head to head · open source
Elasticsearch vs ClickHouse
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars, 26,239 forks, 6,059 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse has 50,719 stars, 9,204 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Elasticsearch leads on adoption by 55% (78,462 vs 50,719 stars). Elasticsearch is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. Elasticsearch has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, ClickHouse 18%. 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
| Elasticsearch | ClickHouse | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 51K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 26K | ⑂ 9.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Elasticsearch if
- You weight community size — 78K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ClickHouse if
- You want the ClickHouse feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and ClickHouse fits your workflow better
About Elasticsearch
= Elasticsearch Elasticsearch is a distributed search and analytics engine, scalable data store and vector database optimized for speed and relevance on production scale workloads. Elasticsearch is the foundation of Elastic's open Stack platform. Search in near real time over massive datasets, perform vector searches, integrate with generative AI applications, and much more. Use cases enabled by Elasticsearch include: Augmented Generation (RAG)] search] Full text search Logs Metrics Application performance monitoring (APM) Security logs \... and more! To learn more about Elasticsearch's features and…
read the full Elasticsearch overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Elasticsearch or ClickHouse more popular?
Elasticsearch has 78,462 GitHub stars and ClickHouse has 50,719. Elasticsearch has the larger community by that measure.
Are Elasticsearch and ClickHouse free?
Both are open source. Elasticsearch has no licence declared in this registry, and ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Elasticsearch and ClickHouse?
Elasticsearch is written in Java and ClickHouse in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Elasticsearch or ClickHouse?
Choose Elasticsearch if you want the larger community (78,462 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose ClickHouse if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.