LavaLake vs Starburst Data Platform

LavaLake combines a data warehouse and lakehouse with SQL, dashboards and AI agents for deployment in a customer’s own data center. Its assistant can find data, query metrics and create dashboards using the signed-in user’s permissions. An MCP server lets external agents use platform tools under those permissions. Read-only database sources include PostgreSQL, MySQL, MS SQL Server, SAP Business One and SAP S/4HANA. CSV and DATEV files can be imported, while PDF, Word and text documents can be searched. Hybrid search combines vector and keyword results using a locally run nomic-embed-text model with PostgreSQL and pgvector. The lakehouse uses Apache Iceberg on S3-compatible storage, Nessie as its versioned catalog and Trino as its query engine. Tableau and Power BI connect through a read-only HTTP feed that applies analyst identity and records data fetches in an audit chain. The maker says lakehouse data and local search stay on the customer’s network, while external AI providers receive conversation content and assistant tool results. Core is free with no time limit; paid plans start at €249/mo.

Starburst Data Platform is built on Trino and Apache Iceberg to provide governed access to distributed data across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. It can query data across 50+ sources in one SQL statement without copying it. Connectors span data lakes, warehouses, streaming systems, relational databases, and other sources, with features including parallelism, table statistics, dynamic filtering, and pushdown. Starburst Galaxy is available on AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Galaxy controls include SSO, SCIM, service principals, role- and attribute-based access control, row filters, column masking, and end-to-end encryption. Starburst says Galaxy does not store customer data. Its free tier includes up to three clusters for ad hoc queries. The 30-day trial includes $500 in Galaxy compute resources and Enterprise features, then downgrades to the free tier. Paid plans start at $0.50 per credit; the listed Enterprise and Mission-Critical tiers start at $0.75 and $1.00 per credit. The Galaxy security page lists a 99.5% uptime SLA, 24/7 expert support, and a 30-minute response time.