Comparison

ClickHouse vs M3DB

On the evidence we track, ClickHouse leads this comparison with a composite score of 63/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

ClickHouse full profile →M3DB full profile →

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★ClickHouse63

M3DB36

Attribute comparison across 2 tools
Attribute	ClickHouseLeader	M3DB
Vioscale score	63 / 100medium · 60%	36 / 100medium · 51%
Pricing
Free tierpricing.free_tier	✓	✓
Modelpricing.model	commercial	open_source
Price levelpricing.price_level	low	free
Transparentpricing.transparent	✓	-
Integrations
Countintegrations.count	100	4
Security
Disclosure policysecurity.disclosure_policy	✓	-
Gdprsecurity.gdpr	✓	-
Hipaasecurity.hipaa	✓	-
Iso27001security.iso27001	✓	-
Pcisecurity.pci	✓	-
Scorecardsecurity.scorecard	4.9	3.3
Soc2security.soc2	✓	-
Vulnerabilitiessecurity.vulnerabilities	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2FClickHouse%2FClickHouse&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0	Count: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fm3db%2Fm3&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0
Reliability
Status pagereliability.status_page	✓	-
Adoption
Dependent reposadoption.dependent_repos	1	10
Github starsadoption.github_stars	49,464	4,895
Activity
Commits last 30dactivity.commits_last_30d	100	0
Release
Cadence daysrelease.cadence_days	-	11
Historyrelease.history	20 items	20 items
License
Spdxlicense.spdx	Apache-2.0	Apache-2.0
Language
Primarylanguage.primary	C++	Go
Market
Availabilitymarket.availability	Available worldwide	Available worldwide

Score

Vioscale score

ClickHouse63 / 100medium · 60%

M3DB36 / 100medium · 51%

Pricing

Free tier

ClickHouse✓

M3DB✓

Model

ClickHousecommercial

M3DBopen_source

Price level

ClickHouselow

M3DBfree

Transparent

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Integrations

Count

ClickHouse100

M3DB4

Security

Disclosure policy

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Gdpr

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Hipaa

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Iso27001

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Pci

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Scorecard

ClickHouse4.9

M3DB3.3

Soc2

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Vulnerabilities

ClickHouseCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2FClickHouse%2FClickHouse&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

M3DBCount: 0 · Source: https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fm3db%2Fm3&per_page=100 · Last 12m: 0

Reliability

Status page

ClickHouse✓

M3DB–

Adoption

Dependent repos

ClickHouse1

M3DB10

Github stars

ClickHouse49,464

M3DB4,895

Activity

Commits last 30d

ClickHouse100

M3DB0

Release

Cadence days

ClickHouse–

M3DB11

History

ClickHouse20 items

M3DB20 items

License

Spdx

ClickHouseApache-2.0

M3DBApache-2.0

Language

Primary

ClickHouseC++

M3DBGo

Market

Availability

ClickHouseAvailable worldwide

M3DBAvailable worldwide

Capabilities

Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for time-series databases. “-” means undocumented, not absent.

Capability comparison for Time-Series Databases
Capability	ClickHouse	M3DB
Query
Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)	SQL	PromQL, Graphite
SQL compatibility	Full SQL	Non-SQL
Ingest
Ingest model	Both	Push
Model
Data model	Both	Metrics (labels/tags)
Lifecycle
Downsampling / rollups	-	Retention policies
Retention / TTL	-	Automatic
Storage
Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)	columnar	columnar
Performance
High-cardinality handling	Strong	Strong
Scale
Clustering / horizontal scale	Distributed / sharded	Distributed / sharded
Replication / HA	✓	✓
Deployment
Deployment	Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Interop
Prometheus remote-write compatible	-	✓
Licensing
Licence class	Permissive OSS	Permissive OSS

Query

Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)

ClickHouseSQL

M3DBPromQL, Graphite

SQL compatibility

ClickHouseFull SQL

M3DBNon-SQL

Ingest

Ingest model

ClickHouseBoth

M3DBPush

Model

Data model

ClickHouseBoth

M3DBMetrics (labels/tags)

Lifecycle

Downsampling / rollups

ClickHouse-

M3DBRetention policies

Retention / TTL

ClickHouse-

M3DBAutomatic

Storage

Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)

ClickHousecolumnar

M3DBcolumnar

Performance

High-cardinality handling

ClickHouseStrong

M3DBStrong

Scale

Clustering / horizontal scale

ClickHouseDistributed / sharded

M3DBDistributed / sharded

Replication / HA

ClickHouse✓

M3DB✓

Deployment

ClickHouseSelf-hosted

M3DBSelf-hosted

Interop

Prometheus remote-write compatible

ClickHouse-

M3DB✓

Licensing

Licence class

ClickHousePermissive OSS

M3DBPermissive OSS

What each one is

The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.

ClickHouse

Leader

An open-source columnar database system designed to handle large-scale analytical workloads with extremely low latency. Excels at real-time analytics, observability (logs, metrics, traces), data warehousing, and AI/ML applications.

Independently observed

M3DB

M3 is a metrics platform consisting of a distributed time-series database, query engine, and ingestion system designed to handle massive metric volumes efficiently. It provides Prometheus and Graphite compatibility while optimizing for performance and cost efficiency through purpose-built storage and querying components.

Independently observed

Pricing

List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.

ClickHouse

Leader

from $0.22/moHybridFree tier30-day trial

From $25.30/TB/mo + $0.2181/compute unit/hr. 30-day free trial.

Basic$25.30/TB/mo + $0.2181/compute unit/hr
- Up to 1 TB storage
- 8-12 GiB total memory
- Backups every 24h, retained for 1 day
- 1 availability zone
- Export backups to own cloud account
- +4 more
Scale$25.30/TB/mo + $0.2985/compute unit/hr
- Unlimited storage
- Configurable memory
- Compute-compute separation
- Configurable backups
- 2+ availability zones
- +5 more
Enterprise$25.30/TB/mo + $0.3903/compute unit/hr
- Everything in Scale plan
- SAML SSO
- Private regions
- Manual vertical scaling for custom profiles
- Enterprise support with 30 min response time for Severity 1 issues
- +6 more

as of 2026-08-01verify ↗

M3DB

Open sourceFree tier

as of 2026-08-14verify ↗

Platform & deployment

Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.

Platform and deployment support comparison
Supports	ClickHouse	M3DB
WebPlatforms	✓	✗
CLIPlatforms	✗	✓
Cloud / SaaSDeployment	✓	✗
Self-hostedDeployment	✓	✓

Platforms

Web

ClickHouse✓

M3DB✗

CLI

ClickHouse✗

M3DB✓

Deployment

Cloud / SaaS

ClickHouse✓

M3DB✗

Self-hosted

ClickHouse✓

M3DB✓

Integrations

What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.

ClickHouse

Leader

6 total

Amazon S3
Kafka
Airbyte
Vector
PostgreSQL
MySQL

Independently observed

M3DB

4 total

Prometheus
Graphite
Kubernetes
Docker

Independently observed

Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.