head to head · open source
etcd vs Dragonfly
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Dragonfly has 31,579 stars, 1,264 forks, 308 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 66% (52,270 vs 31,579 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Dragonfly is written in C++ under a custom or non-standard licence. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, Dragonfly 4%. etcd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, key-value), 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| etcd | Dragonfly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 32K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick etcd if
- You weight community size — 52K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Dragonfly if
- You want the Dragonfly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Dragonfly fits your workflow better
About etcd
etcd is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Go written distributed key value store that holds the most critical data of a distributed system in a Raft replicated log, aimed at the platform and infrastructure engineers who must keep that control plane data consistent and available.
About Dragonfly
Dragonfly is a C++ in memory data store that speaks the Redis and Memcached APIs, built for teams that want more throughput and lower resource use from an existing cache or key value workload without changing application code.
read the full Dragonfly overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or Dragonfly more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and Dragonfly has 31,579. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and Dragonfly free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Dragonfly has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between etcd and Dragonfly?
etcd is written in Go and Dragonfly 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, etcd or Dragonfly?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Dragonfly if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.