ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL: Rating, Votes and Features
- Pricing: ClickHouse — Free, with paid plans; PostgreSQL — Free.
- License: ClickHouse — Apache-2.0; PostgreSQL — PostgreSQL License.
- Data model: ClickHouse — Relational, Time-series; PostgreSQL — Document, Relational.
ClickHouse — November 2026: 3 votes, rating 9.3/10.
PostgreSQL — November 2026: 5 votes, rating 9.7/10.
| ClickHouse | PostgreSQL | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | database engine | database engine |
| Developer | ClickHouse, Inc. | PostgreSQL Global Development Group |
| Created by | Alexey Milovidov | Michael Stonebraker |
| First release | 2016 | 1996 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | PostgreSQL License |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing | Free, with paid plans | Free |
| Website | https://clickhouse.com | https://www.postgresql.org |
| Written in | C++ | C |
| Data model | Relational, Time-series | Document, Relational |
| Storage layout | Column-oriented | Row-oriented |
| Workload | Analytics (OLAP) | Transactions (OLTP) |
| Analytics architecture | Data warehouse | Not an analytics platform |
| Query language | SQL | SQL |
| ACID transactions | No | Yes |
| Schema | Strict | Strict |
| Deployment | Distributed cluster, Managed cloud, Server | Managed cloud, Server |
| Scaling | Sharding | Replication |
| Create, read, update, delete | Create: fast (Built for large batch inserts); Read: fast (Very fast aggregations and scans); Update: slow (Mutations rewrite data parts in the background); Delete: moderate (Lightweight deletes hide rows, merges remove them) | Create: fast (Fast single and bulk inserts, COPY for loads); Read: fast (Rich indexes and a mature planner); Update: moderate (MVCC writes a new row version, vacuum cleans up); Delete: moderate (Rows are marked dead until vacuum reclaims them) |