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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs RavenDB

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
RavenDB logo

RavenDB

Databases

The fully transactional NoSQL document database

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only RavenDB 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.; RavenDB the free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, RavenDB covers ACID Transactions.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Canary Labs and RavenDB differ
AttributeCanary LabsRavenDB
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearfreemium
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, WebLinux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web
FoundedUnknown2010

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 RavenDB

  • ACID Transactions
  • Auto-indexing
  • Full-text Search
  • Graph Queries
  • Distributed Counters
  • Time Series
  • Document Compression
  • .NET

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 RavenDB
  • A water utility replacing SCADA-embedded logging with a historian that survives the next SCADA replacementnot RavenDB
  • An Ignition site that wants long-term storage and trending without paying per-client for dashboardsnot RavenDB
  • A plant with regulatory data-retention obligations where swinging-door compression would not survive an auditnot RavenDB

RavenDB

  • Running a distributed document database with ACID transactionsnot Canary Labs
  • Self hosting a multi node database cluster on your own hardwarenot Canary Labs
  • Replicating operational data out to analytics systems through ETLnot 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.

RavenDB

  • The free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal
  • The free Community licence caps a customer at 60 cores and forces you to stay on the latest major version
  • The Professional licence is limited to a single database, a 5 node cluster, 40 cores and 240 GB RAM
  • Sharding across nodes, ETL to OLAP, Elasticsearch and Kafka, and data archival are Enterprise only
  • Enterprise and AI licence pricing is contact us only with no published rate

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

RavenDB

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • 3 cores
    • 6GB RAM
    • Community support
  • Professional$499/year
    • Production use
    • Professional support
    • Advanced features

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 RavenDB if

  • You need acid transactions.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web.
  • You also want auto-indexing.
RavenDB review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or RavenDB better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and RavenDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or RavenDB?
RavenDB has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for RavenDB.
Does Canary Labs or RavenDB run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. RavenDB runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web.
Can I use RavenDB for free?
Yes. RavenDB 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 RavenDB is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that RavenDB cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. RavenDB covers ACID Transactions, Auto-indexing, Full-text Search, Graph Queries.

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.

RavenDB: Is RavenDB free or open source?

RavenDB is open source under the AGPLv3 license and available on GitHub. It also offers a free developer license with enterprise-level features limited to 9 cores, 36GB max RAM, 3 nodes, and non-commercial use.

Source
Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

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

RavenDB: Can I use RavenDB commercially for free?

RavenDB offers a free Community License that permits commercial deployment with unlimited databases and sizes, subject to a 60-core maximum per customer and requirement to run the latest major version.

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.

RavenDB: What commercial licensing options does RavenDB offer?

RavenDB offers Professional, Enterprise, and AI tiers for commercial use. Pricing for these tiers requires contacting their sales team at [email protected].

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.

RavenDB: Does RavenDB offer a cloud hosting option?

RavenDB Cloud provides a fully managed cloud database with maintenance, failover, and backups included. Pricing is available at cloud.ravendb.net/pricing.

Source
RavenDB: Is there a refund window if I purchase RavenDB?

RavenDB offers a 30-day refund window for purchased licenses.

Source
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