# Starburst vs Dremio: which do AI models recommend for data virtualization, October 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, October 2026 Edition, Data virtualization. Zero of fourteen models named Starburst first on the direct prompt; one named Dremio. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/it-data/data-virtualization/starburst-vs-dremio/

| | First-choice share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels | Models naming it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starburst | 11% | #4 of 10 | 6% | 32 | 13 of 14 |
| Dremio | 9% | #5 of 10 | 3% | 35 | 12 of 14 |

## The direct prompt, model by model

- Muse Glimmer 30B: dremio first (first choices: AtScale, Dremio) (alternatives: Denodo, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- Claude Haiku 4.5: neither first, one named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: CData Virtuality, Dremio, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: CData Virtuality) (alternatives: CData Connect Cloud, Denodo, Dremio)
- Grok 4.1 Fast: neither first, one named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: Dremio, IBM Data Virtualization, Starburst Galaxy, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: Dremio, Starburst Galaxy, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: neither first, one named (first choices: Starburst Galaxy) (alternatives: Dremio)
- GPT-6 Luna: neither first, one named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: Dremio, Starburst)
- GPT-5.4 mini: neither named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: IBM Data Virtualization, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- Perplexity Sonar: neither named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: CData Virtuality, IBM Cloud Pak for Data, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- Mistral Small: neither named (first choices: Informatica Data Virtualization, TIBCO Data Virtualization) (alternatives: CData Virtuality, IBM Data Virtualization, Red Hat JBoss Data Virtualization)
- Llama 4 Maverick: neither named
- Kimi K2: neither named (first choices: Starburst Galaxy) (alternatives: CData Connect Cloud, Dremio Cloud)
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: neither named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: IBM watsonx.data, Informatica Data Virtualization, TIBCO Data Virtualization)
- MiniMax M2.5: neither named (first choices: Denodo) (alternatives: TIBCO Data Virtualization, Teiid, Trino)

## What the models said about Starburst

- "Starburst | Contact sales (commercial) | While Trino-based, paid plans get expensive" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt, hard negative)
- "Starburst | Modern, Trino-based, cloud-native | Newer, smaller ecosystem" (Kimi K2, scale prompt, soft negative)
- "Leaders like Denodo ... Starburst consistently rank high for enterprise use, with strong governance and hybrid support." (Grok 4.1 Fast, negative prompt, first choice)
- "Start with Starburst Enterprise or Dremio Cloud... Starburst is the more "pure" federated query engine" (Muse Glimmer 30B, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "I recommend Starburst (using the open-source Trino engine) as the primary choice" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, paraphrase prompt, first choice)

## What the models said about Dremio

- "Choose Dremio if you're building a modern lakehouse with self-service analytics (with caution given recent SAP acquisition)" (Kimi K2, comparative prompt, soft negative)
- "Start with Starburst Enterprise or Dremio Cloud. Both give federated SQL with push-down execution, consumption-based pricing" (Muse Glimmer 30B, paraphrase prompt, first choice)
- "Choose Dremio (Community or Cloud). It gives you the best balance of "free" and "enterprise-grade" features." (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt, first choice)
- "should look at AtScale or Dremio" (Muse Glimmer 30B, direct prompt, first choice)

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. Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category. Published under CC BY 4.0; the output is the models' output, and nothing here is a recommendation by the index.