vs

StarRocks vs VeloDB

StarRocks: MPP OLAP database with a fast vectorized engine, real-time upserts and native lakehouse queries. VeloDB: Commercial cloud and enterprise distribution of Apache Doris from its core maintainers.

key differences

  • Licensing: StarRocks is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); VeloDB is proprietary (Proprietary (on an Apache-2.0 Doris core)).
  • Only StarRocks has online schema changes.
  • Only VeloDB has geospatial, encryption at rest.

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

choose velodb for

  • +Managed real-time analytics
  • +Log analytics as an Elasticsearch alternative
  • +Lakehouse query acceleration

best at · Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability

overview
Primary model
Columnar / OLAP
Columnar / OLAP
Also supports
Relational, Document, Vector
Relational, Document, Search Engine, Vector
Type
Database engine
Managed service
Status
Active
Active
Developer
StarRocks (Linux Foundation; CelerData)
VeloDB
First release
2020
2022
Latest version
4.1.3 (Sep 17, 2026)
–
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
ProprietaryProprietary (on an Apache-2.0 Doris core)
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
15.6
2.3
Rank
#210
#485
GitHub stars
12.2K
–
Stack Overflow questions
11
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Limited
Limited
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage
Distributed, Shared storage
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Alibaba 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 (MySQL dialect)
SQL (MySQL dialect)
Client languages
Java, Python, Go, JavaScript, C++
Java, Python, Go, JavaScript
Best for
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Lakehouse, Warehouse
Real-time analytics, OLAP, Observability, Lakehouse

StarRocks vs VeloDB: FAQ

What is the difference between StarRocks and VeloDB?

StarRocks: MPP OLAP database with a fast vectorized engine, real-time upserts and native lakehouse queries. VeloDB: Commercial cloud and enterprise distribution of Apache Doris from its core maintainers. Licensing: StarRocks is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0); VeloDB is proprietary (Proprietary (on an Apache-2.0 Doris core)). Only StarRocks has online schema changes. Only VeloDB has geospatial, encryption at rest.

When should I choose StarRocks over VeloDB?

Choose StarRocks for real-time dashboards with joins, lakehouse query acceleration over Iceberg and customer-facing analytics. Choose VeloDB for managed real-time analytics, log analytics as an Elasticsearch alternative and lakehouse query acceleration.

Is StarRocks or VeloDB more popular?

StarRocks ranks #210 on the WhichDB Score (15.6/100) and VeloDB ranks #485 (2.3/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are StarRocks and VeloDB open source?

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