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Data virtualization · November 2026 Edition

Trino vs Starburst

Zero of fourteen models named Trino first on the direct prompt; zero named Starburst. Trino was named by eleven of the fourteen models and Starburst by eleven and Trino carries 15 labels and Starburst 31, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Trino

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

Starburst

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share15%6%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate13%6%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#4#5A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels1531A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Trino reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Denodo was named alongside these two in thirteen of the fourteen direct answers. Denodo vs Trino · Denodo vs Starburst · Dremio vs Trino

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the data virtualization page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
TrinoFirst choices, of fourteen modelsStarburst
Direct00
Paraphrase031 against Trino
Comparative00
Budget-constrained701 against Starburst
Scale-constrained001 against Trino
Negative011 against Starburst
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Trino and Starburst were named in the same answer twenty-five times, of the 57 answers naming Trino and the 83 naming Starburst. In those answers Starburst took the first choice one time and Trino twelve.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Trino and Starburst stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Trino Starburst first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Trino on the left and Starburst on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Trino and Starburst stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

4 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniDenodo alternatives: Dremio, Starburst
Perplexity SonarDenodo alternatives: CData Virtuality, Dremio, Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud, Microsoft Fabric, SAP HANA, Starburst
Mistral SmallDenodo alternatives: Starburst Galaxy, TIBCO Data Virtualization, Trino
DeepSeek V4 FlashDenodo alternatives: Dremio, Starburst

Neither was named

10 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Dremio alternatives: Denodo, TIBCO Data Virtualization
Gemini 3.5 Flashno first choice alternatives: CData Connect Cloud, Cube, Denodo, Starburst Galaxy
Grok 4.20Denodo alternatives: CData Virtuality, Data Virtuality, Dremio, TIBCO Data Virtualization
Llama 4 MaverickDenodo
Qwen 3.7 FlashDenodo alternatives: Data Virtuality, Starburst Galaxy
Kimi K2CData Virtuality, Starburst Galaxy alternatives: Dremio
GLM 4.7 FlashXDenodo alternatives: Data Virtuality, TIBCO Data Virtualization
MiniMax M2.5Denodo, Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud alternatives: Data Virtuality, TIBCO Software
GPT-6 LunaCData Virtuality alternatives: Denodo, Dremio
Muse Glimmer 30BDenodo alternatives: Dremio, Starburst Galaxy, TIBCO Data Virtualization

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Trino leads by fifteen points.
Trino18%#2 of 14
Starburst4%#6 of 14
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Trino leads by eight points.
Trino15%#4 of 10
Starburst6%#5 of 10
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Starburst leads at enterprise.
Starburst2%#3 of 9
Trino0%#– of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Trino

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.

“Trino’s documentation says its default access control allows all authenticated users, so authorization must be deliberately configured.” GPT-6 Luna · scale prompt · soft negative
“Avoid hosting self-managed Trino, Presto, or Apache Drill clusters unless you have dedicated platform engineers.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Trino is the best choice if you have even modest technical talent on your team — it's completely free, proven, and widely used” DeepSeek V4 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Best starting point: Trino is widely recommended as "the open-source default and the one most teams should try first."” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
“If you want the most active open-source community and pure SQL federation: start with Trino. It's free, well documented” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about Starburst

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.

“Starburst Galaxy at 2% first-choice share with 36% negative rate, 11 labels, “criticized challenger”” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“can be cost-prohibitive” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · soft negative
“I recommend Starburst (built on Trino) as the top choice for a data fabric focused on federated queries.” Grok 4.20 · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Denodo, Dremio, Starburst Galaxy, and AtScale tend to rank higher” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · first choice
“start with Starburst Galaxy for managed federation” Muse Glimmer 30B · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.