Apache Heron vs Apache Spark
Apache Heron
heron.apache.org
Apache Spark
spark.apache.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache Heron | Apache Spark |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Streaming Analytics Software | 7.5 (#16) | 8.1 (#5) |
| Spec score · Stream Processing Software | 7.5 (#18) | 8.2 (#7) |
| License | The project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. | The project website states Apache Spark is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. |
| Purpose | Heron is a real-time, distributed, fault-tolerant stream processing engine. | Apache Spark is a unified engine for large-scale data analytics. |
| Security | The GitHub repository page links to a security policy. | Security features such as authentication are not enabled by default, and the documentation says deployments are not secure by default. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Heron
Apache Heron has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Apache Spark
Apache Spark is a free, open-source engine for large-scale data analytics. It processes batches and real-time streams using Python, SQL, Scala, Java, or R. Spark SQL runs distributed ANSI SQL queries on structured tables and unstructured data such as JSON or images; MLlib provides machine-learning algorithms for local use or cluster scale. The project also describes exploratory analysis on petabyte-scale data without downsampling. Listed ecosystem components include pandas, TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, Apache Kafka, Kubernetes, Delta Lake, and Apache Iceberg. Deployment options include standalone, Hadoop YARN, and Kubernetes. Spark runs on Windows and UNIX-like systems, including Linux and macOS, when a supported Java version is available. The 4.2.0 documentation lists Java 17, 21, or 25, Scala 2.13, Python 3.10+, and R 4.0+ (deprecated). Spark Connect separates client applications from clusters for remote access. Security is not enabled by default; Spark supports TLS for RPC connections and encryption of temporary local-disk data. The project is licensed under Apache License, Version 2.0.