head to head · open source
etcd vs aleph
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,504 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. aleph has 2,432 stars, 362 forks, 371 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 2,049% (52,270 vs 2,432 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; aleph is written in JavaScript under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, aleph 15%. 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 | aleph | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-02-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 362 |
| 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 aleph if
- You want the aleph feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and aleph 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 aleph
Aleph is an MIT licensed open source search and browsing tool for large collections of documents and structured data. It indexes PDF, Word, HTML, CSV, XLS, and SQL inputs so users can search mixed evidence sources in one tool. The project lives in the open source data search, graph database, investigative journalism, and OSINT ecosystem, and it is built with investigative reporting as a primary use case.
read the full aleph overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or aleph more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and aleph has 2,432. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and aleph free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and aleph under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and aleph?
etcd is written in Go and aleph in JavaScript. 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 aleph?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose aleph if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.