head to head · open source
etcd vs Neon Postgres
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Neon Postgres has 23,292 stars, 1,132 forks, 558 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 125% (52,441 vs 23,292 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Neon Postgres is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, Neon Postgres 5%. 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 | Neon Postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-08-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Neon Postgres if
- You want the Neon Postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Neon Postgres 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 Neon Postgres
Neon Neon is an open source serverless Postgres database platform. It separates storage and compute and substitutes the PostgreSQL storage layer by redistributing data across a cluster of nodes. Quick start Try the Neon Free Tier to create a serverless Postgres instance. Then connect to it with your preferred Postgres client (psql, dbeaver, etc) or use the online SQL Editor. See Connect from any application for connection instructions. Alternatively, compile and run the project locally. Architecture overview A Neon installation consists of compute nodes and the Neon storage engine. Compute nodes are stateless…
read the full Neon Postgres overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or Neon Postgres more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and Neon Postgres has 23,292. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and Neon Postgres free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Neon Postgres under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and Neon Postgres?
etcd is written in Go and Neon Postgres in Rust. 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 Neon Postgres?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Neon Postgres if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.