head to head · open source
kafka vs Timeplus
kafka has 33,750 GitHub stars, 15,521 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Timeplus has 2,260 stars, 112 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kafka leads on adoption by 1,393% (33,750 vs 2,260 stars). kafka is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Timeplus is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. kafka has attracted 46% as many forks as stars, Timeplus 5%. kafka was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| kafka | Timeplus | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 34K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 16K | ⑂ 112 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kafka if
- You weight community size — 34K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Timeplus if
- You want the Timeplus feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and Timeplus fits your workflow better
About kafka
Apache Kafka is an open source distributed event streaming platform, written in Java and Scala, for organizations that need high performance data pipelines, streaming analytics, data integration, and mission critical applications.
read the full kafka overview →
About Timeplus
Timeplus Proton is an open source stream processing engine written in C++ and released under the Apache 2.0 license. It is presented as a single binary SQL pipeline engine for real time analytics, observability, ETL, and AI context. It lives in the messaging and event streaming ecosystem, with topic links to Kafka, ClickHouse, Flink, ksqlDB, Iceberg, and observability.
read the full Timeplus overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kafka or Timeplus more popular?
kafka has 33,750 GitHub stars and Timeplus has 2,260. kafka has the larger community by that measure.
Are kafka and Timeplus free?
Both are open source. kafka is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Timeplus under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kafka and Timeplus?
kafka is written in Java and Timeplus 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, kafka or Timeplus?
Choose kafka if you want the larger community (33,750 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Timeplus if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.