Chroma vs ClickHouse comparison

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Chroma

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 5, 2025

Chroma and ClickHouse are competing platforms in data storage and analytics. Each has its strengths, with Chroma providing attractive pricing and support, while ClickHouse offers advanced features believed to justify its higher cost.

Features: Chroma is known for strong performance, simplicity, and suitability for quick deployments. ClickHouse provides speed, scalability, and robust data processing capabilities, suitable for petabyte-scale data handling.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Chroma is user-friendly with excellent support, facilitating faster onboarding. ClickHouse, though complex, benefits from a robust community and comprehensive documentation, requiring more technical expertise for deployment but promising long-term reliability.

Pricing and ROI: Chroma, with its low setup cost, offers quick returns, beneficial for budget-sensitive projects. ClickHouse involves a higher initial investment yet delivers substantial long-term ROI due to its data processing efficiency, making it ideal for data-intensive growth strategies.

To learn more, read our detailed Chroma vs. ClickHouse Report (Updated: March 2025).

Chroma vs. ClickHouse

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Chroma

Ranking in Vector Databases

1st

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

ClickHouse

Ranking in Vector Databases

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Open Source Databases (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Vector Databases category, the mindshare of Chroma is 13.4%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ClickHouse is 3.2%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Vector Databases

Featured Reviews

Sameer Bhangale

Leader, Data Science Practice at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

Used for RAG (Retrieval-augmented generation) and provides good documentation

If I have to deploy my application in a scalable environment with lots of data and users, I sometimes need to create multiple instances of my database or have a distributed database across different machines. Using Kubernetes, I can quickly increase the horizontal spread of Milvus because it is containerized and readily available. I don't have to do anything by myself. New users can go to Chroma's 'Get Started' page and follow it like a tutorial. Then, they will be ready to use the solution. Chroma has helped us reduce the overall project post production time. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

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ArpitShah

Software Analyst at CLSA

Open-source freedom with efficient data handling and room for documentation growth

A significant area for improvement is the documentation, which is not comprehensive and lacks centralized resources, making it difficult to find information. Additionally, ClickHouse lacks robust support for transactional data, which limits its use as a primary database. My developer experience could be enhanced through better-organized documentation, perhaps by offering a cheat sheet or centralized guide for common setup and usage scenarios.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It's very easy to set up and runs easily."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its documentation, which allows new users to easily learn, deploy, and use it."

"It's easier to work with big data and calculations using the product."

"The main feature of ClickHouse is the optimizer because we had too many records to deduplicate, and the optimizer took this task by itself."

"ClickHouse is a user-friendly solution that tries to be compatible with SQL standards."

"The tool is column-based and infinitely scalable."

"If you have a real-time basis, you should take a look at ClickHouse because it works on a vector database, and the querying is super fast compared to traditional databases."

"ClickHouse is open source with no vendor lock-in, providing excellent freedom to choose any vendor without restrictions."

"The best thing about the tool is that I can set it up on my computer and run queries without depending on the cloud. This is why I use it every day."

"We faced a challenge with deploying ClickHouse onto Kubernetes. Recently, we've been using ClickHouse Cloud, and the main issue is the high cost of the cloud service. The pricing isn't very competitive, especially for startups. I would instead buy a server and self-host if I have enough disk space. Besides that, ClickHouse has done very well, with clear goals and effective execution."

More ClickHouse pros

Cons

"The hybrid algorithm needs improvement."

"I think Chroma doesn't have a ready-made containerized image available."

"Initially, I faced challenges integrating ClickHouse, particularly with inserting data from ActiveMQ, which caused duplicates. However, after adjusting the ClickHouse settings, the issue was resolved and there were no more duplicates."

"The main issue is the lack of documentation. Many features are available but are not fully documented, which can make finding information challenging."

"The aggregation capability is a valuable feature. It's highly efficient, allowing us to review entire transaction histories and user activities in the market. We've tried MongoDB, Postgres, MariaDB, and BigQuery, but ClickHouse is the most cost-efficient solution for collecting data at high speeds with minimal cost. We even used ClickHouse Cloud for a month, and it proved to be a great setup, especially for startups looking to handle big data. For example, if there is a need for 2-4 terabytes of data and around 40 billion rows with reasonable computing speed and latency, ClickHouse is ideal. Regarding the real-time query performance of ClickHouse, when using an API server to query it, I achieved query results in less than twenty milliseconds in some of my experiments with one billion rows. However, it depends on the scenario since ClickHouse has limitations in handling mutations. Additionally, one of ClickHouse's strengths is its compression capability. Our experimental server has only four terabytes, and ClickHouse effectively compresses data, allowing us to store large amounts of data at high speed. This compression efficiency is a significant advantage of using ClickHouse."

"I would like ClickHouse to work more on integration with third-party tools."

"If you join our team, it should be easy for you to use ClickHouse, especially if you are a developer. However, you need to read the documentation and understand the problems you are trying to solve."

"We had a lot of troubles while deploying a whole cluster."

