head to head · open source
etcd vs lowdb
etcd has 52,276 GitHub stars, 10,510 forks, 351 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. lowdb has 22,580 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. etcd leads on adoption by 132% (52,276 vs 22,580 stars). etcd is written in Go under Apache-2.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. etcd has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, lowdb 4%. 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 | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 52K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 962 |
| 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 lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb 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 lowdb
lowdb is a small, MIT licensed embedded JSON database for JavaScript and TypeScript that persists data to a plain db.json file, aimed at Node.js, Electron, and browser projects that need local storage without running a database server.
read the full lowdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is etcd or lowdb more popular?
etcd has 52,276 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,580. etcd has the larger community by that measure.
Are etcd and lowdb free?
Both are open source. etcd is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between etcd and lowdb?
etcd is written in Go and lowdb in JavaScript. 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 lowdb?
Choose etcd if you want the larger community (52,276 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.