head to head · open source
etcd vs pgrust
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pgrust has 5,072 stars, 191 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 931% (52,270 vs 5,072 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pgrust is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, pgrust 4%. pgrust 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 | pgrust | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 5.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 191 |
| 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 pgrust if
- You want the pgrust feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and pgrust 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 pgrust
pgrust is an AGPL 3.0 Rust re implementation of PostgreSQL that is wire compatible and SQL dialect compatible with Postgres, aimed at engineers who want to see what Postgres would look like if it were built in 2026.
read the full pgrust overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or pgrust more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and pgrust has 5,072. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and pgrust free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pgrust under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and pgrust?
etcd is written in Go and pgrust 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 pgrust?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pgrust if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.