Apache Drill vs Presto

Apache Drill is a schema-free SQL query engine for Hadoop, NoSQL databases, and cloud storage. It can query raw data where it resides without first loading it, defining schemas, or transforming it. Its JSON data model supports complex and nested structures, and a single query can join data across multiple datastores. Listed sources include HBase, MongoDB, HDFS, Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, Swift, NAS, and local files. JDBC and ODBC drivers connect Drill to tools including Tableau, Qlik, MicroStrategy, Spotfire, SAS, and Excel; developers can also use its REST API in custom applications. Drill can run embedded on a laptop or in distributed mode on a server cluster, and the homepage lists Mac, Windows, and Linux. Documented security options include Kerberos, username and password authentication, Digest, authorization, and impersonation. The software is free under Apache License 2.0. A compatibility limit: official support for Hadoop 2 and Java 8 was dropped with Drill 1.22.0.

Presto is an open-source distributed SQL query engine for working with large datasets across different data sources. Its ANSI SQL interface can query information where it is stored and combine data from multiple sources in one query, for both interactive and batch workloads. The project lists ad hoc queries, reporting and dashboards, and open lakehouse workloads among its uses. Documented connectors include BigQuery, Cassandra, Delta Lake, Elasticsearch, Hive, Iceberg, Kafka, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Redis. Presto can be installed from a server tarball or deployed with Homebrew, Docker, or Helm. Security options include Kerberos, LDAP, password-file authentication, access controls, secure internal communication, and OAuth 2.0. Users can work through its CLI or Console, connect with DBeaver or Tableau, use Java, Python, Go, or JavaScript clients, or access the REST API. The project is free and open source, overseen by the Presto Foundation, which describes it as independent of any single company. The documentation identifies release 0.299, while the getting-started page still refers to version 0 from June 2022.