head to head · open source
duckdb vs BillionMail
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars, 3,798 forks, 858 open issues and last shipped yesterday. BillionMail has 15,611 stars, 1,702 forks, 239 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. duckdb leads on adoption by 165% (41,440 vs 15,611 stars). duckdb is written in C++ under MIT; BillionMail is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. duckdb has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, BillionMail 11%. duckdb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| duckdb | BillionMail | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 16K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C++ | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick duckdb if
- You weight community size — 41K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick BillionMail if
- You want the BillionMail 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 BillionMail fits your workflow better
About duckdb
DuckDB is an analytical, in process SQL database management system written in C++ and released under the MIT license. It runs inside the application process rather than as a separate server, and it is distributed as a standalone command line application as well as through clients for Python, R, Java, and WebAssembly. The project lives in the analytical SQL ecosystem, where the topics listed for it are analytics, database, embedded database, OLAP, and SQL. It has been developed for about eight years, with the last push recorded on 15 September 2026.
read the full duckdb overview →
About BillionMail
BillionMail is an open source mail server, newsletter, and email marketing platform that runs entirely on infrastructure the operator controls. It is written in Go and released under the AGPL 3.0 license, and it lives in the self hosted email and marketing ecosystem alongside the mail transfer and delivery components it bundles, including Postfix, Dovecot, and Rspamd. The project ships as a complete stack rather than a single binary, combining a sending server, a campaign manager, and a webmail client so that one deployment covers transactional mail, promotional campaigns, and newsletters.
read the full BillionMail overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is duckdb or BillionMail more popular?
duckdb has 41,440 GitHub stars and BillionMail has 15,611. duckdb has the larger community by that measure.
Are duckdb and BillionMail free?
Both are open source. duckdb is licensed under MIT and BillionMail under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between duckdb and BillionMail?
duckdb is written in C++ and BillionMail 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, duckdb or BillionMail?
Choose duckdb if you want the larger community (41,440 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose BillionMail if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.