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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs MotherDuck

Canary Labs logo

Canary Labs

Databases

Industrial process historian with published per-tag pricing and no client licence fees

From
$3000/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
MotherDuck logo

MotherDuck

Databases

Serverless analytics data warehouse built on DuckDB

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only MotherDuck has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Canary Labs pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.; MotherDuck the free Lite plan caps compute at 10 hours per month, which limits it to light or hobbyist workloads.
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, MotherDuck covers Serverless DuckDB instances.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Canary Labs and MotherDuck actually diverge.

Attributes where Canary Labs and MotherDuck differ
AttributeCanary LabsMotherDuck
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearusage-based
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, Webweb, api
FoundedUnknown2022

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Canary Labs

  • Loss-less compression
  • Unlimited clients
  • Store and forward
  • Views service
  • Sparkplug B
  • Calculation engine
  • Axiom
  • ODBC and REST

Only in MotherDuck

  • Serverless DuckDB instances
  • Cloud storage querying
  • MCP server
  • Dives
  • Flights
  • Read-scaling replicas

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Canary Labs

  • A manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a PI System enterprise agreementnot MotherDuck
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot MotherDuck
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot MotherDuck
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot MotherDuck

MotherDuck

  • Ad-hoc analytics on gigabyte-to-terabyte datasetsnot Canary Labs
  • Querying data lake files in S3/GCS/Azure without ingestionnot Canary Labs
  • AI agent data analysis via MCPnot Canary Labs
  • Scheduled data pipeline transformationsnot Canary Labs

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Canary Labs

  • Pricing steps by tag band rather than actual tags, so a site sitting just above a threshold pays the next band in full; growth from 3,400 to 3,600 tags is a licence purchase, not a rounding error.
  • CustomerCare at 18 percent of licence cost is effectively mandatory on perpetual licences because lapsing it removes upgrades, so the perpetual option is not really a one-time cost.
  • The storage format is proprietary; getting data out at volume means the ODBC connector, an additional 2,500 USD one-time or 1,000 USD a year, or writing against the REST API.
  • Canary is a small vendor with a limited partner network outside North America, so support coverage and integrator availability in Europe and Asia are thinner than for AVEVA or Ignition.
  • It is a Windows-only server product with no Linux or container deployment, which complicates placing collectors in modern edge estates.

MotherDuck

  • The free Lite plan caps compute at 10 hours per month, which limits it to light or hobbyist workloads.
  • Business plan usage charges on top of the $250/month base can make costs less predictable than flat-rate competitors.
  • There are no academic or non-profit discounts, unlike some competing data platforms.
  • Annual billing requires going through a sales conversation rather than a self-serve toggle.

Pricing, plan by plan

Canary Labs

$3000/year
  • Subscription, 3,500 tags$3000/year
    • Unlimited Axiom clients
    • Unlimited Excel clients
    • Support and upgrades included
  • Perpetual, 3,500 tags$8730/one-time
    • 7,400 USD licence plus 1,330 USD first-year CustomerCare
    • CustomerCare renews at 18 percent of licence cost per year
    • Unlimited clients
  • Private cloud, 3,500 tags$12320/year
    • Hosted by Canary
    • 1,500 USD one-time setup fee per system
    • Scales to around 58,684 USD per year at 60,000 tags
  • Enterprise unlimited$undefined/year
    • Unlimited tags
    • Negotiated licensing terms
    • Quoted pricing

MotherDuck

Free
  • LiteFree
    • Up to 3 internal active users
    • 2 service accounts
    • 10GB free storage
  • Business$250/month
    • Up to 10 internal active users
    • Unlimited service accounts
    • 5 instance types with read-scaling replicas
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Unlimited internal users and service accounts
    • Fixed-cost capacity pricing
    • AWS PrivateLink, IP allowlisting

Which should you pick?

Choose Canary Labs if

  • You need loss-less compression.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want unlimited clients.
Canary Labs review

Choose MotherDuck if

  • You need serverless duckdb instances.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on web, api.
  • You also want cloud storage querying.
MotherDuck review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or MotherDuck better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and MotherDuck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or MotherDuck?
MotherDuck has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for MotherDuck.
Does Canary Labs or MotherDuck run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. MotherDuck runs on web, api.
Can I use MotherDuck for free?
Yes. MotherDuck has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year.
What is Canary Labs best used for?
Canary Labs is most often used for a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement, a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement, an ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboards, a plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an audit. Of those, a manufacturer that needs a compliant historian but cannot justify a pi system enterprise agreement and a water utility replacing scada-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next scada replacement are not what MotherDuck is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that MotherDuck cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. MotherDuck covers Serverless DuckDB instances, Cloud storage querying, MCP server, Dives.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Canary Labs: What does Canary cost?

8,730 USD for a 3,500 tag perpetual system including first-year CustomerCare, or 3,000 USD a year on subscription.

MotherDuck: What does MotherDuck cost?

The Lite plan is free (up to 3 users, 10GB storage, 10 hours of Pulse compute/month). Business is $250/organization/month plus usage, with Enterprise available at custom fixed-cost pricing.

Source
Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

No. Unlimited Axiom browser clients and unlimited Excel clients are included on every tier.

MotherDuck: Is there a free plan and what are its limits?

Yes, the Lite plan is free for up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts, with 10GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute per month.

Source
Canary Labs: Is perpetual cheaper than subscription?

Canary states perpetual pays off after roughly three years, and after that you still pay 18 percent CustomerCare annually.

MotherDuck: How is usage metered?

Compute instances (Pulse, Standard, Jumbo, Mega, Giga) are billed per second at hourly rates from $0.60 to $24.00/hour, storage is $0.04/GB-month, and AI Functions cost $1.00 per AI Unit.

Source
Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

No. Canary stores every collected value rather than approximating the trend, which matters for regulated data retention.

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