Ballista

Judgement

What it is

Building block

What it does

Spreads Apache DataFusion SQL and DataFrame queries across a scheduler and several executor nodes so one query can run on a cluster.

Adopt it when

You already build on DataFusion in Rust or Python and a single machine no longer holds or processes your data fast enough.

Watch out

The project itself warns of a gap with DataFusion that can cause incompatibilities, and its community is far smaller than Spark's.

Ready for

Usable

Runs as

Self-hosted server and library

Built with

Rust, Apache Arrow, DataFusion and Python

How established

Established: started 4 years ago, latest release 55.0.0.

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Judged on 2026-11-06 from the project's README and GitHub data. The license and age lines are worked out directly.

Built from

Follow it down: Ballista → Rust → runs on a microchip

How compilers were built, back to punched paper tape

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