head to head · open source
ClickHouse vs TimescaleDb
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars, 8,970 forks, 7,547 open issues and last shipped today. TimescaleDb has 23,543 stars, 1,151 forks, 389 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ClickHouse leads on adoption by 112% (49,952 vs 23,543 stars). ClickHouse is written in C++ under Apache-2.0; TimescaleDb is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. ClickHouse has attracted 18% as many forks as stars, TimescaleDb 5%. ClickHouse was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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 | TimescaleDb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | C++ | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.0K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 TimescaleDb if
- You want the TimescaleDb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and TimescaleDb 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 TimescaleDb
TimescaleDB is a time series database built on top of PostgreSQL and packaged as a PostgreSQL extension. It lives in the PostgreSQL ecosystem, and it uses SQL and PostgreSQL clients such as psql and pgAdmin. The project targets high performance real time analytics on time series and event data, with repository topics for IoT, financial analysis, and historian workloads.
read the full TimescaleDb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is ClickHouse or TimescaleDb more popular?
ClickHouse has 49,952 GitHub stars and TimescaleDb has 23,543. ClickHouse has the larger community by that measure.
Are ClickHouse and TimescaleDb free?
Both are open source. ClickHouse is licensed under Apache-2.0, and TimescaleDb has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between ClickHouse and TimescaleDb?
ClickHouse is written in C++ and TimescaleDb in C. 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 TimescaleDb?
Choose ClickHouse if you want the larger community (49,952 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TimescaleDb if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.