head to head · open source
TiDB vs lowdb
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars, 6,243 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped today. lowdb has 22,580 stars, 962 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 6 months ago. TiDB leads on adoption by 80% (40,553 vs 22,580 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; lowdb is written in JavaScript under MIT. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, lowdb 4%. TiDB 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
| TiDB | lowdb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 23K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-03-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 962 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TiDB if
- You weight community size — 41K 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 lowdb if
- You want the lowdb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and lowdb fits your workflow better
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.
About lowdb
lowdb is a small, MIT licensed embedded JSON database for JavaScript and TypeScript that persists data to a plain db.json file, aimed at Node.js, Electron, and browser projects that need local storage without running a database server.
read the full lowdb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or lowdb more popular?
TiDB has 40,553 GitHub stars and lowdb has 22,580. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and lowdb free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lowdb under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and lowdb?
TiDB is written in Go and lowdb in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, TiDB or lowdb?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lowdb if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.