vs

Amazon Timestream vs QuestDB

Amazon Timestream: AWS time-series services: managed InfluxDB today, with serverless LiveAnalytics closed to new customers. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.

key differences

  • Licensing: Amazon Timestream is proprietary (Proprietary AWS service (InfluxDB engine is open source)); QuestDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial).
  • Amazon Timestream is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is native in Amazon Timestream and none in QuestDB.
  • Transactions: Amazon Timestream offers none ACID; QuestDB offers limited.
  • Only Amazon Timestream has encryption at rest.
  • Only QuestDB has secondary indexes, materialized views, columnar storage, online schema changes.
  • Amazon Timestream has a serverless option; QuestDB does not.

choose amazon-timestream for

  • +IoT telemetry on AWS IoT Core
  • +Managed InfluxDB without running servers
  • +Operational metrics for AWS-hosted apps

best at · Time-series, IoT, Observability

choose questdb for

  • +Market data and order book analytics
  • +Trading and risk dashboards
  • +Industrial and aerospace telemetry
  • +Crypto exchange tick storage

best at · Time-series, Tick data, Real-time analytics

overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
–
Columnar / OLAP, Relational
Type
Managed service
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Amazon Web Services
QuestDB
First release
2020
2019
Latest version
–
10.1.0 (Oct 22, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary AWS service (InfluxDB engine is open source)
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
3.5
34.1
Rank
#433
#60
GitHub stars
–
17.5K
Stack Overflow questions
155
282
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
None
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
None
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Strong
Schema
Flexible
Flexible
Architecture
Serverless, Distributed
Single node, Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
—
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
AWS
–
capabilities
Transactions
—
—
Joins
✓
✓
Secondary indexes
—
✓
Full-text search
—
—
Vector search
—
—
Geospatial
—
—
JSON
—
—
Change data capture
—
—
Triggers
—
—
Stored procedures
—
—
Materialized views
—
✓
TTL / expiry
✓
✓
Pub/Sub
—
—
Columnar storage
—
✓
In-memory
—
—
Durable persistence
✓
✓
Compression
✓
✓
Encryption at rest
✓
—
Role-based access
✓
✓
Time travel
—
—
Branching
—
—
Online schema changes
—
✓
Streaming ingest
✓
✓
Offline sync
—
—
Runs in WebAssembly
—
—
interfaces
Query languages
SQL, InfluxQL, Flux
SQL
Client languages
Java, Python, Go, JavaScript, C#, C++
Java, Python, Go, Rust, C, C++, C#, JavaScript
Best for
Time-series, IoT, Observability, Real-time analytics
Time-series, Tick data, Real-time analytics, IoT

Amazon Timestream vs QuestDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Amazon Timestream and QuestDB?

Amazon Timestream: AWS time-series services: managed InfluxDB today, with serverless LiveAnalytics closed to new customers. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates. Licensing: Amazon Timestream is proprietary (Proprietary AWS service (InfluxDB engine is open source)); QuestDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial). Amazon Timestream is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is native in Amazon Timestream and none in QuestDB.

When should I choose Amazon Timestream over QuestDB?

Choose Amazon Timestream for IoT telemetry on AWS IoT Core, managed InfluxDB without running servers and operational metrics for AWS-hosted apps. Choose QuestDB for market data and order book analytics; trading and risk dashboards; and industrial and aerospace telemetry.

Is Amazon Timestream or QuestDB more popular?

QuestDB ranks #60 on the WhichDB Score (34.1/100) and Amazon Timestream ranks #433 (3.5/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Amazon Timestream and QuestDB open source?

No. Amazon Timestream is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. QuestDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial.