Timeplus Proton
activeby Timeplus Inc. · since 2023 · also known as Proton, Timeplus
A single C++ binary for streaming SQL, built on ClickHouse's engine with streams and windows.
Overview
Proton is Timeplus's open-source streaming SQL engine, derived from a single-node ClickHouse codebase and extended with a native stream storage, watermarks, tumble/hop/session windows, changelog streams and incremental materialized views. It reads and writes Kafka, Redpanda, Pulsar, ClickHouse, Postgres/MySQL and S3/Iceberg, and ships as one binary with no JVM or ZooKeeper. Proton 3.0 (late 2025) brought large performance gains, and patch releases continue. The commercial Timeplus Enterprise adds clustering, a UI and alerting.
Strengths & trade-offs
Strengths
- +One lightweight binary, no JVM or ZooKeeper
- +Combines streaming and historical columnar queries in one SQL
- +Rich windowing and watermark semantics
- +Python/JavaScript UDFs and native Kafka/ClickHouse connectors
Trade-offs
- −Open-source edition is single-node only
- −Smaller community than Flink, RisingWave or Materialize
- −ClickHouse dialect differs from Postgres SQL
Great for
- +Streaming ETL from Kafka into ClickHouse
- +Real-time observability and security analytics
- +Edge or single-box streaming pipelines
Think twice for
- −Horizontally scaled open-source streaming
- −Postgres-compatible tooling
Capabilities
Native or official first-party support · 8 of 25 tracked
Scale & consistency
- Comfortable data size
- Small · ≤ 100 GB
- Horizontal scaling
- None
- Multi-region
- No
- Transactions
- None
- Consistency
- Eventual
- Schema
- Strict
- Architecture
- Single node, Client server
- Query languages
- SQL (ClickHouse dialect with streaming extensions)
Open-source Proton is single-node; clustering requires Timeplus Enterprise.
Deployment
Ecosystem
Alternatives to Timeplus Proton
An Apache-licensed, Postgres-compatible streaming database that stores state on S3 and writes Iceberg.
timeplus-proton vs risingwave →A Postgres-compatible operational data warehouse that keeps SQL views incrementally up to date.
timeplus-proton vs materialize →A Rust stream processor with SQL pipelines, now owned by Cloudflare and powering Cloudflare Pipelines.
timeplus-proton vs arroyo →Confluent's SQL layer over Kafka Streams, still supported but superseded by Flink SQL for new work.
timeplus-proton vs ksqldb →Open-source columnar OLAP database known for very fast aggregations over billions of rows.
timeplus-proton vs clickhouse →PostgreSQL extension adding hypertables, columnar compression and continuous aggregates for time series.
timeplus-proton vs timescaledb →Timeplus Proton FAQ
What is Timeplus Proton?
Timeplus Proton is a columnar / OLAP database by Timeplus Inc., first released in 2023. Proton is Timeplus's open-source streaming SQL engine, derived from a single-node ClickHouse codebase and extended with a native stream storage, watermarks, tumble/hop/session windows, changelog streams and incremental materialized views. It reads and writes Kafka, Redpanda, Pulsar, ClickHouse, Postgres/MySQL and S3/Iceberg, and ships as one binary with no JVM or ZooKeeper. Proton 3.0 (late 2025) brought large performance gains, and patch releases continue. The commercial Timeplus Enterprise adds clustering, a UI and alerting.
Is Timeplus Proton open source?
Yes. Timeplus Proton is open source. License: Apache License 2.0.
Does Timeplus Proton support ACID transactions?
No. Timeplus Proton does not provide ACID transactions; its consistency model is eventual.
Does Timeplus Proton scale horizontally?
Timeplus Proton does not scale horizontally; it runs on a single node, so you scale it up rather than out. It is comfortable at small scale (≤ 100 GB).
How can I run Timeplus Proton?
You can self-host it and use the vendor's managed cloud.
What is Timeplus Proton best for?
Timeplus Proton is a strong fit for streaming ETL from Kafka into ClickHouse; real-time observability and security analytics; and edge or single-box streaming pipelines. Think twice for horizontally scaled open-source streaming.
What are the best alternatives to Timeplus Proton?
Common alternatives to Timeplus Proton include RisingWave, Materialize, Arroyo, ksqlDB and ClickHouse. The right choice depends on your workload, scale and hosting; WhichDB's smart match ranks them against your requirements.
How popular is Timeplus Proton?
Timeplus Proton ranks #199 of 844 databases on the WhichDB Score (16.6/100), and #20 among columnar / OLAP databases. The score combines public adoption signals such as package downloads, GitHub activity, job posts and developer discussion.