head to head · open source
etcd vs libhv
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. libhv has 7,571 stars, 1,371 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 593% (52,441 vs 7,571 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; libhv is written in C under BSD-3-Clause. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, libhv 18%. 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 | libhv | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 7.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| 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 libhv if
- You want the libhv feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and libhv 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 libhv
English 中文 libhv Like libevent, libev, and libuv , libhv provides event loop with non blocking IO and timer, but simpler api and richer protocols. ✨ Features Cross platform (Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, BSD, Solaris) High performance EventLoop (IO, timer, idle, custom, signal) TCP/UDP client/server/proxy TCP supports heartbeat, reconnect, upstream, MultiThread safe write and close, etc. Built in common unpacking modes (FixedLength, Delimiter, LengthField) RUDP support: WITH KCP SSL/TLS support: (via WITH OPENSSL or WITH GNUTLS or WITH MBEDTLS) HTTP client/server (support https http1/x http2 grpc) HTTP…
read the full libhv overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or libhv more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and libhv has 7,571. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and libhv free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and libhv under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and libhv?
etcd is written in Go and libhv in C. 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 libhv?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose libhv if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.