head to head · open source
etcd vs flipper
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flipper has 3,973 stars, 447 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 1,220% (52,441 vs 3,973 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; flipper is written in Ruby under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, flipper 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 | flipper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 447 |
| 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 flipper if
- You want the flipper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and flipper 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 flipper
Website Documentation Examples Chat Twitter Ruby.social Flipper Beautiful, performant feature flags for Ruby and Rails. Flipper gives you control over who has access to features in your app. Enable or disable features for everyone, specific actors, groups of actors, a percentage of actors, or a percentage of time. Configure your feature flags from the console or a web UI. Regardless of what data store you are using, Flipper can performantly store your feature flags. Use Flipper Cloud to cascade features from multiple environments, share settings with your team, control permissions, keep an audit history, and…
read the full flipper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or flipper more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and flipper has 3,973. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and flipper free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and flipper under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and flipper?
etcd is written in Go and flipper in Ruby. 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 flipper?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose flipper if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.