head to head · open source
etcd vs ubicloud
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped today. ubicloud has 12,267 stars, 587 forks, 95 open issues and last shipped today. etcd leads on adoption by 326% (52,270 vs 12,267 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; ubicloud is written in Ruby under AGPL-3.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, ubicloud 5%. ubicloud was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (kubernetes), 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 | ubicloud | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 587 |
| 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 ubicloud if
- You want the ubicloud feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and ubicloud 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 ubicloud
Ubicloud is an open source cloud platform that delivers IaaS features — elastic compute, non replicated block storage, firewall and load balancer, managed Postgres, Kubernetes, AI inference, and IAM services — on bare metal hardware, for teams that want public cloud convenience without closed source lock in or premium rental pricing.
read the full ubicloud overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or ubicloud more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and ubicloud has 12,267. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and ubicloud free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ubicloud under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and ubicloud?
etcd is written in Go and ubicloud in Ruby. 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 ubicloud?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ubicloud if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.