head to head · open source
TiDB vs QuestDB
TiDB has 40,541 GitHub stars, 6,242 forks, 6,976 open issues and last shipped yesterday. QuestDB has 17,326 stars, 1,647 forks, 952 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TiDB leads on adoption by 134% (40,541 vs 17,326 stars). TiDB is written in Go under Apache-2.0; QuestDB is written in Java under Apache-2.0. TiDB has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, QuestDB 10%. 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 | QuestDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 41K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.2K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 QuestDB if
- You want the QuestDB 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 QuestDB 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 QuestDB
QuestDB open source time series database. Java, Apache 2.0, category Infrastructure & Operations / Databases. Lives in open source database ecosystem for massive data scale, low latency, real time analytics.
read the full QuestDB overview →
More in Infrastructure & Operations
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Frequently asked questions
Is TiDB or QuestDB more popular?
TiDB has 40,541 GitHub stars and QuestDB has 17,326. TiDB has the larger community by that measure.
Are TiDB and QuestDB free?
Both are open source. TiDB is licensed under Apache-2.0 and QuestDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TiDB and QuestDB?
TiDB is written in Go and QuestDB 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, TiDB or QuestDB?
Choose TiDB if you want the larger community (40,541 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose QuestDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.