Molinia
Dutch DuckDB-based data platform with ingest, SQL, pipelines and governance, run in Amsterdam
Quick Overview
| Company | Unpinned B.V. (KvK 72410930, VAT NL859101423B01) |
|---|---|
| Category | Data Warehouse |
| Headquarters | Utrecht, Netherlands |
| EU Presence | EU (Netherlands) |
| Data Location | Amsterdam, Netherlands: warehouse compute and storage at Leafcloud B.V.; control plane on a German-owned IONOS VPS, per the vendor's homepage |
| Open Source | No |
| Pricing | Usage-based, no subscription. Compute: EUR 1.25 per credit, where one credit is one hour of an xs warehouse (s 1.6, m 3.2, l 4.8, xl 7.2, 2xl 16, 3xl 28 credits per hour; for example EUR 2.00, 4.00, 6.00, 9.00, 20.00 and 35.00 per hour for s to 3xl), billed per minute after a 60-second minimum, warehouses auto-suspend when idle. Storage: EUR 0.03 per GB per month, no egress fees. Prices ex-VAT. New workspaces get EUR 200 in credits for 30 days without a card; afterwards a free floor of xs warehouses (one running at a time, two warehouses, 5 credits a month that renew; storage on free workspaces is purged after 30 days of inactivity). A Sovereign tier (dedicated nodes, Dutch data-residency terms, customer-managed keys, audit exports) is by contact. |
| Free Option | EUR 200 in credits for 30 days, no credit card; free floor afterwards (xs warehouses, 5 credits a month) |
| Replaces | Snowflake, Databricks |
Detailed Review
Molinia is a cloud data platform from Unpinned B.V., a private limited company registered in Utrecht. Its terms describe a hosted data warehousing, ingestion, transformation and analytics service built on DuckDB. The homepage lists connections, data sources, storage locations and cron pipelines, plus SQL worksheets with dashboards, external tables over files in your own object storage, and CDC ingest. It is a product of one company, so ingest and warehouse come from the same vendor.
The vendor says warehouse compute and storage run at Leafcloud B.V. in Amsterdam, and that the control plane sits on a German-owned IONOS server. Governance features are listed as shipped: row-level security, column masking, time travel, zero-copy sharing to other organisations, SSO with SAML or OIDC, and a hash-chained audit log. The terms are governed by Dutch law with the courts of Amsterdam, and the privacy policy names Google Workspace as an email sub-processor under standard contractual clauses.
Pricing is public and usage-based: EUR 1.25 per credit, one credit being an hour of an xs warehouse, and EUR 0.03 per GB per month for storage. New workspaces get EUR 200 in credits for 30 days. This is a young product with no stated certifications or customer references, so it suits pilots and smaller workloads rather than a large estate.
What Molinia does well
- Dutch B.V. with Dutch law and Amsterdam courts in the terms
- Public usage-based prices, no subscription or egress fees
- EUR 200 trial credit without a card, plus a free floor
- Row policies, masking, time travel and sharing listed as shipped
- Sub-processors and hosting location named in the privacy policy and DPA
Where Molinia falls short
- No ISO or SOC certification stated
- Newer and smaller than Exasol, Aiven or Scaleway, with no customer references shown
- Closed product built on DuckDB, a single-node engine, so very large workloads are unproven
- Terms cap liability at the greater of 12 months of fees or EUR 100
Standout feature. It is the only entry here that bundles ingest, transformation, orchestration and governance on DuckDB with public per-credit prices.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Dutch B.V. with Dutch law and Amsterdam courts in the terms
- Public usage-based prices, no subscription or egress fees
- EUR 200 trial credit without a card, plus a free floor
- Row policies, masking, time travel and sharing listed as shipped
- Sub-processors and hosting location named in the privacy policy and DPA
Cons
- No ISO or SOC certification stated
- Newer and smaller than Exasol, Aiven or Scaleway, with no customer references shown
- Closed product built on DuckDB, a single-node engine, so very large workloads are unproven
- Terms cap liability at the greater of 12 months of fees or EUR 100
Alternatives to Molinia
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Molinia?
Molinia is a cloud data platform from Unpinned B.V., a private limited company registered in Utrecht. Its terms describe a hosted data warehousing, ingestion, transformation and analytics service built on DuckDB. The homepage lists connections, data sources, storage locations and cron pipelines, plus SQL worksheets with dashboards, external tables over files in your own object storage, and CDC ingest. It is a product of one company, so ingest and warehouse come from the same vendor.
Where is Molinia based?
Molinia operates from Utrecht, Netherlands, which places it under EU (Netherlands).
What does Molinia cost?
Usage-based, no subscription. Compute: EUR 1.25 per credit, where one credit is one hour of an xs warehouse (s 1.6, m 3.2, l 4.8, xl 7.2, 2xl 16, 3xl 28 credits per hour; for example EUR 2.00, 4.00, 6.00, 9.00, 20.00 and 35.00 per hour for s to 3xl), billed per minute after a 60-second minimum, warehouses auto-suspend when idle.
Storage: EUR 0.03 per GB per month, no egress fees. Prices ex-VAT.
New workspaces get EUR 200 in credits for 30 days without a card; afterwards a free floor of xs warehouses (one running at a time, two warehouses, 5 credits a month that renew; storage on free workspaces is purged after 30 days of inactivity). A Sovereign tier (dedicated nodes, Dutch data-residency terms, customer-managed keys, audit exports) is by contact.. EUR 200 in credits for 30 days, no credit card; free floor afterwards (xs warehouses, 5 credits a month).
Who is Molinia best for?
Small regulated teams wanting a Dutch managed DuckDB warehouse. It is the only entry here that bundles ingest, transformation, orchestration and governance on DuckDB with public per-credit prices.
What are the drawbacks of Molinia?
No ISO or SOC certification stated. Newer and smaller than Exasol, Aiven or Scaleway, with no customer references shown. Closed product built on DuckDB, a single-node engine, so very large workloads are unproven. Terms cap liability at the greater of 12 months of fees or EUR 100.
Is Molinia a good alternative to Snowflake?
Molinia is built as a European alternative to Snowflake: Dutch DuckDB-based data platform with ingest, SQL, pipelines and governance, run in Amsterdam. It will not be a like-for-like feature match in every respect, so check the review above for where the two genuinely differ before switching.
How does Molinia compare to other Data Warehouse tools?
Molinia is one of several European Data Warehouse tools we cover. It is most often compared with Snowflake, Databricks.