ClickHouse vs SQLite comparison

ClickHouse and SQLite are both solutions in the Open Source Databases category. ClickHouse is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.6, while SQLite is ranked #13 with an average rating of 6.5. ClickHouse holds a 6.4% mindshare in OSD, compared to SQLite’s 5.4% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of ClickHouse users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of SQLite users who would recommend it.

ClickHouse

Read 21 ClickHouse reviews

4,128 Views
1,858 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

SQLite

Read 8 SQLite reviews

2,220 Views
1,709 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

ClickHouse

SQLite

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

In the database management systems category, ClickHouse seems to have the upper hand in performance and scalability, especially in OLAP scenarios, while SQLite shines in simplicity and ease of use for embedded applications.

Features: SQLite is noted for its simplicity, ease of integration, and small footprint, making it ideal for mobile and embedded devices. It supports triggers for data integrity and is known for its server-less operation and cross-platform compatibility. ClickHouse features high-speed queries with efficient data storage, an aggregation capability that benefits transaction history reviews, and real-time query performance with minimal cost, making it suitable for big data analytics.

Room for Improvement: SQLite can benefit from improved support for more complex queries and enhanced feature sets for larger-scale data applications. It could also improve documentation to better support developers unfamiliar with its operations. ClickHouse can improve by reducing the complexity of its deployment process, offering better support for mutations, and enhancing its documentation to cover all functionalities thoroughly.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: SQLite provides a straightforward deployment process, requiring only library inclusion in applications, with no server required, making it ideal for simpler use cases. ClickHouse requires a more complex setup but provides robust customer support options, which aid its deployment in larger environments where higher data processing capabilities are needed.

Pricing and ROI: SQLite generally incurs lower setup costs due to its simplicity and absence of a server component, resulting in higher ROI in environments with limited budgets. ClickHouse, while potentially involving a higher initial investment due to its infrastructure requirements, delivers substantial ROI for businesses seeking advanced analytics thanks to its performance and scalability.

To learn more, read our detailed ClickHouse vs. SQLite Report (Updated: February 2026).

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse vs. SQLite

February 2026

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

ClickHouse

Ranking in Open Source Databases

4th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Vector Databases (7th)

SQLite

Ranking in Open Source Databases

13th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded Database (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Open Source Databases category, the mindshare of ClickHouse is 6.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SQLite is 5.4%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Open Source Databases Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
ClickHouse	6.4%
SQLite	5.4%
Other	88.2%

Open Source Databases

Featured Reviews

Yush Mittal

Level 2 Software Engineer at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Data observability has enabled real‑time analytics and cost savings but needs smoother inserts and cleanup

ClickHouse could be improved concerning data insertion, especially given the high amount of data handled. Constant efforts are made to optimize the features on its own, but with merges and inserts, only a single insert query can be performed allowing for the input of only 100,000 rows per second. It would be beneficial to insert more data and have configurations that are less user-operated. Ideally, ClickHouse would optimize itself to handle these processes automatically, reducing the need to contact the ClickHouse support team for infrastructure optimization. Additionally, delays are experienced when trying to delete databases with corrupt data, taking too much time and causing major outages, which necessitate contacting multiple teams across continents for resolution. The community surrounding ClickHouse also seems limited, providing a reliance on documentation, and there is a scarcity of developers working with ClickHouse, which hinders growth. If ClickHouse were more user-friendly and technically feasible, it would likely see greater expansion in usage.

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Neeraj Tiwari

Student at Queens University Belfast

Pretty easy to execute my SQL queries but issues while uploading and importing my dataset

It was a bit easy to use compared to other tools. It's simple. I found it pretty easy to execute my SQL queries. Since I was a beginner, it was comfortable for me to learn SQL using SQLite. However, when I used it for my professional work and for my assignments, I found some complications. Maybe I'm not proficient with it, that's why. The main benefit for me was learning. Since I was new to SQL, SQLite helped me understand how to work with structured data.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The best thing about the tool is that I can set it up on my computer and run queries without depending on the cloud. This is why I use it every day."

"ClickHouse is much faster than traditional databases like MySQL and MongoDB. Its column-row searching strategy makes it very efficient. With ClickHouse, we can manage multiple databases, automatically insert data from other databases and delete data as needed. It supports real-time query performance, allowing simultaneous data insertion and retrieval. ClickHouse has improved significantly over the past two years, adding more functions and queries, as well as top functionality."

"We moved away from Redshift to ClickHouse because of the integration and the flexibility that it provides, which best suited our use case."

"The main feature of ClickHouse is the optimizer because we had too many records to deduplicate, and the optimizer took this task by itself."

"The tool is column-based and infinitely scalable."

