head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs bigfunctions
ClickHouse has 49,966 GitHub stars, 8,971 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. bigfunctions has 759 stars, 70 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 6,483% (49,966 vs 759 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; bigfunctions is written in Python under MIT. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, bigfunctions 9%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| ClickHouse | bigfunctions | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 759 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 70 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ClickHouse if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick bigfunctions if
- You want the bigfunctions feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and bigfunctions fits your workflow better
About ClickHouse
ClickHouse is an open source, column oriented database management system written in C++ that delivers real time analytical query performance on massive datasets. It operates within the broader data infrastructure ecosystem, serving as a high performance alternative to traditional row oriented databases for OLAP workloads.
read the full ClickHouse overview →
About bigfunctions
BigFunctions is an open source Python framework, released under the MIT licence, for building a governed catalog of BigQuery functions — packaged with a community library of more than 150 functions that can be called directly or redeployed — and it is aimed at data engineers, analysts, and teams working inside Google BigQuery.
read the full bigfunctions overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or bigfunctions more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,966 GitHub stars and bigfunctions has 759. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and bigfunctions free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and bigfunctions under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and bigfunctions?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and bigfunctions in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ClickHouse or bigfunctions?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,966 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose bigfunctions if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.