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ClickHouse vs Hydrolix

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. Hydrolix: Streaming data lake for log-scale event data, with ClickHouse-based SQL over object storage.

key differences

  • Licensing: ClickHouse is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); Hydrolix is proprietary (Proprietary).
  • Transactions: ClickHouse offers limited ACID; Hydrolix offers none.
  • Only ClickHouse has full-text search, vector search, geospatial, materialized views, encryption at rest.
  • ClickHouse has a serverless option; Hydrolix 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 hydrolix for

  • +CDN and edge log analytics
  • +Security and bot detection data
  • +Video streaming quality telemetry
  • +Long-term retention of SIEM-scale logs

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

ClickHouseOpen-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows.
HydrolixStreaming data lake for log-scale event data, with ClickHouse-based SQL over object storage.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Relational, Document, Vector, Time-Series
Time-Series
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
ClickHouse, Inc.
Hydrolix
First release
2016
2020
Latest version
26.10.2.103 (Oct 24, 2026)
6.4.14 (Oct 23, 2026)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
ProprietaryProprietary
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
69.8
0.2
Rank
#10
#667
GitHub stars
50.6K
–
Stack Overflow questions
2.2K
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
Read replicas
None
ACID
Limited
None
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Single node, Client server
Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Aiven
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Akamai
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 (ClickHouse dialect)
Client languages
Python, Go, Java, JavaScript, Rust, C++, C#
Java, Python
Best for
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability, Warehouse
Observability, Real-time analytics, Time-series, OLAP
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

ClickHouse vs Hydrolix: FAQ

What is the difference between ClickHouse and Hydrolix?

ClickHouse: Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows. Hydrolix: Streaming data lake for log-scale event data, with ClickHouse-based SQL over object storage. Licensing: ClickHouse is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); Hydrolix is proprietary (Proprietary). Transactions: ClickHouse offers limited ACID; Hydrolix offers none. Only ClickHouse has full-text search, vector search, geospatial, materialized views, encryption at rest.

When should I choose ClickHouse over Hydrolix?

Choose ClickHouse for product and web analytics; log and observability backends; and real-time dashboards over event streams. Choose Hydrolix for CDN and edge log analytics; security and bot detection data; and video streaming quality telemetry.

Is ClickHouse or Hydrolix more popular?

ClickHouse ranks #10 on the WhichDB Score (69.8/100) and Hydrolix ranks #667 (0.2/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are ClickHouse and Hydrolix open source?

Yes. ClickHouse is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. No. Hydrolix is proprietary, closed-source software.