head to head · open source
InfluxDB vs mysql
InfluxDB has 31,794 GitHub stars, 3,857 forks, 2,165 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. mysql has 15,276 stars, 2,339 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. InfluxDB leads on adoption by 108% (31,794 vs 15,276 stars). InfluxDB is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; mysql is written in Go under MPL-2.0. InfluxDB has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, mysql 15%. InfluxDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (database, go), 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
| InfluxDB | mysql | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.9K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick InfluxDB if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick mysql if
- You want the mysql feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and mysql fits your workflow better
About InfluxDB
InfluxDB 3 Core Open source time series database for real time events, analytics, and monitoring powered by Apache Arrow, DataFusion, and Parquet. InfluxDB 3 Core is a database built to collect, process, transform, and store event and time series data. It is ideal for use cases that require real time ingest and fast query response times to build user interfaces, monitoring, and automation solutions. Common use cases include: Monitoring sensor data Server monitoring Application performance monitoring Network monitoring Financial market and trading analytics Behavioral analytics InfluxDB is optimized for scenarios…
read the full InfluxDB overview →
About mysql
Go MySQL Driver A MySQL Driver for Go's database/sql package Features Requirements Installation Usage DSN (Data Source Name) Password Protocol Address Parameters Examples Connection pool and timeouts context.Context Support ColumnType Support LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE support time.Time support Unicode support Testing / Development License Features Lightweight and fast Native Go implementation. No C bindings, just pure Go Connections over TCP/IPv4, TCP/IPv6, Unix domain sockets or custom protocols Automatic handling of broken connections Automatic Connection Pooling (by database/sql package) Supports queries larger…
read the full mysql overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is InfluxDB or mysql more popular?
InfluxDB has 31,794 GitHub stars and mysql has 15,276. InfluxDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are InfluxDB and mysql free?
Both are open source. InfluxDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and mysql under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between InfluxDB and mysql?
InfluxDB is written in Rust and mysql in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, InfluxDB or mysql?
Choose InfluxDB if you want the larger community (31,794 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose mysql if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.