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Dremio vs Starburst

Dremio: Iceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026. Starburst: Commercial Trino platform: self-managed Starburst Enterprise and the Starburst Galaxy SaaS.

key differences

  • Starburst is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Dremio (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only Dremio has durable persistence, compression.
  • Only Starburst has geospatial.
  • Starburst has a serverless option; Dremio does not.

choose dremio for

  • +Iceberg lakehouse BI acceleration
  • +Semantic layer over a data lake
  • +SAP-centric data platforms
  • +Warehouse offload

best at · Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse

choose starburst for

  • +Enterprise lakehouse on Iceberg
  • +Data mesh and data products
  • +Federated queries across on-prem and cloud
  • +Warehouse offload from Teradata or Netezza

best at · Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse

DremioIceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026.
StarburstCommercial Trino platform: self-managed Starburst Enterprise and the Starburst Galaxy SaaS.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP
Columnar / OLAP
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Dremio (SAP)
Starburst Data
First release
2017
2017
Latest version
–
483-e (Oct 16, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (legacy Community Edition under Apache-2.0)
ProprietaryProprietary (on an Apache-2.0 Trino core)
Free tier
—
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
12.7
0.0
Rank
#262
#820
GitHub stars
1.5K
–
Stack Overflow questions
74
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Massive (Multi-PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage, Client server
Distributed, Client server, Serverless
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
✓
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS, Azure
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
SQL (ANSI)
Client languages
Python, Java, Go, JavaScript
Java, Python, Go, JavaScript
Best for
Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse
Lakehouse, OLAP, Warehouse
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Dremio vs Starburst: FAQ

What is the difference between Dremio and Starburst?

Dremio: Iceberg-native lakehouse query engine with reflections for acceleration, owned by SAP since 2026. Starburst: Commercial Trino platform: self-managed Starburst Enterprise and the Starburst Galaxy SaaS. Starburst is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Dremio (≤ 1 PB). Only Dremio has durable persistence, compression. Only Starburst has geospatial.

When should I choose Dremio over Starburst?

Choose Dremio for iceberg lakehouse BI acceleration, semantic layer over a data lake and SAP-centric data platforms. Choose Starburst for enterprise lakehouse on Iceberg; data mesh and data products; and federated queries across on-prem and cloud.

Is Dremio or Starburst more popular?

Dremio ranks #262 on the WhichDB Score (12.7/100) and Starburst ranks #820 (0.0/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Dremio and Starburst open source?

No. Dremio is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Starburst is proprietary, closed-source software.