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Actian PSQL vs DuckDB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Actian PSQL
Ranking in Embedded Database
9th
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
DuckDB
Ranking in Embedded Database
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Embedded Database category, the mindshare of Actian PSQL is 6.4%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of DuckDB is 11.0%, down from 12.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Embedded Database Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
DuckDB11.0%
Actian PSQL6.4%
Other82.6%
Embedded Database
 

Featured Reviews

辺琢也 渡 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at Dropbox
Easy configuration, with affordable pricing, and reliable
We use Actian PSQL for analytics purposes Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable. It would be great to have some sizing guides to configure the on-premise software to make it easier. We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option. I would like to…
MC
Senior Analytics Engineer at a tech vendor with 501-1,000 employees
Caching analytics queries has reduced repeated compute and supports faster embedded reporting
The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature. It helps manage compute resources efficiently by preventing repeated computations of the same query. This has made it quite handy and quick to implement, which aligns with the fast-paced needs of our engineering team.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"MySQL is too poor in functionality, Oracle is too big slow and the price is not quite good."
"Actian PSQL is easy to configure and the performance is affordable."
"The use of DuckDB as a cache for analytics in an embedded analytics product is a valuable feature."
"DuckDB is very fast."
 

Cons

"We need to improve the security options for the on-premise option."
"Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have found Actian PSQL to be affordable."
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909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
12%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for DuckDB?
We use the open-source version of DuckDB and don't have costs associated with it. There is a company that provides commercial software, but we use the open-source library, not the services.
What needs improvement with DuckDB?
Sometimes we have memory issues that cause job failures, which we don't fully understand why, but we can rerun the jobs without problems. There were also problems with binary formats in the previou...
What is your primary use case for DuckDB?
My main use case for DuckDB is that we're using it as a cache for analytics. We have an embedded analytics product, and in order to manage our compute resources, we are using DuckDB so that we do n...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

PSQL, Pervasive PSQL
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Datamatics, Medical Data Vision, Inferenda, Sheetz, SecureAlert, Zilliant
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Actian PSQL vs. DuckDB and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.