whichdb
vs

Arroyo vs RisingWave

Arroyo: A Rust stream processor with SQL pipelines, now owned by Cloudflare and powering Cloudflare Pipelines. RisingWave: An Apache-licensed, Postgres-compatible streaming database that stores state on S3 and writes Iceberg.

key differences

  • RisingWave is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Arroyo (≤ 10 TB).
  • Transactions: Arroyo offers none ACID; RisingWave offers limited.
  • Only RisingWave has secondary indexes, vector search, change data capture, ttl / expiry, compression.
  • Arroyo has a serverless option; RisingWave does not.

choose arroyo for

  • +Streaming ingestion into Iceberg/R2
  • +Real-time aggregation of Kafka events
  • +Lightweight Flink replacement for SQL pipelines

best at · Streaming, Real-time analytics, Lakehouse

choose risingwave for

  • +Streaming ETL from Kafka or CDC into Iceberg
  • +Real-time monitoring and alerting dashboards
  • +Fresh ML feature computation
  • +IoT telemetry aggregation

best at · Streaming, Real-time analytics, Lakehouse

ArroyoA Rust stream processor with SQL pipelines, now owned by Cloudflare and powering Cloudflare Pipelines.
RisingWaveAn Apache-licensed, Postgres-compatible streaming database that stores state on S3 and writes Iceberg.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
–
–
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Cloudflare (Arroyo Systems)
RisingWave Labs
First release
2023
2022
Latest version
0.15.0 (Dec 1, 2025)
3.1.0 (Sep 21, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
5.4
17.4
Rank
#385
#191
GitHub stars
5.1K
9.4K
Stack Overflow questions
–
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
None
Limited
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Single node, Client server
Distributed, Shared storage, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
Cloudflare
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
capabilities
Transactions
—
—
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
—
✓
Full-text search
—
—
Vector search
—
✓
Geospatial
—
—
JSON
✓
✓
Change data capture
—
✓
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
✓
✓
TTL / expiry
—
✓
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
—
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
—
✓
Encryption at rest
—
—
Role-based access
—
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
—
Streaming ingest
✓
✓
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL (DataFusion dialect)
SQL
Client languages
–
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, Rust, C#, Ruby
Best for
Streaming, Real-time analytics, Lakehouse
Streaming, Real-time analytics, Lakehouse, IoT
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Arroyo vs RisingWave: FAQ

What is the difference between Arroyo and RisingWave?

Arroyo: A Rust stream processor with SQL pipelines, now owned by Cloudflare and powering Cloudflare Pipelines. RisingWave: An Apache-licensed, Postgres-compatible streaming database that stores state on S3 and writes Iceberg. RisingWave is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Arroyo (≤ 10 TB). Transactions: Arroyo offers none ACID; RisingWave offers limited. Only RisingWave has secondary indexes, vector search, change data capture, ttl / expiry, compression.

When should I choose Arroyo over RisingWave?

Choose Arroyo for streaming ingestion into Iceberg/R2, real-time aggregation of Kafka events and lightweight Flink replacement for SQL pipelines. Choose RisingWave for streaming ETL from Kafka or CDC into Iceberg; real-time monitoring and alerting dashboards; and fresh ML feature computation.

Is Arroyo or RisingWave more popular?

RisingWave ranks #191 on the WhichDB Score (17.4/100) and Arroyo ranks #385 (5.4/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Arroyo and RisingWave open source?

Yes. Arroyo is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. Yes. RisingWave is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.