head to head · open source
duckdb vs delta
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. delta has 8,999 stars, 2,176 forks, 955 open issues and last shipped yesterday. duckdb leads on adoption by 360% (41,440 vs 8,999 stars). duckdb is written in C++ under MIT; delta is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. duckdb has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, delta 24%. delta was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (analytics), 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
| duckdb | delta | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick duckdb if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick delta if
- You want the delta feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and delta fits your workflow better
About duckdb
DuckDB is an analytical, in process SQL database management system written in C++ and released under the MIT license. It runs inside the application process rather than as a separate server, and it is distributed as a standalone command line application as well as through clients for Python, R, Java, and WebAssembly. The project lives in the analytical SQL ecosystem, where the topics listed for it are analytics, database, embedded database, OLAP, and SQL. It has been developed for about eight years, with the last push recorded on 15 September 2026.
read the full duckdb overview →
About delta
Delta Lake is an open source storage framework that enables building a Lakehouse architecture with compute engines including Spark, PrestoDB, Flink, Trino, and Hive, aimed at data engineers and platform teams who keep large analytical tables on existing storage and need transactional guarantees across several engines.
read the full delta overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is duckdb or delta more popular?
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars and delta has 8,999. duckdb has the larger community by that measure.
Are duckdb and delta free?
Both are open source. duckdb is licensed under MIT and delta under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between duckdb and delta?
duckdb is written in C++ and delta in Scala. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, duckdb or delta?
Choose duckdb if you want the larger community (41,440 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose delta if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.