head to head · open source
etcd vs orbitdb
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. orbitdb has 8,823 stars, 594 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 494% (52,441 vs 8,823 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; orbitdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, orbitdb 7%. 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 | orbitdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 8.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-05-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 594 |
| 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 orbitdb if
- You want the orbitdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and orbitdb 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 orbitdb
OrbitDB OrbitDB is a serverless, distributed, peer to peer database . OrbitDB uses IPFS as its data storage and Libp2p Pubsub to automatically sync databases with peers. It's an eventually consistent database that uses Merkle CRDTs for conflict free database writes and merges making OrbitDB an excellent choice for p2p and decentralized apps, blockchain applications and local first web applications. OrbitDB provides various types of databases for different data models and use cases: events : an immutable (append only) log with traversable history. Useful for "latest N" use cases or as a message queue. documents…
read the full orbitdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or orbitdb more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and orbitdb has 8,823. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and orbitdb free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and orbitdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and orbitdb?
etcd is written in Go and orbitdb 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 orbitdb?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose orbitdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.