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APIs · head to head

Convoy vs DuckDB

Convoy logo

Convoy

APIs

Open source webhooks gateway you self-host, handling both sending and receiving

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
DuckDB logo

DuckDB

Databases

MIT-licensed analytical SQL database that runs inside your process, with no server, no dependencies and one writer at a time.

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Convoy the default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.; DuckDB a database file accepts one read-write process at a time; other processes must open it read-only and will not see subsequent writes, so DuckDB cannot be the shared database behind several services.
  • They diverge on capability: Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, DuckDB covers In-process execution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Convoy and DuckDB actually diverge.

Attributes where Convoy and DuckDB differ
AttributeConvoyDuckDB
Pricing modelPer month, flat rate regardless of volumeopen-source
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, CloudLinux, macOS, Windows, WebAssembly
CategoryAPIsDatabases
FoundedUnknown2019

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Convoy

  • Inbound and outbound
  • Broker-driven ingestion
  • Payload transformation
  • Portal links
  • Circuit breaking
  • Retry policies
  • OpenTelemetry export
  • Role-based access control

Only in DuckDB

  • In-process execution
  • Vectorised columnar engine
  • Direct file querying
  • Zero dependencies
  • Larger-than-memory queries
  • MIT licence
  • Postgres-flavoured SQL
  • Extension ecosystem

What people use each for

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

Convoy

  • A fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party SaaS for compliance reasonsnot DuckDB
  • A high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licencenot DuckDB
  • A team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gatewaynot DuckDB
  • An engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing Kafka or SQS topicnot DuckDB

DuckDB

  • Transformation steps in a data pipeline that would otherwise need Spark, replaced by SQL over Parquet in a single processnot Convoy
  • Analytical queries embedded in an application or a dashboard where shipping a database server alongside it is not acceptablenot Convoy
  • Local exploration of files that are too large for a pandas dataframe but far too small to justify a warehousenot Convoy
  • Continuous integration and testing of analytical SQL, where a real engine can run in the test process without provisioning anythingnot Convoy

Where each one falls short

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

Convoy

  • The default deployment is self-hosted, so you operate Convoy plus Postgres and Redis and carry the on-call burden for the system that delivers your customers' events.
  • Frain Technologies is a small startup, and putting customer-facing delivery infrastructure on it means accepting real vendor continuity risk on a component that is hard to swap out quickly.
  • The premium tier at a flat 999 US dollars a month is poor value below substantial volume, while the community edition omits the portal, transformations and RBAC that most production deployments end up wanting.
  • The hosted cloud trial is capped at one project and 100 events a day, which is too small to properly evaluate the service before committing.
  • Documentation and the third-party ecosystem are thinner than the established webhook services, so unusual configurations often mean reading the Go source.

DuckDB

  • A database file accepts one read-write process at a time; other processes must open it read-only and will not see subsequent writes, so DuckDB cannot be the shared database behind several services.
  • There is no network protocol, authentication or user management, so exposing it to remote clients means writing and securing your own service around it.
  • It is built for scans and aggregations, not for many small transactions, so a workload of high-frequency single-row inserts and updates performs badly compared with SQLite or Postgres.
  • Storage files are backwards compatible but not forwards compatible, so a file written by a newer version cannot be read by an older one and every consumer of a shared file must be upgraded together.
  • Query memory settings matter: some operations still need to hold significant state, so an under-configured memory limit turns a large join or a high-cardinality aggregation into a spill-heavy query or an out-of-memory failure rather than a slow success.

Pricing, plan by plan

Convoy

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • Self-hosted open source gateway
    • Inbound and outbound webhooks
    • Automatic retries and message broker support
  • Premium$999/month
    • Flat rate irrespective of message volume
    • Portal links and payload transformation
    • RBAC, circuit breaking and white labelling
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • SAML SSO
    • Dedicated support with SLA
    • On-premises deployment assistance
  • Cloud$undefined/month
    • Hosted by Convoy
    • 14 day trial limited to one project and 100 events a day
    • Usage-based tiers above the trial

DuckDB

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the DuckDB review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Convoy if

  • You need inbound and outbound.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud.
  • You also want broker-driven ingestion.
Convoy review

Choose DuckDB if

  • You need in-process execution.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, WebAssembly.
  • You also want vectorised columnar engine.
DuckDB review

Questions people ask

Is Convoy or DuckDB better?
Neither clearly leads. Convoy starts at Free and DuckDB at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Convoy or DuckDB?
Convoy starts at Free and DuckDB at Free.
Does Convoy or DuckDB run on more platforms?
Convoy runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Cloud. DuckDB runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, WebAssembly.
Can I use Convoy for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Convoy best used for?
Convoy is most often used for a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons, a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence, a team that also receives webhooks from many providers and wants ingestion, verification and deduplication in the same gateway, an engineering group that wants webhook delivery driven directly from an existing kafka or sqs topic. Of those, a fintech that cannot route customer webhook traffic through a third-party saas for compliance reasons and a high-volume platform for which per-message webhook pricing costs more than the flat premium licence are not what DuckDB is typically brought in for.
What can Convoy do that DuckDB cannot?
Convoy covers Inbound and outbound, Broker-driven ingestion, Payload transformation, Portal links. DuckDB covers In-process execution, Vectorised columnar engine, Direct file querying, Zero dependencies.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Convoy: Is Convoy really open source?

Yes, the community edition is open source and self-hostable, covering both inbound and outbound webhooks with retries.

DuckDB: Can multiple applications share one DuckDB database?

Not for writing. One process holds the database read-write; others may attach read-only and will not see later writes. Shared multi-writer access needs a different database or a table format with a catalogue.

Convoy: What does premium cost?

A flat 999 US dollars a month, self-hosted, regardless of message volume.

DuckDB: Is it a replacement for a data warehouse?

For single-node analytical workloads up to a few hundred gigabytes it very often is. It is not a replacement when many concurrent users need a shared, governed, always-on service.

Convoy: Does it receive webhooks as well as send them?

Yes, inbound ingestion with verification and deduplication is a first-class feature, unlike most webhook services.

DuckDB: Do I have to load data into it?

No. It queries Parquet, CSV, JSON and Arrow in place, including on object storage. Its own storage format is optional and mainly useful when you want indexes, constraints and faster repeated access.

Convoy: Do I have to self-host?

No, there is a hosted cloud, but the trial is capped at 100 events a day and self-hosting is the primary model.

DuckDB: What is MotherDuck's relationship to it?

MotherDuck is a separate company offering a managed and hybrid service built on the DuckDB engine. DuckDB itself remains MIT-licensed and independent of it, with the IP held by the DuckDB Foundation.

DuckDB: Is it suitable for OLTP?

No. It is designed for analytical scans. For transactional workloads with frequent small writes, SQLite or Postgres is the right tool.

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