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Amazon Athena vs Apache Arrow DataFusion

Amazon Athena

aws.amazon.com

Apache Arrow DataFusion

datafusion.apache.org

Side by side

FigureAmazon AthenaApache Arrow DataFusion
Price from$0.30/moFree
Free plan—Yes
Free trial——
Open source——
WebYes—
macOS—Yes
Linux—Yes
APIYes—
Self-hosted—Yes
Plans published31
Spec score · Query Engine Software7.8 (#13)8.0 (#10)

Plans

Amazon Athena

  • SQL queries with Capacity Reservations$0.30 a month
  • Apache Spark$0.35 a month
  • SQL queries$5 a month

Amazon Athena pricing →

Apache Arrow DataFusion

  • Apache DataFusionFree

Apache Arrow DataFusion pricing →

In their own words

Amazon Athena

Amazon Athena has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit aws.amazon.com

Apache Arrow DataFusion

Apache Arrow DataFusion is a free, extensible query engine written in Rust that uses Apache Arrow as its in-memory format. It is intended for developers building database and analytics systems tailored to particular workloads, rather than as a ready-made hosted database. Queries run in-process, using threads for parallel execution. DataFusion offers SQL and DataFrame APIs, while related subprojects provide Python and Java interfaces. Documented capabilities include SQL parsing and planning, parallel and streaming execution, and query optimization. Built-in data sources include CSV, Parquet, JSON, Avro, and Arrow. Developers can add sources through the TableProvider trait and customize functions, operators, and other components. Runtime features include enforced memory limits and disk spilling for sorts, grouping, and joins. The core project is designed for in-process use; Ballista is a related distributed processing extension. Rust users commonly add DataFusion from crates.io, while official Apache releases are source artifacts. The project recommends verifying release artifacts with an OpenPGP signature or SHA-512 checksum.

Visit datafusion.apache.org