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Cortex vs FiloDB

Cortex: CNCF multi-tenant, horizontally scalable long-term storage for Prometheus metrics on object storage. FiloDB: Distributed in-memory time-series database with PromQL, ingesting from Kafka and persisting to Cassandra.

key differences

  • Cortex is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than FiloDB (≤ 1 PB).
  • Only Cortex has ttl / expiry.
  • Only FiloDB has secondary indexes, columnar storage, in-memory.

choose cortex for

  • +Internal metrics-as-a-service for many teams
  • +Long-term Prometheus storage on object storage
  • +Multi-tenant SaaS monitoring backends

best at · Observability, Time-series

choose filodb for

  • +Large-scale operational metrics for dashboards and alerting
  • +Long-retention Prometheus-compatible storage at high cardinality
  • +Real-time event and application-metric debugging

best at · Time-series, Observability, Real-time analytics

CortexCNCF multi-tenant, horizontally scalable long-term storage for Prometheus metrics on object storage.
FiloDBDistributed in-memory time-series database with PromQL, ingesting from Kafka and persisting to Cassandra.
overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
–
Columnar / OLAP
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
Cortex community (CNCF)
FiloDB contributors (started by Evan Chan)
First release
2016
2015
Latest version
1.21.1 (Jun 5, 2026)
0.9.17.2 (Nov 18, 2022)
License
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0
Free tier
✓
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
7.2
2.2
Rank
#347
#489
GitHub stars
5.9K
1.5K
Stack Overflow questions
–
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Massive (Multi-PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
None
None
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Schemaless
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Shared storage
Distributed, In memory
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
—
Clouds
–
–
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
PromQL
PromQL
Client languages
–
–
Best for
Observability, Time-series
Time-series, Observability, Real-time analytics
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

Cortex vs FiloDB: FAQ

What is the difference between Cortex and FiloDB?

Cortex: CNCF multi-tenant, horizontally scalable long-term storage for Prometheus metrics on object storage. FiloDB: Distributed in-memory time-series database with PromQL, ingesting from Kafka and persisting to Cassandra. Cortex is built for larger datasets (Multi-PB) than FiloDB (≤ 1 PB). Only Cortex has ttl / expiry. Only FiloDB has secondary indexes, columnar storage, in-memory.

When should I choose Cortex over FiloDB?

Choose Cortex for internal metrics-as-a-service for many teams, long-term Prometheus storage on object storage and multi-tenant SaaS monitoring backends. Choose FiloDB for large-scale operational metrics for dashboards and alerting; long-retention Prometheus-compatible storage at high cardinality; and real-time event and application-metric debugging.

Is Cortex or FiloDB more popular?

Cortex ranks #347 on the WhichDB Score (7.2/100) and FiloDB ranks #489 (2.2/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are Cortex and FiloDB open source?

Yes. Cortex is open source. License: Apache License 2.0. Yes. FiloDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.