Open Source Alternatives to DataBricks SQL Warehouse
Databricks SQL Warehouse is a managed service within the Databricks platform that provides scalable SQL compute resources decoupled from storage. Essentially, it allows you to run powerful SQL queries on your data lakehouse without needing to manage separate infrastructure. This makes it particularly appealing for data analysts and business users who want to analyze large datasets using familiar SQL language, without the burden of managing servers or scaling compute resources manually. However, it can be
- expensive, especially for small businesses or organizations with limited data needs or companies with A LOT of data.
- limited customization compared to traditional data warehouses
- vendor lock-in
- limited functionality in area around machine learning or real-time processing (you might need additional Databricks services)
There are a number of open source alternatives to Databricks SQL Warehouse that offer similar features at a lower cost. Here are some of the top open source alternatives to Databricks SQL Warehouse:
StarRocks:
StarRocks is an open-source, distributed, MPP (Massively Parallel Processing) OLAP database that is designed for high performance and scalability. It excels at real time sub-second analytics and supports open data lakehouse through the support of all the major open table formats: Apache Hudi, Apache Iceberg, Apache Hive, and Delta Lake.
StarRocks is a Linux Foundation project and CelerData who is one of the main sponsors of StarRocks is based in Silicon Valley, CA.
The StarRocks project has been adopted by a number of organizations, including AirBnB, Alibaba, Tencent, and JD.com. It is a promising new OLAP database that has the potential to revolutionize the way we analyze data.
ClickHouse:
ClickHouse is an open-source column-oriented database management system (DBMS) for online analytical processing (OLAP). It is designed to be fast and scalable for analytical workloads, such as aggregations and joins. ClickHouse is written in C++ and is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
ClickHouse was created by Alexey Milovidov and Yury Izrailevsky at Yandex, a Russian technology company. The first version of ClickHouse was released in 2016.
Trino:
Trino, formerly known as PrestoSQL, is an open-source distributed SQL query engine designed to handle large datasets across various data sources. Trino allows you to query massive datasets stored in different places, like data lakes, data warehouses, and even real-time data sources like Kafka. It’s built for speed and can handle complex queries quickly even on huge datasets. This is because it distributes the work across multiple machines in a cluster, enabling parallel processing. However it’s not a database. It’s a query engine, not a place to store data. It sits on top of existing data sources and provides a unified SQL interface for querying them.
These are just a few of the many open source alternatives to Databricks SQL Warehouse. The best choice for your organization will depend on your specific needs and budget.
Here are some factors to consider when choosing an open source alternative to Databricks SQL Warehouse:
- Your data needs: How much data do you need to store? What type of data is it?
- Your budget: How much are you willing to spend on a data warehouse?
- Your technical expertise: How much technical expertise do you have? Some open source data warehouses are more complex to set up and manage than others.
- Your integration needs: Do you need to integrate your data warehouse with other applications?
Once you have considered these factors, you can start to narrow down your choices and choose the open source alternative to Databricks SQL Warehouse that is right for you.
