head to head · open source
etcd vs knex
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,504 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. knex has 20,344 stars, 2,222 forks, 751 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 157% (52,270 vs 20,344 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; knex is written in JavaScript under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, knex 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 | knex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 20K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-06-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.2K |
| 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 knex if
- You want the knex feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and knex 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 knex
Knex is an open source SQL query builder for Node.js that targets PostgreSQL, MariaDB, MySQL, CockroachDB, Microsoft SQL Server, SQLite3 and Oracle, and it is aimed at JavaScript and TypeScript developers who need one query API across several database engines instead of hand written SQL per dialect.
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or knex more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and knex has 20,344. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and knex free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and knex under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and knex?
etcd is written in Go and knex in JavaScript. 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 knex?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose knex if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.