Firebolt
Analytical SQL database that runs as a single binary on a laptop or as a managed cloud service.
Updated · AppBreakup editorial · Web, Linux, Self-hosted
Is Firebolt free?
Free plan, plus paid plans
- Starting price:
- $0.92 per hour of compute (1 S node, US East)
Checked on Firebolt's site Nov 8, 2026
Full Firebolt pricing and plansSwitch from Firebolt to
All 5
ClickHouseFree trial: 30 days with $300 credits
Google BigQueryStarting price: $6.25 per TiB scanned (on-demand)
SnowflakePaid
- Verified facts
- 6 of 6
- Alternatives ranked
- 5
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
- 0
About Firebolt
Firebolt is an analytical database for dashboards, real-time analytics, ELT and AI agent workloads. It speaks a PostgreSQL-flavoured SQL dialect and ships as a single binary, so the same engine runs on a laptop, in Docker, on Kubernetes through a Helm chart or operator, or across hundreds of nodes in the cloud. It stores data in object storage and can query Parquet and Apache Iceberg tables in place, as well as its own columnar format for real-time data. Firebolt now describes the engine as open source and lets you self-host it without limits; the free self-hosted edition is published on GitHub as Firebolt Core under Firebolt's own licence terms. If you don't want to run it yourself, there is a managed service and a bring-your-own-cloud option, billed per second for compute, with storage passed through at cost and free starting credits. It suits engineering teams that want Snowflake-style separation of storage and compute but with more control over where it runs, and who care about query latency for customer-facing analytics.
Best for: Engineering teams building low-latency, customer-facing analytics who want to self-host or use a managed service.
Firebolt pricing (checked Nov 8, 2026)
Each line is quoted from Firebolt's own site, with the page it came from.
| Plan or term | What it says | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free credits | $200 | Nov 8, 2026 | firebolt.io |
| Billing | Per second, scale to zero | Nov 8, 2026 | firebolt.io |
| Starting price | $0.92 per hour of compute (1 S node, US East) | Nov 8, 2026 | firebolt.io |
| Storage price | $0.0264 per GB a month | Nov 8, 2026 | firebolt.io |
Pros and cons
What works
- Same engine from laptop to large cloud cluster
- Free self-hosted edition with no usage limits
- Per-second billing with scale to zero on the managed service
- Postgres-style SQL and in-place Iceberg queries
Why people leave
- Firebolt Core uses Firebolt's own licence, not a standard OSI one
- Azure support for the managed service is still in preview
- Smaller ecosystem and community than Snowflake or ClickHouse
Firebolt vs ClickHouse, Google BigQuery and Snowflake
From each app's listing and the prices verified on its own site. A dash means we haven't verified it yet.
| Attribute | Firebolt | ClickHouse | Google BigQuery | Snowflake |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan + paid | Open source | Free plan + paid | Paid |
| Verified price | $0.92 per hour of compute (1 S node, US East) | 30 days with $300 credits | $6.25 per TiB scanned (on-demand) | — |
| Free plan | Yes | Free app | Yes | No |
| Open source | No | No | No | No |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No | No | No |
| Platforms | Web, Linux, Self-hosted | Web, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted | Web | Web |
Top Firebolt alternatives
See all 5- 1ClickHouse83.8
Widely used open-source columnar database for real-time analytics, with a managed cloud and a big community.
- 2Google BigQuery74.4
Serverless warehouse with no clusters to size, a good fit for teams already on Google Cloud.
- 3Snowflake64.8
The default managed cloud warehouse, with a large partner ecosystem and data sharing features.
- 4
DuckDB57.5In-process analytical database for single-machine work, free and MIT licensed.
- 5
Amazon Redshift55.9AWS's managed warehouse, tightly integrated with S3 and the rest of AWS.
Why people left Firebolt
In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.
No switching stories yet. If you moved away from Firebolt, review the app you switched to and tell us why.
Reviews
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Firebolt: common questions
What is Firebolt?
Firebolt: Analytical SQL database that runs as a single binary on a laptop or as a managed cloud service. Best for engineering teams building low-latency, customer-facing analytics who want to self-host or use a managed service. Available for Web and Linux, and you can host it yourself.
Is Firebolt free?
Firebolt has a free plan and paid plans.
How much does Firebolt cost?
Firebolt is free with paid plans. Free credits: $200; Billing: Per second, scale to zero; Starting price: $0.92 per hour of compute (1 S node, US East); Storage price: $0.0264 per GB a month. Checked on Firebolt's own site, November 2026.
Is Firebolt open source?
No, Firebolt is not open source. Open-source alternatives include DuckDB.
What platforms does Firebolt run on?
Firebolt is available for Web, Linux and Self-hosted.
What are the best alternatives to Firebolt?
The highest-ranked Firebolt alternatives right now are ClickHouse, Google BigQuery and Snowflake. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.
Firebolt vs ClickHouse: what's the difference?
Firebolt is free with paid plans; ClickHouse is free and open source. Verified prices: Firebolt $0.92 per hour of compute (1 S node, US East), ClickHouse 30 days with $300 credits. Only ClickHouse runs on macOS.