StarRocks is Apache 2.0 open source. The database software has no license fee. What you pay for depends on deployment model: self-managed infrastructure you provision, a managed cloud service from CelerData, or a cloud vendor wrapper such as Alibaba Cloud EMR Serverless StarRocks with published compute-unit rates.
This post maps billable components so you can estimate monthly cost and spot when analytics spend belongs on a different engine. For product comparisons, see ClickHouse® vs StarRocks and StarRocks alternatives.
What StarRocks bills (by deployment model)
| Deployment | What you pay for | Who publishes prices |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted OSS | Cloud VMs, disks, object storage, egress, engineer time | Your cloud provider |
| CelerData Cloud | Managed compute + storage (custom quote) | CelerData sales |
| EMR Serverless StarRocks | CUs, ESSD, BE nodes, data storage GB-hours | Alibaba Cloud docs |
StarRocks itself does not sell per-query or per-row pricing on the open-source build. Cost follows provisioned compute, local ESSD, and object storage usage in shared-data mode.
Architecture drives the line item
StarRocks clusters split into frontend (FE) nodes for metadata and query planning and backend (BE) nodes for storage and execution in shared-nothing mode. Shared-data deployments add compute nodes (CN) that read from object storage; data storage bills separately from ESSD attached to FE/CN.
Shared-nothing: App ──► FE ──► BE (local disks, replicated)
Shared-data: App ──► FE ──► CN ──► object storage (S3/GCS/OSS)
Shared-nothing fits low-latency local disk workloads. Shared-data trades some query efficiency for cheaper storage scaling. Pick the architecture before you compare hourly rates. The wrong model makes every calculator lie.
Self-hosted OSS: infrastructure TCO
Self-hosted StarRocks means you pay the cloud provider directly:
| Component | Typical production need | Cost driver |
|---|---|---|
| FE nodes | 3+ for HA metadata | vCPU + RAM per instance |
| BE nodes | 3+ with local NVMe/ESSD | Disk size × replication factor |
| CN nodes (shared-data) | Scale query compute independently | vCPU hours |
| Object storage | Data files in shared-data mode | GB-month + API requests |
| Network | Cross-AZ replication, egress | Data transfer fees |
| Operations | Upgrades, backups, incident response | Engineer hours |
Production clusters rarely run fewer than three FE and three BE nodes. A minimal HA cluster is already six billable instances before you add observability and backup storage.
Hidden costs self-host teams report:
- Rolling upgrades across FE/BE/CN with version skew windows
- Tablet repair and rebalance after node loss
- Tuning resource groups for multi-tenant workloads
- Monitoring and on-call for query latency regressions
For teams comparing managed options, ClickHouse operating models frames the same "who owns the 2 a.m. change" question for another OLAP engine.
EMR Serverless StarRocks: published CU model
Alibaba Cloud EMR Serverless StarRocks publishes granular billing that illustrates how managed StarRocks pricing works even when other vendors only offer quotes.
Billable components (pay-as-you-go):
| Component | Formula |
|---|---|
| Compute unit (CU) fees | CUs × unit price × hours |
| ESSD fees | GB provisioned × unit price × hours |
| BE node fees | BE SKU price × count × hours (shared-nothing high-performance) |
| Data storage fees | GB stored × unit price × hours (shared-data only) |
Example from Alibaba Cloud EMR Serverless StarRocks documentation (Singapore region, illustrative; verify on the vendor buy page before budgeting):
- 48 CUs for one hour at ~$0.050617/CU-hour ≈ $2.43/hour compute
- 450 GB ESSD for one hour ≈ $0.14/hour disk
- Shared-data storage billed separately per GB-hour of actual data
Subscription billing prepays CUs and ESSD for a term (1 or 3 months) at lower unit rates than pay-as-you-go. Alibaba notes you can switch pay-as-you-go to subscription, not the reverse without migration planning.
Use vendor buy pages for your region. Published USD examples drift with exchange rates and promotions.
CelerData managed StarRocks
CelerData offers a managed StarRocks cloud service. Public pricing is contact sales based on compute and storage consumption rather than a self-serve rate card.
