head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs postgres
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars, 8,970 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. postgres has 8,730 stars, 374 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 472% (49,952 vs 8,730 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; postgres is written in JavaScript under Unlicense. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, postgres 4%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | C++ | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 374 |
| 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 postgres if
- You want the postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postgres 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 postgres
Postgres.js is a full featured PostgreSQL client for JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes — Node.js, Deno, Bun and Cloudflare — published to npm as postgres , and it is aimed at developers who need to query a PostgreSQL database from application code without adopting a heavier ORM or query builder.
read the full postgres overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or postgres more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars and postgres has 8,730. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and postgres free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and postgres under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and postgres?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and postgres in JavaScript. 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 postgres?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,952 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose postgres if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.