Comparison

Apache Iceberg vs DuckDB

No clear leader: DuckDB (62.4) and Apache Iceberg (62.2) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Apache Iceberg62
DuckDB62
Score
Vioscale score
Apache Iceberg62 / 100medium · 56%
DuckDB62 / 100medium · 56%
Pricing
Free tier
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Model
Apache Icebergopen_source
Price level
Apache Icebergfree
DuckDBfree
Transparent
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Integrations
Count
Apache Iceberg20
DuckDB27
Reliability
Status page
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Adoption
Dependent repos
Apache Iceberg1
DuckDB1
Github stars
Apache Iceberg9,176
DuckDB40,661
Package downloads weekly
Apache Iceberg11,384,061
Activity
Commits last 30d
Apache Iceberg100
DuckDB100
Release
Cadence days
Apache Iceberg50
DuckDB28
History
Apache Iceberg20 items
DuckDB20 items
License
Spdx
Apache IcebergApache-2.0
DuckDBMIT
Language
Primary
Apache IcebergJava
DuckDBC++
Market
Availability
Apache Iceberg

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for data warehouse software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Deployment
Deployment
Apache IcebergEmbedded
DuckDBEmbedded
Architecture
Architecture
Apache Iceberg-
DuckDB-
Compute model
Apache Iceberg-
DuckDB-
Query
SQL dialect
Apache Iceberg-
DuckDBVendor-specific
Federation / lakehouse query-in-place
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Interoperability
Table-format support
Apache IcebergIceberg (Parquet, ORC, Avro, Puffin data files)
DuckDBParquet, CSV, JSON, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Vortex, DuckLake, Lance, Arrow, Avro, E
Scale
Concurrency scaling
Apache IcebergAutomatic
DuckDB-
Ingestion
Streaming ingest
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB-
Data model
Semi-structured (JSON/VARIANT)
Apache IcebergFirst-class
DuckDBFunctional
Analytics
ML / in-DB functions
Apache Iceberg-
DuckDB
Sharing
Data sharing / marketplace
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB-
Licensing
Licence class
Apache IcebergPermissive OSS
DuckDBPermissive OSS

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

Apache Iceberg

Apache Iceberg is a table format that enables reliable, ACID-compliant SQL operations on big data. It allows multiple query engines—such as Spark, Trino, Flink, Hive, and Impala—to safely read and write the same tables concurrently, bringing traditional database semantics to analytics workloads.

Independently observed

DuckDB

An in-process SQL analytical database that runs natively in applications across operating systems and environments. Supports querying files and cloud data directly with a SQL dialect and includes vector search capabilities.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

Apache Iceberg

Open source

Open source, no licensing cost

as of verify ↗

DuckDB

Open sourceFree tier

Free, open source under MIT license

as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platforms
Web
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
macOS
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Windows
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Linux
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
CLI
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB
Deployment
Self-hosted
Apache Iceberg
DuckDB

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

In common (2)
  • Pandas
  • S3

Apache Iceberg

20 total - 18 not shared
  • Spark
  • Trino
  • Presto
  • Flink
  • Hive
  • Impala
  • PyArrow
  • DuckDB
  • Polars
  • Ray
  • Datafusion
  • BigQuery
  • SQLAlchemy
  • GCS
  • Azure Data Lake Storage
  • Hadoop
  • Kerberos
  • Thrift
Independently observed

DuckDB

27 total - 25 not shared
  • Postgres
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • Hugging Face
  • SQLite
  • MySQL
  • Iceberg
  • Delta Lake
  • Parquet
  • JSON
  • Arrow
  • Avro
  • dplyr
  • Jupyter
  • Marimo
  • Claude
  • Cloudflare
  • ODBC
  • HTTP
  • Excel
  • Vortex
  • DuckLake
  • Lance
  • +1 more
Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.