whichdb
vs

kdb+ vs quasardb

kdb+: Column-store time-series engine with the q language, a fixture of capital-markets tick data. quasardb: Distributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data.

key differences

  • Horizontal scaling is manual in kdb+ and native in quasardb.
  • Transactions: kdb+ offers limited ACID; quasardb offers full.
  • Only kdb+ has json, stored procedures, pub/sub, in-memory, encryption at rest.
  • Only quasardb has transactions.

choose kdb-plus for

  • +Equities, FX and futures tick capture
  • +Trade surveillance and best-execution analysis
  • +Quant research on historical market data
  • +Real-time risk and P&L

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

choose quasardb for

  • +Capital-markets tick and order-book history
  • +Industrial and IoT sensor telemetry
  • +Backtesting and quantitative research over long histories
  • +Edge collection with central analytics

best at · Time-series, Tick data, IoT

kdb+Column-store time-series engine with the q language, a fixture of capital-markets tick data.
quasardbDistributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data.
overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP, Relational
Columnar / OLAP, Key-Value
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
KX
QuasarDB SAS
First release
2003
2009
Latest version
KDB-X 5.0.20261015 (Oct 15, 2026)
3.14.3 (Sep 2026)
License
ProprietaryCommercial; KDB-X Community Edition free with resource limits
ProprietaryProprietary (client APIs BSD-licensed)
Free tier
✓
—
popularity
WhichDB Score
31.8
6.6
Rank
#75
#359
GitHub stars
–
–
Stack Overflow questions
2.3K
–
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Horizontal scaling
Manual
Native
Multi-region
None
None
ACID
Limited
Full
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Strict
Architecture
In memory, Single node, Client server
Distributed, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
✓
—
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
—
✓
Clouds
AWS
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
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
q, qSQL, Python (PyKX)
SQL-like query language with time-series extensions
Client languages
Python, Java, C, C#
Python, Java, Go, C#, C, C++
Best for
Tick data, Time-series, Real-time analytics, Streaming
Time-series, Tick data, IoT, Real-time analytics
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

kdb+ vs quasardb: FAQ

What is the difference between kdb+ and quasardb?

kdb+: Column-store time-series engine with the q language, a fixture of capital-markets tick data. quasardb: Distributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data. Horizontal scaling is manual in kdb+ and native in quasardb. Transactions: kdb+ offers limited ACID; quasardb offers full. Only kdb+ has json, stored procedures, pub/sub, in-memory, encryption at rest.

When should I choose kdb+ over quasardb?

Choose kdb+ for equities, FX and futures tick capture; trade surveillance and best-execution analysis; and quant research on historical market data. Choose quasardb for capital-markets tick and order-book history; industrial and IoT sensor telemetry; and backtesting and quantitative research over long histories.

Is kdb+ or quasardb more popular?

kdb+ ranks #75 on the WhichDB Score (31.8/100) and quasardb ranks #359 (6.6/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are kdb+ and quasardb open source?

No. kdb+ is proprietary, closed-source software. License: Commercial; KDB-X Community Edition free with resource limits. No. quasardb is proprietary, closed-source software.