head to head · open source
shardingsphere vs Addax
shardingsphere has 20,817 GitHub stars, 6,906 forks, 197 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Addax has 1,453 stars, 342 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped yesterday. shardingsphere leads on adoption by 1,333% (20,817 vs 1,453 stars). shardingsphere is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Addax is written in Java under Apache-2.0. shardingsphere has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, Addax 24%. shardingsphere 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
| shardingsphere | Addax | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 342 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shardingsphere if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Addax if
- You want the Addax feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Addax fits your workflow better
About shardingsphere
Apache ShardingSphere Enterprise Distributed Database Ecosystem Building the standards and ecosystem on top of heterogeneous databases, empowering enterprise data architecture transformation Official Website: OVERVIEW Apache ShardingSphere is positioned as Database Plus , a standard and ecosystem built on top of heterogeneous databases. As an operating system layer above databases, ShardingSphere does not create new databases but focuses on maximizing the computing capabilities of existing databases, providing unified data access and enhanced computing capabilities. Database Plus Core Concept : By building a…
read the full shardingsphere overview →
About Addax
Addax A versatile open source ETL tool Addax is an extensible ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool supporting over 20 SQL/NoSQL data sources, forked from Alibaba's DataX , which has been frozen since 2023 — Addax is its actively maintained successor. It provides a growing ecosystem of plugins and offers easy to follow configuration for data integrations. 简体中文 🚀 Features Supports 20+ SQL and NoSQL data sources, and easily extendable for more. Configurable via simple JSON based job descriptions. Actively maintained with improved architecture and added functionality compared to DataX. Docker images for quick…
read the full Addax overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shardingsphere or Addax more popular?
shardingsphere has 20,817 GitHub stars and Addax has 1,453. shardingsphere has the larger community by that measure.
Are shardingsphere and Addax free?
Both are open source. shardingsphere is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Addax under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shardingsphere and Addax?
shardingsphere is written in Java and Addax in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, shardingsphere or Addax?
Choose shardingsphere if you want the larger community (20,817 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Addax if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.