Apache DataFusion
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 4 cloud data warehouses by recommenders
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.
16 people recommended Apache DataFusion in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 20 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 19 of those comments still count.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 16
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 2
The record
Recommended in 8 of 12 months
In 11 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
Why it carries the badge
- 16 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 8 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 11 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 31% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 19 of the 22 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast on analytical workloads
“datafusion has always been the leading/trading blowers with polars for our workfloads”
Comment from 6 Oct 2026 in “Polars 2.0” “a slew of 10-100x faster than Java equivalent stuff in the data x rust ecosystem”
Comment from 18 Jan 2026 in “Command-line Tools can be 235x Faster than your Hadoop Cluster (2014)” “The results are impressive: fast and out-of-core.”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion” Strong base for building databases
“Apache DataFusion is probably the right framework to build off of.”
Comment from 11 Sep 2026 in “I've operated petabyte-scale ClickHouse clusters for 5 years” “The llvm of databases is not turso, it's datafusion.”
Comment from 16 Jul 2026 in “We're Building Postgres in Rust. Using the LLVM of Databases” “it's kind of like the LLVM of the OLAP world”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion” Easy to extend, well designed
“DataFusion is beautiful and easy to extend in any direction.”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion” “it's so incredibly powerful and well designed”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion” Fast, handles out-of-core data
“datafusion allows you to do fine grained storage integration (spill to disk as a part of the algorithm”
Comment from 31 Jul 2026 in “Algorithms on billion-scale graph using 10GB RAM: I love DataFusion”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Not a full embedded database
“has all of the individual pieces, especially if you just want to data analysis, but is far from an embedded database”
Comment from 26 Aug 2026 in “AWS Acquires DuckLabs”
Other cloud data warehouses people recommend
The three most recommended other cloud data warehouses, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Mixed | Criticize | Approval | Months | Had for | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google BigQuery | 19 | 4 | 6 | 76% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Apache DataFusionThis page | 16 | 1 | 2 | 89% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Snowflake | 15 | 10 | 21 | 42% | 8 | — | — |
| Amazon Athena | 8 | 5 | 5 | 62% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
19 of the 22 opinions about it, picked in proportion to the three counts, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“datafusion has always been the leading/trading blowers with polars for our workfloads”
“DataFusion and Arrow are AI-native, allowing for Python-Rust interoperability and speed”
“Apache DataFusion is probably the right framework to build off of.”
“It's juts not as user friendly as DuckDB.”
“I remain excited about the broader ecosystem (especially datafusion”
“has all of the individual pieces, especially if you just want to data analysis, but is far from an embedded database”
“it integrates far better into your Rust app than DuckDB does”
“DataFusion is beautiful and easy to extend in any direction.”
“The results are impressive: fast and out-of-core.”
“Looking forward to more such innovations, which will benefit the ecosystem as a whole.”
“it's so incredibly powerful and well designed”
“Love this Sem. Will provide a great alternative to the SQL based connected components algorithm”
“datafusion allows you to do fine grained storage integration (spill to disk as a part of the algorithm”
“it's kind of like the LLVM of the OLAP world”
“they don't have indexes or transactions for example”
“The llvm of databases is not turso, it's datafusion.”
“which has very good pushdown”
“the ability with tools like trino or datafusion to basically turn "everything" into a table”
“a slew of 10-100x faster than Java equivalent stuff in the data x rust ecosystem”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.