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 13 Nov 2026

Benchmark	Vortex	Parquet	Lance	Arrow	vs Parquet
Scan	6.76×	1.00×	1.36×	—	6.8× faster
Write	2.69×	1.00×	0.74×	—	2.7× faster
ClickBench	40.30 ms	65.54 ms	579.15 ms	—	63% faster
TPC-H	61.18 ms	143.35 ms	845.99 ms	—	2.3× 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	0.75 ms	68.69 ms	2.15 ms	3.74 ms	91× faster
File size	1.11×	1×	2.02×	5.42×	11% larger

Underlined: the best in each row

Ecosystem