head to head · open source
Prometheus vs toydb
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars, 10,839 forks, 890 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. toydb has 7,283 stars, 624 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Prometheus leads on adoption by 808% (66,109 vs 7,283 stars). Prometheus is written in Go under Apache-2.0; toydb is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Prometheus has attracted 16% as many forks as stars, toydb 9%. Prometheus 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
| Prometheus | toydb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 7.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 11K | ⑂ 624 |
| 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 toydb if
- You want the toydb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and toydb 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 toydb
toyDB is a distributed SQL database written in Rust as an educational project, aimed at developers and students who want to read and run a working system that shows how Raft consensus, MVCC transactions, and a SQL query engine fit together.
read the full toydb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Prometheus or toydb more popular?
Prometheus has 66,109 GitHub stars and toydb has 7,283. Prometheus has the larger community by that measure.
Are Prometheus and toydb free?
Both are open source. Prometheus is licensed under Apache-2.0 and toydb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Prometheus and toydb?
Prometheus is written in Go and toydb in Rust. 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 toydb?
Choose Prometheus if you want the larger community (66,109 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose toydb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.