Comparison

M3DB vs TDengine

On the evidence we track, TDengine leads this comparison with a composite score of 56/100. Scores are only directly comparable because these tools share a category; the full breakdown and every source is below.

Machine formatsJSONMarkdownGraphQLor send Accept: application/json
M3DB36
TDengine56
Score
Vioscale score
M3DB36 / 100medium · 51%
TDengine56 / 100medium · 69%
Pricing
Free tier
M3DB
TDengine
Model
Price level
M3DBfree
TDenginelow
Transparent
M3DB
TDengine
Integrations
Count
M3DB4
TDengine3
Reliability
Status page
M3DB
TDengine
Adoption
Dependent repos
M3DB10
TDengine7
Github stars
M3DB4,895
TDengine25,090
Activity
Commits last 30d
M3DB0
TDengine100
Release
Cadence days
M3DB11
TDengine28
History
TDengine20 items
License
Spdx
TDengineAGPL-3.0
Language
Primary
M3DBGo
TDengineC
Market
Availability
TDengine

Capabilities

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

Query
Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite)
M3DBPromQL, Graphite
TDengine-
SQL compatibility
M3DBNon-SQL
TDengine-
Ingest
Ingest model
M3DBPush
TDenginePush
Model
Data model
M3DBMetrics (labels/tags)
TDengineMetrics (labels/tags)
Lifecycle
Downsampling / rollups
M3DBRetention policies
TDengineContinuous aggregates
Retention / TTL
M3DBAutomatic
TDengine-
Storage
Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla)
M3DBcolumnar
TDengine-
Performance
High-cardinality handling
M3DBStrong
TDengineStrong
Scale
Clustering / horizontal scale
M3DBDistributed / sharded
TDengineDistributed / sharded
Replication / HA
M3DB
TDengine
Deployment
Deployment
M3DBSelf-hosted
TDengineSelf-hosted
Interop
Prometheus remote-write compatible
M3DB
TDengine-
Licensing
Licence class
M3DBPermissive OSS
TDengineSource-available

What each one is

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

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

TDengine

Leader

AI-native industrial data platform and high-performance time-series database that unifies data ingestion, storage, analytics, modeling, visualization, and AI applications.

Independently observed

Pricing

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

M3DB

Open sourceFree tier
as of verify ↗

TDengine

Leader
HybridFree tier

Free for up to 5,000 tags. Annual licenses from $12,500/year, perpetual from $31,250 (both scale with tag count). Optional support from $3,375/year. High Availability at +30%.

  • Free TierFree
    • Up to 5,000 tags
    • Product usage rights
  • Annual LicenseFrom $12,500/year for 7,500 tags. Standard Support included.
    • Pricing scales from 7,500 to 500,000+ tags
    • Standard Support
    • Software updates
    • Security patches
  • Perpetual LicenseFrom $31,250 for 7,500 tags. One-time payment.
    • Perpetual usage rights
as of verify ↗

Platform & deployment

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

Platforms
macOS
M3DB
TDengine
Linux
M3DB
TDengine
CLI
M3DB
TDengine
Deployment
Cloud / SaaS
M3DB
TDengine
Self-hosted
M3DB
TDengine
Hybrid
M3DB
TDengine

Integrations

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

M3DB

4 total
  • Prometheus
  • Graphite
  • Kubernetes
  • Docker
Independently observed

TDengine

Leader
3 total
  • Java
  • Python
  • Go
Independently observed

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