head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs ZeroFS
ClickHouse has 50,116 GitHub stars, 9,017 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. ZeroFS has 3,088 stars, 119 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 1,523% (50,116 vs 3,088 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; ZeroFS is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, ZeroFS 4%. 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 | ZeroFS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 119 |
| 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 ZeroFS if
- You want the ZeroFS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and ZeroFS 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 ZeroFS
ZeroFS is a log structured filesystem written in Rust that presents S3 compatible buckets as POSIX filesystems over NFS and 9P, and as raw block devices over NBD, for teams that want object storage to behave like ordinary local storage.
read the full ZeroFS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or ZeroFS more popular?
ClickHouse has 50,116 GitHub stars and ZeroFS has 3,088. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and ZeroFS free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZeroFS under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and ZeroFS?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and ZeroFS in Rust. 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 ZeroFS?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (50,116 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ZeroFS if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.