Greenplum vs Vertica

Greenplum: PostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data. Vertica: Veteran MPP columnar analytics database from the C-Store lineage, now owned by Rocket Software.

key differences

Greenplum is primarily a relational database; Vertica is columnar / OLAP.
Vertica is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Greenplum (≤ 1 PB).
Only Greenplum has secondary indexes, vector search.
Only Vertica has encryption at rest, time travel, online schema changes, streaming ingest.

choose greenplum for

+Existing Greenplum estates
+On-prem Postgres-compatible MPP warehousing
+In-database analytics with MADlib

best at · Warehouse, OLAP

choose vertica for

+Large on-prem or hybrid enterprise warehouses
+Telecom and IoT analytics
+Time-series analytics with SQL
+Embedded analytics in software products

best at · Warehouse, OLAP, Real-time analytics

GreenplumPostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data.

VerticaVeteran MPP columnar analytics database from the C-Store lineage, now owned by Rocket Software.

overview

Primary model

Relational

Columnar / OLAP

Also supports

Columnar / OLAP, Spatial, Document

Relational, Time-Series, Spatial, Document

Type

Database engine

Status

Active

Developer

Broadcom (VMware Tanzu)

Rocket Software

First release

2005

Latest version

7.8.0 (May 7, 2026)

26.3 (2026)

License

ProprietaryProprietary (open source until May 2024)

ProprietaryProprietary (free Community Edition up to 1 TB)

Free tier

—

✓

popularity

WhichDB Score

20.7

33.1

Rank

#151

#67

GitHub stars

–

Stack Overflow questions

796

1.5K

scale & guarantees

Comfortable data size

Large (≤ 1 PB)

Massive (Multi-PB)

Horizontal scaling

Native

Multi-region

Read replicas

None

ACID

Full

Consistency

Strong

Schema

Strict

Architecture

Distributed, Client server

Distributed, Shared storage

deployment

Self-hosted

✓

Vendor-managed cloud

—

✓

Serverless

—

Embedded

—

Edge

—

Clouds

–

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, PL/pgSQL, PL/Python, PL/R

SQL, PL/vSQL

Client languages

C, Java, Python, Go, JavaScript

Python, Java, JavaScript, Go, .NET, C

Best for

Warehouse, OLAP

Warehouse, OLAP, Real-time analytics, Time-series

Add more to this comparison Not sure either fits? Try smart match

Greenplum vs Vertica: FAQ

What is the difference between Greenplum and Vertica?

Greenplum: PostgreSQL-based MPP data warehouse, closed-sourced by Broadcom in 2024 and sold in Tanzu Data. Vertica: Veteran MPP columnar analytics database from the C-Store lineage, now owned by Rocket Software. Greenplum is primarily a relational database; Vertica is columnar / OLAP. Vertica is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than Greenplum (≤ 1 PB). Only Greenplum has secondary indexes, vector search.

When should I choose Greenplum over Vertica?

Choose Greenplum for existing Greenplum estates, on-prem Postgres-compatible MPP warehousing and in-database analytics with MADlib. Choose Vertica for large on-prem or hybrid enterprise warehouses; telecom and IoT analytics; and time-series analytics with SQL.

Is Greenplum or Vertica more popular?

Vertica ranks #67 on the WhichDB Score (33.1/100) and Greenplum ranks #151 (20.7/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Greenplum and Vertica open source?

No. Greenplum is proprietary, closed-source software. No. Vertica is proprietary, closed-source software.