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Citus vs YugabyteDB

Citus: Postgres extension that shards tables across nodes for multi-tenant SaaS and real-time analytics. YugabyteDB: Apache-licensed distributed SQL that reuses the PostgreSQL query layer on a Raft-replicated storage engine.

key differences

  • Licensing: Citus is open source (copyleft) (GNU AGPL v3); YugabyteDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0).
  • Only Citus has geospatial, columnar storage.
  • Only YugabyteDB has ttl / expiry, encryption at rest.

choose citus for

  • +Multi-tenant B2B SaaS sharded by customer
  • +Real-time analytics dashboards over event data
  • +Time-series and IoT ingestion with rollups
  • +Scaling an existing Postgres app without changing databases

best at · OLTP, Real-time analytics, HTAP

choose yugabytedb for

  • +Scaling a Postgres application beyond one primary
  • +Multi-region customer and order data with zone/region resilience
  • +Retail and financial OLTP needing horizontal write capacity
  • +IoT and telemetry metadata with TTL on YCQL tables

best at · OLTP, Metadata, IoT

CitusPostgres extension that shards tables across nodes for multi-tenant SaaS and real-time analytics.
YugabyteDBApache-licensed distributed SQL that reuses the PostgreSQL query layer on a Raft-replicated storage engine.
overview
Primary model
Relational
Relational
Also supports
Document, Columnar / OLAP, Spatial
Document, Wide-Column, Vector
Type
Extension
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Microsoft (Citus Data)
Yugabyte, Inc.
First release
2016
2017
Latest version
14.3.0 (Oct 23, 2026)
2026.1.2.0 (Sep 22, 2026)
License
Open source (copyleft)GNU AGPL v3
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
21.1
32.7
Rank
#144
#69
GitHub stars
12.8K
10.6K
Stack Overflow questions
149
370
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
Active active
ACID
Full
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong, Tunable
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Distributed, Multi primary, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
Azure
AWS, Google Cloud, Azure
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, PL/pgSQL
SQL, PL/pgSQL, CQL
Client languages
Java, Python, JavaScript, Go, Ruby, C#, PHP, Rust
Java, Go, Python, JavaScript, C#, Rust, Ruby, C++
Best for
OLTP, Real-time analytics, HTAP, Time-series
OLTP, Metadata, IoT, Vector search
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Citus vs YugabyteDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Citus and YugabyteDB?

Citus: Postgres extension that shards tables across nodes for multi-tenant SaaS and real-time analytics. YugabyteDB: Apache-licensed distributed SQL that reuses the PostgreSQL query layer on a Raft-replicated storage engine. Licensing: Citus is open source (copyleft) (GNU AGPL v3); YugabyteDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0). Only Citus has geospatial, columnar storage. Only YugabyteDB has ttl / expiry, encryption at rest.

When should I choose Citus over YugabyteDB?

Choose Citus for multi-tenant B2B SaaS sharded by customer; real-time analytics dashboards over event data; and time-series and IoT ingestion with rollups. Choose YugabyteDB for scaling a Postgres application beyond one primary; multi-region customer and order data with zone/region resilience; and retail and financial OLTP needing horizontal write capacity.

Is Citus or YugabyteDB more popular?

YugabyteDB ranks #69 on the WhichDB Score (32.7/100) and Citus ranks #144 (21.1/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Citus and YugabyteDB open source?

Yes. Citus is open source. License: GNU AGPL v3. Yes. YugabyteDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.