Install
Tools
In-process & embedded engines
8 tools compared: how each is priced, where it runs, and what to consider instead.
| Tool | Pricing model | Free tier | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Arrow Language-independent columnar in-memory format that lets analytical engines exchange data without serialization overhead. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| Apache DataFusion Open-source, embeddable Rust query engine and toolkit for building custom SQL and DataFrame engines on Apache Arrow. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| chDB In-process OLAP SQL engine powered by ClickHouse, embedded directly in Python with no server to install. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| clickhouse-local Single-binary command-line tool that runs ClickHouse's query engine locally over files, without installing a server. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| DuckDB Open-source embedded analytical database that runs SQL queries in-process, without a server, on local or remote files. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| MotherDuck Managed cloud service built on DuckDB, adding hybrid local/cloud execution, sharing, and scale-out storage. | Free tier + paid | Yes | No |
| Polars Open-source, Rust-built in-process DataFrame library offering a fast, multi-threaded alternative to pandas for local analytics. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| SQLite Serverless, in-process SQL database engine that reads and writes a single file, embedded inside applications worldwide. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |