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ClickHouse vs DolphinDB

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. DolphinDB: Distributed time-series database and scripting platform for quant finance and industrial analytics.

key differences

  • ClickHouse is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; DolphinDB is time-series.
  • Licensing: ClickHouse is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); DolphinDB is proprietary (Commercial (free community edition with limits)).
  • ClickHouse is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than DolphinDB (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only ClickHouse has full-text search, vector search, geospatial, json, materialized views.
  • Only DolphinDB has transactions, stored procedures, pub/sub, in-memory.
  • ClickHouse has a serverless option; DolphinDB 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 dolphindb for

  • +Quant research and factor computation
  • +Real-time market data processing
  • +Trading risk and surveillance
  • +Industrial IoT analytics with streaming rules

best at · Tick data, Time-series, Streaming

ClickHouseOpen-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows.
DolphinDBDistributed time-series database and scripting platform for quant finance and industrial analytics.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Time-Series
Also supports
Relational, Document, Vector, Time-Series
Columnar / OLAP, Relational
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
ClickHouse, Inc.
DolphinDB Inc.
First release
2016
2018
Latest version
26.10.2.103 (Oct 24, 2026)
3.00.6.1 (Sep 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
ProprietaryCommercial (free community edition with limits)
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
69.8
11.6
Rank
#10
#281
GitHub stars
50.6K
–
Stack Overflow questions
2.2K
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Single node, Client server
Distributed, Single node, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Aiven
–
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, DolphinDB script
Client languages
Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Rust, C++, C#
Python, C++, Java, C#, Go, JavaScript
Best for
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability, Warehouse
Tick data, Time-series, Streaming, Real-time analytics
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

ClickHouse vs DolphinDB: FAQ

What is the difference between ClickHouse and DolphinDB?

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. DolphinDB: Distributed time-series database and scripting platform for quant finance and industrial analytics. ClickHouse is primarily a columnar / OLAP database; DolphinDB is time-series. Licensing: ClickHouse is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); DolphinDB is proprietary (Commercial (free community edition with limits)). ClickHouse is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than DolphinDB (≤ 1 PB).

When should I choose ClickHouse over DolphinDB?

Choose ClickHouse for product and web analytics; log and observability backends; and real-time dashboards over event streams. Choose DolphinDB for quant research and factor computation; real-time market data processing; and trading risk and surveillance.

Is ClickHouse or DolphinDB more popular?

ClickHouse ranks #10 on the WhichDB Score (69.8/100) and DolphinDB ranks #281 (11.6/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are ClickHouse and DolphinDB open source?

Yes. ClickHouse is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. No. DolphinDB is proprietary, closed-source software. License: Commercial (free community edition with limits).