head to head · open source
etcd vs kairosdb
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kairosdb has 1,759 stars, 342 forks, 141 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 2,881% (52,441 vs 1,759 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; kairosdb is written in Java under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, kairosdb 19%. 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 | kairosdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-03-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 342 |
| 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 kairosdb if
- You want the kairosdb 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 kairosdb 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 kairosdb
KairosDB is a fast distributed scalable time series database written on top of Cassandra. Documentation Documentation is found here. Frequently Asked Questions Installing Download the latest KairosDB release. Installation instructions are found here If you want to test KairosDB in Kubernetes please follow the instructions from KairosDB Helm chart. Getting Involved Join the KairosDB discussion group. Contributing to KairosDB Contributions to KairosDB are very welcome . KairosDB is mainly developed in Java, but there's a lot of tasks for non Java programmers too, so don't feel shy and join us! What you can do for…
read the full kairosdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or kairosdb more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and kairosdb has 1,759. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and kairosdb free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and kairosdb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and kairosdb?
etcd is written in Go and kairosdb 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 kairosdb?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose kairosdb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.