Unlock this content

Enter your email to unlock this content for free

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Notice, and to receive occasional marketing emails.

Engine Families

TL;DR

ClickHouse has multiple engine families, but 90% of production tables use MergeTree. Integration engines connect to external systems but should be avoided in production. Specialized engines exist for specific use cases but are rarely needed.

MergeTree Family

90% of production tables use the MergeTree family. General-purpose engine family for logs, events, time series, and append-only data patterns.

Family members:

  • MergeTree - General purpose
  • ReplacingMergeTree - Deduplication (async merges + at query time)
  • SummingMergeTree - Pre-aggregated sums (streaming, incremental)
  • AggregatingMergeTree - Complex aggregations (streaming, incremental)

All MergeTree engines share the same physical layer (parts, indexes) but differ in merge behavior.

PreviousIntro to Engines
NextMergeTree Family

Tinybird is not affiliated with, associated with, or sponsored by ClickHouse, Inc. ClickHouse® is a registered trademark of ClickHouse, Inc.

Engine Families | ClickHouse for Developers