head to head · open source
etcd vs postgres
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped today. postgres has 8,730 stars, 374 forks, 303 open issues and last shipped 16 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 499% (52,270 vs 8,730 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; postgres is written in JavaScript under Unlicense. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, postgres 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 | postgres | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 8.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Unlicense |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 374 |
| 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 postgres if
- You want the postgres feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Unlicense license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and postgres 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 postgres
Postgres.js is a full featured PostgreSQL client for JavaScript and TypeScript runtimes — Node.js, Deno, Bun and Cloudflare — published to npm as postgres , and it is aimed at developers who need to query a PostgreSQL database from application code without adopting a heavier ORM or query builder.
read the full postgres overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or postgres more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and postgres has 8,730. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and postgres free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and postgres under Unlicense. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and postgres?
etcd is written in Go and postgres 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 postgres?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose postgres if its feature set, stack or Unlicense licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.