Comparison: DuckDB vs Oracle

Modified date: Monday, June 30, 2025

Introduction
General
Data Types
SQL
Storage and System
Benchmarking
Tools
Export Regulations
Internal
Internal - Optimizer
Internal - Runtime
Internal - Storage Engine

General

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
intro	DuckDB is an in-process SQL OLAP database management system. Simple, feature-rich, fast & open source.	Oracle Database is a DBMS developed by Oracle Corporation.	in their own words - but I reserved the rights to remove some bold claims like "the best", unless it is widely recognized.
vendor	DuckDB Lab	Oracle
initial release	2018	1980
latested version	1.3.0 "Ossivalis"	23ai	We don't put a release date here as the software is patching frequently. So tracking it is not much useful.
supported platforms	all major OS (Linux, macOS, Windows) and CPU (x86, ARM)	Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, z/OS	supported OS/CPU platforms
db-engines ranking	45	1	ranks from https://db-engines.com/en/ranking (06/25)
relational?	yes	yes Oracle also has an open source nosql database.	Is it a relational database? (1) Most database are actually with some extensions, for example, nested data types, graph support, etc, which we usually called "multi-model". (2) Some of them are product family, meaning they have more than one database. Here we focus on the main one but explain others when needed.
open source?	yes	no	mainly the engine code
license	MIT	commercial
price: box software	0 free download
on-premise offering	yes	yes	if no means you can't buy "box" software from them
cloud offering	yes: via MotherDuck MotherDuck is a cloud data warehouse platform that builds on top of DuckDB, an open-source analytical database. It provides a managed, serverless environment for storing, sharing, and collaborating on data while offering features like cloud storage, a web-based SQL IDE, and hybrid query execution (combining local and cloud processing).	Oracle Cloud and other cloud vendors
technical doc	https://duckdb.org/docs/stable/	https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/

SQL

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
SQL: standard complaince	high	high
Extension Mechanism	DuckDB Extensions
max SQL length		undefined The actual limit may depends on limits of the SUT, for example, its memory/system swap settings: Oracle internally must use a malloc'ed buffer to hold the SQL string.	maximal SQL statement length
PL: main		SQL + PL/SQL	main programming lanage: most database suports SQL because SQL is a well established standard. However, each database would like to extend SQL more or less.
PL: other language support		yes	PL lanaguage other than PL/SQL, like PL/Java, PL/Rust etc
SQL: query hints		complete	if it allows use query hints to guide the optimizer
SQL: explicit locking		yes	Locking is usually an internal matter - so does it allow explicit locking? What levels do they support?
Triggers?		yes	If support triggers
Object-Relational?		some

Storage and System

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
arch: server	Embedded	C/S Oracle has a family of databases, even with nonsql one.	Embedded or traditional C/S?
arch: run in browser?	yes	no	It also known as a client-side database, is a database that is stored and managed within a user's web browser, rather than on a remote server.
ACID: durability	yes	yes
Materialized View: support?	no	yes
arch: clustering/HA		RAC, Data Guard
arch: in-memory support		Oracle Database In-Memory option
arch: Multi-master support?		yes	if multi-master support?
arch: primary/read replica?		yes	if primary + mulitiple read replica supported
replication: sync/async		both	Can commits wait or w/o wait for replicas to acknowledge
replication: WAL shipping		yes	Uses write-ahead log (WAL) shipping for replication
sessions: max		262143
tables: max number per database		undefined
tables: max number of columns		4096	Max number of columns per table
contraints: max per column		undefined
partitions: methods		Range, List, Hash, Composite (sub-partitions supported).	Supported partitioning strategies (range, list, hash, etc.).
partitions: global index		yes	index across partitions
constraints: max per database		4,294,967,293
rows: max rows per table		undefined	The actual number depends on storage etc
index: max allowed index		undefined	Max number of indices allowed per table
index: max allowable size		6400	Max index record size (bytes). This constraint is mainly coming from the fact of the database page size: if we exclude blob data types, database engine usally do not allow a record expand more than one page.
index: max number of fields		32	Max number of columns allowed in one index
partition: max allowed partitions		1M-1	Meta data challenge: 1M partitions just like 1M tables, system have to hold them in memory. Optimizer challenge: O(N) algorithm may lead to very long planning time if there are excessive partitions.
partition: max allowed key columns		16
partition: max number of subpartitions		1M-1
ACID		yes/yes	for DML and DDL
ACID: max isolation level		SI The Snapshot Isolation (SI) implemented by Oracle allows some anomalies, including write skew. But the SI does satisfies ANSI's serializable definition.
ACID: max ANSI isolation level		Serializable

