Parseable
activeby Parseable, Inc. · since 2022
Rust telemetry datalake for logs, metrics and traces on S3, queried with SQL.
Overview
Parseable is a lightweight, Rust-built telemetry store that writes logs, metrics, traces and events to object storage as Apache Parquet and queries them with SQL through Apache DataFusion. It ingests OpenTelemetry natively as well as plain HTTP JSON, ships its own console for search, dashboards and alerts, and keeps a local hot tier for recent data so common queries avoid round-trips to S3. The server is AGPL-3.0, and Parseable's enterprise edition and managed cloud add multi-node query, SSO and support. It suits teams that want an S3-native alternative to Elasticsearch or Loki with few moving parts.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Single Rust binary with a small memory footprint
- +Open Parquet files on S3 avoid lock-in and stay cheap
- +Plain SQL for log and trace analysis
- +Native OpenTelemetry ingestion for logs, metrics and traces
- +Hot tier on local disk speeds up recent queries
Trade-offs
- −AGPL-3.0 licence
- −No full-text index; text search is SQL filtering over columns
- −Smaller community than Loki or Elasticsearch
- −Fast-moving project with frequent breaking changes in major versions
Great for
- +Low-cost log retention on S3
- +OpenTelemetry backend for small and mid-size teams
- +Audit and compliance logs kept for years
- +SQL analysis of application events
Think twice for
- −Relevance-ranked search
- −Prometheus-style metrics alerting at scale
- −Transactional data
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 8 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Large · ≤ 1 PB
- Horizontal scaling
- Native
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- None
- Consistency
- Eventual
- Schema
- Schemaless
- Architecture
- Single node, Distributed, Shared storage
- Query languages
- SQL
Distributed mode runs separate ingest and query nodes over a shared object-storage bucket.
Deployment
available on · AWS
Ecosystem
Alternatives to Parseable
Single-binary Rust observability platform storing logs, metrics and traces as Parquet on object storage.
parseable vs openobserve →Label-indexed log aggregation: Prometheus-style streams, chunks on object storage, LogQL queries.
parseable vs grafana-loki →Log database from the VictoriaMetrics team: schemaless ingestion, LogsQL and low RAM and disk use.
parseable vs victorialogs →OpenTelemetry-native APM and observability platform storing logs, metrics and traces in ClickHouse.
parseable vs signoz →Lucene-based distributed search and analytics engine for text, vectors, logs and metrics.
parseable vs elasticsearch →Cloud-native search engine on object storage for logs and traces, built on Tantivy.
parseable vs quickwit →Parseable FAQ
What is Parseable?
Parseable is a columnar / OLAP database by Parseable, Inc., first released in 2022. Parseable is a lightweight, Rust-built telemetry store that writes logs, metrics, traces and events to object storage as Apache Parquet and queries them with SQL through Apache DataFusion. It ingests OpenTelemetry natively as well as plain HTTP JSON, ships its own console for search, dashboards and alerts, and keeps a local hot tier for recent data so common queries avoid round-trips to S3. The server is AGPL-3.0, and Parseable's enterprise edition and managed cloud add multi-node query, SSO and support. It suits teams that want an S3-native alternative to Elasticsearch or Loki with few moving parts.
Is Parseable open source?
Yes. Parseable is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3.0.
Does Parseable support ACID transactions?
No. Parseable does not provide ACID transactions; its consistency model is eventual.
Does Parseable scale horizontally?
Parseable scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB).
How can I run Parseable?
You can self-host it and use the vendor's managed cloud. It is available on AWS.
What is Parseable best for?
Parseable is a strong fit for low-cost log retention on S3; OpenTelemetry backend for small and mid-size teams; and audit and compliance logs kept for years. Think twice for relevance-ranked search.
What are the best alternatives to Parseable?
Common alternatives to Parseable include OpenObserve, Grafana Loki, VictoriaLogs, SigNoz and Elasticsearch. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is Parseable?
Parseable ranks #178 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (18.6/100), and #17 among columnar / OLAP databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.