head to head · open source
duckdb vs lotus
duckdb has 42,747 GitHub stars, 4,176 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lotus has 1,842 stars, 137 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped yesterday. duckdb leads on adoption by 2,221% (42,747 vs 1,842 stars). duckdb is written in C++ under MIT; lotus is written in Python under MIT. duckdb has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, lotus 7%. duckdb 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 | lotus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C++ | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.2K | ⑂ 137 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick duckdb if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lotus if
- You want the lotus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and lotus fits your workflow better
About duckdb
DuckDB DuckDB is a high performance analytical database system. It is designed to be fast, reliable, portable, and easy to use. DuckDB provides a rich SQL dialect with support far beyond basic SQL. DuckDB supports arbitrary and nested correlated subqueries, window functions, collations, complex types (arrays, structs, maps), and several extensions designed to make SQL easier to use. DuckDB is available as a standalone CLI application and has clients for Python, R, Java, Wasm, etc., with deep integrations with packages such as pandas and dplyr. For more information on using DuckDB, please refer to the DuckDB…
read the full duckdb overview →
About lotus
Lotus: Pricing & Packaging Infrastructure For Any Business Model Usage Based, Per Seat, Bespoke Enterprise Plans And More Documentation • Lotus is a pricing and billing engine that enables SaaS companies to deploy, monitor, and experiment with custom subscriptions and complex models like usage based pricing. Lotus provides a flexible and modular control panel on top of your existing quote to cash stack that allows you to integrate data from multiple systems to help you figure out the optimal pricing scheme for your products. Getting Started :bust in silhouette: Self Hosted Version (currently the only…
read the full lotus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is duckdb or lotus more popular?
duckdb has 42,747 GitHub stars and lotus has 1,842. duckdb has the larger community by that measure.
Are duckdb and lotus free?
Both are open source. duckdb is licensed under MIT and lotus under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between duckdb and lotus?
duckdb is written in C++ and lotus in Python. 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 lotus?
Choose duckdb if you want the larger community (42,747 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose lotus if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.