Databases · pricing
StarRocks pricing
StarRocks publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 31 August 2026, StarRocks pricing is free across 2 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open source, no licence fee
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Yes
StarRocks plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| StarRocks | Free | 5 | Entry tier |
| CelerData Cloud | On request | 4 | Priced on request |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
StarRocks
FreeThe entry tier. It covers apache 2.0 licence, linux foundation governance, no usage or node limits, community support, you operate and pay for the infrastructure.
CelerData Cloud
On requestOver StarRocks, this tier adds:
- Managed StarRocks from the primary contributor
- BYOC and serverless deployment options
- Enterprise support and SLAs
- Pricing on application
Where StarRocks stops being free
StarRocks, Free
- Apache 2.0 licence
- Linux Foundation governance
- No usage or node limits
- Community support
- You operate and pay for the infrastructure
No paid tier on record
StarRocks lists a free tier and no priced tier above it in the record we hold.
What the product covers
The full StarRocks feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Cost-based optimiser
- Lakehouse query engine
- Primary key tables
- Materialised views
- Shared-data mode
- MySQL wire protocol
People bring StarRocks in for customer-facing analytics where queries join a fact table to several dimensions and must return in well under a second, querying an iceberg lakehouse directly without copying data into a proprietary warehouse format, replacing a clickhouse deployment that has become unmanageable because every new question needs another denormalised table, real-time analytics fed by change data capture where rows must be updated in place rather than appended. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to StarRocks are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Databases
Too few databases tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StarRocks (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | |
| Canary Labs | $3000/year | Per tag band per year | - | vs StarRocks |
| Presto | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs StarRocks |
| Privacera | On request | quote | - | vs StarRocks |
| Dremio | Free, then $0.2/hour | Per Dremio Compute Unit consumed | - | vs StarRocks |
| Solace PubSub+ | Free | quote | - | vs StarRocks |
| EMQX | Free, then $234/month | Per month by connection and session volume | - | vs StarRocks |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the StarRocks badges page.
Before you pay for StarRocks
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between Free and On request, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
StarRocks runs on linux, docker, kubernetes, and is published by CelerData (Linux Foundation project) of San Jose, California, United States. The full record is on the StarRocks review, and the rest of the category is under best databases tools.
StarRocks pricing questions
- How much does StarRocks cost?
- StarRocks publishes 2 tiers, from Free for StarRocks up to On request for CelerData Cloud. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does StarRocks have a free plan?
- Yes. The StarRocks tier costs nothing and covers apache 2.0 licence, linux foundation governance, no usage or node limits.
- What is the difference between StarRocks and CelerData Cloud on StarRocks?
- CelerData Cloud costs On request against Free, and adds managed starrocks from the primary contributor, byoc and serverless deployment options, enterprise support and slas, pricing on application.
- Which databases tools can I use without paying?
- 4 of the 8 databases tools listed alongside StarRocks have a free tier: Presto, Dremio, Solace PubSub+, EMQX.
- What am I actually paying for with StarRocks?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is brought in for customer-facing analytics where queries join a fact table to several dimensions and must return in well under a second, querying an iceberg lakehouse directly without copying data into a proprietary warehouse format, replacing a clickhouse deployment that has become unmanageable because every new question needs another denormalised table.
- Does StarRocks charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these StarRocks prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare StarRocks against before paying?
- The closest databases tools in this directory are Canary Labs, Presto, Privacera, Dremio. Each has a side-by-side comparison with StarRocks covering price, platforms and features.