At a glance
| SQL support | ClickHouse SQL dialect; multi-statement transactions are experimental and not supported in ClickHouse Cloud |
| Storage and compute architecture | Columnar MergeTree storage; in Cloud, compute separated from object storage, with compute-compute separation on Scale and Enterprise |
| Workload types | Real-time analytics, observability, event and time-series analysis |
| Integrations | Kafka, S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Iceberg, Delta Lake, PostgreSQL and MySQL engines |
| Deployment | Self-hosted, ClickHouse Cloud on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure, or BYOC |
| Pricing model | Free server; Cloud per compute unit-hour and per TB-month, USD; BYOC by quote |
ClickHouse fits teams that need fast aggregations over billions of rows for dashboards, observability or user-facing analytics, and that can model data around its MergeTree sort keys. It is less suited to workloads built on frequent updates and multi-statement transactions. Start with the free server or the 30-day Cloud trial.
Overview
ClickHouse describes itself as a real-time analytics database management system. It stores data by column and its main table engine family, MergeTree, is designed for high insert rates, with a sparse primary index, partitioning and TTL rules. The server is developed in the open on GitHub under the Apache License 2.0 and released monthly; the changelog lists 26.10 (22 October 2026) as the latest release line when checked.
ClickHouse, Inc. also runs ClickHouse Cloud, a managed service on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure with Basic, Scale and Enterprise plans, plus a Bring Your Own Cloud option that runs the service inside your own cloud account. Cloud adds features such as compute-compute separation and ClickPipes for managed ingestion.
Key features
- MergeTree table engines with sparse primary indexes, partitioning, TTL and background merges
- Incremental materialized views that transform data at insert time
- Table functions and engines for S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage, Kafka, PostgreSQL and MySQL
- Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake support, plus a DataLakeCatalog engine for catalogs such as AWS Glue and Iceberg REST
- Specialised joins and functions for analytics, including ASOF JOIN for time-series matching
- ClickHouse Cloud with compute-compute separation, automatic vertical scaling and scale to zero when idle
- ClickPipes managed ingestion in ClickHouse Cloud, billed separately
Pros and cons
Pros
- Apache 2.0 licensed server you can run anywhere at no licence cost
- Columnar MergeTree design built for fast aggregations over large tables
- Published per-unit Cloud prices, a calculator and a trial without a credit card
- Wide range of documented integrations for object storage, streams and other databases
Cons
- Multi-statement transactions are experimental and not supported in ClickHouse Cloud
- Updates and deletes work differently from row-store databases, so data modelling matters
- Monthly releases mean regular upgrade work for self-hosted clusters
Pricing
The ClickHouse server is free under the Apache License 2.0. ClickHouse Cloud is usage-based with no monthly minimum: compute is metered per minute and priced per compute unit-hour (one unit is 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPU), storage is priced per TB per month, and backups, data transfer and ClickPipes are billed separately. Rates vary by plan (Basic, Scale, Enterprise), cloud and region. As one example, the pricing page lists the Enterprise plan on AWS us-east-1 at USD 0.39030 per compute unit-hour and USD 25.30 per TB-month of storage. New accounts get a 30-day trial with USD 300 in credits and no credit card. BYOC is quoted by sales.
Pricing checked on the vendor's official page on 7 November 2026. Prices change; confirm before buying.
Who it is best for
Engineering teams building dashboards, observability or customer-facing analytics over large, mostly append-only event, log or metric data.
Who should look elsewhere
- Transactional applications that need enforced constraints and multi-statement ACID transactions: see ClickHouse vs PostgreSQL.
- Analysts working on data that fits on one laptop, where an embedded engine is simpler: see DuckDB.
Verdict
ClickHouse is a strong option when query speed over large append-heavy tables is the main requirement, and its Apache 2.0 licence plus published Cloud rates make it easy to evaluate. The trade-offs are documented limits on transactions and updates, and the need to design tables around sort keys, so it complements rather than replaces a general-purpose warehouse in many teams.
Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse free?
The ClickHouse server is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0. ClickHouse Cloud is a paid managed service billed per compute unit-hour and per TB-month of storage, with a 30-day trial that includes USD 300 in credits.
Which clouds does ClickHouse Cloud run on?
ClickHouse Cloud runs on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. Bring Your Own Cloud deploys it in your own AWS, Google Cloud or Azure account on custom-quoted pricing.
Does ClickHouse support transactions?
ClickHouse documents that an insert of one block into a single MergeTree partition is atomic. Multi-statement transactions are documented as experimental and are not supported in ClickHouse Cloud.
Sources
- ClickHouse Cloud pricing
- ClickHouse documentation
- ClickHouse changelog
- ClickHouse GitHub repository and licence
- ClickHouse Bring Your Own Cloud
Checked November 2026.
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