InfluxDB vs QuestDB

InfluxDB: Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.

key differences

InfluxDB is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB).
Horizontal scaling is native in InfluxDB and none in QuestDB.
Transactions: InfluxDB offers none ACID; QuestDB offers limited.
Only InfluxDB has triggers.
Only QuestDB has secondary indexes, materialized views, online schema changes.
InfluxDB has a serverless option; QuestDB 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 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

InfluxDBPurpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3.

QuestDBColumnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.

overview

Primary model

Time-Series

Also supports

Columnar / OLAP

Columnar / OLAP, Relational

Type

Database engine

Status

Active

Developer

InfluxData

QuestDB

First release

2013

2019

Latest version

3.12.1 (Oct 15, 2026)

10.1.0 (Oct 22, 2026)

License

Open source (permissive)MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial

Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial

Free tier

✓

popularity

WhichDB Score

51.0

34.1

Rank

#24

#60

GitHub stars

31.8K

17.5K

Stack Overflow questions

2.9K

282

scale & guarantees

Comfortable data size

Large (≤ 1 PB)

Medium (≤ 10 TB)

Horizontal scaling

Native

None

Multi-region

Read replicas

ACID

None

Limited

Consistency

Eventual

Strong

Schema

Flexible

Architecture

Single node, Distributed, Shared storage, Client server

Single node, Primary replica, Client server

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

Client languages

Go, Python, Java, JavaScript, C#

Java, Python, Go, Rust, C, C++, C#, JavaScript

Best for

Time-series, Observability, IoT, Real-time analytics

Time-series, Tick data, Real-time analytics, IoT

Add more to this comparison Not sure either fits? Try smart match

InfluxDB vs QuestDB: FAQ

What is the difference between InfluxDB and QuestDB?

InfluxDB: Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates. InfluxDB is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is native in InfluxDB and none in QuestDB. Transactions: InfluxDB offers none ACID; QuestDB offers limited.

When should I choose InfluxDB over QuestDB?

Choose InfluxDB for infrastructure and application metrics; IoT sensor telemetry; and industrial equipment monitoring at the edge. Choose QuestDB for market data and order book analytics; trading and risk dashboards; and industrial and aerospace telemetry.

Is InfluxDB or QuestDB more popular?

InfluxDB ranks #24 on the WhichDB Score (51.0/100) and QuestDB ranks #60 (34.1/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are InfluxDB and QuestDB open source?

Yes. InfluxDB is open source. License: MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial. Yes. QuestDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial.