Apache Cassandra vs Baidu Tera
Apache Cassandra
cassandra.apache.orgBaidu Tera
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Apache Cassandra | Baidu Tera |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 0 |
| Spec score · Wide-Column Databases | 8.9 (#1) | 7.2 (#11) |
| Architecture | Cassandra has a masterless architecture in which every node can provide the same functionality. | Tera consists of an SDK, a master, and tablet servers; tablet servers use an enhanced LevelDB storage engine and handle read, write, and scan requests. |
| Deployment | Cassandra can run on premises, with one cloud provider, across multiple cloud providers, or in a combination of these environments. | The README says Tera can run on raw machines or in Docker, and describes a pseudo-distributed mode on a single host using the local filesystem. |
| Integrations | The ecosystem page lists connectors and tools for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, and Kubernetes. | Tera's README lists HDFS and other filesystems, ZooKeeper and Nexus lock services, and Sofa-pbrpc as infrastructure dependencies. |
| Intended use | The project describes Cassandra as a platform for mission-critical data and large active datasets. | The README describes use in throughput-oriented and latency-sensitive Baidu products, including web indexing, WebPage DB, and LinkBase DB. |
| License | The Cassandra repository identifies Apache-2.0 as its license, and ASF lists Apache License 2.0 as its current software license. | The repository lists BSD-3-Clause and Apache-2.0 licenses. |
| Product | Apache Cassandra is an open source NoSQL distributed database. | Tera is a high-performance distributed NoSQL database designed for real-time applications. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Cassandra
Apache Cassandra is a free, open-source NoSQL distributed database for mission-critical data and large active datasets. Its masterless architecture gives each node the same functionality. The project says read and write throughput can grow linearly as machines are added, without downtime or application interruption. Cassandra can run on premises, with one cloud provider, across multiple providers, or in a combination of those environments. It supports replication across data centers and configurable consistency levels for queries, along with CQL, transactions, and horizontal scaling. The project lists audit logging for DML, DDL, and DCL activity, and fqltool for recording and replaying production workloads. Drivers are available for Java, Go, Python, and Node.js; downloads include tarballs and packages, and installation guidance covers Debian and RPM. The ecosystem includes tools and connectors for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, and Kubernetes. The project identifies version 5.0 as the latest GA release and says it is maintained until the 8.0 release. Cassandra is self-managed, and listed third-party ecosystem projects are not supported by its community.
Baidu Tera
Baidu Tera is a free, self-hosted distributed NoSQL database for real-time applications. It stores sparse, multidimensional tables indexed by row key, column key and timestamp, with the project describing scale to petabytes across thousands of commodity servers. Tera supports strict consistency, MVCC, automatic failover, online schema changes and snapshots. Configurable automatic sharding can use ranged or hashed strategies, with linear and modular scalability. Storage options include RAMDISK, SSD and disk tables, plus tiered and block caches and Bloom Filters for real-time queries. Applications can connect through C++, Java, Python and REST APIs. Its architecture includes an SDK, master and tablet servers using an enhanced LevelDB engine. Deployment can use raw machines or Docker, with pseudo-distributed operation on one host. The repository lists BSD-3-Clause and Apache-2.0 licenses.