head to head · open source
etcd vs pgrust
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pgrust has 5,731 stars, 221 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 815% (52,441 vs 5,731 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%. 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 | pgrust | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 221 |
| 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 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 pgrust
pgrust A Rust rewrite of Postgres that's faster than Postgres and ClickHouse. Try pgrust in your browser → Discord Updates Issues New: Video of Michael's talk at PlanetScale on pgrust — and the slides. How AI Changes the Economics of JIT Compilers What's new in v0.3. pgrust is a re implementation of Postgres meant to show what Postgres would look like if it was built in 2026. It is wire compatible and even SQL dialect compatible with Postgres. It passes all 46,066 tests in Postgres' regression suite. For the story of why we're building it, see pgrust: rebuilding Postgres in Rust with AI. Every line is Rust…
read the full pgrust overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or pgrust more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and pgrust has 5,731. 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 (52,441 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.