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Developer Tools · head to head

Fig vs RisingWave

F

Fig

Developer Tools

IDE-style autocomplete for your existing terminal

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit FigFull review
RisingWave logo

RisingWave

Databases

Streaming database that maintains incremental materialised views in SQL instead of Flink jobs

From
Free
Free plan
Yes
Visit RisingWaveFull review

The short version

  • Fig is free; RisingWave starts at $0.227/mo.
  • Where Fig falls short: the standalone desktop app is no longer available or supported.
  • Prices and features on this page were last checked on 13 November 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fig and RisingWave actually diverge.

Attributes where Fig and RisingWave differ
AttributeFigRisingWave
Pricing modelFreemiumPer RisingWave Unit hour
PlatformsWebLinux, Self-hosted, Web
CategoryDeveloper ToolsDatabases

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

Not yet recorded: founded for RisingWave.

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 Fig

Nothing recorded that RisingWave does not also cover.

Only in RisingWave

  • SQL materialised views
  • Postgres wire compatibility
  • Object storage state
  • Source connectors
  • Sink connectors
  • Iceberg tables
  • Watermarks and windowing
  • User defined functions

What people use each for

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

Fig

No use cases recorded yet. See the Fig review.

RisingWave

  • A team with Kafka topics that needs continuously fresh aggregates for a dashboard without standing up a Flink clusternot Fig
  • A fraud or risk team maintaining rolling counters and joins across event streams expressed as SQL viewsnot Fig
  • A company doing Postgres CDC into a real-time denormalised view for search or servingnot Fig
  • An analytics group that wants streaming results landed directly into Apache Iceberg without a separate writer jobnot Fig

Where each one falls short

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

Fig

  • Shut down on 1 September 2024. Amazon acquired Fig in August 2023 and folded it into Amazon Q Developer, which now carries the terminal autocomplete
  • The standalone desktop app is no longer available or supported
  • The completion specs remain open source on GitHub, but the product that consumed them is gone

RisingWave

  • Anything that does not fit SQL, such as custom windowing, complex event processing or heavy stateful logic, still needs Flink, so RisingWave often adds a system rather than removing one
  • The Apache 2.0 community edition excludes premium features behind a licence key, and which capabilities sit on which side of that line moves between releases, so a self-hosted plan can be invalidated by an upgrade
  • Long-running materialised views accumulate state in object storage, and cost and recovery time grow with retention in ways that are hard to forecast before you are in production
  • The Postgres compatibility is protocol level; it is not a transactional Postgres and using it as a general purpose database, with point updates or high write concurrency, goes badly
  • It is a comparatively young venture-funded project competing with Flink, Materialize and warehouse-native streaming, and the ecosystem of connectors, operators and third-party expertise is much thinner

Pricing, plan by plan

Fig

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the Fig review.

RisingWave

Free
  • Community EditionFree
    • Apache 2.0 licence, self-hosted
    • Core streaming engine and connectors
    • Premium features excluded and require a licence key
  • Cloud Basic$0.227/hour
    • Billed per RisingWave Unit hour
    • Hosted on AWS, GCP or Azure
    • Capped at 64 cores
  • Cloud ProOn request
    • No core limit
    • Bring your own cloud option
    • Premium features included
  • Self-managed EnterpriseOn request
    • On premises or Kubernetes
    • Premium features unlocked by licence
    • Annual contract with SLA

Which should you pick?

Choose Fig if

  • You want to start without paying.
Fig review

Choose RisingWave if

  • You need sql materialised views.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Self-hosted, Web.
  • You also want postgres wire compatibility.
RisingWave review

Questions people ask

Is Fig or RisingWave better?
Neither clearly leads. Fig starts at Free and RisingWave at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fig or RisingWave?
Fig starts at Free and RisingWave at Free.
Does Fig or RisingWave run on more platforms?
Fig runs on Web. RisingWave runs on Linux, Self-hosted, Web.
Can I use Fig for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What can Fig do that RisingWave cannot?
RisingWave covers SQL materialised views, Postgres wire compatibility, Object storage state, Source connectors.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

RisingWave: Is RisingWave open source?

The community edition is Apache 2.0 and self-hostable, but a set of premium features requires a paid licence key.

RisingWave: What does the cloud cost?

It starts at 0.227 US dollars per RisingWave Unit hour on the Basic tier, which is capped at 64 cores.

RisingWave: Does it replace Flink?

For SQL-expressible transformations, often yes. For custom stateful processing and complex event handling, no.

RisingWave: Can I query it like Postgres?

Yes over the Postgres wire protocol, but it is an analytical streaming engine, not a transactional database.

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