# M3DB vs OpenTSDB

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** M3DB

| Attribute | M3DB | OpenTSDB |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 50.5 (51% (medium)) | 34.6 (44% (low)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 50 | 0 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 10 | 175 |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,905 | 5,064 |
| adoption.package_downloads_weekly | - | 30 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"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. It is indexed under Time-Series Databases.","source":"https://m3db.io","question":"What is M3DB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"M3DB is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the Apache-2.0 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://m3db.io","question":"Is M3DB free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"M3DB supports a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://m3db.io","question":"What platforms does M3DB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. M3DB can be deployed self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://m3db.io","question":"Can M3DB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 4 integrations for M3DB, including Prometheus, Graphite, Kubernetes and Docker. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://m3db.io","question":"What does M3DB integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. M3DB is published under the Apache-2.0 licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/m3db/m3","question":"Is M3DB open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"An open-source time series database built on Hadoop and HBase that stores metric data with millisecond precision and scales to millions of writes per second. It is indexed under Time-Series Databases.","source":"https://opentsdb.net/","question":"What is OpenTSDB?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"OpenTSDB is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the LGPL-2.1 licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://opentsdb.net/","question":"Is OpenTSDB free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed browser-based access to OpenTSDB. That is the extent of what we could verify from public sources, so it may well offer desktop or mobile clients we have not indexed.","source":"https://opentsdb.net/","question":"What platforms does OpenTSDB support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. OpenTSDB can be deployed on-premise and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://opentsdb.net/","question":"Can OpenTSDB be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. OpenTSDB is published under the LGPL-2.1 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb","question":"Is OpenTSDB open source?","confidence":0.67}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | M3 is a distributed time series database built for storing and querying high-volume metrics with multiple query languages. It can be deployed as a single node or multi-node cluster using Docker, Kubernetes, or binaries. | An open-source system for ingesting, storing, and analyzing operational metrics from infrastructure and applications. Designed to handle thousands of measurement streams from numerous hosts and services, it enables rapid data collection and subsequent querying of metric data. |
| features.capabilities | `{"clustering":"distributed","data_model":"metrics","deployment":"self_hosted","compression":"columnar","downsampling":"retention_policies","ingest_model":"push","licence_class":"permissive_oss","retention_ttl":"automatic","query_language":"PromQL, Graphite","replication_ha":true,"high_cardinality":"strong","sql_compatibility":"non_sql","prometheus_remote_write":true}` | `{"clustering":"distributed","data_model":"metrics","deployment":"self_hosted","downsampling":"continuous_aggregates","ingest_model":"push","licence_class":"permissive_oss","retention_ttl":"manual"}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | 3 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Graphite"},{"name":"Kubernetes"},{"name":"Docker"},{"name":"InfluxDB","native":true,"category":"metrics","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"etcd","native":true,"direction":"inbound"}]` | `[{"name":"Nagios","category":"monitoring","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Icinga","category":"monitoring","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Gnuplot","category":"visualization","direction":"outbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Java |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | - |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://m3db.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:30:20.373Z"}` | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://opentsdb.net/","retrievedAt":"2026-10-13T11:16:10.615Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | open_source |
| pricing.price_level | free | free |
| pricing.transparent | yes | - |
| release.cadence_days | 12 | 77 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.6.0","date":"2026-09-25T21:06:56Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.5.0","date":"2022-04-07T21:38:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.4.2","date":"2022-01-19T19:13:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.4.1","date":"2021-11-20T18:35:50Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.4.0","date":"2021-11-19T23:14:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.3.0","date":"2021-10-10T12:38:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.2.0","date":"2021-09-18T16:49:39Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.1.0","date":"2021-02-03T16:58:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.2","date":"2020-11-19T10:32:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.0.0","date":"2020-11-16T16:36:58Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.1","date":"2020-11-19T10:29:05Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v1.0.0-rc.0","date":"2020-11-09T22:23:25Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.0.0-rc.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.5","date":"2020-12-11T20:04:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.4","date":"2020-12-07T08:08:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.2","date":"2020-10-28T19:59:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.1","date":"2020-10-28T19:40:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.3","date":"2020-11-17T23:03:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17-hotfix.0","date":"2020-10-23T19:02:15Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17-hotfix.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.17","date":"2020-10-08T14:27:35Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.17"},{"url":"https://github.com/m3db/m3/releases/tag/v0.15.16","date":"2020-10-02T06:41:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v0.15.16"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.5.0RC1","date":"2024-12-12T20:03:34Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.5.0RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.4.1","date":"2021-09-02T22:28:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.4.0","date":"2018-12-17T02:38:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.3.2","date":"2018-12-17T01:08:47Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.3.1","date":"2018-05-22T00:27:14Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.4.0RC2","date":"2017-10-09T04:53:29Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.4.0RC2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.3.0","date":"2016-12-31T20:18:53Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.2","date":"2016-12-29T18:35:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.3.0RC2","date":"2016-10-08T19:28:41Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.3.0RC2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.1","date":"2016-10-08T19:07:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.3.0RC1","date":"2016-05-02T19:00:34Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.3.0RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.0","date":"2016-02-15T01:45:12Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.1.4","date":"2016-02-14T21:37:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.0RC3","date":"2015-11-11T21:06:00Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.2.0RC3"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.1.3","date":"2015-11-11T20:54:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.0RC2","date":"2015-11-10T02:20:02Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.2.0RC2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.1.2","date":"2015-11-10T01:15:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.2.0RC1","date":"2015-09-12T20:50:35Z","type":"prerelease","version":"v2.2.0RC1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/2.1.1","date":"2015-09-12T19:49:38Z","type":"stable","version":"2.1.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/OpenTSDB/opentsdb/releases/tag/v2.1.0","date":"2015-05-07T04:46:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.0"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 3.4 | 2.5 |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Fm3db%2Fm3&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` | `{"count":7,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=maven&package_name=net.opentsdb%3Aopentsdb&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":"CRITICAL"}` |

## Capabilities (Time-Series Databases)

| Capability | M3DB | OpenTSDB |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Query** |  |  |
| Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite) | PromQL, Graphite | - |
| SQL compatibility | Non-SQL | - |
| **Ingest** |  |  |
| Ingest model | Push | Push |
| **Model** |  |  |
| Data model | Metrics (labels/tags) | Metrics (labels/tags) |
| **Lifecycle** |  |  |
| Downsampling / rollups | Retention policies | Continuous aggregates |
| Retention / TTL | Automatic | Manual |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla) | columnar | - |
| **Performance** |  |  |
| High-cardinality handling | 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 |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:28:37.725Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*