head to head · open source
InfluxDB vs TimescaleDb
InfluxDB has 31,748 GitHub stars, 3,718 forks, 2,165 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TimescaleDb has 23,543 stars, 1,151 forks, 389 open issues and last shipped yesterday. InfluxDB leads on adoption by 35% (31,748 vs 23,543 stars). InfluxDB is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; TimescaleDb is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. InfluxDB has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, TimescaleDb 5%. 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, time-series), 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 | TimescaleDb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.7K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 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 InfluxDB
InfluxDB 3 Core is an open source time series database purpose built for real time ingestion, processing, and querying of event and metrics data. It lives in the InfluxDB ecosystem and is the latest major version, generally available since April 2025. Built with Rust and leveraging Apache Arrow, DataFusion, and Parquet, it replaces older versions (v1.x, v2.x) with a new architecture optimized for low latency analytics and interactive workloads.
read the full InfluxDB overview →
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 InfluxDB or TimescaleDb more popular?
InfluxDB has 31,748 GitHub stars and TimescaleDb has 23,543. InfluxDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are InfluxDB and TimescaleDb free?
Both are open source. InfluxDB 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 InfluxDB and TimescaleDb?
InfluxDB is written in Rust 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, InfluxDB or TimescaleDb?
Choose InfluxDB if you want the larger community (31,748 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.