head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs starrocks
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars, 8,970 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. starrocks has 12,116 stars, 2,590 forks, 1,443 open issues and last shipped today. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 312% (49,952 vs 12,116 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 21%. 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 | ★ 50K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 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 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 starrocks
StarRocks is an Apache 2.0, Linux Foundation open query engine written in Java that delivers sub second ad hoc and multi dimensional analytics both on and off the data lakehouse, built for data platform teams, analytics engineers, and BI users who need fast SQL over large distributed datasets without moving data or rewriting SQL.
read the full starrocks overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or starrocks more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars and starrocks has 12,116. 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 (49,952 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.