head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs arc
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars, 9,204 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. arc has 689 stars, 57 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 7,261% (50,719 vs 689 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%. arc 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 | ★ 51K | ★ 689 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 57 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick ClickHouse if
- You weight community size — 51K 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 that allows generating analytical data reports in real time. How To Install (Linux, macOS, FreeBSD) Useful Links Official website has a quick high level overview of ClickHouse on the main page. ClickHouse Cloud ClickHouse as a service, built by the creators and maintainers. Tutorial shows how to set up and query a small ClickHouse cluster. Documentation provides more in depth information. YouTube channel has a lot of content about ClickHouse in video format. ClickHouse Theater contains presentations and videos about ClickHouse. Slack and…
read the full ClickHouse overview →
About arc
Arc Open, SQL native time series database for telemetry you need to keep. Arc ingests 34M+ records/sec, stores data as standard Parquet on infrastructure you own, and lets you query recent and historical data together. InfluxDB Line Protocol and Telegraf compatible. Single binary. AGPL 3.0. Prefer a UI? Arc Launchpad is a self hosted web console for the Arc instances you run — SQL console, schema explorer, logs, monitoring, and management for tokens, retention, alerts, continuous queries, and MQTT ingestion. Deploy it alongside Arc with Docker Compose. Docs. Prefer a terminal? arcli is the Arc command line —…
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or arc more popular?
ClickHouse has 50,719 GitHub stars and arc has 689. 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 (50,719 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.