DuckDB
DuckDB is an open-source in-process SQL OLAP database that embeds directly into applications for fast analytical querying, distributed under the MIT license and used by data engineers, AI/ML practitioners, and enterprises building lakehouse and agentic data workflows.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersAmsterdam, Netherlands
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What DuckDB does
DuckDB is an open-source in-process SQL OLAP database management system that runs embedded directly inside host applications without requiring server or network infrastructure. It is built on a fast columnar storage engine with vectorized query execution (STANDARD_VECTOR_SIZE of 2048 tuples) and supports disk spilling for analytical workloads larger than available memory. The project was originally developed by researchers from Amsterdam's CWI institute and is now governed by the DuckDB Foundation, a Dutch nonprofit entity headquartered in Amsterdam that holds the trademarks and oversees the project under a vendor-neutral structure. Key contributors Hannes Mühleisen and Mark Raasveldt are employed through DuckLabs, a separate commercial entity. DuckDB serves data engineers, data scientists, and AI/ML practitioners building RAG and agent systems, as well as enterprises modernizing data infrastructure, and is distributed via standard developer channels (PyPI, npm, Maven, Docker, Homebrew, direct CLI download) under the MIT license. Adoption signals include 39.1k GitHub stars and exponential PyPI download growth. The product portfolio has expanded beyond the core engine to include DuckLake (a lakehouse format specification that uses DuckDB as the metadata RDBMS), the Quack remote protocol (introducing client-server capability), and an extensive extension ecosystem covering Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake, Lance (multimodal AI data), spatial/GIS, vector similarity search, full-text search, ODBC, and major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCS, Cloudflare R2). Direct revenue is generated only through DuckLabs' commercial support services; MotherDuck, an independent startup that has raised over $100 million, operates a separate managed cloud service on top of DuckDB.
DuckDB firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- DuckDB
- Legal name
- DuckDB Foundation
- Website
- https://duckdb.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- DuckDB is an open-source in-process SQL OLAP database that embeds directly into applications for fast analytical querying, distributed under the MIT license and used by data engineers, AI/ML practitioners, and enterprises building lakehouse and agentic data workflows.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
DuckDB industry classification
Industry- Product category
- In-Process Analytical Database
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Data Lake Platforms (HDAEABAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Lakehouse Platforms (HDAEABAB), Data Warehouse/Lakehouse Performance Optimization & Cost Management (HDAEABAL), Search / Index Databases (HDAEAAAK)
Keywords
Where DuckDB is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Amsterdam
- HQ country
- Netherlands
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
DuckDB business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Open Source Software (MIT Licensed): DuckDB core, core extensions, and DuckLake format are released under MIT open-source license with no revenue directly generated from software licensing.
- Commercial Support Services: DuckLabs (ducklabs.com) provides commercial support services for enterprises requiring SLAs, professional support, and consulting around DuckDB deployments.
- MotherDuck Cloud Service: MotherDuck, a startup building a hybrid cloud-local service around DuckDB, has raised over $100 million. MotherDuck offers a managed DuckDB cloud service as a separate commercial product.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Open Source - Free |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels8 records
Marketing channels7 records
DuckDB product offering
Product offeringCore offering
DuckDB is an open-source in-process SQL OLAP database management system that embeds directly inside host applications without requiring a separate server or network stack. It is built on a columnar storage engine with vectorized query execution and is distributed under the MIT license via language-specific client libraries (Python, Java, Node.js, Go, Rust, R, C/C++) and a CLI. The project extends the core with official extensions covering Iceberg, Delta Lake, Lance, VSS, full-text search, Spatial, AWS, Azure, ODBC, and others, and offers DuckLake (lakehouse format) and the Quack remote protocol as additional standalone offerings.
Product overview
DuckDB is a single unified open-source in-process SQL OLAP database management system that runs embedded inside applications without requiring server or network infrastructure. The core product is distributed as a CLI tool and language-specific client libraries (Python, R, Java, Node.js, Go, Rust, C/C++). Key related offerings include: DuckLake (lakehouse format specification), Quack Remote Protocol (client-server capability), MotherDuck (cloud data warehouse service built on DuckDB by a separate company), and various official extensions for Iceberg, Delta Lake, Lance, Spatial, ODBC, PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, AWS, Azure, VSS (vector search), and Full-Text Search. The project is published under MIT license and developed by researchers from Amsterdam's CWI institute.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- DuckLake: A lakehouse format specification that addresses the 'small changes' problem in lakehouse implementations built on open table formats like Apache Iceberg and Delta Lake.
