head to head · open source
etcd vs TimescaleDb
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,504 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TimescaleDb has 23,540 stars, 1,150 forks, 389 open issues and last shipped yesterday. etcd leads on adoption by 122% (52,270 vs 23,540 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%. 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 | TimescaleDb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 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 TimescaleDb
TimescaleDB is a time series database built on top of PostgreSQL and packaged as a PostgreSQL extension. It lives in the PostgreSQL ecosystem, and it uses SQL and PostgreSQL clients such as psql and pgAdmin. The project targets high performance real time analytics on time series and event data, with repository topics for IoT, financial analysis, and historian workloads.
read the full TimescaleDb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or TimescaleDb more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and TimescaleDb has 23,540. 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 (52,270 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.