Benchmarking

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
any official TPC benchmarks?	no	yes	The TPC benchmark includes a set of tests simulating real-world scenarios to evaluate database performance.
TPCC: most recent tpmC		8,552,523 System cost: 4,663,073 USD
TPCC: most recent submit date		3/26/2013
TPCC: most recent per thread perf		8352
TPCC: best tpmC		30,249,688 System cost: 30,528,863 USD
TPCC: best perf submit date		12/2/2010
TPCC: best perf per thread perf		2188

Tools

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
command line client	duckdb		it means "sql client" for database supporting SQL. For embedded atabase, the client includes the server together.

Export Regulations

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
Jurisdiction	US	US	Which country controls export
ECCN	None	5D992.c	An Export Control Classification Number (ECCN) is a five-character alphanumeric code used to categorize items on the Commerce Control List (CCL) for export control purposes. Most database may fall into 5D992.c category, "mass market encryption", which means it has some ordinary encryption related code, for example, the SSL connection code.
Eligible License Exception / CCATS	Not required	NLR NLR essentially means that a commodity has been classified within the Commodity Classification Automated Tracking System and determined to not require a BIS export license for its export.	A License Exception is an authorization that allows you to export or reexport items subject to the EAR without needing to obtain a specific export license, provided certain conditions are met. CCATS stands for Commodity Classification Automated Tracking System. The BIS assigns a CCATS number to products that it has classified under the Commerce Control List (CCL).
Encryption Components	SSL	TDE, SSL	Crypto functionality that triggers control

Internal

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
Implementation language	C++ The entire code base is starting from scratch, with emulation C/S layer to PostgreSQL. But implmentation is C++.	C	A DBMS may use mulitple programming languages, for example, supports its stored procedure. The major programming language used to implement the engine.
concurrency control		MVCC
MVCC: implemented?		yes	if implement MVCC for concurrency control
MVCC: rollback segment		yes	if uses rollback segment (RS) to store old versions. Without RS, old versions and new versions are mixed stored, then the database engine has to find a way to efficiently drop the old versions at certain point.

Internal - Optimizer

Feature	Oracle	Definition
CBO?	yes	if it employees a cost based optimizer
framework	System-R	System-R is more like a dynamic programming, bottom up optimizer, while Cascades/Volcano gebaseerd optimizer is more like top-down optimizer.
query hints?	complete	if it allows use query hints to guide the optimizer

Internal - Runtime

Feature	Oracle	Definition
resource management	complete	How execution memory is allocated and limited.
support intra-parallel query?	yes	meaning a single query can utilize multi hardware threads to run it
vectorization	yes	Speed up OLAP queries using vectorized execution. A vectorized runtime exchange a bunch of rows between iterators, and these rows are physically sotre with column-oriented order.
iterator: join methods	all 3	Hash Join (HJ), Sort-Merge Join (MJ) and Nested loop Join (NLJ) are 3 major ones

Internal - Storage Engine

Feature	DuckDB	Oracle	Definition
ACID: durability mechanism	WAL	WAL	How is it implements durability. Database's classic way is write ahead logging (WAL).
Page Size		2K-32K	The physical disk block size for storage and I/O.
partition table		complete	Partitioning capabilities for large tables.
partition table: prunning		both	Ability to eliminate partitions at query compile time and runtime

Comparison: DuckDB vs Oracle

Table of Contents

General

SQL

Storage and System

Benchmarking

Tools

Export Regulations

Internal

Internal - Optimizer

Internal - Runtime

Internal - Storage Engine