"There aren't too many improvements I'd suggest for ClickHouse as it covers all my needs. There are just a few technical issues. For example, sometimes, when you want to get unique values and use certain tables, they don't work as expected. But it's not a major problem."

"ClickHouse has its own concept of database triggers and doesn't support traditional database triggers."

More ClickHouse cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The current version is an open-source."

"The tool is free."

"We used the free, community version of ClickHouse."

"ClickHouse has an open-source version, which is free to use and has almost all the features."

"ClickHouse Cloud is not expensive compared to other databases, costing a few dollars per month while providing fast performance."

"The tool is open-source."

"If you have an in-house deployment on Kubernetes or something, it's going to be very cheap since you'll be managing everything."

"For pricing, if you use the self-hosted version, it would be free. Cloud services pricing would be an eight out of ten. I try to minimize costs but still have to monitor usage."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Manufacturing Company

10%

University

Computer Software Company

27%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Educational Organization

13%

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Chroma?

The solution's most valuable feature is its documentation, which allows new users to easily learn, deploy, and use it.

What needs improvement with Chroma?

The hybrid algorithm needs improvement.

What is your primary use case for Chroma?

We collect customer's feedback, and then we present it to the clients.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ClickHouse?

ClickHouse is open source without direct fees, unlike other databases that have hidden fees or restrict hosting to their platforms. The open-source nature of ClickHouse allows for complete flexibil...

What needs improvement with ClickHouse?

What is your primary use case for ClickHouse?

The main use case for ClickHouse is as a data warehouse for handling large volumes of data that exceed the capabilities of traditional databases like Postgres. I use it for creating dashboards and ...

SingleStore vs ClickHouse

Comparisons

LanceDB vs Chroma

Compared 31% of the time

OpenSearch vs Chroma

Compared 12% of the time

PostgreSQL vs Chroma

Compared 12% of the time

Redis vs Chroma

Compared 10% of the time

Faiss vs Chroma

Compared 8% of the time

More Chroma Competitors

InfluxDB vs ClickHouse

Compared 20% of the time

OpenSearch vs ClickHouse

Compared 14% of the time

Compared 11% of the time

Milvus vs ClickHouse

Compared 10% of the time

Cassandra vs ClickHouse

Compared 9% of the time

More ClickHouse Competitors

Product Reports

Vector Databases

Download Chroma product report

Download ClickHouse product report

Overview

Chroma is a versatile tool that enhances visual display quality, offering features such as color accuracy improvement, brightness adjustment, and image settings fine-tuning.

It creates vibrant and immersive visual experiences, making it valuable for content creators, gamers, and design professionals.

Chroma's customizable lighting options and seamless integration with other devices are highly praised, allowing users to personalize their setups and create visually stunning effects.

Its compatibility with various devices ensures a cohesive and immersive user experience.

Chroma

ClickHouse is renowned for its speed, scalability, and real-time query performance. Its compatibility with SQL standards enhances flexibility while enabling integration with popular tools.

ClickHouse leverages a column-based architecture for efficient data compression and real-time analytics. It seamlessly integrates with tools like Kafka and Tableau and is effective in handling large datasets due to its cost-efficient aggregation capabilities. With robust data deduplication and strong community backing, users can access comprehensive documentation and up-to-date functionality. However, improvements in third-party integration, cloud deployment, and handling of SQL syntax differences are noted, impacting ease-of-use and migration from other databases.

What features make ClickHouse outstanding?

Speed and Scalability: Enables rapid deployment and scalability, particularly on Kubernetes.
SQL Compatibility: Aligns with SQL standards for flexible database management.
Column-based Structure: Offers efficient data compression and quick query performance.
Integration Support: Works with Kafka, Tableau, and other popular platforms.
Data Deduplication: Manages complex data duplication efficiently.

What benefits should users consider?

Cost-Efficiency: Reduces expenses while managing large datasets effectively.
Real-Time Analytics: Provides fast data processing for real-time insights.
Flexibility: Offers multiple integration points and compatibility options.
Robust Documentation: Backed by an active development community, ensuring comprehensive support.

ClickHouse is deployed in sectors like telecommunications for passive monitoring and is beneficial for data analytics, logging Clickstream data, and as an ETL engine. Organizations harness it for machine learning applications when combined with GPT. With the ability to be installed independently, it's an attractive option for avoiding cloud service costs.

Sample Customers

1. Google 2. Netflix 3. Amazon 4. Facebook 5. Microsoft 6. Apple 7. Twitter 8. Spotify 9. Adobe 10. Uber 11. Airbnb 12. LinkedIn 13. Pinterest 14. Snapchat 15. Dropbox 16. Salesforce 17. IBM 18. Intel 19. Oracle 20. Cisco 21. HP 22. Dell 23. Samsung 24. Sony 25. LG 26. Panasonic 27. Philips 28. Toshiba 29. Nokia 30. Motorola 31. Xiaomi 32. Huawei

Information Not Available

Chroma vs. ClickHouse