head to head · open source
Prometheus vs TimescaleDb
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars, 10,840 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TimescaleDb has 23,540 stars, 1,150 forks, 389 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Prometheus leads on adoption by 181% (66,106 vs 23,540 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; TimescaleDb is written in C under a custom or non-standard licence. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, TimescaleDb 5%. TimescaleDb was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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
| Prometheus | TimescaleDb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 24K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 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 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 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 Prometheus or TimescaleDb more popular?
Prometheus has 66,106 GitHub stars and TimescaleDb has 23,540. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and TimescaleDb free?
Both are open source. Prometheus 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 Prometheus and TimescaleDb?
Prometheus is written in Go 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, Prometheus or TimescaleDb?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,106 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.