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DuckDB VS Apache ORC

Compare DuckDB VS Apache ORC and see what are their differences

DuckDB logo DuckDB

DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system

Apache ORC logo Apache ORC

Apache ORC is a columnar storage for Hadoop workloads.
  • DuckDB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-18
  • Apache ORC Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-09-18

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.

Apache ORC features and specs

  • Efficient Compression
    ORC provides highly efficient compression, which reduces the storage footprint of data and enhances performance by decreasing I/O operations.
  • Columnar Storage
    The columnar storage format significantly improves read performance by allowing for selective access to necessary columns while ignoring others.
  • Predicate Pushdown
    ORC supports predicate pushdown, enabling the query engine to skip over non-relevant data, thus enhancing query performance.
  • Type Richness
    ORC supports complex types (like structs and maps), making it suitable for diverse data storage and query needs.
  • Schema Evolution
    It facilitates seamless schema evolution, allowing easier adjustments to the dataset over time without breaking existing queries.
  • Built-in Indexes
    Indexes such as bloom filters and min/max values are built-in, accelerating query processing by enabling quicker data lookup.

Possible disadvantages of Apache ORC

  • Complexity
    The intricacies of its features may introduce additional complexity in implementation and maintenance, potentially increasing the learning curve.
  • Write Performance
    While ORC is optimized for read-heavy workloads, its write performance can be less efficient compared to other formats like Parquet.
  • Compatibility
    ORC may not be as widely supported as other formats, limiting the choice of tools and environments that can leverage its full capabilities.
  • Compression Overhead
    The process of compressing and decompressing data can introduce a computational overhead, affecting performance in some scenarios.

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

Apache ORC videos

No Apache ORC videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to DuckDB and Apache ORC)
Databases
88 88%
12% 12
Big Data
80 80%
20% 20
Data Dashboard
0 0%
100% 100
Relational Databases
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, DuckDB seems to be a lot more popular than Apache ORC. While we know about 37 links to DuckDB, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Apache ORC. 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.

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 / 22 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

Apache ORC mentions (3)

  • Java Serialization with Protocol Buffers
    The information can be stored in a database or as files, serialized in a standard format and with a schema agreed with your Data Engineering team. Depending on your information and requirements, it can be as simple as CSV, XML or JSON, or Big Data formats such as Parquet, Avro, ORC, Arrow, or message serialization formats like Protocol Buffers, FlatBuffers, MessagePack, Thrift, or Cap'n Proto. - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • AWS EMR Cost Optimization Guide
    Data formatting is another place to make gains. When dealing with huge amounts of data, finding the data you need can take up a significant amount of your compute time. Apache Parquet and Apache ORC are columnar data formats optimized for analytics that pre-aggregate metadata about columns. If your EMR queries column intensive data like sum, max, or count, you can see significant speed improvements by reformatting... - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • Apache Hudi - The Streaming Data Lake Platform
    The following stack captures layers of software components that make up Hudi, with each layer depending on and drawing strength from the layer below. Typically, data lake users write data out once using an open file format like Apache Parquet/ORC stored on top of extremely scalable cloud storage or distributed file systems. Hudi provides a self-managing data plane to ingest, transform and manage this data, in a... - Source: dev.to / about 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing DuckDB and Apache ORC, you can also consider the following products

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

Apache Parquet - Apache Parquet is a columnar storage format available to any project in the Hadoop ecosystem.

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

Google BigQuery - A fully managed data warehouse for large-scale data analytics.

BlueData - BlueData's software platform makes it easier, faster and more cost-effective for organizations to deploy Big Data infrastructure on-premises.

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