head to head · open source
etcd vs zeppelin
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars, 10,506 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped yesterday. zeppelin has 6,656 stars, 2,838 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. etcd leads on adoption by 685% (52,270 vs 6,656 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; zeppelin is written in Java under Apache-2.0. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, zeppelin 43%. 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 | zeppelin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 6.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 zeppelin if
- You want the zeppelin feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and zeppelin 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 zeppelin
Apache Zeppelin is a web based notebook for interactive, collaborative data analytics in SQL, Scala, and more, built for data engineers, analysts, and data scientists working in Java based big data environments.
read the full zeppelin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or zeppelin more popular?
etcd has 52,270 GitHub stars and zeppelin has 6,656. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and zeppelin free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zeppelin under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and zeppelin?
etcd is written in Go and zeppelin in Java. 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 zeppelin?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,270 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zeppelin if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.