Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

DuckDB VS VoltDB

Compare DuckDB VS VoltDB and see what are their differences

DuckDB logo DuckDB

DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system

VoltDB logo VoltDB

In-memory relational DBMS capable of supporting millions of database operations per second
  • DuckDB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-18
  • VoltDB Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

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.

VoltDB features and specs

  • High Performance
    VoltDB is designed for high-speed data processing and can handle a large number of transactions per second, making it suitable for real-time applications.
  • In-Memory Storage
    Data in VoltDB is stored in-memory, which eliminates disk I/O latencies and enhances the speed of data retrieval and processing.
  • Strong Consistency
    The database provides ACID properties, ensuring that transactions are processed reliably and consistently, which is critical for financial and other sensitive applications.
  • Real-time Analytics
    VoltDB can perform complex queries and analytics in real time, enabling immediate insights and decision-making.
  • Scalability
    VoltDB supports horizontal scaling, allowing it to handle increasing amounts of data and transactions by adding more nodes to a cluster.

Possible disadvantages of VoltDB

  • Memory Dependency
    Since data is stored in-memory, the amount of data that can be handled is limited by the available memory, which might require additional resources or configurations.
  • Complexity of Setup
    Initial setup and configuration of VoltDB can be complex, requiring a solid understanding of the system and expertise to optimize performance.
  • Limited to Specific Use Cases
    VoltDB excels in OLTP and real-time applications but might not be suitable for workloads primarily involving heavy analytical processing (OLAP).
  • Commercial Licensing
    While there may be a community edition available, advanced features and support generally require commercial licensing, which can be costly for some organizations.
  • Subset of SQL
    VoltDB may not support the full SQL standard, which might limit certain types of queries or necessitate changes to existing applications designed for other databases.

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

VoltDB videos

VoltDB Explained in 2 Minutes

More videos:

  • Review - CMU Database Systems - 25 Ethan Zhang [VoltDB] (Fall 2018)
  • Review - VoltDB Founder/Engineer: Transactional Streaming - If You Can Compute It, You Can Probably Stream It

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to DuckDB and VoltDB)
Databases
56 56%
44% 44
Big Data
100 100%
0% 0
NoSQL Databases
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 more popular. It has been mentiond 37 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.

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
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VoltDB mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of VoltDB yet. Tracking of VoltDB recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing DuckDB and VoltDB, 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.

HSQLDB - hsqldb: Full-featured 100% Java ORDBMS

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

CompactView - Viewer for Microsoftยฎ SQL Serverยฎ CE database files (sdf)

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

Microsoft SQL Server Compact - Bring Microsoft SQL Server 2017 to the platform of your choice. Use SQL Server 2017 on Windows, Linux, and Docker containers.