head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs lakeFS
ClickHouse has 50,116 GitHub stars, 9,017 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. lakeFS has 5,542 stars, 479 forks, 443 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 804% (50,116 vs 5,542 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; lakeFS is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, lakeFS 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 | lakeFS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 479 |
| 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 lakeFS if
- You want the lakeFS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and lakeFS 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 lakeFS
lakeFS is an open source data version control tool — commonly described as Git for data — that turns object storage into a versioned, Git like repository, and it is built for data engineers, analytics engineers, and data scientists who need repeatable, atomic, and auditable data lake operations.
read the full lakeFS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or lakeFS more popular?
ClickHouse has 50,116 GitHub stars and lakeFS has 5,542. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and lakeFS free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0, and lakeFS has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and lakeFS?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and lakeFS in Go. 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 lakeFS?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (50,116 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lakeFS if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.