head to head · open source
etcd vs TimescaleDb
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars, 10,552 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TimescaleDb has 23,788 stars, 1,184 forks, 389 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 120% (52,441 vs 23,788 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; TimescaleDb is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, TimescaleDb 5%. TimescaleDb 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| etcd | TimescaleDb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| 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 TimescaleDb if
- You want the TimescaleDb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and TimescaleDb 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 TimescaleDb
TimescaleDB is a PostgreSQL extension for high performance real time analytics on time series and event data Quick Start with TimescaleDB Get started with TimescaleDB in under 10 minutes. This guide will help you run TimescaleDB locally, create your first hypertable with columnstore enabled, write data to the columnstore, and see instant analytical query performance. What You'll Learn How to run TimescaleDB with a one line install or Docker command How to create a hypertable with columnstore enabled How to insert data directly to the columnstore How to execute analytical queries Prerequisites Docker installed on…
read the full TimescaleDb overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Databases projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Databases field.
Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or TimescaleDb more popular?
etcd has 52,441 GitHub stars and TimescaleDb has 23,788. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and TimescaleDb free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0, and TimescaleDb has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between etcd and TimescaleDb?
etcd is written in Go and TimescaleDb 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 TimescaleDb?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,441 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TimescaleDb if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.