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Technology · head to head

Eclipse vs Trino

Eclipse logo

Eclipse

Technology

The Eclipse Foundation - home to a global community

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Trino logo

Trino

Technology

A distributed SQL engine that queries data where it already lives, across object storage, warehouses and operational databases.

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Eclipse high memory consumption and CPU usage, especially with multiple plugins installed; Trino trino stores nothing and computes no statistics of its own, so the plan it produces is only as good as the partitioning, file sizes and table statistics on the source; a Hive table of thousands of small files or a lake with no stats produces a slow query the engine cannot improve.
  • They diverge on capability: Eclipse covers Java development environment, Trino covers Federated querying.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Eclipse and Trino actually diverge.

Attributes where Eclipse and Trino differ
AttributeEclipseTrino
Pricing modelUnknownopen-source
PlatformsWindows, macOS, LinuxWeb
Founded2001Unknown

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

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 Eclipse

  • Java development environment
  • Extensible plugin architecture
  • Integrated debugger
  • Code refactoring
  • Version control integration
  • Build automation
  • Multi-language support
  • Rich client platform

Only in Trino

  • Federated querying
  • Connector architecture
  • Predicate and aggregation pushdown
  • Massively parallel execution
  • Fault-tolerant execution
  • Resource groups
  • Iceberg and Delta table support
  • Standard client protocols

What people use each for

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

Eclipse

  • Java application developmentnot Trino
  • Enterprise software developmentnot Trino
  • Web application developmentnot Trino
  • Plugin developmentnot Trino
  • Educational programmingnot Trino

Trino

  • Ad hoc analysis that spans a data lake and one or more operational databases, without building an ingestion pipeline firstnot Eclipse
  • Serving a BI tool a single SQL endpoint over an estate that is actually several separate storage systemsnot Eclipse
  • Querying Iceberg or Delta tables on object storage interactively, as the compute layer of a lakehousenot Eclipse
  • Investigating whether a dataset is worth ingesting, by querying it in place before committing to a pipeline for itnot Eclipse

Where each one falls short

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

Eclipse

  • High memory consumption and CPU usage, especially with multiple plugins installed
  • Slow startup times and performance degradation with large projects or many open editors
  • Requires configuration of eclipse.ini file to optimize heap sizes for adequate performance
  • User interface considered outdated compared to modern IDE alternatives
  • User base fell from 39% of Java developers in 2024 to 28% in 2025, indicating market decline

Trino

  • Trino stores nothing and computes no statistics of its own, so the plan it produces is only as good as the partitioning, file sizes and table statistics on the source; a Hive table of thousands of small files or a lake with no stats produces a slow query the engine cannot improve.
  • Federated queries pull data out of the systems they touch, so a join between a lake table and a production Postgres can put a full table scan onto an OLTP database that other applications depend on, and the person who wrote the query will not see the incident it causes.
  • Releases come roughly every one to two weeks with no community long-term support line, and deprecations arrive quickly, so you either dedicate someone to keeping current or you buy Starburst Enterprise for a supported long-term version.
  • It is memory-based and disk spilling was deprecated in favour of fault-tolerant execution, so a query exceeding cluster memory fails outright rather than degrading; enabling fault-tolerant execution requires an external exchange store on object storage and makes queries measurably slower.
  • It is a query engine and not a warehouse: there is no built-in job scheduling, no incremental materialised view maintenance and no transformation framework, so producing curated tables still needs dbt or an equivalent layer that somebody has to own.
  • The 2020 fork split the ecosystem, so documentation, connectors, Stack Overflow answers and vendor material written before then describe PrestoDB, which is now a different project with different behaviour, and following the wrong one wastes real time.

Pricing, plan by plan

Eclipse

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Eclipse review.

Trino

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Trino review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Eclipse if

  • You need java development environment.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
  • You also want extensible plugin architecture.
Eclipse review

Choose Trino if

  • You need federated querying.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want connector architecture.
Trino review

Questions people ask

Is Eclipse or Trino better?
Neither clearly leads. Eclipse starts at Free and Trino at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Eclipse or Trino?
Eclipse starts at Free and Trino at Free.
Does Eclipse or Trino run on more platforms?
Eclipse runs on Windows, macOS, Linux. Trino runs on Web.
Can I use Eclipse for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Eclipse best used for?
Eclipse is most often used for java application development, enterprise software development, web application development, plugin development. Of those, java application development and enterprise software development are not what Trino is typically brought in for.
What can Eclipse do that Trino cannot?
Eclipse covers Java development environment, Extensible plugin architecture, Integrated debugger, Code refactoring. Trino covers Federated querying, Connector architecture, Predicate and aggregation pushdown, Massively parallel execution.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Eclipse: How much does Eclipse IDE cost?

Eclipse IDE is completely free and open-source, released under the Eclipse Public License 2.0.

Source
Trino: What is the difference between Trino and Presto?

They share an origin. The original creators left Meta and renamed their fork from PrestoSQL to Trino in December 2020; PrestoDB continues separately under the Linux Foundation. They have diverged in features, connectors and SQL behaviour, so material written for one may not apply to the other.

Trino: Does Trino replace my data warehouse?

Not on its own. It is compute without storage, scheduling or transformation. Paired with Iceberg or Delta on object storage and something like dbt for modelling it can serve as a lakehouse; used alone it is a query layer over what you already have.

Trino: Why is my federated query slow?

Usually because a connector could not push a filter or aggregation down, so Trino is pulling whole tables across the network to join them itself. The fix is usually better source-side partitioning or statistics, or ingesting that source rather than federating it.

Trino: What happens when a query runs out of memory?

It fails. Disk spilling was deprecated in favour of fault-tolerant execution, which checkpoints to an external exchange store such as S3 and lets long queries survive memory pressure and worker loss, at the cost of noticeably slower execution.

Trino: Is there commercial support?

Yes, from Starburst, which offers Starburst Enterprise with long-term supported releases and Starburst Galaxy as a managed service. The open source project itself has no long-term support line.

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