head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs lakeFS
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars, 9,204 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. lakeFS has 5,575 stars, 490 forks, 443 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 810% (50,719 vs 5,575 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; lakeFS is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, lakeFS 9%. 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 | lakeFS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 51K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 490 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ClickHouse if
- You weight community size — 51K 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 lakeFS if
- You want the lakeFS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and lakeFS fits your workflow better
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 →
About lakeFS
lakeFS is Data Version Control (Git for Data) lakeFS is an open source tool that transforms your object storage into a Git like repository. It enables you to manage your data lake the way you manage your code. With lakeFS you can build repeatable, atomic, and versioned data lake operations from complex ETL jobs to data science and analytics. lakeFS supports AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage as its underlying storage service. It is API compatible with S3 and works seamlessly with all modern data frameworks such as Spark, Hive, AWS Athena, DuckDB, and Presto. For more information, see the…
read the full lakeFS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or lakeFS more popular?
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars and lakeFS has 5,575. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and lakeFS free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0, and lakeFS has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and lakeFS?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and lakeFS in Go. 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 lakeFS?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (50,719 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lakeFS if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.