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ClickHouse vs CrateDB

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. CrateDB: Distributed SQL database built on Lucene for real-time analytics over machine, IoT and JSON data.

key differences

  • ClickHouse is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; CrateDB is relational.
  • ClickHouse is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than CrateDB (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only ClickHouse has materialized views, ttl / expiry, encryption at rest, streaming ingest.
  • ClickHouse has a serverless option; CrateDB does not.

choose clickhouse for

  • +Product and web analytics
  • +Log and observability backends
  • +Real-time dashboards over event streams
  • +Time-series and IoT metrics at scale

best at · Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability

choose cratedb for

  • +Industrial IoT and machine data analytics
  • +Fleet and vehicle telemetry
  • +Log and event analytics with SQL
  • +Hybrid search over JSON documents

best at · Real-time analytics, IoT, Time-series

ClickHouseOpen-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows.
CrateDBDistributed SQL database built on Lucene for real-time analytics over machine, IoT and JSON data.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Relational
Also supports
Relational, Document, Vector, Time-Series
Document, Time-Series, Search Engine, Spatial, Vector
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
ClickHouse, Inc.
Crate.io
First release
2016
2014
Latest version
26.10.2.103 (Oct 24, 2026)
6.4.6 (Oct 8, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
69.8
27.3
Rank
#10
#104
GitHub stars
50.6K
4.4K
Stack Overflow questions
2.2K
139
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Strict
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Single node, Client server
Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Aiven
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
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 (ClickHouse dialect), PRQL, KQL (experimental)
SQL
Client languages
Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Rust, C++, C#
Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, C#, PHP
Best for
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability, Warehouse
Real-time analytics, IoT, Time-series, Search
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

ClickHouse vs CrateDB: FAQ

What is the difference between ClickHouse and CrateDB?

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. CrateDB: Distributed SQL database built on Lucene for real-time analytics over machine, IoT and JSON data. ClickHouse is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; CrateDB is relational. ClickHouse is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than CrateDB (≤ 1 PB). Only ClickHouse has materialized views, ttl / expiry, encryption at rest, streaming ingest.

When should I choose ClickHouse over CrateDB?

Choose ClickHouse for product and web analytics; log and observability backends; and real-time dashboards over event streams. Choose CrateDB for industrial IoT and machine data analytics; fleet and vehicle telemetry; and log and event analytics with SQL.

Is ClickHouse or CrateDB more popular?

ClickHouse ranks #10 on the WhichDB Score (69.8/100) and CrateDB ranks #104 (27.3/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are ClickHouse and CrateDB open source?

Yes. ClickHouse is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. Yes. CrateDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.