in data architecture landscape. With DuckDB 1.4's native support for Iceberg writes, combined with Apache Polaris and MinIO, this promising stack offers efficiency, scalability, and flexibility. - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • DuckDB on AWS Lambda: The Easy Way with Layers
    It seemed like the perfect opportunity to explore DuckDB, an in-process analytical database known for its efficiency and simplicity. - Source: dev.to / 23 days ago
  • From Go to Rust: Supercharging Our ClickHouse UDFs with Alloy
    While our Go-based implementation has served us well, we've been exploring whether Rustโ€”with its rapidly maturing Ethereum ecosystemโ€”could take us even further. The potential benefits are compelling: better performance, enhanced safety, and improved portability that could make it easier to bring these UDFs to other analytical engines like DataFusion or DuckDB. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Show HN: TextQuery โ€“ Query CSV, JSON, XLSX Files with SQL
    Have you seen duckdb? https://duckdb.org/ It's basically what you're building, but more low-level. Really cool, to be honest -- serves the same market too. Do you have any significant differentiator, other than charts? - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ClickHouse and DuckDB, 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 Parquet - Apache Parquet is a columnar storage format available to any project in the Hadoop ecosystem.

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

Redis - Redis is an open source in-memory data structure project implementing a distributed, in-memory key-value database with optional durability.