AWS Lake Formation vs HPCC Systems

AWS Lake Formation9.4Visit HPCC Systems8.7Visit

Higher score AWS Lake Formation #1 in Data Lake Software 9.4/10 Paid ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit site

vs

HPCC Systems #4 in Data Lake Software 8.7/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 3 of 4 features Visit HPCC Systems

• AWS Lake Formation fits best

  AWS-native governed data lakes

• HPCC Systems fits best

  Open-source analytics data lakes

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Side by side

Feature	AWS Lake Formation 9.4/10 Visit ↗	HPCC Systems 8.7/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.4	8.7
Ranking	#1 in Data Lake Software	#4 in Data Lake Software
Best for	AWS-native governed data lakes	Open-source analytics data lakes
Pricing model	Paid	Free
Starting price	Not checked yet	Free plan
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Web	Web, Linux
Support	Docs	Email, Community, Docs
Integrations	9 integrations	6 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features AWS Lake Formation 4/4 · HPCC Systems 3/4
Metadata catalog	✓	✓
Governance controls	✓	✓
Open table formats	✓ (best)	Not checked yet
Data sharing	✓	✓
Specs
Deployment model	Cloud	Hybrid
Ingestion modes	Batch	Both
Query interface	Both	Both
Our review
Pros	Database, table, column, row, and cell-level access controls Cross-account and cross-organization data sharing with CloudTrail auditing Supports Iceberg, Hudi, and Delta Lake tables across AWS analytics services	Free open-source deployment with distributed ingestion and query engines Replication, failover, Kubernetes, and hybrid cloud deployment support Machine learning, SQL, APIs, governance, and workflow capabilities
Cons	No free plan No fixed subscription plans or universal starting price Integrated services and some usage incur separate AWS charges	ECL adds a platform-specific programming language to the learning curve The broad feature set may exceed the needs of narrow data lake projects Open table format workflows are not a stated focus
Our verdict	AWS Lake Formation is a managed cloud service for building and governing data lakes on Amazon S3. It is designed for organizations that need centralized metadata, controlled access, auditing, and data sharing across AWS accounts,… Read the review →	HPCC Systems is an open-source platform for enterprise data engineering, data lake management, analytics, and machine learning. It suits teams that need distributed ingestion, transformation, enrichment, indexing, querying, and information… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• AWS Lake Formation — where it wins

  • Database, table, column, row, and cell-level access controls
  • Cross-account and cross-organization data sharing with CloudTrail auditing
  • Supports Iceberg, Hudi, and Delta Lake tables across AWS analytics services

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan
  • No fixed subscription plans or universal starting price
  • Integrated services and some usage incur separate AWS charges

• HPCC Systems — where it wins

  • Free open-source deployment with distributed ingestion and query engines
  • Replication, failover, Kubernetes, and hybrid cloud deployment support
  • Machine learning, SQL, APIs, governance, and workflow capabilities

  Where it doesn't

  • ECL adds a platform-specific programming language to the learning curve
  • The broad feature set may exceed the needs of narrow data lake projects
  • Open table format workflows are not a stated focus

• AWS Lake Formation9.4/10 · Paid

  A deep AWS-native governance layer for organizations building managed data lakes on Amazon S3.

  Visit siteFull verdict →
• HPCC Systems8.7/10 · Free plan

  A broad open-source data lake platform for distributed processing, queries, governance, and machine learning.

  Visit HPCC SystemsFull verdict →