Exasol vs ClickHouse Performance Comparison on TPC-H SF100

Overview

This report presents the complete query-by-query performance results for 2 database systems tested using the TPC-H benchmark at scale factor 100.

Systems Under Test

Exasol 2025.1.0

Environment & Hardware

Cloud: AWS eu-west-1
Instance: r6id.8xlarge
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8375C CPU @ 2.90GHz (32 vCPUs)
Memory: 247.7GB RAM

Software

Database: exasol 2025.1.0

Clickhouse 25.9.5.21

Environment & Hardware

Cloud: AWS eu-west-1
Instance: r6id.8xlarge
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8375C CPU @ 2.90GHz (32 vCPUs)
Memory: 247.7GB RAM

Software

Database: clickhouse 25.9.5.21

Performance Summary

Key Findings

exasol was the fastest overall with 238.1ms median runtime
clickhouse was 10.7× slower
Tested 308 total query executions across 22 different query types

Performance Visualizations

Detailed Analysis

Performance by Query Type

The benchmark results reveal distinct performance characteristics across different query categories:

Aggregation queries (Q01, Q06, Q12, Q14, Q15, Q19, Q20): Test data reduction and grouping operations
Join-heavy queries (Q02, Q05, Q08, Q09, Q10, Q11, Q21, Q22): Evaluate multi-table join performance
Complex analytical queries (Q03, Q04, Q07, Q13, Q16, Q17, Q18): Combine multiple operations

The following table shows the median performance for each query category across all systems:

Query Type	clickhouse	exasol	Winner
Aggregation	390.00	82.20	exasol
Join-Heavy	5,596.10	178.00	exasol
Complex Analytical	4,894.50	324.70	exasol

Query-by-Query Results

The following table shows the median execution time for each query across all systems:

query	baseline_system	comparison_system	baseline_ms	comparison_ms	ratio	speedup	faster
Q01	exasol	clickhouse	791.00	2,527.80	3.20	0.31	0
Q02	exasol	clickhouse	74.80	1,088.30	14.55	0.07	0
Q03	exasol	clickhouse	324.70	4,059.90	12.50	0.08	0
Q04	exasol	clickhouse	60.70	2,586.40	42.61	0.02	0
Q05	exasol	clickhouse	203.10	8,884.80	43.75	0.02	0
Q06	exasol	clickhouse	41.30	164.90	3.99	0.25	0
Q07	exasol	clickhouse	265.10	4,894.50	18.46	0.05	0
Q08	exasol	clickhouse	73.70	7,908.50	107.31	0.01	0
Q09	exasol	clickhouse	942.80	12,545.60	13.31	0.08	0
Q10	exasol	clickhouse	557.40	3,408.50	6.11	0.16	0
Q11	exasol	clickhouse	144.20	727.30	5.04	0.20	0
Q12	exasol	clickhouse	82.20	770.20	9.37	0.11	0
Q13	exasol	clickhouse	657.90	5,744.70	8.73	0.11	0
Q14	exasol	clickhouse	81.00	245.30	3.03	0.33	0
Q15	exasol	clickhouse	379.60	346.40	0.91	1.10	1
Q16	exasol	clickhouse	457.70	517.50	1.13	0.88	0
Q17	exasol	clickhouse	28.00	5,821.70	207.92	0.00	0
Q18	exasol	clickhouse	631.40	5,352.20	8.48	0.12	0
Q19	exasol	clickhouse	25.60	2,207.70	86.24	0.01	0
Q20	exasol	clickhouse	277.60	390.00	1.40	0.71	0
Q21	exasol	clickhouse	384.50	46,707.20	121.48	0.01	0
Q22	exasol	clickhouse	94.40	593.90	6.29	0.16	0

Detailed Statistics

The complete performance statistics for all queries and systems:

