head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs TiDB
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars, 8,970 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. TiDB has 40,542 stars, 6,242 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped today. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 23% (49,952 vs 40,542 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, TiDB 15%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (ai, cloud-native, database, hacktoberfest), 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 | TiDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 41K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 6.2K |
| 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 TiDB if
- You want the TiDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and TiDB 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 TiDB
TiDB is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, aimed at teams that need ACID transactions, real time analytics, and vector search at scale without data silos.
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or TiDB more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars and TiDB has 40,542. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and TiDB free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0 and TiDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and TiDB?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and TiDB 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 TiDB?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,952 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TiDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.