All these catalogs speak one protocol, so the choice rests on operations and governance, not engine support; Project Nessie and Lakekeeper switched catalogs with a URI and one copy job.
| Need | Good fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Learning, tests, CI | Iceberg 129 REST fixture | One container, no setup, no auth |
| Small self-hosted team | Lakekeeper | One binary; signing, OpenFGA |
| Multi-table branches | Nessie | Catalog-wide commits and merges |
| Apache governance, RBAC | Apache Polaris 129 | Catalog roles, vending, federation |
| Delta tables, files, models | Unity Catalog OSS | One namespace for data and AI |
| Fully managed | Glue, S3 Tables, Open Catalog | No servers (Managed Lakehouse Platforms) |
For BookNest, a small team on one host, Lakekeeper is the production pick: the smallest footprint measured here, real authentication and authorization, and remote signing so no engine holds MinIO 30,943 's keys. Nessie is the alternative if multi-table publishes become necessary. The rest of this chapter keeps l1-iceberg-rest so earlier listings run unchanged. Whatever you choose, back up its database, enable authentication from day one, and test client upgrades against it.