head to head · open source
etcd vs dolt
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dolt has 24,801 stars, 911 forks, 583 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 111% (52,441 vs 24,801 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; dolt is written in Go under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, dolt 4%. dolt 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.
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Side by side
| etcd | dolt | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 25K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 911 |
| 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 dolt if
- You want the dolt feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and dolt 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 dolt
Dolt is Git for Data! Dolt is a SQL database that you can fork, clone, branch, merge, push and pull just like a Git repository. Connect to Dolt just like any MySQL database to read or modify schema and data. Version control functionality is exposed in SQL via system tables, functions, and procedures. Or, use the Git like command line interface to import CSV files, commit your changes, push them to a remote, or merge your teammate's changes. All the commands you know for Git work exactly the same for Dolt. Git versions files. Dolt versions tables. It's like Git and MySQL had a baby. We also built DoltHub, a place…
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or dolt more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and dolt has 24,801. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and dolt free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dolt under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and dolt?
etcd is written in Go and dolt 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, etcd or dolt?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dolt if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.