Install
Starburst alternatives
3 tools to consider instead of Starburst, shown against it.
| Starburst | Trino | Presto | Apache Spark | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Starburst Data, Inc. | Trino Software Foundation | Presto Foundation (Linux Foundation) | Apache Software Foundation | ||||||||
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Open source + paid options | Open source + paid options | Open source + paid options | ||||||||
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||||||
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | Self-hosted | ||||||||
| Open source | No | Yes (Apache-2.0) | Yes (Apache-2.0) | Yes (Apache-2.0) | ||||||||
| Best for | Enterprises needing governed, federated SQL access across many existing data systems with vendor support. | Teams needing a single SQL query layer across data already spread across multiple systems. | Organizations running large-scale interactive SQL over Hadoop/lake storage who want an Apache-governed alternative to Trino. | Data engineering teams building large-scale batch ETL, streaming or machine-learning pipelines. | ||||||||
| Pricing | Free tier for small workloads; paid tiers bill by compute credit consumption at increasing per-credit rates as support and governance features expand.
Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 21, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget. | Free and open source; commercial managed and enterprise-supported distributions are sold separately by Starburst. Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site. | Free and open source under the Presto Foundation; no single vendor sells a dedicated managed Presto service. Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site. | Free and open source under the Apache Software Foundation; managed lakehouse platforms built on Spark, such as Databricks, are priced separately. Pricing has not been verified yet — see the vendor's site. | ||||||||
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