Query Streams vs Spice.ai OSS
Query Streams
querystreams.comSpice.ai OSS
spiceai.orgSide by side
| Figure | Query Streams | Spice.ai OSS |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $15/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Data Virtualization Software | 9.1 (#1) | 7.7 (#12) |
| Security | The Network Agent initiates an encrypted outbound connection, requires no inbound ports or VPN, and enforces SELECT, WITH, and EXPLAIN-only queries; database credentials stay on the user's network. | Spice supports optional API-key authentication for API endpoints, and its secret stores can use environment variables, files, or external managers such as AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Key Vault. |
| Support | The site provides a contact form for questions and links to its documentation archive. | The getting-started documentation says Spice.ai Enterprise provides full support for up to three years from release date. |
Plans
Query Streams
- FreeFree
- Personal Core$15 a month
- Personal Plus$30 a month
- Business Core$50 a month
In their own words
Query Streams
Query Streams gives spreadsheets, AI clients, apps, and scheduled syncs governed access to databases and APIs through an outbound-only Network Agent. Nova AI accepts plain-English questions, reads a database schema, runs read-only SQL, and returns metrics, tables, and charts. A hosted MCP server connects sources to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, and Grok using a revocable key. Excel and Google Sheets add-ins run shared saved queries and stream live results into cells without exposing SQL to recipients. Federated queries join data from multiple databases and API sources in one SQL statement. Scheduled results can be sent to supported services as often as every five minutes. The Network Agent makes an encrypted outbound connection, needs no inbound ports or VPN, restricts queries to SELECT, WITH, and EXPLAIN, and keeps database credentials on the user's network. The Free tier is free and includes 5 MB/month query traffic; paid plans start at $15 a month. New accounts receive a 30-day trial with every feature unlocked and no credit card.
Spice.ai OSS
Spice.ai OSS is a free, open-source SQL query and AI-inference engine built in Rust for developers. Its SQL API queries structured and unstructured data across databases, data warehouses, and data lakes. Data can be materialized in DuckDB, SQLite, or PostgreSQL in memory or on disk, with results caching included. The AI engine provides an OpenAI-compatible API for local and hosted inference, search, memory, evaluations, and observability. Search methods include vector, full-text BM25, and hybrid approaches exposed through SQL table-valued functions. Spice lists over 40 data connectors, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, S3, Snowflake, Databricks, and DuckDB, and documented client integrations include DBeaver, JetBrains DataGrip, Apache Superset, Tableau, and Microsoft Power BI. It can run as a binary, container, Kubernetes workload, or managed app on Spice Cloud. The Apache 2.0-licensed software is self-hostable as a binary or Docker image. Listed operating systems are macOS with Apple Silicon, Linux on x86_64 or aarch64, and Windows 10 or later with WSL.