head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs dlt
ClickHouse has 49,959 GitHub stars, 8,971 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dlt has 5,871 stars, 605 forks, 434 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 751% (49,959 vs 5,871 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; dlt is written in Python under Apache-2.0. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, dlt 10%. 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 | dlt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 5.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 605 |
| 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 dlt if
- You want the dlt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dlt 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 dlt
dlt (data load tool) is an open source Python library, licensed under Apache 2.0, that automates tedious data loading by moving data from messy, often unstructured sources into well structured, typed datasets, and it is built for Python developers and data engineers who want to load data without adopting a platform.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or dlt more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,959 GitHub stars and dlt has 5,871. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and dlt free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dlt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and dlt?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and dlt 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 dlt?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,959 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dlt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.