head to head · open source
Prometheus vs TiDB
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TiDB has 40,541 stars, 6,242 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 63% (66,106 vs 40,541 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, TiDB 15%. TiDB was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| Prometheus | TiDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 41K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 6.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Prometheus if
- You weight community size — 66K 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 TiDB if
- You want the TiDB feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and TiDB fits your workflow better
About Prometheus
Prometheus is an open source monitoring system and time series database, part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation ecosystem. It collects metrics from configured targets at defined intervals, evaluates alerting rules, and visualizes results. Designed for reliability in dynamic environments, it operates without reliance on distributed storage, ensuring each server node functions independently.
read the full Prometheus overview →
About TiDB
TiDB is an open source, cloud native, distributed SQL database written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, aimed at teams that need ACID transactions, real time analytics, and vector search at scale without data silos.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or TiDB more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and TiDB has 40,541. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and TiDB free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and TiDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and TiDB?
Prometheus is written in Go and TiDB 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, Prometheus or TiDB?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose TiDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.