whichdb
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quasardb vs QuestDB

quasardb: Distributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.

key differences

  • Licensing: quasardb is proprietary (Proprietary (client APIs BSD-licensed)); QuestDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial).
  • quasardb is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB).
  • Horizontal scaling is native in quasardb and none in QuestDB.
  • Transactions: quasardb offers full ACID; QuestDB offers limited.
  • Only quasardb has transactions.
  • Only QuestDB has materialized views, ttl / expiry, role-based access, online schema changes.

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

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

quasardbDistributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data.
QuestDBColumnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.
overview
Primary model
Time-Series
Time-Series
Also supports
Columnar / OLAP, Key-Value
Columnar / OLAP, Relational
Type
Database engine
Database engine
Status
Active
Active
Developer
QuasarDB SAS
QuestDB
First release
2009
2019
Latest version
3.14.3 (Sep 2026)
10.1.0 (Oct 22, 2026)
License
ProprietaryProprietary (client APIs BSD-licensed)
Open source (permissive)Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial
Free tier
—
✓
popularity
WhichDB Score
6.6
34.1
Rank
#359
#60
GitHub stars
–
17.5K
Stack Overflow questions
–
282
scale & guarantees
Comfortable data size
Large (≤ 1 PB)
Medium (≤ 10 TB)
Horizontal scaling
Native
None
Multi-region
None
Read replicas
ACID
Full
Limited
Consistency
Strong
Strong
Schema
Strict
Flexible
Architecture
Distributed, Client server
Single node, Primary replica, Client server
deployment
Self-hosted
✓
✓
Vendor-managed cloud
—
✓
Serverless
—
—
Embedded
—
—
Edge
✓
—
Clouds
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
SQL-like query language with time-series extensions
SQL
Client languages
Python, Java, Go, C#, C, C++
Java, Python, Go, Rust, C, C++, C#, JavaScript
Best for
Time-series, Tick data, IoT, Real-time analytics
Time-series, Tick data, Real-time analytics, IoT
Add more to this comparisonNot sure either fits? Try smart match

quasardb vs QuestDB: FAQ

What is the difference between quasardb and QuestDB?

quasardb: Distributed columnar time-series database, now sold as Quasar, for tick, sensor and industrial data. QuestDB: Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates. Licensing: quasardb is proprietary (Proprietary (client APIs BSD-licensed)); QuestDB is open source (permissive) (Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial). quasardb is built for larger datasets (≤ 1 PB) than QuestDB (≤ 10 TB). Horizontal scaling is native in quasardb and none in QuestDB.

When should I choose quasardb over QuestDB?

Choose quasardb for capital-markets tick and order-book history; industrial and IoT sensor telemetry; and backtesting and quantitative research over long histories. Choose QuestDB for market data and order book analytics; trading and risk dashboards; and industrial and aerospace telemetry.

Is quasardb or QuestDB more popular?

QuestDB ranks #60 on the WhichDB Score (34.1/100) and quasardb ranks #359 (6.6/100). Popularity is not fit: check the requirements that matter for your project.

Are quasardb and QuestDB open source?

No. quasardb is proprietary, closed-source software. Yes. QuestDB is open source. License: Apache License 2.0 (open source); Enterprise is commercial.