head to head · open source
etcd vs flyway
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. flyway has 10,183 stars, 1,634 forks, 258 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 415% (52,441 vs 10,183 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; flyway is written in Java under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, flyway 16%. etcd 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 | flyway | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 10K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 flyway if
- You want the flyway 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 flyway 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 flyway
Flyway by Redgate Database Migrations Made Easy. Evolve your database schema easily and reliably across all your instances. Simple, focused and powerful. Works on Windows, macOS, Linux, Docker and Java Supported build tools Maven and Gradle Supported databases Supports 50+ DBMS, including: Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, Snowflake, Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Azure Synapse, SAP HANA (including SAP HANA Cloud), SQLite, IBM DB2 LUW, Amazon Aurora MySQL, Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL, Google Cloud Spanner, SingleStoreDB, CockroachDB, TimescaleDB, Babelfish, Cassandra, Couchbase, Fabric…
read the full flyway overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or flyway more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and flyway has 10,183. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and flyway free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and flyway under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and flyway?
etcd is written in Go and flyway 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 flyway?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose flyway if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.