The best columnar file formats, according to hackers
3 columnar file formats were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 3 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended columnar file formats with the badge. Each figure is one person. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Shared memory layout across languages
People recommend it as a shared, language-independent memory layout that lets tools pass data without copying; the most common caveat is that it has many bugs.
Mods install and run fine on Linux
People recommend Vortex as a state-of-the-art columnar file format with transparent encodings, and say the Vortex mod manager installs and runs mods fine on Linux.
Fast access and good performance
Fast columnar file format for dataframes, zero-copy and simpler than Arrow IPC for many uses. Caveat: inefficient for single-row appends and offers little compression.
All 3 columnar file formats, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apache Arrow | 20 | 1 | 95% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 2 | Vortex file format | 13 | 3 | 81% | 8 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Feather file format | 10 | 1 | 91% | 7 | — | Approved |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same columnar file format in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to columnar file formats that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
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