Rust vs Python Apache Iceberg Clients: Rust Up to 4x Faster on Small Calls
A developer benchmarked two Apache Iceberg REST catalog clients — the Rust client (iceberg-catalog-rest 0.10.1) and the Python client (pyiceberg 0.12.0) — across six shared read operations on local and cloud catalogs. The Rust client was 1.90x to 4.29x faster on lightweight namespace operations, while the gap narrowed to 1.14x–1.38x on heavier table-level calls where server processing dominates. Testing was conducted against Apache Polaris running locally in Docker, as well as Google BigLake and Microsoft OneLake over the internet. The benchmark measured speed only and did not validate correctness; notably, the Python client supports 21 of 25 tested catalog endpoints versus just 13 for the Rust client. The author cautions that a faster client lacking required operations is still the wrong choice, and that timing results varied significantly between runs.
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