Apache Beam vs Exasol
Apache Beam
beam.apache.org
Exasol
exasol.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache Beam | Exasol |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $3.30/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 18 |
| Spec score · Big Data Analytics Software | 9.1 (#1) | 9.0 (#3) |
| Documentation | Documentation includes conceptual guides, programming guides, SDK references, transform catalogs, runner setup pages, examples and a capability matrix. | The official documentation covers SaaS and self-managed deployment, SQL, administration, security, integrations, drivers, UDFs and troubleshooting. |
| Founded | 2016 | 2000 |
| Intended users | Beam is aimed at data and software developers building data processing pipelines on supported back ends. | Exasol SaaS is described as suited to organizations needing multi-departmental analytics, in-database machine learning or AI, and complex data integration or virtualization. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.1 out of 5 from 16 reviews | 4.7 out of 5 from 28 reviews |
| Security | Apache release files include OpenPGP signatures and SHA-512 checksums so users can verify downloaded files. | Exasol states that it is ISO/IEC 27001 certified and describes controls including access control and incident response processes. |
| Support | Beam users can get community support through the user mailing list, Stack Overflow, and the Beam Slack channel. | Exasol’s support page lists 24/7 incident troubleshooting and monitoring, plus performance analysis, maintenance, and planning assistance. |
| What it does | Apache Beam is an open-source programming model for building batch and streaming data-processing pipelines. | Exasol is an analytics database designed for high-concurrency analytics, data warehousing, AI and machine-learning workloads. |
Plans
Exasol
- XS$3.30 a month
- S$6.60 a month
- M$13.20 a month
- L$26.40 a month
- XL$52.80 a month
- 2XL$105.60 a month
- 3XL$158.40 a month
- Storage$25 a month
- Exasol Community EditionFree
- Exasol PersonalFree
In their own words
Apache Beam
Apache Beam is an open-source programming model for building data-processing pipelines across batch and streaming workloads. The same model can support both patterns in production, while runners provide different execution back ends, including Dataflow, Flink, Spark, and the Direct Runner. SDKs and quickstarts cover Java, Python, Go, and TypeScript. Pipeline building blocks include ParDo, GroupByKey, Flatten, and Combine, alongside windowing and triggering. Beam I/O connectors supply read and write transforms for external storage in batch or streaming pipelines, with catalog examples such as BigQuery, Snowflake, Apache Parquet, and Apache Iceberg. Beam Playground provides a way to try examples and transforms without a local installation. The software is free and open source; the listed plan is free, but execution costs depend on the runner and infrastructure selected. It targets data and software developers building pipelines on supported back ends. APIs may change before the first stable 1.x release, and semantic-versioning practice has exceptions.
Exasol
Exasol is a database for analytics and high-concurrency AI workloads, available in cloud, on-premises, hybrid, and fully managed SaaS deployments. The company says teams can analyze billions of rows in seconds and that automatic self-indexing helps tune performance. SaaS includes five databases, multi-cluster support, basic UDF support, advanced in-database analytics, and data virtualization. Teams can scale vertically or add clusters with dedicated compute for work such as data ingest or machine learning. The 30-day SaaS trial includes $200 of usage and requires no credit card. Pay-as-you-go compute is billed hourly; XS is $3.30 a month and S is $6.60 a month, while storage is listed separately at $25 a month. Free options include Exasol Personal, licensed for a single user and up to two connected data sources, and Community Edition, limited to 200GB of data. Exasol lists integrations including Airbyte, Alation, Amazon QuickSight, Apache Airflow, and Apache Superset. Its documentation covers multiple authentication methods and TLS encryption for database connections; encryption at rest must be configured on the supplied file systems and devices.