- Quack
Products and services
- DuckDB Core In-process SQL OLAP database management system that embeds directly inside applications without requiring server or network infrastructure. Features a columnar storage engine, vectorized query execution, disk spilling for larger-than-memory workloads, and is distributed under the MIT open-source license.
- DuckDB CLI Command-line interface client for DuckDB providing interactive SQL execution, syntax highlighting, and autocomplete. Available as a standalone binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
- DuckLake Production-ready lakehouse format specification and database extension that refactors the traditional lakehouse model by enabling bring-your-own compute. Uses DuckDB as a metadata RDBMS to batch small changes before flushing to Parquet files. Benchmarks report 926x faster queries and 105x faster ingestion compared to Apache Iceberg.
- Quack Remote Protocol Remote protocol over HTTP enabling multiple DuckDB instances to connect and work with the same database over a network. Facilitates shared datasets, concurrent users, and remote analytics workloads for the DuckDB engine.
- DuckDB-Wasm WebAssembly version of DuckDB enabling in-browser analytical database capabilities. Supports querying data directly in web applications without server-side infrastructure.
- DuckLabs Commercial Support Services Commercial support services delivered by DuckLabs (ducklabs.com) for enterprises requiring SLAs, professional support, and consulting around DuckDB deployments.
Quantifiable outcome
- 926× faster queries and 105× faster ingestion compared to Apache Iceberg
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use DuckDB
Customer profileNamed customers5 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
DuckDB technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration24 records
AI capability5 records
Feature6 records
DuckDB partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Databricks (Unity Catalog)coreDatabricks announced that external engines including DuckDB can create, read, and write to Unity Catalog managed Delta tables. This enables best-fit engine usage without duplicating data or policies, shifting toward true open lakehouse architectures.
- Lance (as core extension)coreThe Lance extension was promoted to a core DuckDB extension, simplifying installation from 'INSTALL lance FROM community' to 'INSTALL lance'. This demonstrates strong ecosystem integration.
- LancecoreLance and DuckDB released a new extension enabling SQL-based querying, vector search, full-text search, and hybrid search directly on Lance datasets from within DuckDB. This unifies retrieval and analytics workloads on multimodal AI data.
- MotherDuckcoreMotherDuck is a startup building a hybrid cloud-local service around DuckDB. It has raised over $100 million in funding and is planning a hosted DuckLake solution. MotherDuck provides the 'md' extension for connecting to MotherDuck cloud service from DuckDB.
- Apache Software Foundation (Apache Iceberg)coreDuckDB has native Iceberg support including Iceberg REST catalogs, Amazon S3 Tables, and Amazon SageMaker Lakehouse integration. Major cloud providers including Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Databricks, Trino, Apache Spark, and Apache Flink have adopted Iceberg.
- AWScoreDuckDB has native AWS support via the AWS extension. AWS collaborated with DuckDB on Iceberg REST catalogs integration enabling lightweight analytics on cloud-stored Iceberg tables.
- SpotifyminorSpotify engineers presented at DuckCon #7 on building a SQL layer over user listening history for agentic access using DuckDB.
- CWI Institute (Amsterdam)coreDuckDB was originally developed by researchers from Amsterdam's CWI institute (Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica).
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
DuckDB competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Strengths4 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
DuckDB social profiles
Digital presenceDuckDB financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
DuckDB leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
DuckDB funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
DuckDB M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about DuckDB
What does DuckDB do?
DuckDB is an open-source in-process SQL OLAP database management system that embeds directly inside host applications without requiring a separate server or network stack. It is built on a columnar storage engine with vectorized query execution and is distributed under the MIT license via language-specific client libraries (Python, Java, Node.js, Go, Rust, R, C/C++) and a CLI. The project extends the core with official extensions covering Iceberg, Delta Lake, Lance, VSS, full-text search, Spatial, AWS, Azure, ODBC, and others, and offers DuckLake (lakehouse format) and the Quack remote protocol as additional standalone offerings.
Is DuckDB a public or private company?
DuckDB is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was DuckDB founded?
DuckDB was founded in 2015. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is DuckDB based?
DuckDB is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in the Europe region.
How does DuckDB make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Open Source Software (MIT Licensed) is the primary driver. The others are commercial Support Services and motherDuck Cloud Service.
Does DuckDB have an API?
No public API is recorded for DuckDB.
What industry is DuckDB in?
DuckDB's product category is In-Process Analytical Database. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEABAC, Data Lake Platforms, with a secondary code of HDAEABAB, Lakehouse Platforms. Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 7372.