vioscale
Comparison

Databricks vs DuckDB

No clear leader: DuckDB (62.4) and Databricks (59.8) 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.

Databricks full profile →DuckDB full profile →
Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
Databricks60
DuckDB62
Score
Vioscale score
Databricks60 / 100low · 48%
DuckDB62 / 100medium · 56%
Pricing
Free tier
Databricks✓
DuckDB✓
Model
Databrickscommercial
DuckDBopen_source
Price level
Databrickslow
DuckDBfree
Transparent
Databricks✓
DuckDB✓
Integrations
Count
Databricks6
DuckDB27
Security
Disclosure policy
Databricks✓
DuckDB–
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
Databricks✓
DuckDB✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
Databricks–
DuckDB1
Github stars
Databricks–
DuckDB40,661
Package downloads weekly
Databricks–
DuckDB17,889,302
Activity
Commits last 30d
Databricks–
DuckDB100
Release
Cadence days
Databricks–
DuckDB28
History
Databricks–
DuckDB20 items
License
Spdx
Databricks–
DuckDBMIT
Language
Primary
Databricks–
DuckDBC++
Market
Availability

Capabilities

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

Deployment
Deployment
DatabricksManaged cloud
DuckDBEmbedded
Architecture
Architecture
DatabricksSeparated storage/compute
DuckDB-
Compute model
DatabricksServerless
DuckDB-
Query
SQL dialect
DatabricksVendor-specific
DuckDBVendor-specific
Federation / lakehouse query-in-place
Databricks-
DuckDB✓
Interoperability
Table-format support
DatabricksDelta, Iceberg
DuckDBParquet, CSV, JSON, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Vortex, DuckLake, Lance, Arrow, Avro, E
Scale
Concurrency scaling
DatabricksAutomatic
DuckDB-
Ingestion
Streaming ingest
Databricks✓
DuckDB-
Data model
Semi-structured (JSON/VARIANT)
DatabricksFirst-class
DuckDBFunctional
Analytics
ML / in-DB functions
Databricks✓
DuckDB✓
Sharing
Data sharing / marketplace
Databricks✓
DuckDB-
Licensing
Licence class
DatabricksProprietary
DuckDBPermissive OSS

What each one is

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

Databricks

Databricks is a unified data, analytics, and AI platform for enterprises that combines data warehousing, machine learning, and AI agent capabilities through its lakehouse architecture and serverless Postgres offering (Lakebase).

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.

Databricks

from $0.07/moUsage-basedFree tier

Pay-as-you-go usage-based pricing from $0.069 / DBU or CU per second. Committed Use Contracts available for volume discounts. Free tier available.

  • Data EngineeringFrom $0.15 / DBU per second
    • Orchestrate data processing
    • Build streaming and batch pipelines
    • Ingest data from multiple sources
  • Data WarehousingFrom $0.22 / DBU per second
    • SQL analytics
    • BI reporting
    • Available in Classic and Serverless compute
  • Interactive WorkloadsFrom $0.40 / DBU per second
    • Data science workloads
    • Build custom applications
    • Security and governance
  • Operational DatabaseFrom $0.069 / CU per second
    • Postgres database
    • Data and feature serving
  • Artificial IntelligenceFrom $0.07 / DBU per second
    • GenAI applications
    • Model Serving
    • AI Functions
    • Model Training
  • GenieFree
    • Natural language Q&A
    • AI Coding Assistant
    • Enterprise Knowledge access
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
Databricks✓
DuckDB✓
macOS
Databricks✗
DuckDB✓
Windows
Databricks✗
DuckDB✓
Linux
Databricks✗
DuckDB✓
CLI
Databricks✗
DuckDB✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
Databricks✓
DuckDB✗
Self-hosted
Databricks✗
DuckDB✓

Integrations

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

Databricks

6 total
  • Teams
  • Slack
  • Confluence
  • Power Platform
  • Copilot Studio
  • Zerobus
Independently observed

DuckDB

27 total
  • Postgres
  • AWS
  • S3
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • Hugging Face
  • SQLite
  • MySQL
  • Iceberg
  • Delta Lake
  • Parquet
  • JSON
  • Arrow
  • Avro
  • Pandas
  • dplyr
  • Jupyter
  • Marimo
  • Claude
  • Cloudflare
  • ODBC
  • HTTP
  • Excel
  • Vortex
  • +3 more
Independently observed

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