What HAMMERDB LTD does

HammerDB Ltd is a UK private limited company that develops and maintains HammerDB, an open-source database benchmarking tool distributed under the GNU General Public License Version 3. Its core technology is a multi-database benchmark engine — built on Tcl scripting (v9.0) with a Python CLI interface — that runs standardized transactional (TPROC-C, derived from TPC-C) and analytical (TPROC-H, derived from TPC-H) workloads across six major enterprise databases: Oracle, SQL Server, IBM Db2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. Beyond the core engine, the product suite includes HammerDB CLI, a web service with SCGI support, official Docker images, the HammerDB Agent for system discovery and IOPS/throughput metrics capture, an Autopilot automated testing mode, Cluster Connect Pool for clustered instance testing, Active Session History-style analysis, and response time percentiles with reservoir sampling.

HammerDB is hosted by the TPC-Council under a governance arrangement anchored in the TPC-OSS working group, reinforcing the project's positioning as an independent, vendor-neutral benchmarking standard. The user base spans database administrators, performance engineers, platform/DevOps teams, enterprise IT buyers, and open-source database communities, with documented adoption by major database vendors (MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft), cloud providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure), and hardware OEMs (Dell, Lenovo, Intel, AMD).

The company's revenue model is a hybrid of (a) free open-source software distribution under GPLv3, which functions as community-building and top-of-funnel demand generation, and (b) Database Performance Services — paid, quote-based consulting engagements covering performance investigation, benchmark reports, cost comparison, training, and cloud/AMI enablement, with delivery supplemented by a specialist partnership with Vettabase. The 2025 v5.0 and June 2026 v6.0 releases (the latter introducing CI pipeline automation, shareable result artifacts, ASH-style MySQL/MariaDB analysis, and reservoir-sampled latency percentiles) reflect the technical cadence sustaining the platform.

Name

HAMMERDB LTD

Legal name

HammerDB Ltd

Website

https://hammerdb.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

HammerDB Ltd develops and maintains HammerDB, an open-source database benchmarking tool that runs standardized OLTP (TPROC-C) and OLAP (TPROC-H) workloads across Oracle, SQL Server, Db2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB, serving database administrators, performance engineers, and DevOps teams with paid performance consulting on top.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Database Performance Benchmarking Software

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Database Tools & Ecosystem (Replication, Backup/Recovery, HA/DR, Monitoring) (HDAEAAAO)

Keywords

• Database benchmarking software
• OLTP workload testing
• OLAP analytics benchmarking
• Open source database tools
• Database performance testing

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Open Source Software (Free): HammerDB is released under GNU General Public License Version 3, providing free download and use of the benchmarking software. This builds community adoption and drives awareness for paid services.
2. Database Performance Services: Professional consulting services including performance investigation, benchmark reports, cost comparison analysis, HammerDB training, and cloud/AMI enablement. Revenue is generated through billable professional services engagements. Recent collaboration with MariaDB on performance engineering contributed to a 2.5x OLTP throughput improvement.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

HammerDB provides an open-source multi-database benchmarking engine that runs standardized TPROC-C (OLTP) and TPROC-H (OLAP) workloads across Oracle, SQL Server, Db2, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and MySQL via GUI, CLI, web service, and Docker interfaces. Complementing the free software, HammerDB Ltd sells Database Performance Services including performance investigation, benchmark reports, cost comparison analysis, training, and cloud enablement for enterprise customers.

Product overview

HammerDB LTD offers HammerDB as its primary open-source database benchmarking product. The tool provides a multi-database benchmark engine supporting Oracle, SQL Server, Db2, PostgreSQL, MariaDB and MySQL through GUI, CLI, Python, web service, and Docker interfaces. The core product suite includes the TPROC-C (OLTP transactional) and TPROC-H (OLAP analytical) workloads, complemented by the HammerDB Agent for system discovery and metrics, Autopilot for automated testing, and Remote Primary/Replica modes for distributed testing. Professional Database Performance Services are offered for training, benchmark reporting, and cloud enablement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• HammerDB (Core Benchmarking Tool) Open-source multi-database benchmarking tool that enables performance testing across SQL Server, Db2, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, and MySQL with GUI, CLI, web service, and Docker interfaces. Free under GPLv3.
• TPROC-C Workload OLTP benchmarking engine derived from TPC-C for measuring database transactional throughput using the NOPM (New Orders Per Minute) and TPM metrics across all supported database engines.
• TPROC-H Workload OLAP benchmarking engine derived from TPC-H for database analytics performance testing with power test, throughput test, and geometric mean calculations across all supported database engines.
• HammerDB CLI Command Line Interface supporting Tcl and Python scripting for automated database benchmarking, schema building, driver configuration, virtual user management, and workload execution without GUI dependency.
• HammerDB Web Service Web-based interface with SCGI support for viewing jobs, benchmark reports, charts, timing, metrics, and profiles, enabling remote execution and monitoring of benchmark workloads through a REST-like API.
• HammerDB Docker Images Official Docker container images enabling containerized and cloud-ready database benchmarking with reproducible workloads for testing database releases, platforms, storage, and cloud configurations.
• Database Performance Services Professional consulting services including performance investigation, benchmark reports, cost comparison analysis, HammerDB training, cloud and AMI enablement, and partner delivery through specialists like Vettabase. Sold via direct engagement at [email protected].

