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Databases · head to head

Canary Labs vs Dremio

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
Dremio logo

Dremio

Databases

SQL query engine and lakehouse layer over Iceberg tables in object storage

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Dremio 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.; Dremio reflections consume compute and storage to build and refresh continuously, so a team that enables them widely discovers that background maintenance rather than user queries drives the DCU bill.
  • They diverge on capability: Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Dremio covers Arrow-based execution.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Canary Labs and Dremio differ
AttributeCanary LabsDremio
Starting price$3000/yearFree
Pricing modelPer tag band per yearPer Dremio Compute Unit consumed
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindows, WebLinux, Kubernetes, Cloud, Docker

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 Dremio

  • Arrow-based execution
  • Reflections
  • Semantic layer
  • Iceberg catalogue
  • Federated queries
  • Autonomous management
  • Fine-grained access control
  • BI connectors

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

Dremio

  • A company with petabytes of Parquet in S3 that wants BI dashboards without duplicating it into a warehousenot Canary Labs
  • A data platform team standardising on Apache Iceberg and needing a SQL engine plus catalogue that does not lock the tables innot Canary Labs
  • An analytics group accelerating slow lake queries with Reflections instead of hand-built aggregate tablesnot Canary Labs
  • A regulated enterprise that must keep data on premises but wants a modern lakehouse SQL layernot 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.

Dremio

  • Reflections consume compute and storage to build and refresh continuously, so a team that enables them widely discovers that background maintenance rather than user queries drives the DCU bill.
  • Self-managing Dremio on Kubernetes requires real platform engineering capacity for tuning executors, memory and coordinator sizing, and it is not comparable in effort to running a managed warehouse.
  • The Community Edition lacks the security and governance features most enterprises require, so the free tier is a trial path rather than a viable production option for regulated buyers.
  • Dremio Cloud is AWS-first, which leaves Azure and Google Cloud customers on the self-managed path with the operational burden that entails.
  • Query performance without Reflections on raw, poorly laid out files is often unremarkable, so the promise of querying the lake as is depends on file layout work you still have to do.

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

Dremio

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Self-managed on your own hardware
    • SQL engine and semantic layer
    • No vendor support
  • Dremio Cloud$0.2/hour
    • Billed at $0.20 per Dremio Compute Unit
    • Includes query execution, Reflections and background processing
    • 400 dollar trial credit for 30 days
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Self-managed on Kubernetes, on premises or any cloud
    • Enterprise security, SSO and governance
    • Vendor support with SLA

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 Dremio if

  • You need arrow-based execution.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Kubernetes, Cloud, Docker.
  • You also want reflections.
Dremio review

Questions people ask

Is Canary Labs or Dremio better?
Neither clearly leads. Canary Labs starts at $3000/year and Dremio at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Canary Labs or Dremio?
Dremio has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $3000/year for Canary Labs and Free for Dremio.
Does Canary Labs or Dremio run on more platforms?
Canary Labs runs on Windows, Web. Dremio runs on Linux, Kubernetes, Cloud, Docker.
Can I use Dremio for free?
Yes. Dremio 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 Dremio is typically brought in for.
What can Canary Labs do that Dremio cannot?
Canary Labs covers Loss-less compression, Unlimited clients, Store and forward, Views service. Dremio covers Arrow-based execution, Reflections, Semantic layer, Iceberg catalogue.

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.

Dremio: How is Dremio Cloud billed?

At 0.20 US dollars per Dremio Compute Unit, which counts query execution, Reflection building and platform overhead, not just user queries.

Canary Labs: Are client licences extra?

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

Dremio: Is there a free version?

Yes, a Community Edition you self-manage, but it omits the enterprise security and governance features and comes with no support.

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.

Dremio: Does it lock in my data?

No, tables stay in Apache Iceberg or Parquet in your own object storage and can be read by Spark, Trino or other engines.

Canary Labs: Does it use lossy compression?

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

Dremio: Do I still need a warehouse?

Often not for analytics, but Dremio is not a transactional store and high-concurrency operational serving is not its strength.

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