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ClickHouse Cloud vs MotherDuck

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of ClickHouse Cloud and MotherDuck built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Updated 7 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose ClickHouse Cloud if…

Knowing what a part-time warehouse costs. The published example is explicit — $66.52 a month for a Basic service awake six hours a day against $186.27 awake around the clock — with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose MotherDuck if…

Analytics that fit on one machine, priced per organisation rather than per query: $250 a month flat plus usage, so adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not move the floor. A 99.9% SLA comes with it.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • ClickHouse Cloud: Data transfer matters. It is the only one here that puts public internet egress and cross-region transfer on the invoice as their own lines, so moving results out has a price the others absorb.
  • MotherDuck: You have more than ten people or need an SLA cheaply. Business caps internal active users at ten, and both the SLA and custom roles arrive only at $250 — the free Lite plan allows three users and publishes no availability commitment.

3 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit ClickHouse Cloud documentationVisit MotherDuck documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionClickHouse CloudMotherDuck
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
What the free plan includesTrial credits over a 30-day window, drawn down until they are depleted or the window closes, whichever comes first. Adding a card during the trial does not end it — the credits keep being consumed first. A time-boxed credit rather than a standing allowance, which is the opposite of BigQuery's tebibyte renewing every month.Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts, 10 GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute a month, with community support and preset role-based access control. A standing plan rather than a trial.
Entry paid plan
From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.
$250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor.
Pricing modelCompute, storage and data transfer itemised separately, with compute varying by how many hours a day the service is active — $39.91, $79.83 or $159.66 in the published example for 6, 12 or 24 hours, against a flat $25.30 of storage. Scale, the always-on auto-scaling tier, starts at $499.38 a month.Per organisation per month plus usage, with seats rather than scans as the limiting dimension: up to 10 internal active users on Business against 3 on Lite, and unlimited service accounts. Five instance types and read-scaling replicas sit above that.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

ClickHouse Cloud
Trial credits over a 30-day window, drawn down until they are depleted or the window closes, whichever comes first. Adding a card during the trial does not end it — the credits keep being consumed first. A time-boxed credit rather than a standing allowance, which is the opposite of BigQuery's tebibyte renewing every month.
MotherDuck
Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts, 10 GB of storage and 10 hours of Pulse compute a month, with community support and preset role-based access control. A standing plan rather than a trial.
Sources (2) →
  • ClickHouse Cloud billing ↗

    “we continue drawing down trial credits until they are depleted or expire, whichever comes first”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official docs

  • MotherDuck Pricing ↗

    “Up to 3 internal active users and 2 service accounts 10 GB free storage 10 hrs Pulse compute per month included”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing

Entry paid plan

ClickHouse Cloud
From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.
MotherDuck
$250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

ClickHouse Cloud
Compute, storage and data transfer itemised separately, with compute varying by how many hours a day the service is active — $39.91, $79.83 or $159.66 in the published example for 6, 12 or 24 hours, against a flat $25.30 of storage. Scale, the always-on auto-scaling tier, starts at $499.38 a month.
MotherDuck
Per organisation per month plus usage, with seats rather than scans as the limiting dimension: up to 10 internal active users on Business against 3 on Lite, and unlimited service accounts. Five instance types and read-scaling replicas sit above that.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing.

Kind of free offerClickHouse Cloud: Free trial
Egress over allowanceClickHouse Cloud: Itemised rather than absorbed: the published example carries $1.15 of public internet egress on 10 GB and $0.16 of cross-region transfer on 5 GB. The only member of this category that puts data transfer on the invoice as its own line.
Uptime SLAMotherDuck: 99.9% availability on the Business plan. Nothing is published for Lite, so the SLA arrives with the $250 fee rather than with the product.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: ClickHouse Cloud or MotherDuck?

ClickHouse Cloud: From $66.52 a month for a Basic service active 6 hours a day — one replica with 8 GiB of RAM and 2 vCPUs, 500 GB of compressed data and 500 GB of backup. The same service active 24 hours a day is $186.27, so the entry price is a statement about usage as much as about capacity.

MotherDuck: $250 per organisation per month, plus usage. Priced on the organisation rather than on data or time — the only member here where adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not change the floor.

Should I choose ClickHouse Cloud or MotherDuck?

Pick ClickHouse Cloud if Knowing what a part-time warehouse costs. The published example is explicit — $66.52 a month for a Basic service awake six hours a day against $186.27 awake around the clock — with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.

Pick MotherDuck if Analytics that fit on one machine, priced per organisation rather than per query: $250 a month flat plus usage, so adding a query, a gigabyte or an hour does not move the floor. A 99.9% SLA comes with it.

Provider pages

ClickHouse CloudManaged ClickHouse billed on how many hours a service is active, with compute, storage and egress itemised separately.MotherDuckA managed DuckDB warehouse priced per organisation rather than per query, aimed at analytics that fit on one machine.

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Every page here is sourced and dated.