head to head · open source
etcd vs cassandra
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cassandra has 10,096 stars, 4,118 forks, 529 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 418% (52,270 vs 10,096 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; cassandra is written in Java under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, cassandra 41%. cassandra was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (database), 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 | cassandra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 4.1K |
| 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 cassandra if
- You want the cassandra feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and cassandra 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 cassandra
Apache Cassandra is an open source transactional distributed database written in Java and licensed under Apache 2.0, for users who need linear scalability and proven fault tolerance on commodity hardware or cloud infrastructure without compromising performance.
read the full cassandra 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 cassandra more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and cassandra has 10,096. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and cassandra free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cassandra under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and cassandra?
etcd is written in Go and cassandra in Java. 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 cassandra?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cassandra if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.