"We faced a challenge with deploying ClickHouse onto Kubernetes. Recently, we've been using ClickHouse Cloud, and the main issue is the high cost of the cloud service. The pricing isn't very competitive, especially for startups. I would instead buy a server and self-host if I have enough disk space. Besides that, ClickHouse has done very well, with clear goals and effective execution."

"It's easier to work with big data and calculations using the product."

"If you have a real-time basis, you should take a look at ClickHouse because it works on a vector database, and the querying is super fast compared to traditional databases."

More ClickHouse pros

"Sometimes, you want data to persist within the app even when there's no internet connectivity. To avoid showing blank screens, we can use SQLite to store data locally and then sync it with the cloud database when connectivity is restored."

"SQLite’s most valuable feature is the ability to store granular-level backups of databases."

"I use Flutter Technology with the JSF plugin."

"I haven't encountered any problems in my use cases. So, it has been a stable product for me."

"The product is lightweight and highly scalable."

"It was a bit easy to use compared to other tools. It's simple. I found it pretty easy to execute my SQL queries."

Cons

"Initially, I faced challenges integrating ClickHouse, particularly with inserting data from ActiveMQ, which caused duplicates. However, after adjusting the ClickHouse settings, the issue was resolved and there were no more duplicates."

"The main issue is the lack of documentation. Many features are available but are not fully documented, which can make finding information challenging."

"ClickHouse can be improved, and the main challenge I see is its operational complexity."

"ClickHouse has its own concept of database triggers and doesn't support traditional database triggers."

"In terms of improvements, it's not designed for very frequent small writes, making it less scalable in write-intensive workloads, and it's not flourishing in transactional use cases or when ingesting streaming data, such as batching or buffering, which is something ClickHouse will improve."

"There are some areas where ClickHouse could improve. Specifically, we encountered incompatibilities with its SQL syntax when migrating queries from MySQL or SQL to ClickHouse. This difference in details made it challenging to figure out the exact issues. Additionally, we faced difficulties due to the lack of a proper Django driver for ClickHouse, unlike MySQL, which Django supports out of the box."

"ClickHouse could be improved with self-hosting capabilities and better documentation for how to host it at scale."

"The aggregation capability is a valuable feature. It's highly efficient, allowing us to review entire transaction histories and user activities in the market. We've tried MongoDB, Postgres, MariaDB, and BigQuery, but ClickHouse is the most cost-efficient solution for collecting data at high speeds with minimal cost. We even used ClickHouse Cloud for a month, and it proved to be a great setup, especially for startups looking to handle big data. For example, if there is a need for 2-4 terabytes of data and around 40 billion rows with reasonable computing speed and latency, ClickHouse is ideal. Regarding the real-time query performance of ClickHouse, when using an API server to query it, I achieved query results in less than twenty milliseconds in some of my experiments with one billion rows. However, it depends on the scenario since ClickHouse has limitations in handling mutations. Additionally, one of ClickHouse's strengths is its compression capability. Our experimental server has only four terabytes, and ClickHouse effectively compresses data, allowing us to store large amounts of data at high speed. This compression efficiency is a significant advantage of using ClickHouse."

More ClickHouse cons

"A potential drawback is that the database file stored within the application's local storage could be accessible to users."

"It could have a user-friendly GUI and better intelligence features."

"Compared to other tools, the performance was less effective than that of Microsoft Access."

"There are some difficulties on the server side. When syncing data with databases like SQL Server or Oracle, SQLite requires a kind of double effort."

"The performance could be better."

"I primarily use SQLite for small-scale applications due to its limitations in storing large amounts of data. For larger-scale projects, I typically opt for MySQL or other alternatives. Storing a large number of dates in SQLite can significantly impact its performance."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"ClickHouse has an open-source version, which is free to use and has almost all the features."

"For pricing, if you use the self-hosted version, it would be free. Cloud services pricing would be an eight out of ten. I try to minimize costs but still have to monitor usage."

"The tool is free."

"We used the free, community version of ClickHouse."

"The tool is open-source."

"If you have an in-house deployment on Kubernetes or something, it's going to be very cheap since you'll be managing everything."

"ClickHouse Cloud is not expensive compared to other databases, costing a few dollars per month while providing fast performance."

"The tool is open-source."

"I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten."

"It's not expensive."

"It's a good value."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

Computer Software Company

13%

Comms Service Provider

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	1
Large Enterprise	3

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ClickHouse?

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was such that the setup costs were just my own bandwidth, while licensing and pricing were done by other members of the team so it was abstract...

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What needs improvement with ClickHouse?

ClickHouse can be improved on the documentation side, and there is one small constraint that is mentioned in ClickHouse documentation, which is a partition limit of ten thousand that we hit, so if ...

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What is your primary use case for ClickHouse?

My main use case for ClickHouse is data ingestion and for its OLAP properties, as we had use cases where database locks were slowing us down and because ClickHouse does not have that, we chose to u...

