vs

InfluxDB vs OSIsoft PI

InfluxDB: Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3. OSIsoft PI: The dominant industrial data historian: time-series storage plus asset context for plants and grids.

key differences

  • Licensing: InfluxDB is open source (permissive) (MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial); OSIsoft PI is proprietary (Commercial (AVEVA)).
  • Horizontal scaling is native in InfluxDB and manual in OSIsoft PI.
  • Transactions: InfluxDB offers none ACID; OSIsoft PI offers limited.
  • Only InfluxDB has joins, triggers, ttl / expiry, columnar storage.
  • InfluxDB has a serverless option; OSIsoft PI does not.

choose influxdb for

  • +Infrastructure and application metrics
  • +IoT sensor telemetry
  • +Industrial equipment monitoring at the edge
  • +Real-time Grafana dashboards

best at · Time-series, Observability, IoT

choose osisoft-pi for

  • +Plant and process historian for OT data
  • +Grid, pipeline and utility network monitoring
  • +Equipment condition monitoring and predictive maintenance feeds
  • +Regulatory records of operational data

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

overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP
Hierarchical
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
InfluxData
AVEVA (formerly OSIsoft)
First release
2013
1980
Latest version
3.12.1 (Oct 15, 2026)
–
License
Open source (permissive)MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial
ProprietaryCommercial (AVEVA)
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
51.0
6.4
Rank
#24
#362
GitHub stars
31.8K
–
Stack Overflow questions
2.9K
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
Manual
Multi-region
Read replicas
Read replicas
ACID
None
Limited
Consistency
Eventual
Eventual
Schema
Flexible
Strict
Architecture
Single node, Distributed, Shared storage, Client server
Client server, Primary replica
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
✓
Serverless
✓
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
✓
—
Clouds
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, InfluxQL
SQL (PI SQL Data Access), PI Performance Equations
Client languages
Go, Python, Java, JavaScript, C#
.NET, REST
Best for
Time-series, Observability, IoT, Real-time analytics
Time-series, IoT, Real-time analytics

InfluxDB vs OSIsoft PI: FAQ

What is the difference between InfluxDB and OSIsoft PI?

InfluxDB: Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3. OSIsoft PI: The dominant industrial data historian: time-series storage plus asset context for plants and grids. Licensing: InfluxDB is open source (permissive) (MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial); OSIsoft PI is proprietary (Commercial (AVEVA)). Horizontal scaling is native in InfluxDB and manual in OSIsoft PI. Transactions: InfluxDB offers none ACID; OSIsoft PI offers limited.

When should I choose InfluxDB over OSIsoft PI?

Choose InfluxDB for infrastructure and application metrics; IoT sensor telemetry; and industrial equipment monitoring at the edge. Choose OSIsoft PI for plant and process historian for OT data; grid, pipeline and utility network monitoring; and equipment condition monitoring and predictive maintenance feeds.

Is InfluxDB or OSIsoft PI more popular?

InfluxDB ranks #24 on the WhichDB Score (51.0/100) and OSIsoft PI ranks #362 (6.4/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are InfluxDB and OSIsoft PI open source?

Yes. InfluxDB is open source. License: MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial. No. OSIsoft PI is proprietary, closed-source software. License: Commercial (AVEVA).