Which one is cheaper?

One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.

Can I use either one for free?

Starburst has a free plan. Dremio doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.

Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.

Which one is a better deal?

Depends on what you need. Dremio: Dremio's undercutting the classic 'pay for idle warehouse time' model that Snowflake and Databricks are historically criticized for, positioning itself as the leaner lakehouse query engine. It's aimed at data teams who want Snowflake-like SQL performance without committing to a warehouse-sized budget before proving out the use case. Starburst: Starburst isn't fighting on sticker price — the credit cost actually increases as you climb tiers, which is unusual and signals they're positioning as a premium, enterprise-grade Trino distribution rather than a budget query engine. They're chasing large data teams already committed to a multi-cloud or lakehouse strategy who'll pay more for reliability and support rather than startups hunting for the cheapest compute.

Dremio vs Starburst Pricing (2026)

	Dremio	Starburst
Starts at	$0/mo	Custom
Number of plans	2	4
Free plan	—
Free trial
Pricing model	usage-based	usage-based

Dremio

Official page

Dremio Cloud

Popular

$0/mo

Fully managed with automatic scaling and optimization
AI Agent
AI Semantic Layer
Intelligent Query Engine
Open Catalog

Dremio Enterprise

Custom

Self-manage security, compliance, and data policies
AI Agent
AI Semantic Layer
Intelligent Query Engine
Open Catalog

Starburst

Official page

Free

$0/mo

Create and run up to 3 clusters
Access to standard cluster execution mode for ad hoc queries

Pro

Custom

Flexible cluster execution modes
Streaming Ingest
Advanced cluster management

Enterprise

Popular

Custom

Advanced autoscaling features
Fine-grained access controls (ABAC, SCIM)
AWS PrivateLink for data sources
Early access to features (Private Preview)
AIDA (token usage billed separately)

Mission-Critical

Custom

Elite support and ticketing
Advanced governance integrations
Lakehouse security and compliance tools
Highest uptime guarantees
AIDA (token usage billed separately)

Dremio vs Starburst FAQ

Which one is cheaper?: One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
Can I use either one for free?: Starburst has a free plan. Dremio doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
How do they charge?: Both use a usage-based model, so the comparison is straightforward — it comes down to features and limits at each price point.
Which one is a better deal?: Depends on what you need. Dremio: Dremio's undercutting the classic 'pay for idle warehouse time' model that Snowflake and Databricks are historically criticized for, positioning itself as the leaner lakehouse query engine. It's aimed at data teams who want Snowflake-like SQL performance without committing to a warehouse-sized budget before proving out the use case. Starburst: Starburst isn't fighting on sticker price — the credit cost actually increases as you climb tiers, which is unusual and signals they're positioning as a premium, enterprise-grade Trino distribution rather than a budget query engine. They're chasing large data teams already committed to a multi-cloud or lakehouse strategy who'll pay more for reliability and support rather than startups hunting for the cheapest compute.

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