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What do you like most about SQLite?

It was a bit easy to use compared to other tools. It's simple. I found it pretty easy to execute my SQL queries.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SQLite?

It is not expensive.

See all answers

What needs improvement with SQLite?

There were some complications. For example, you have to upload the dataset into SQLite, and once it's uploaded, you might find difficulties working with it.

See all answers

Comparisons

InfluxDB vs ClickHouse

Compared 13% of the time

OpenSearch vs ClickHouse

Compared 9% of the time

VictoriaMetrics vs ClickHouse

Compared 7% of the time

Cassandra vs ClickHouse

Compared 7% of the time

MariaDB vs ClickHouse

Compared 3% of the time

More ClickHouse Competitors

Firebird SQL vs SQLite

Compared 22% of the time

InfluxDB vs SQLite

Compared 11% of the time

LanceDB vs SQLite

Compared 8% of the time

MySQL vs SQLite

Compared 8% of the time

PostgreSQL vs SQLite

Compared 4% of the time

More SQLite Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse

February 2026

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Buyer's Guide

SQLite

January 2026

Download SQLite product report

Overview

ClickHouse is renowned for its speed, scalability, and real-time query performance. Its compatibility with SQL standards enhances flexibility while enabling integration with popular tools.

ClickHouse leverages a column-based architecture for efficient data compression and real-time analytics. It seamlessly integrates with tools like Kafka and Tableau and is effective in handling large datasets due to its cost-efficient aggregation capabilities. With robust data deduplication and strong community backing, users can access comprehensive documentation and up-to-date functionality. However, improvements in third-party integration, cloud deployment, and handling of SQL syntax differences are noted, impacting ease-of-use and migration from other databases.

What features make ClickHouse outstanding?

Speed and Scalability: Enables rapid deployment and scalability, particularly on Kubernetes.
SQL Compatibility: Aligns with SQL standards for flexible database management.
Column-based Structure: Offers efficient data compression and quick query performance.
Integration Support: Works with Kafka, Tableau, and other popular platforms.
Data Deduplication: Manages complex data duplication efficiently.

What benefits should users consider?

Cost-Efficiency: Reduces expenses while managing large datasets effectively.
Real-Time Analytics: Provides fast data processing for real-time insights.
Flexibility: Offers multiple integration points and compatibility options.
Robust Documentation: Backed by an active development community, ensuring comprehensive support.

ClickHouse is deployed in sectors like telecommunications for passive monitoring and is beneficial for data analytics, logging Clickstream data, and as an ETL engine. Organizations harness it for machine learning applications when combined with GPT. With the ability to be installed independently, it's an attractive option for avoiding cloud service costs.

ClickHouse

SQLite is an open-source, serverless, reliable, and flexible, SQL database engine. It is particularly favored in the realm of embedded database solutions and small to medium-sized projects. Unlike traditional database systems that operate on a client-server model, SQLite is a serverless database engine, meaning it runs directly within the application it powers. This unique architecture makes SQLite an ideal choice for applications where simplicity, efficiency, and minimal configuration are paramount.

SQLite is an embedded database engine, which means it operates directly within the application that uses it, without requiring a separate server process. It is designed to be cross-platform, supporting multiple operating systems, and is is compatible with a wide range of programming languages, such as C, C++, Python, Java, and more. This makes it highly portable and suitable for a wide range of applications, from mobile devices to desktop software and web applications.

The key advantages of SQLite is its reliability, the lightweight nature and efficient performance. It has a small footprint, typically requiring only a few megabytes of disk space, and can operate entirely in memory if needed. It is designed to be reliable and robust, with built-in features such as atomic commit and rollback, which ensure data integrity even in the event of system crashes or power failures. Finally, the SQLite solution requires no configuration or setup, making it easy to use and deploy. It can be embedded directly into applications without the need for complex installation or configuration procedures.

SQLite Functionality

SQL Compliance: SQLite supports a substantial portion of the SQL standard, including features like transactions, triggers, views, and indexes.
File-based Storage: SQLite stores its entire database as a single cross-platform file on the host machine's file system.
ACID Compliance: SQLite fully supports ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transactions, ensuring data consistency and integrity in concurrent access scenarios.

SQLite is an open-source project distributed under a public domain license, which means it can be used, modified, and distributed freely, without any licensing costs or restrictions.

To summarize, SQLite is widely used in various applications, including web browsers (e.g., Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome), mobile applications (e.g., Android, iOS), embedded systems, and desktop software. Its simplicity, portability, and efficiency make it a popular choice for developers who require a lightweight and reliable database solution, especially in resource-constrained environments or applications with modest data storage needs.

SQLite

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Oracle, Bloomberg, Bentley, Mozilla

Buyer's Guide

ClickHouse vs. SQLite

February 2026

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