Apache Cassandra vs Elassandra
Apache Cassandra
cassandra.apache.orgElassandra
elassandra.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache Cassandra | Elassandra |
|---|---|---|
| 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) | 7.3 (#10) |
| Deployment | Cassandra can run on premises, with one cloud provider, across multiple cloud providers, or in a combination of these environments. | The documentation lists tarball, Debian package, RPM, Docker image, and Helm chart installation options. |
| Integrations | The ecosystem page lists connectors and tools for Apache Kafka, Apache Flink, Apache Spark, and Kubernetes. | The documentation lists integration with OpenSearch plugins, OpenSearch Dashboards, and Spark. |
| Scaling | The project says read and write throughput increase linearly as machines are added, without downtime or application interruption. | Data placement follows Cassandra token ownership, and replica behavior follows Cassandra keyspace replication. |
| What it does | Apache Cassandra is an open-source distributed NoSQL database using a partitioned wide-column model with eventual consistency. | Elassandra embeds OpenSearch inside Apache Cassandra so each node serves distributed storage and distributed search. |
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.
Elassandra
Elassandra combines Apache Cassandra’s distributed storage with embedded OpenSearch search on each node. Its maintained line targets Apache Cassandra 4.0.x, OpenSearch 1.3.x, and Java 11. OpenSearch indices map to Cassandra keyspaces, documents to rows, and indexed fields to columns or cells; the current _doc model maps to a Cassandra table. Cassandra remains the durable layer, allowing restart recovery to replay Cassandra state and rebuild a local search view. Applications can search through the OpenSearch HTTP API or CQL, with HTTP responses following OpenSearch style. Data placement uses Cassandra token ownership, while replicas follow keyspace replication. Schemas can be created from OpenSearch indexes or discovered from existing Cassandra schemas through mappings. Integrations listed include OpenSearch plugins, OpenSearch Dashboards, and Spark. Deployment options include tarball, Debian package, RPM, Docker image, and Helm chart. Elassandra is free and open source, with a 30-day trial noted.