head to head · open source
etcd vs libhv
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped today. libhv has 7,551 stars, 1,365 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 592% (52,270 vs 7,551 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 | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| 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 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 libhv
libhv is a cross platform C/C++ network library for building TCP, UDP, SSL/TLS, HTTP, WebSocket, MQTT, and Redis clients and servers, written for developers who want the non blocking event loop model of libevent, libev, or libuv with a simpler API and more protocols built in.
read the full libhv overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or libhv more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and libhv has 7,551. 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 (52,270 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.