head to head · open source
rocksdb vs Activeloop
rocksdb has 32,114 GitHub stars, 6,933 forks, 1,645 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Activeloop has 9,241 stars, 722 forks, 66 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. rocksdb leads on adoption by 248% (32,114 vs 9,241 stars). rocksdb is written in C++ under GPL-2.0; Activeloop is written in C++ under Apache-2.0. rocksdb has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, Activeloop 8%. rocksdb 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
| rocksdb | Activeloop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 32K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | C++ | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-05-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 722 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rocksdb if
- You weight community size — 32K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Activeloop if
- You want the Activeloop 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 Activeloop fits your workflow better
About rocksdb
RocksDB is an embeddable, persistent key value store written in C++ and developed by the Facebook Database Engineering Team. It is a library rather than a standalone server, and it forms the core building block for a fast key value server. The project builds on earlier work on LevelDB by Sanjay Ghemawat and Jeff Dean, and it lives in the systems infrastructure and database ecosystem, carrying the topics database and storage engine. It has been public for roughly fourteen years and is dual licensed under GPLv2 and Apache 2.0, so a user may select either license at their option.
read the full rocksdb overview →
About Activeloop
Activeloop Deep Lake is an open source database for AI data, written in C++ under Apache 2.0. It presents itself as a tensor database and AI data runtime for agents, combining serverless Postgres with a multimodal datalake for scalable retrieval and training. The project lives in the machine learning infrastructure ecosystem.
read the full Activeloop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rocksdb or Activeloop more popular?
rocksdb has 32,114 GitHub stars and Activeloop has 9,241. rocksdb has the larger community by that measure.
Are rocksdb and Activeloop free?
Both are open source. rocksdb is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Activeloop under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rocksdb and Activeloop?
rocksdb is written in C++ and Activeloop 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, rocksdb or Activeloop?
Choose rocksdb if you want the larger community (32,114 stars) or its GPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Activeloop if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.