Pick MotherDuck if
solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA.
Read the MotherDuck pageMotherDuck vs RisingWave
Our take
Pick MotherDuck if solo analysts who will stay on Lite $0 (10 GB + 10 Pulse hours), then buy Business at $250/org/month plus usage when they need Standard+ instances, Flights at scale, and a 99.9% SLA. Pick RisingWave if streaming teams who will burn the 7-day Cloud trial (no setup), then pay $0.227 per RWU-hour on Basic — or stay on Apache 2.0 self-managed when they will operate Kubernetes themselves.
RisingWave
streaming SQL database
Best for
MotherDuck Cloud DuckDB metered in CU-hours and GB
RisingWave Always-on SQL views you start with a 7-day Cloud trial or Apache 2.0 on your metal
Free plan
MotherDuck $0 · no card. Up to 3 internal users and 2 service accounts. 10 GB storage and 10 Pulse hours / month included. Pulse instances only. Preset RBAC. Community support. 1-day snapshots. Lite without a card includes 30 minutes/day of F4 Flights
RisingWave No free plan
Lowest paid
MotherDuck Storage $0.04/mo
RisingWave Not published by the vendor
Next step up
MotherDuck Flights $0.15/hour
RisingWave
Coding agent
MotherDuck Flights
RisingWave
Runs where
MotherDuck
RisingWave Hosted
Watch out
MotherDuck Lite is Pulse-only
RisingWave Cloud Basic is a 7-day trial, then RWU-hours
Last checked
MotherDuck 2026-10-22 · motherduck.com/pricing
RisingWave 2026-10-22 · risingwave.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick RisingWave if
streaming teams who will burn the 7-day Cloud trial (no setup), then pay $0.227 per RWU-hour on Basic — or stay on Apache 2.0 self-managed when they will operate Kubernetes themselves.
Read the RisingWave page