vioscaleAI
Comparison

DuckDB vs Firebolt

No clear leader: Firebolt (63.0) and DuckDB (59.1) 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.

DuckDB full profile →Firebolt full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
DuckDB59
Firebolt63
Score
vioscaleAI score
DuckDB59 / 100medium · 51%
Firebolt63 / 100medium · 74%
Pricing
Free tier
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
Model
DuckDBopen_source
Fireboltfreemium
Price level
DuckDBfree
Fireboltlow
Transparent
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
Integrations
Count
DuckDB27
Firebolt4
Security
Certifications
Gdpr
DuckDB–
Firebolt✓
Hipaa
DuckDB–
Firebolt✓
Iso27001
DuckDB–
Firebolt✓
Soc2
DuckDB–
Firebolt✓
Trust center
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
DuckDB1
Firebolt–
Github stars
DuckDB42,154
Firebolt–
Package downloads weekly
DuckDB15,285,415
Firebolt–
Activity
Commits last 30d
DuckDB100
Firebolt–
Release
Cadence days
DuckDB33
Firebolt–
History
DuckDB20 items
Firebolt–
License
Spdx
DuckDBMIT
Firebolt–
Language
Primary
DuckDBC++
Firebolt–
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
DuckDB7 items
Firebolt7 items

Capabilities

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

Deployment
Deployment
DuckDBEmbedded
FireboltHybrid
Architecture
Architecture
DuckDB-
FireboltSeparated storage/compute
Compute model
DuckDB-
FireboltClusters
Query
SQL dialect
DuckDBVendor-specific
FireboltVendor-specific
Federation / lakehouse query-in-place
DuckDB✓
Firebolt-
Interoperability
Table-format support
DuckDBParquet, CSV, JSON, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Vortex, DuckLake, Lance, Arrow, Avro, E
FireboltIceberg, DuckLake
Scale
Concurrency scaling
DuckDB-
FireboltManual
Ingestion
Streaming ingest
DuckDB-
Firebolt✓
Data model
Semi-structured (JSON/VARIANT)
DuckDBFunctional
FireboltFirst-class
Analytics
ML / in-DB functions
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
Sharing
Data sharing / marketplace
DuckDB-
Firebolt-
Licensing
Licence class
DuckDBPermissive OSS
FireboltPermissive OSS

What each one is

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

DuckDB

A portable analytical database that runs locally or embedded in applications, with PostgreSQL-like SQL and APIs for major programming languages, supporting popular data formats including CSV, JSON, Parquet, and Apache Iceberg.

Independently observed

Firebolt

An open-source analytical database designed for real-time and batch analytics that can run from a single laptop to distributed clusters across multiple cloud providers. It supports industry-standard formats like Iceberg, uses a Postgres-compatible SQL dialect, and offers per-second billing with no fixed costs.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

DuckDB

Open sourceFree tier

Free, open source under MIT license

as of verify ↗

Firebolt

from $0.03/moHybridFree tier

Free open-source self-hosted option, or managed service from $0.92/hr per node + $0.0264/GB·mo. Includes $200 free credits.

  • Open SourceFree
    • self-hosted
    • no limits
  • Managed ServiceFrom $0.92/hr per node + $0.0264/GB·mo storage. Includes $200 free credits.
    • per-second billing
    • auto-scaling
    • auto start/resume
    • scale to zero
    • workload isolation
    • +1 more
  • Bring Your Own CloudContact sales
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
Web
DuckDB✗
Firebolt✓
macOS
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✗
Windows
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✗
Linux
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✗
CLI
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
DuckDB✗
Firebolt✓
Self-hosted
DuckDB✓
Firebolt✓
On-premise
DuckDB✗
Firebolt✓

Integrations

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

In common (3)
  • S3
  • Iceberg
  • Claude

DuckDB

30 total - 27 not shared
  • Postgres
  • AWS
  • Azure
  • Google Cloud
  • Hugging Face
  • SQLite
  • MySQL
  • Delta Lake
  • Parquet
  • JSON
  • Arrow
  • Avro
  • Pandas
  • dplyr
  • Jupyter
  • Marimo
  • Cloudflare
  • ODBC
  • HTTP
  • Excel
  • Vortex
  • DuckLake
  • Lance
  • Geospatial formats
  • +3 more
Independently observed

Firebolt

14 total - 11 not shared
  • Copilot
  • Cursor
  • Salesforce
  • RudderStack
  • Onfire
  • Calendly
  • Cal.com
  • Smartlead
  • Zapier
  • Tableau Cloud
  • Kafka
Independently observed
Still deciding?

DuckDB or Firebolt: which one depends on you

A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.

Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works

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