--- title: The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon,... description: A comprehensive comparison of Apache Iceberg catalog options in mid-2026: Apache Polaris (now an ASF Top-Level Project), Snowflake Open Catalog (soft-sunset... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon, Open Catalog, Polaris, Glue and Nessie Compared | daily.dev og:description: A comprehensive comparison of Apache Iceberg catalog options in mid-2026: Apache Polaris (now an ASF Top-Level Project), Snowflake Open Catalog (soft-sunset... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/Hog2Inqqf.png og:image:alt: The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon, Open Catalog, Polaris, Glue and Nessie Compared og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon, Open Catalog, Polaris, Glue and Nessie Compared **[Snowflake Community](https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm)** · 17 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A comprehensive comparison of Apache Iceberg catalog options in mid-2026: Apache Polaris (now an ASF Top-Level Project), Snowflake Open Catalog (soft-sunset for new signups), Snowflake Horizon Catalog (now Snowflake's recommended catalog, absorbing both governance and Iceberg REST catalog duties), AWS Glue Data Catalog (with documented REST API gaps like no UpdateTable, no v3 table creation, no credential vending), and Project Nessie (being merged into and eventually retired in favor of Polaris). The piece argues the catalog landscape is consolidating around the Iceberg REST spec rather than fragmenting, highlights credential vending as the key differentiator, and offers a decision framework based on where an organization's governance perimeter lives, plus a real-world federated multi-catalog architecture pattern. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Should I use Snowflake Open Catalog or Horizon Catalog for a new Iceberg lakehouse setup? Use Horizon Catalog for new builds. Snowflake now steers new customers toward Horizon, and accounts that have never created an Open Catalog can no longer sign up for a first one; existing Open Catalog customers can keep using and creating more, but it is no longer the recommended path for greenfield deployments. Horizon also now speaks the Iceberg REST protocol outward, absorbing Open Catalog's interoperability role alongside its governance features. _Teams weighing Snowflake catalog options can track fast-moving Iceberg ecosystem changes on daily.dev._ ### What is happening to Project Nessie and should I still adopt it for data branching? Nessie is being merged into Apache Polaris and will be retired as a standalone product once read/write parity is reached; Dremio has publicly committed to treating Polaris as its catalog going forward. Choosing Nessie now is effectively adopting Polaris-with-branching early rather than betting on a permanently separate product, though Nessie's Git-like multi-table atomicity and true write-audit-publish model remain the best fit for data CI/CD, rollback, and ML reproducibility needs today. _Anyone planning a data CI/CD workflow can follow how Nessie's branching features migrate into Polaris via daily.dev._ ### What are the limitations of AWS Glue Data Catalog's Iceberg REST endpoint compared to Polaris or Horizon? Glue's Iceberg REST endpoint does not support the UpdateTable API for Iceberg tables, cannot create Iceberg v3 tables via CreateTable (only v1 and v2), does not vend credentials so every engine needs its own IAM credentials, and each Glue catalog is regional requiring extra configuration for cross-region access. These gaps matter once a non-AWS engine or v3 workload enters the picture, unlike Polaris and Horizon which vend short-lived scoped storage credentials. _Architects choosing between Glue, Polaris, and Horizon for multi-engine catalogs can weigh these trade-offs on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Choosing an Apache Iceberg Catalog](https://daily.dev/posts/choosing-an-apache-iceberg-catalog-a4aissubf) · Dremio Blog · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Open Interoperability Standard: Why Bidirectional Iceberg REST Matters](https://daily.dev/posts/the-open-interoperability-standard-why-bidirectional-iceberg-rest-matters-t1vcdckvz) · Snowflake · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Apache Polaris Architecture Explained](https://daily.dev/posts/apache-polaris-architecture-explained-txzywei9p) · Dremio Blog · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Iceberg Needs an Open Catalog, Not a Walled Garden](https://daily.dev/posts/iceberg-needs-an-open-catalog-not-a-walled-garden-znv0xeptl) · SingleStore · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Deep Dive into Apache Iceberg Architecture: The Three Layers That Power Your Lakehouse](https://daily.dev/posts/deep-dive-into-apache-iceberg-architecture-the-three-layers-that-power-your-lakehouse-qs9rmltso) · Snowflake Community · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#snowflake](https://daily.dev/tags/snowflake), [#apache-iceberg](https://daily.dev/tags/apache-iceberg) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon, Open Catalog, Polaris, Glue and Nessie Compared","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf"},"datePublished":"2026-08-20T15:05:43.093Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:31:08.644Z","description":"A comprehensive comparison of Apache Iceberg catalog options in mid-2026: Apache Polaris (now an ASF Top-Level Project), Snowflake Open Catalog (soft-sunset...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8513f10fae46e1b2b9d7ee340f817a35?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/8513f10fae46e1b2b9d7ee340f817a35?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Snowflake Community","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Snowflake Community","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/3eb5260f70bb4653be0f9581c0d937c8","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"aws,snowflake,apache-iceberg","timeRequired":"PT17M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Snowflake Community","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/snowflake_comm"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Iceberg Catalog Layer Explained: Snowflake Horizon, Open Catalog, Polaris, Glue and Nessie Compared"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/the-iceberg-catalog-layer-explained-snowflake-horizon-open-catalog-polaris-glue-and-nessie-compa-hog2inqqf#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Should I use Snowflake Open Catalog or Horizon Catalog for a new Iceberg lakehouse setup?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Use Horizon Catalog for new builds. 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