InfluxDB
activeby InfluxData · since 2013 · also known as InfluxDB 3, InfluxDB 3 Core, InfluxDB 3 Enterprise, Influx
Purpose-built time-series database, rebuilt in Rust on Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet for version 3.
Overview
InfluxDB is InfluxData's purpose-built time-series database and probably the most widely deployed one. Version 3 is a ground-up rewrite in Rust on the FDAP stack (Arrow Flight, DataFusion, Arrow, Parquet): writes land in a WAL, are persisted as Parquet on object storage or local disk, and are queried with SQL or InfluxQL. The open-source Core edition (MIT/Apache-2.0) is a single node aimed at recent data, while the commercial Enterprise edition adds clustering, high availability, compaction for long-range queries and RBAC. Teams on 1.x or 2.x should plan a real migration, because Flux is not carried forward into v3.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +Accepts line protocol and the v1/v2 write APIs, so Telegraf and existing agents keep working on v3
- +Parquet on object storage makes long retention cheap and readable by other Arrow/Parquet tools
- +Full SQL through Apache DataFusion, plus InfluxQL for existing dashboards
- +Embedded Python processing engine runs transforms, downsampling and alerts on write or on a schedule
- +Large ecosystem: Telegraf's 300+ input plugins and first-class Grafana support
Trade-offs
- −Flux is not supported in v3, so 2.x users must rewrite Flux queries in SQL or InfluxQL
- −Clustering, high availability and long-range compaction are Enterprise-only
- −Three generations (1.x, 2.x, 3.x) with different APIs and docs cause confusion
- −No transactions; updates and deletes are coarse compared with a relational database
Great for
- +Infrastructure and application metrics
- +IoT sensor telemetry
- +Industrial equipment monitoring at the edge
- +Real-time Grafana dashboards
- +Downsampling and alerting pipelines with Python plugins
Think twice for
- −Transactional application data
- −Full-text log search
- −Workloads that rely on Flux scripts
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 8 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Large · ≤ 1 PB
- Horizontal scaling
- Native
- Multi-region
- Read replicas
- Transactions
- None
- Consistency
- Eventual
- Schema
- Flexible
- Architecture
- Single node, Distributed, Shared storage, Client server
- Query languages
- SQL, InfluxQL
Core is single-node. Enterprise and InfluxDB Clustered separate ingest, query and compaction nodes over shared object storage.
Deployment
available on · AWS · Google Cloud · Azure
Ecosystem
Alternatives to InfluxDB
PostgreSQL extension adding hypertables, columnar compression and continuous aggregates for time series.
influxdb vs timescaledb →Columnar time-series SQL database built for market data and very high ingest rates.
influxdb vs questdb →Resource-frugal, Prometheus-compatible metrics database, run as a single binary or a sharded cluster.
influxdb vs victoriametrics →CNCF-graduated pull-based monitoring system with a local TSDB, PromQL and alerting rules.
influxdb vs prometheus →Industrial-IoT time-series database with a table-per-device model and built-in streaming and caching.
influxdb vs tdengine →Rust observability database that keeps metrics, logs and traces in one columnar engine on object storage.
influxdb vs greptimedb →InfluxDB FAQ
What is InfluxDB?
InfluxDB is a time-series database by InfluxData, first released in 2013. InfluxDB is InfluxData's purpose-built time-series database and probably the most widely deployed one. Version 3 is a ground-up rewrite in Rust on the FDAP stack (Arrow Flight, DataFusion, Arrow, Parquet): writes land in a WAL, are persisted as Parquet on object storage or local disk, and are queried with SQL or InfluxQL. The open-source Core edition (MIT/Apache-2.0) is a single node aimed at recent data, while the commercial Enterprise edition adds clustering, high availability, compaction for long-range queries and RBAC. Teams on 1.x or 2.x should plan a real migration, because Flux is not carried forward into v3.
Is InfluxDB open source?
Yes. InfluxDB is open source. License: MIT or Apache-2.0 (Core); Enterprise is commercial.
Does InfluxDB support ACID transactions?
No. InfluxDB does not provide ACID transactions; its consistency model is eventual.
Does InfluxDB scale horizontally?
InfluxDB scales horizontally out of the box, with built-in sharding or partitioning. It is comfortable at large scale (≤ 1 PB). It supports cross-region read replicas.
How can I run InfluxDB?
You can self-host it, use the vendor's managed cloud, run it serverless and run it at the edge. Managed offerings include InfluxDB Cloud Serverless, InfluxDB Cloud Dedicated and Amazon Timestream for InfluxDB. It is available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure.
What is InfluxDB best for?
InfluxDB is a strong fit for infrastructure and application metrics; IoT sensor telemetry; and industrial equipment monitoring at the edge. Think twice for transactional application data.
What are the best alternatives to InfluxDB?
Common alternatives to InfluxDB include TimescaleDB, QuestDB, VictoriaMetrics, Prometheus and TDengine. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is InfluxDB?
InfluxDB ranks #24 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (51.0/100), and #2 among time-series databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.