Industry summaries cite enterprise support plans from ~$1,200/month for self-hosted deployments needing SLAs and direct engineering access. Managed cloud quotes vary by cluster size, region, and support tier.
When evaluating CelerData vs self-hosted OSS, include:
- DBA/SRE hours you avoid
- Faster time to HA topology
- Vendor-led upgrade windows
- Premium for proprietary management plane features
Shared-nothing vs shared-data cost tradeoffs
| Factor | Shared-nothing | Shared-data |
|---|---|---|
| Query latency on hot data | Lower (local disk) | Higher (object storage reads) |
| Storage cost at PB scale | Grows with BE disk | Object storage pricing |
| Compute scaling | Add BE nodes (data move cost) | Add CN nodes (lighter) |
| Bill complexity | BE SKU + ESSD | CU + ESSD + data storage GB-hours |
Teams with unpredictable storage growth often favor shared-data for storage line items. Teams with strict p99 SQL latency on hot windows often pay for shared-nothing BE capacity.
Materialized views and ingest costs
StarRocks materialized views with automatic query rewriting reduce repeated scan cost but do not eliminate storage or ingest billing. Every load into base tables consumes write amplification on BE/CN and retains bytes in object storage or local disks.
High-frequency partial updates (CDC upserts) increase merge and compaction work. Budget compute headroom beyond steady-state SELECT queries. For real-time data ingestion patterns, compare whether your pipeline needs StarRocks upsert semantics or append-only columnar ingest.
When StarRocks pricing surprises teams
- HA minimum node count. Three FE and three BE nodes multiply baseline cost before first production query.
- Cross-AZ traffic. Replication across availability zones adds transfer fees on every cloud.
- Shared-data query scans. Cheap storage with expensive CN hours if dashboards scan wide history daily.
- Engineering TCO on OSS. Free license does not mean free operations.
- Egress to BI tools. Large result sets to external warehouses or notebooks add network line items.
StarRocks vs analytics API platforms
StarRocks pricing optimizes for SQL analytics on StarRocks tables. If your product needs HTTP endpoints, auth, and git-based schema workflow on top of OLAP, you still build and operate that layer.
Tinybird is managed ClickHouse with ingestion connectors, SQL Pipes as APIs, and branch-based deploys. Teams evaluating StarRocks for user-facing analytics often compare total cost including the API tier they must build on either engine.
For best database for real-time analytics, the decision is often whether you need a database you operate or a platform that ships endpoints.
Resend, processing 100 TB per month on Tinybird, measured 62 ms p90 query latency in production without caching. Tinybird is SOC 2 Type II certified.
What to verify before budgeting
- Architecture: shared-nothing or shared-data (CN + object storage).
- HA node count: minimum FE/BE/CN replicas for your SLA.
- Storage growth: local ESSD vs object storage GB-month curves.
- Query pattern: rollups/materialized views vs raw scan volume.
- Ops model: self-hosted engineer hours vs managed CU quote.
- Egress and cross-AZ: replication and BI export traffic.
Use vendor calculators when available. For OSS, model six+ nodes, disk replication factor, and at least fractional FTE for platform ops.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is StarRocks free?
The open-source StarRocks database is free under Apache 2.0. You still pay for infrastructure, managed services, or enterprise support.
What is a compute unit in EMR Serverless StarRocks?
A CU is a normalized compute increment billed per hour for FE and CN/BE compute. Rates vary by region and billing method.
Is shared-data cheaper than shared-nothing?
Storage is often cheaper on object storage. Query compute can cost more if workloads scan large historical ranges frequently.
Does CelerData publish a rate card?
Managed cloud pricing is typically custom. Contact sales for quotes. Enterprise support on self-hosted deployments starts around four figures monthly per third-party summaries.
How does StarRocks compare to ClickHouse on cost?
Both scale with provisioned compute and stored bytes. Compare total cost including ops, ingest pipeline, and any API layer you must build. See ClickHouse® vs StarRocks for workload fit.
When should teams consider Tinybird instead?
When the goal is product analytics APIs with managed ingestion rather than operating StarRocks FE/BE/CN topology yourself.