head to head · open source
etcd vs redigo
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped today. redigo has 9,853 stars, 1,232 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 430% (52,270 vs 9,853 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; redigo is written in Go under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, redigo 13%. etcd was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), 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 | redigo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 redigo if
- You want the redigo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and redigo 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 redigo
Redigo is an Apache 2.0 licensed Go client library for the Redis and Valkey databases, built for Go developers who need a small, dependency free way to connect their own applications to a Redis compatible server.
read the full redigo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or redigo more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and redigo has 9,853. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and redigo free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and redigo under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and redigo?
etcd is written in Go and redigo in Go. 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 redigo?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose redigo if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.