Apache Iceberg vs Project Nessie
Apache Iceberg
iceberg.apache.orgProject Nessie
projectnessie.orgSide by side
| Figure | Apache Iceberg | Project Nessie |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 0 |
| Spec score · Data Version Control Tools | 8.7 (#3) | 7.2 (#33) |
| Community support | The project provides community discussions through its dev mailing list and an Apache Iceberg Slack workspace. | The project directs users to its Google Group and Zulip chat for contact and community discussion. |
| Integrations | The documentation lists integrations including Kafka Connect, AWS Glue, AWS S3, Dell ECS, JDBC, and Nessie. | The project documents using Nessie with Spark, Flink, Hive, and Trino through Iceberg. |
| Purpose | Apache Iceberg is an open table format for analytic datasets and a high-performance format for huge analytic tables. | Nessie is a transactional catalog for data lakes that uses Git-like semantics to version data. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Iceberg
Apache Iceberg is a free, open-source table format for analytic datasets, including very large analytic tables. It is self-hosted and works through APIs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, using storage you provide. Engines such as Spark, Trino, Flink, Presto, Hive, and Impala can use the same tables. SQL commands support merging new data, updating rows, and targeted deletes. Columns can be added, renamed, or reordered without rewriting a table. Hidden partitioning creates partition values and skips unnecessary partitions and files. Table snapshots can be queried by version or timestamp, and tables can be rolled back. Atomic updates, serializable isolation, consistent snapshot reads, and optimistic concurrency support multiple writers. Integrations include Kafka Connect and catalogs such as AWS Glue, JDBC, and Nessie. Encryption supports AWS, Azure, or GCP KMS clients, including custom clients. Version 1.12.0 removes Spark 3.4 and Flink 2.0 support. The Apache License 2.0 applies.
Project Nessie
Project Nessie has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.