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Why would I use DuckDB instead of Clickhouse or similar? Is it just because I want to have the database embedded in my app and not connect to a server?


One great reason to use DuckDB was when ClickHouse took up too much memory on Parquet files.

https://github.com/ClickHouse/ClickHouse/issues/45741#issuec... helps with that though.

Also, clickhouse-local exists https://clickhouse.com/blog/extracting-converting-querying-l... as a thing.

But, yes, when I think of DuckDB...I think embedded use cases...i'm also not a power user.

I also think of this very much as a 'horses for courses' or 'different strokes, different folks' sort of scenario. There is, naturally, overlap because 'analytical data.' But also, there is naturally overlap with R and this giant scary mess of data-munging PERL code I maintain for a side project.

The DuckDB team, the MotherDuck team, the ClickHouse team...we all want your experience interacting with data to be amazing. In some scenarios, ClickHouse is better. In some scenarios, DuckDB. I'm biased (as I work for ClickHouse in DevRel), but I <3 ClickHouse.

Try both. Pick the one that is best for you. Then...you know...tell the other(s) why so that we all can get better at what we do.


Thanks but I’m looking for specific use cases. Like I get SQLite. And I get Clickhouse. But I just don’t get why I’d use DuckDB specifically. I’m sure it’s awesome and super useful but I have a gap in my understanding.




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