Quantifiable outcome

• 2.5x OLTP throughput improvement in MariaDB Enterprise Server 11.8
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• VettabaseminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerHammerDB Ltd works with Vettabase as a specialist partner for production database engineering and operational work. Vettabase provides additional delivery capacity for consulting engagements requiring specialized database operational expertise.
• TPC-CouncilcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHammerDB is hosted by the TPC-Council with oversight via the TPC-OSS working group to ensure independence and fairness. The TPC-Council provides governance for the community results sharing workflow on GitHub.
• MariaDB CorporationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHammerDB collaborated with MariaDB engineering to analyze OLTP scalability on modern hardware platforms and identify architectural bottlenecks. This partnership led to the identification and resolution of serialization points, resulting in 2.5x OLTP throughput improvement in MariaDB Enterprise Server 11.8.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• BenchmarkSQL: An open-source TPC-C benchmark implementation for JDBC-supported databases including PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, and SQL Server. It directly overlaps HammerDB's TPROC-C use case and represents the most common DIY alternative for shops standardized on Java/JDBC.
• pgbench: PostgreSQL's built-in benchmarking tool for OLTP workloads (TPC-B-like). It is the closest per-engine equivalent to HammerDB's TPROC-C for PostgreSQL users, and a default alternative when teams want a vendor-native benchmark.
• Sysbench: Open-source, scriptable database benchmarking tool focused on MySQL/PostgreSQL OLTP workloads (and broader system benchmarks). It is the most direct open-source competitor in the same horizontal 'free database benchmark' category, though with narrower database engine coverage than HammerDB.

Others

• Apache JMeter: An open-source, Java-based load and performance testing tool widely used for database, web, and API workloads. Comparable as a horizontal, open-source performance testing platform with overlap in use cases (load generation, CI integration), but is application-protocol-oriented rather than database-engine-focused.
• TPC-Council: The Transaction Processing Performance Council is the governing body that hosts HammerDB and oversees the TPC-OSS community results workflow. It is a closely related organization (governance partner rather than direct competitor) that defines the standard TPC-C/TPC-H benchmark specs HammerDB derives from.

Broad incumbents

• SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer: A commercial, cross-platform database performance monitoring and tuning product supporting Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Db2. It overlaps HammerDB's database performance engineering audience but focuses on continuous monitoring rather than synthetic benchmarking.
• Quest Spotlight on SQL Server / Spotlight on Oracle: A commercial database performance monitoring and diagnostics suite for SQL Server, Oracle, and other enterprise RDBMS. Comparable audience (DBAs, performance engineers) and multi-engine scope, though proprietary and monitoring-centric rather than benchmarking-focused.
• Redgate SQL Monitor: A commercial SQL Server-focused database performance monitoring tool with alerting, baselining, and trend analysis. Comparable to HammerDB as a tool used by DBAs and performance engineers for database performance decisions, though monitoring vs. benchmarking.

Emerging players

• Datadog Database Monitoring: A cloud-native, observability-integrated database monitoring product supporting PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Oracle, and SQL Server. Comparable as a modern alternative for performance engineers and DevOps teams evaluating database performance, with deeper APM/infra integration than HammerDB.
• NoSQLBench: An open-source benchmarking tool focused on NoSQL systems (and increasingly cloud data services). It is comparable as a horizontal database benchmarking project but addresses the NoSQL/cloud data segment that HammerDB's SQL-centric workloads do not target.

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/TPC-Council/HammerDB
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hammerdb

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about HAMMERDB LTD