List of the Top 3 Query Engines for Apache Phoenix in 2025

Apache Hive serves as a data warehousing framework that empowers users to access, manipulate, and oversee large datasets spread across distributed systems using a SQL-like language. It facilitates the structuring of pre-existing data stored in various formats. Users have the option to interact with Hive through a command line interface or a JDBC driver. As a project under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation, Apache Hive is continually supported by a group of dedicated volunteers. Originally integrated into the Apache® Hadoop® ecosystem, it has matured into a fully-fledged top-level project with its own identity. We encourage individuals to delve deeper into the project and contribute their expertise. To perform SQL operations on distributed datasets, conventional SQL queries must be run through the MapReduce Java API. However, Hive streamlines this task by providing a SQL abstraction, allowing users to execute queries in the form of HiveQL, thus eliminating the need for low-level Java API implementations. This results in a much more user-friendly and efficient experience for those accustomed to SQL, leading to greater productivity when dealing with vast amounts of data. Moreover, the adaptability of Hive makes it a valuable tool for a diverse range of data processing tasks.

Trino is an exceptionally swift query engine engineered for remarkable performance. This high-efficiency, distributed SQL query engine is specifically designed for big data analytics, allowing users to explore their extensive data landscapes. Built for peak efficiency, Trino shines in low-latency analytics and is widely adopted by some of the biggest companies worldwide to execute queries on exabyte-scale data lakes and massive data warehouses. It supports various use cases, such as interactive ad-hoc analytics, long-running batch queries that can extend for hours, and high-throughput applications that demand quick sub-second query responses. Complying with ANSI SQL standards, Trino is compatible with well-known business intelligence tools like R, Tableau, Power BI, and Superset. Additionally, it enables users to query data directly from diverse sources, including Hadoop, S3, Cassandra, and MySQL, thereby removing the burdensome, slow, and error-prone processes related to data copying. This feature allows users to efficiently access and analyze data from different systems within a single query. Consequently, Trino's flexibility and power position it as an invaluable tool in the current data-driven era, driving innovation and efficiency across industries.

Apache Spark™ is a powerful analytics platform crafted for large-scale data processing endeavors. It excels in both batch and streaming tasks by employing an advanced Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) scheduler, a highly effective query optimizer, and a streamlined physical execution engine. With more than 80 high-level operators at its disposal, Spark greatly facilitates the creation of parallel applications. Users can engage with the framework through a variety of shells, including Scala, Python, R, and SQL. Spark also boasts a rich ecosystem of libraries—such as SQL and DataFrames, MLlib for machine learning, GraphX for graph analysis, and Spark Streaming for processing real-time data—which can be effortlessly woven together in a single application. This platform's versatility allows it to operate across different environments, including Hadoop, Apache Mesos, Kubernetes, standalone systems, or cloud platforms. Additionally, it can interface with numerous data sources, granting access to information stored in HDFS, Alluxio, Apache Cassandra, Apache HBase, Apache Hive, and many other systems, thereby offering the flexibility to accommodate a wide range of data processing requirements. Such a comprehensive array of functionalities makes Spark a vital resource for both data engineers and analysts, who rely on it for efficient data management and analysis. The combination of its capabilities ensures that users can tackle complex data challenges with greater ease and speed.