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Infobright vs StarRocks

Infobright: Compressed columnar analytics engine on a MySQL front end, now sold by IgniteTech as Infobright AI. StarRocks: MPP OLAP database with a fast vectorized engine, real-time upserts and native lakehouse queries.

key differences

  • Licensing: Infobright is proprietary (Proprietary (Community Edition was GPL until 2016)); StarRocks is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0).
  • StarRocks is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Infobright (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is none in Infobright and native in StarRocks.
  • Only StarRocks has secondary indexes, full-text search, vector search, json, materialized views.

choose infobright for

  • +Existing deployments for log and machine-data analytics
  • +Embedded analytics in OEM appliances

best at · OLAP, Warehouse, Observability

choose starrocks for

  • +Real-time dashboards with joins
  • +Lakehouse query acceleration over Iceberg
  • +Customer-facing analytics
  • +Replacing pre-aggregated cubes

best at · Real-time analytics, OLAP, Lakehouse

InfobrightCompressed columnar analytics engine on a MySQL front end, now sold by IgniteTech as Infobright AI.
StarRocksMPP OLAP database with a fast vectorized engine, real-time upserts and native lakehouse queries.
overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Relational
Relational, Document, Vector
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
IgniteTech (originally Infobright Inc.)
StarRocks (Linux Foundation; CelerData)
First release
2005
2020
Latest version
–
4.1.3 (Sep 17, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (Community Edition was GPL until 2016)
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
4.4
15.6
Rank
#406
#210
GitHub stars
–
12.2K
Stack Overflow questions
–
11
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
None
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Single node, Client server
Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
–
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 (MySQL dialect)
Client languages
C, Java, Python, PHP
Java, Python, Go, JavaScript, C++
Best for
OLAP, Warehouse, Observability
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Lakehouse, Warehouse
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Infobright vs StarRocks: FAQ

What is the difference between Infobright and StarRocks?

Infobright: Compressed columnar analytics engine on a MySQL front end, now sold by IgniteTech as Infobright AI. StarRocks: MPP OLAP database with a fast vectorized engine, real-time upserts and native lakehouse queries. Licensing: Infobright is proprietary (Proprietary (Community Edition was GPL until 2016)); StarRocks is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0). StarRocks is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than Infobright (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is none in Infobright and native in StarRocks.

When should I choose Infobright over StarRocks?

Choose Infobright for existing deployments for log and machine-data analytics; and embedded analytics in OEM appliances. Choose StarRocks for real-time dashboards with joins, lakehouse query acceleration over Iceberg and customer-facing analytics.

Is Infobright or StarRocks more popular?

StarRocks ranks #210 on the WhichDB Score (15.6/100) and Infobright ranks #406 (4.4/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Infobright and StarRocks open source?

No. Infobright is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. StarRocks is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.