query	system	warmup	runs	median_ms	mean_ms	std_ms	min_ms	max_ms
Q01	clickhouse	2,542.80	7	2,527.80	2,520.50	34.00	2,460.10	2,556.80
Q01	exasol	803.50	7	791.00	793.20	5.20	789.50	804.50
Q02	clickhouse	1,308.40	7	1,088.30	1,094.20	25.10	1,071.90	1,146.00
Q02	exasol	94.00	7	74.80	74.80	0.60	74.20	75.60
Q03	clickhouse	4,527.50	7	4,059.90	4,070.00	180.40	3,884.60	4,396.70
Q03	exasol	326.50	7	324.70	325.10	4.90	318.30	333.10
Q04	clickhouse	3,266.70	7	2,586.40	2,617.80	84.40	2,542.80	2,770.40
Q04	exasol	63.30	7	60.70	60.70	0.30	60.30	61.00
Q05	clickhouse	9,544.30	7	8,884.80	8,866.60	117.20	8,720.30	9,080.40
Q05	exasol	267.80	7	203.10	204.50	3.40	202.90	212.20
Q06	clickhouse	996.00	7	164.90	166.00	3.20	162.60	172.10
Q06	exasol	41.90	7	41.30	41.30	0.40	40.80	42.00
Q07	clickhouse	6,395.30	7	4,894.50	4,900.80	29.60	4,876.00	4,963.50
Q07	exasol	267.20	7	265.10	265.10	1.00	264.00	266.70
Q08	clickhouse	7,138.80	7	7,908.50	7,904.90	222.20	7,575.60	8,175.80
Q08	exasol	74.90	7	73.70	77.90	11.60	72.60	104.20
Q09	clickhouse	14,236.30	7	12,545.60	12,998.10	1,180.20	11,949.30	15,509.60
Q09	exasol	943.90	7	942.80	943.20	1.70	941.20	946.50
Q10	clickhouse	5,456.70	7	3,408.50	3,431.60	90.90	3,352.50	3,616.60
Q10	exasol	556.00	7	557.40	558.50	4.50	553.50	565.10
Q11	clickhouse	1,168.00	7	727.30	736.60	42.80	684.60	799.40
Q11	exasol	143.50	7	144.20	145.30	4.20	140.50	153.00
Q12	clickhouse	2,507.00	7	770.20	794.60	46.20	759.90	878.60
Q12	exasol	84.70	7	82.20	82.10	0.20	81.90	82.40
Q13	clickhouse	5,648.20	7	5,744.70	5,712.20	265.30	5,378.10	6,124.70
Q13	exasol	659.60	7	657.90	659.10	3.40	655.40	664.00
Q14	clickhouse	234.50	7	245.30	242.80	4.80	236.70	248.00
Q14	exasol	94.40	7	81.00	80.90	0.20	80.60	81.20
Q15	clickhouse	410.20	7	346.40	352.60	11.20	345.70	374.50
Q15	exasol	376.10	7	379.60	406.70	35.20	377.60	448.20
Q16	clickhouse	538.70	7	517.50	513.00	14.20	484.30	525.30
Q16	exasol	463.80	7	457.70	458.50	6.70	451.30	472.40
Q17	clickhouse	7,380.90	7	5,821.70	6,032.40	528.60	5,580.20	6,897.60
Q17	exasol	29.30	7	28.00	27.90	0.20	27.50	28.20
Q18	clickhouse	5,835.40	7	5,352.20	5,365.80	88.20	5,289.30	5,545.50
Q18	exasol	632.40	7	631.40	632.20	6.30	622.40	640.40
Q19	clickhouse	2,302.70	7	2,207.70	2,216.20	52.60	2,156.60	2,310.90
Q19	exasol	25.70	7	25.60	25.60	0.20	25.20	25.70
Q20	clickhouse	421.60	7	390.00	390.40	6.40	379.20	397.90
Q20	exasol	281.60	7	277.60	277.80	1.80	274.80	280.90
Q21	clickhouse	48,541.10	7	46,707.20	46,802.50	770.30	45,770.50	47,984.70
Q21	exasol	384.30	7	384.50	390.00	14.30	383.80	422.30
Q22	clickhouse	596.30	7	593.90	595.80	16.60	575.70	619.40
Q22	exasol	97.20	7	94.40	94.40	0.30	94.10	95.00

System Rankings

Based on median query execution time:

Rank	System	Median Runtime	Average Runtime	Range (Min - Max)
1	Exasol	238.1ms	301.1ms	25.2ms - 946.5ms
2	Clickhouse	2546.6ms	5378.4ms	162.6ms - 47984.7ms

Benchmark Methodology

Workload Configuration

TPC-H Benchmark:

Scale Factor: 100
Data Format: CSV
Data Generator: dbgen

Execution Parameters

Warmup Runs: 1
Measured Runs: 7
Execution Mode: Sequential (single connection)
Metric Reported: Median execution time

Performance Measurement

All queries were executed with the same data and parameters across all systems. The median execution time from 7 runs is reported for each query to minimize the impact of system variance and outliers.

Conclusion

This benchmark provides a detailed, query-level comparison of 2 database systems on analytical workloads. The results demonstrate the performance characteristics and trade-offs of each system when processing TPC-H queries.

While exasol demonstrated the strongest overall performance in this test, the optimal choice for a specific use case depends on multiple factors including workload characteristics, operational requirements, and system integration needs.

Overview

Systems Under Test

Exasol 2025.1.0

Environment & Hardware

Software

Clickhouse 25.9.5.21

Environment & Hardware

Software

Performance Summary

Key Findings

Performance Visualizations

Detailed Analysis

Performance by Query Type

Query-by-Query Results

Detailed Statistics

System Rankings

Benchmark Methodology

Workload Configuration

Execution Parameters

Performance Measurement

Conclusion

Query Details