Apache-2.0, a Linux Foundation project

Fast, small, open: pick three.

Vortex is an open-source columnar file format for fast scans, random access, and compression.

$ cargo add vortex

$ uv add vortex-data

$ uvx --from vortex-data vx --help

INSTALL vortex; LOAD vortex; SELECT * FROM read_vortex('data.vortex');

$ cargo add vortex-datafusion

implementation("dev.vortex:vortex-spark_2.13:0.90.0:all")

File format benchmarksbench.vortex.devread 5 Nov 2026

Benchmark	Vortex	Parquet	Lance	Arrow	vs Parquet
Scan	5.03×	1.00×	0.94×	—	5.0× faster
Write	2.00×	1.00×	0.72×	—	2.0× faster
ClickBench	41.21 ms	65.61 ms	572.57 ms	—	59% faster
GPU, cuDF, end to end, hot, on GH200, NDS-H SF10, Parquet the fastest of four configurations per query, from the Vortex UW–Madison talk	17.00 ms	65.88 ms	N/A	—	3.9× faster
Random access	0.91 ms	69.25 ms	2.12 ms	3.43 ms	76× faster
File size	1.14×	1×	2.12×	5.95×	14% larger

Underlined: the best in each row

Ecosystem