head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs starrocks
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars, 9,204 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. starrocks has 12,225 stars, 2,646 forks, 1,443 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 315% (50,719 vs 12,225 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; starrocks is written in Java under Apache-2.0. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, starrocks 22%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (analytics, big-data, database, lakehouse), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | starrocks | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ClickHouse if
- You weight community size — 51K 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 starrocks if
- You want the starrocks feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and starrocks fits your workflow better
About ClickHouse
ClickHouse® is an open source column oriented database management system that allows generating analytical data reports in real time. How To Install (Linux, macOS, FreeBSD) Useful Links Official website has a quick high level overview of ClickHouse on the main page. ClickHouse Cloud ClickHouse as a service, built by the creators and maintainers. Tutorial shows how to set up and query a small ClickHouse cluster. Documentation provides more in depth information. YouTube channel has a lot of content about ClickHouse in video format. ClickHouse Theater contains presentations and videos about ClickHouse. Slack and…
read the full ClickHouse overview →
About starrocks
Download Docs Benchmarks Demo StarRocks is the world's fastest open query engine for sub second, ad hoc analytics both on and off the data lakehouse. With average query performance 3x faster than other popular alternatives, StarRocks is a query engine that eliminates the need for denormalization and adapts to your use cases, without having to move your data or rewrite SQL. A Linux Foundation project. Learn more 👉🏻 What Is StarRocks: Features and Use Cases, Join StarRocks Summit 2025! Features 🚀 Native vectorized SQL engine: StarRocks adopts vectorization technology to make full use of the parallel computing…
read the full starrocks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or starrocks more popular?
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars and starrocks has 12,225. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and starrocks free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and starrocks under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and starrocks?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and starrocks in Java. 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 starrocks?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (50,719 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose starrocks if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.