Apache Kylin vs StarRocks
Apache Kylin
kylin.apache.orgStarRocks
starrocks.ioSide by side
| Figure | Apache Kylin | StarRocks |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · OLAP Software | 8.6 (#6) | 7.3 (#25) |
| Spec score · Analytics Databases | 8.5 (#6) | 7.3 (#22) |
| Spec score · OLAP Databases | 8.5 (#6) | 7.3 (#21) |
| Spec score · Analytical Data Store Software | 8.5 (#6) | 7.3 (#20) |
| Deployment | Kylin provides a web UI and can be deployed with query, job, or all server modes. | StarRocks can be deployed on public or private clouds and on-premises, with manual and Kubernetes deployment options. |
| License | The project homepage states that Apache Kylin is distributed under the Apache License v2. | StarRocks is licensed under Apache License 2.0. |
| Product | Apache Kylin is an open source OLAP engine for big data analytics, designed for sub-second queries on trillions of records. | StarRocks is a massively parallel processing analytical database designed for real-time analytics and sub-second queries at scale. |
| Support | The project directs users to its user mailing list and Apache Kylin JIRA for questions and issues. | The project directs users to GitHub issues and a Slack community for questions and feedback. |
Plans
In their own words
Apache Kylin
Apache Kylin is an open-source OLAP engine for data analytics, designed for large-scale workloads with many concurrent users. Its pre-calculation approach is intended to support sub-second SQL queries. Kylin 5 can build models from SQL text, suggest index changes using query history, and use Apache Gluten as a native compute engine; the product overview describes a 2–4× improvement compared with vanilla Spark. For mixed data workloads, it supports Kafka streaming sources and fusion models for batch and streaming analysis, as well as internal tables for flexible queries and lakehouse scenarios. Teams can connect Tableau, Power BI, or Excel. A web UI supports table management, model design, job execution, and configuration. Deployment offers query, job, or all server modes. Kylin runs on Linux and uses Spark with Yarn or Standalone mode. Data storage can use HDFS or S3-compatible systems, while MySQL or PostgreSQL can hold metadata. The project is free under Apache License v2, with source and binary packages available. APIs use Basic Authentication; HTTPS is supported in Kylin 5 but disabled by default.