vioscaleAI
Comparison

DuckDB vs Snowflake

On the evidence we track, Snowflake leads this comparison with a composite score of 68/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

DuckDB full profile →Snowflake full profile →
Machine formatsMarkdownJSONGraphQLMarkdown is open. JSON and GraphQL need a free key.
DuckDB59
★Snowflake68
Score
vioscaleAI score
DuckDB59 / 100medium · 51%
Snowflake68 / 100medium · 63%
Pricing
Free tier
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗
Model
DuckDBopen_source
Snowflakecommercial
Price level
DuckDBfree
Snowflakeunknown
Transparent
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✓
Integrations
Count
DuckDB27
Snowflake750
Security
Disclosure policy
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Fedramp
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Gdpr
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Iso27001
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Pci
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Soc2
DuckDB–
Snowflake✓
Vulnerabilities
Reliability
Status page
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✓
Adoption
Dependent repos
DuckDB1
Snowflake–
Github stars
DuckDB42,154
Snowflake–
Package downloads weekly
DuckDB15,285,415
Snowflake–
Activity
Commits last 30d
DuckDB100
Snowflake–
Release
Cadence days
DuckDB33
Snowflake–
History
DuckDB20 items
Snowflake–
License
Spdx
DuckDBMIT
Snowflake–
Language
Primary
DuckDBC++
Snowflake–
Market
Availability
Content
Faq
DuckDB7 items
Snowflake6 items

Capabilities

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

Deployment
Deployment
DuckDBEmbedded
SnowflakeManaged cloud
Architecture
Architecture
DuckDB-
Snowflake-
Compute model
DuckDB-
SnowflakeVirtual warehouses
Query
SQL dialect
DuckDBVendor-specific
Snowflake-
Federation / lakehouse query-in-place
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✓
Interoperability
Table-format support
DuckDBParquet, CSV, JSON, Iceberg, Delta Lake, Vortex, DuckLake, Lance, Arrow, Avro, E
SnowflakeApache Iceberg
Scale
Concurrency scaling
DuckDB-
SnowflakeAutomatic
Ingestion
Streaming ingest
DuckDB-
Snowflake✓
Data model
Semi-structured (JSON/VARIANT)
DuckDBFunctional
SnowflakeFirst-class
Analytics
ML / in-DB functions
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✓
Sharing
Data sharing / marketplace
DuckDB-
Snowflake✓
Licensing
Licence class
DuckDBPermissive OSS
SnowflakeProprietary

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

Snowflake

Leader

Snowflake is a fully managed cloud service that unifies data storage, analytics, machine learning and AI capabilities in a single platform. It enables organizations to process structured and unstructured data, build AI applications and share live data across organizations and cloud environments.

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 ↗

Snowflake

Leader
Usage-based
  • Standard-
  • Enterprise-
  • Business CriticalContact 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✗
Snowflake✓
macOS
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗
Windows
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗
Linux
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗
CLI
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
DuckDB✗
Snowflake✓
Self-hosted
DuckDB✓
Snowflake✗

Integrations

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

In common (2)
  • AWS
  • Apache Iceberg

DuckDB

30 total - 28 not shared
  • Postgres
  • 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
  • DuckLake
  • +4 more
Independently observed

Snowflake

Leader
9 total - 7 not shared
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud Platform
  • Streamlit
  • PyTorch
  • NVIDIA
  • Jira
  • GitHub
Independently observed
Still deciding?

DuckDB or Snowflake: 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.