head to head · open source
etcd vs automem
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,504 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. automem has 813 stars, 105 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 6,329% (52,270 vs 813 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; automem is written in Python under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, automem 13%. 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 | automem | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 813 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 105 |
| 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 automem if
- You want the automem feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and automem 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 automem
AutoMem is an open source, MIT licensed long term memory service for AI assistants that stores decisions, preferences, notes, and context in a graph plus vector database so connected tools such as Claude, Cursor, Codex, and ChatGPT can recall them across sessions.
read the full automem overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or automem more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and automem has 813. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and automem free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and automem under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and automem?
etcd is written in Go and automem in Python. 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 automem?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose automem if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.