# Apache DataFusion

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-datafusion/

16 people recommended Apache DataFusion in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 12 months, in 11 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A fast, extensible Rust query engine that people build databases and analytics tools on. The common caveat is that it is not a full embedded database and lacks indexes and transactions.

Summary written by Claude from 20 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 19 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Fast on analytical workloads (3 comments in the sample): "datafusion has always been the leading/trading blowers with polars for our workfloads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49979432)) "a slew of 10-100x faster than Java equivalent stuff in the data x rust ecosystem" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46671517)) "The results are impressive: fast and out-of-core." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49132499))
- Strong base for building databases (3 comments in the sample): "Apache DataFusion is probably the right framework to build off of." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666844)) "The llvm of databases is not turso, it's datafusion." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48937894)) "it's kind of like the LLVM of the OLAP world" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49125850))
- Easy to extend, well designed (2 comments in the sample): "DataFusion is beautiful and easy to extend in any direction." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49132556)) "it's so incredibly powerful and well designed" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49128658))
- Fast, handles out-of-core data (1 comment in the sample): "datafusion allows you to do fine grained storage integration (spill to disk as a part of the algorithm" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49127488))

## What people warn about

- Not a full embedded database (1 comment in the sample): "has all of the individual pieces, especially if you just want to data analysis, but is far from an embedded database" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49449875))

## Other cloud data warehouses people recommend

- [Google BigQuery](https://hackerapproved.com/p/bigquery/): 19 recommend, 4 mixed, 6 criticize
- [Snowflake](https://hackerapproved.com/p/snowflake/): 15 recommend, 10 mixed, 21 criticize
- [Amazon Athena](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-athena/): 8 recommend, 5 mixed, 5 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Apache DataFusion", https://hackerapproved.com/p/apache-datafusion/ (16 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.