head to head · open source
etcd vs age
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. age has 4,927 stars, 543 forks, 249 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 964% (52,441 vs 4,927 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; age is written in C under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, age 11%. etcd 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
| etcd | age | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 543 |
| 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 age if
- You want the age feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and age fits your workflow better
About etcd
etcd Note : The main branch may be in an unstable or even broken state during development. For stable versions, see [releases][github release]. etcd is a distributed reliable key value store for the most critical data of a distributed system, with a focus on being: Simple : well defined, user facing API (gRPC) Secure : automatic TLS with optional client cert authentication Fast : benchmarked 10,000 writes/sec Reliable : properly distributed using Raft etcd is written in Go and uses the [Raft][] consensus algorithm to manage a highly available replicated log. etcd is used in production by many companies, and the…
About age
is a leading multi model graph database Graph Processing & Analytics for Relational Databases What is Apache AGE? Apache AGE is an extension for PostgreSQL that enables users to leverage a graph database on top of the existing relational databases. AGE is an acronym for A Graph Extension and is inspired by Bitnine's AgensGraph, a multi model database fork of PostgreSQL. The basic principle of the project is to create a single storage that handles both the relational and graph data model so that the users can use the standard ANSI SQL along with openCypher, one of the most popular graph query languages today…
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or age more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and age has 4,927. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and age free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and age under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and age?
etcd is written in Go and age 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 age?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose age if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.