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Developer Tools · head to head

Earthly vs SingleStore

Earthly logo

Earthly

Developer Tools

Engineering guardrails for the AI era

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit EarthlyFull review
SingleStore logo

SingleStore

Databases

The real-time distributed SQL database for data-intensive applications

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit SingleStoreFull review

The short version

  • Earthly is free; SingleStore starts at $0.99/mo.
  • Only Earthly lists policy as code; only SingleStore lists real-time Analytics.
  • Where Earthly falls short: pricing model not published; requires sales contact.
  • Where SingleStore falls short: high licensing costs that increase with data scale and cluster size.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Earthly and SingleStore actually diverge.

Attributes where Earthly and SingleStore differ
AttributeEarthlySingleStore
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, Self-Managed
CategoryDeveloper ToolsDatabases
Founded20202011

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes).

Not yet recorded: pricing model for SingleStore.

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 Earthly

  • Policy as code
  • Multi-stage enforcement
  • AI agent governance
  • Repository-wide policies
  • Incident response automation
  • Compliance management
  • Earthfiles build tool
  • Satellites

Only in SingleStore

  • Real-time Analytics
  • Fast Data Ingest
  • In-memory Processing
  • Distributed Architecture
  • MySQL Compatible
  • Columnar Storage
  • Vector Search
  • Kafka

What people use each for

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

Earthly

  • Enforcing engineering standards across AI and human developersnot SingleStore
  • Automating incident response procedures across all repositoriesnot SingleStore
  • Embedding compliance requirements into development workflowsnot SingleStore
  • Standardizing build processes with Earthfilesnot SingleStore

SingleStore

  • Transaction processingnot Earthly
  • Data storagenot Earthly
  • Application backendnot Earthly
  • Reportingnot Earthly
  • Data analyticsnot Earthly

Where each one falls short

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

Earthly

  • Pricing model not published; requires sales contact
  • Earthly Lunar is a recent launch (2025) with limited track record
  • Primarily GitHub-focused; limited integration with other platforms
  • No public documentation on pricing or feature tiers

SingleStore

  • High licensing costs that increase with data scale and cluster size
  • Eventual consistency in replication: secondary replicas may lag during high write loads
  • Complex operational setup requiring specialized knowledge for optimization
  • Vendor lock-in due to proprietary technology without open-source alternatives
  • Disorganized documentation and lack of online training resources

Pricing, plan by plan

Earthly

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Earthly review.

SingleStore

Free
  • Free Tier$0.99/mo
    • Usage-based pricing
    • Limited resources

Which should you pick?

Choose Earthly if

  • You need policy as code.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want multi-stage enforcement.
Earthly review

Choose SingleStore if

  • You need real-time analytics.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Self-Managed.
  • You also want fast data ingest.
SingleStore review

Questions people ask

Is Earthly or SingleStore better?
Neither clearly leads. Earthly starts at Free and SingleStore at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Earthly or SingleStore?
Earthly starts at Free and SingleStore at Free.
Does Earthly or SingleStore run on more platforms?
Earthly runs on Web, API. SingleStore runs on Web, Self-Managed.
Can I use Earthly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Earthly best used for?
Earthly is most often used for enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers, automating incident response procedures across all repositories, embedding compliance requirements into development workflows, standardizing build processes with earthfiles. Of those, enforcing engineering standards across ai and human developers and automating incident response procedures across all repositories are not what SingleStore is typically brought in for.
What can Earthly do that SingleStore cannot?
Earthly covers Policy as code, Multi-stage enforcement, AI agent governance, Repository-wide policies. SingleStore covers Real-time Analytics, Fast Data Ingest, In-memory Processing, Distributed Architecture.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Earthly: What is the difference between Earthfiles and Earthly Lunar?

Earthfiles is an open-source build tool that reached 12,000 GitHub stars and is used by companies like NVIDIA, Intel, and Databricks. Earthly Lunar is a separate governance platform launched in 2025 for enforcing standards across development workflows.

Source
SingleStore: Does SingleStore offer a free tier?

Yes, SingleStore offers a free tier starting from $0.99/month with usage-based pricing. The free tier allows developers to evaluate the platform with limited resources before scaling to production workloads.

Source
Earthly: How does Earthly Lunar enforce standards?

Lunar converts engineering standards, compliance requirements, and processes documented in AGENTS.md files, wikis, and incident postmortems into enforceable guardrails that apply consistently across repositories and development stages.

Source
SingleStore: Can SingleStore handle both transactional and analytical workloads?

Yes, SingleStore is a hybrid transactional/analytical processing (HTAP) database that combines operational (OLTP) and analytical (OLAP) workloads in a single unified engine, eliminating the need for separate systems.

Source
Earthly: What is the pricing for Earthly Lunar?

Pricing is not published on the website. Interested customers should contact Earthly's sales team for current pricing and feature tiers.

Source
SingleStore: Does SingleStore integrate with Apache Spark?

Yes, SingleStore provides the Spark Connector 3.0 for bidirectional data integration with Apache Spark. The connector supports SQL, Python, Scala, Java, and R for data loading and extraction.

Source
SingleStore: Can SingleStore ingest data from Kafka?

Yes, SingleStore supports high-throughput streaming ingestion from Apache Kafka and other sources, enabling millions of events per second without requiring ETL pipelines or data movement.

Source
SingleStore: Is SingleStore available as cloud or self-managed?

SingleStore offers both deployment options: SingleStoreDB Cloud (managed service) and SingleStore Self-Managed for on-premises or private cloud deployments. The managed service handles infrastructure, scaling, and maintenance automatically.

Source
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