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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.

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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