Alternatives / BigQuery
Looking for an open source BigQuery alternative? We compared 6 open source analytics databases and data tools by license, architecture, and maintenance. ClickHouse, Apache Druid, Databend, and CrateDB are analytics databases, while CloudQuery and Deep Lake solve data integration and AI data problems.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| ClickHouse | Fast columnar analytics with real-time ingestion | Apache-2.0 |
| Apache Druid | Time-indexed analytics for streaming data | Apache-2.0 |
| Databend | Warehouse on object storage | Apache-2.0 + Elastic (EE) |
| Deep Lake (Activeloop) | Multimodal data for ML | Apache-2.0 |
| CloudQuery | ELT from cloud and security tools | MPL-2.0 |
| CrateDB | Distributed SQL for time-series and IoT | Apache-2.0 |
We looked for open-source systems that run fast analytical SQL over large datasets like BigQuery. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository, and flag the entries that are not warehouses. See our methodology for the full criteria.
ClickHouse is the most popular columnar analytics database, with fast queries, strong compression, linear scaling, and real-time ingestion. Databend is a cloud data warehouse built on object storage, with SQL compliance and time travel.
Apache Druid is a columnar, time-indexed store with native Kafka and Kinesis ingestion, working best with pre-joined tables. CrateDB is a distributed SQL database for fast ingestion, full-text search, and time-series and IoT data.
CloudQuery is an ELT tool that syncs data from cloud and security tools to a destination, so it moves data and does not store it. Deep Lake is a data layer for AI aimed at ML workflows rather than general warehousing.
Databend has community, enterprise, and cloud editions, and its enterprise features carry a separate Elastic license. Apache Druid, ClickHouse, and CrateDB are Apache-2.0, with managed clouds that are paid.
ClickHouse, Apache Druid, CrateDB, and Deep Lake are Apache-2.0. Databend is Apache-2.0 with Elastic-licensed enterprise parts. CloudQuery is MPL-2.0.
All except Deep Lake had commits within days of this update. Deep Lake's last commit was in May 2026.
BigQuery is a proprietary serverless warehouse billed by data scanned or reserved compute, so costs can be hard to predict and your data lives in Google Cloud. Open-source engines can run anywhere and give predictable costs, but you manage servers, scaling, and upgrades yourself.
ClickHouse is a high-performance columnar OLAP database for real-time analytics on big data, with SQL and analytical extensions, real-time ingestion, data compression, replication, and sharding, and it can query billions of rows in seconds.
Pricing: Free open source; ClickHouse Cloud is paid.
Apache Druid is a columnar, time-indexed analytics database for streaming and batch data, handling billions to trillions of rows with millisecond queries, native Kafka and Kinesis ingestion, and automatic schema discovery.
Pricing: Free and open source.
Databend is an open-source elastic cloud data warehouse built in Rust with SQL support, time travel, native AI capabilities, vector and full-text search, role-based access, and object storage. The repository is Apache-2.0 except for enterprise files under the Elastic License.
Pricing: Free community edition; pay-as-you-go cloud.
Deep Lake by Activeloop is an Apache-2.0 data layer for AI that stores multimodal data such as images, audio, and embeddings and supports vector search, versioning, and streaming to ML frameworks. The last commit was in May 2026.
Pricing: Free open-source core; hosted platform is paid.
CloudQuery is an ELT platform that syncs data from hundreds of cloud and security tools into many destinations, with high-performance columnar streaming, a custom connector SDK, and no external dependencies.
Pricing: Free open source; paid cloud and enterprise plans.
CrateDB is a distributed SQL database for high-speed ingestion and complex queries on large datasets, with horizontal scalability, time-series optimization, Lucene-based full-text search, and geospatial support, suited to IoT and log analytics.
Pricing: Free open source; managed cloud and enterprise support are paid.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ClickHouse | Analytics database | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Closest replacement |
| Apache Druid | Analytics database | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Streaming analytics |
| Databend | Data warehouse | Apache-2.0 + Elastic (EE) | Yes | Cloud-style warehousing |
| Deep Lake (Activeloop) | AI data platform | Apache-2.0 | Yes | AI/ML workloads |
| CloudQuery | Data integration | MPL-2.0 | Yes | Moving data, not storing it |
| CrateDB | Analytics database | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Machine data |
Want the closest warehouse replacement
ClickHouse offers fast SQL, compression, and real-time ingestion at scale.
Want streaming analytics from Kafka
Druid ingests natively from Kafka and Kinesis with low-latency queries.
Want to sync cloud data to a warehouse
CloudQuery syncs data from cloud and security tools to any destination under MPL-2.0.
Want IoT and time-series data
CrateDB combines SQL, full-text search, and fast ingestion.