The best table formats, according to hackers
3 table formats were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 2 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The two most recommended table formats with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Faster than alternatives
People recommend it as a lakehouse layer with a SQL database catalog for ACID metadata transactions and speed. Critics say some features are still alpha and not fully production-ready.
Open standard many engines query
Open table format many engines can query, recommended for analytics data lakes. Caveat: needs catalog and storage setup, and critics call it immature.
All 3 table 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 | DuckLake | 36 | 9 | 80% | 9 | — | Approved |
| 2 | Apache Iceberg | 26 | 6 | 81% | 11 | — | Approved |
| 3 | Delta Lake | 5 | 3 | 63% | 4 | — | — |
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 table format in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to table 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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