head to head · open source
etcd vs TDengine
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,504 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TDengine has 25,121 stars, 5,018 forks, 434 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 108% (52,270 vs 25,121 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; TDengine is written in C under AGPL-3.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, TDengine 20%. 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 | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 25K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 5.0K |
| 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 TDengine if
- You want the TDengine feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and TDengine 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 TDengine
TDengine is an open source, cloud native time series database written in C and licensed under AGPL 3.0, designed for IoT, connected car and Industrial IoT workloads that ingest TB and even PB scale data per day from billions of sensors and data collectors.
read the full TDengine overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or TDengine more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and TDengine has 25,121. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and TDengine free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and TDengine under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and TDengine?
etcd is written in Go and TDengine in C. 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 TDengine?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TDengine if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.