head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs arc
ClickHouse has 49,959 GitHub stars, 8,971 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. arc has 676 stars, 52 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 7,290% (49,959 vs 676 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; arc is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, arc 8%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (ai, analytics, database), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| ClickHouse | arc | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 676 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 52 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ClickHouse if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick arc if
- You want the arc feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and arc fits your workflow better
About ClickHouse
ClickHouse is an open source, column oriented database management system written in C++ that delivers real time analytical query performance on massive datasets. It operates within the broader data infrastructure ecosystem, serving as a high performance alternative to traditional row oriented databases for OLAP workloads.
read the full ClickHouse overview →
About arc
Arc is an open, SQL native time series database, released under AGPL 3.0, for engineers and platform teams who need to keep full resolution telemetry from machines, services, vehicles, and devices and still query recent and historical data together in one system.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or arc more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,959 GitHub stars and arc has 676. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and arc free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and arc under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and arc?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and arc in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, ClickHouse or arc?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,959 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose arc if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.