# M3DB vs VictoriaMetrics

**Leader by vioscaleAI score:** M3DB

| Attribute | M3DB | VictoriaMetrics |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 50.5 (51% (medium)) | 45 (55% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 50 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 10 | 25 |
| adoption.github_stars | 4,905 | 17,865 |
| 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":"Open source time series database optimized for high-cardinality metrics and logs, with both self-hosted and cloud deployment options. It is indexed under Time-Series Databases.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/blog/not-all-telemetry-deserves-premium-pricing/","question":"What is VictoriaMetrics?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"VictoriaMetrics supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/blog/not-all-telemetry-deserves-premium-pricing/","question":"What platforms does VictoriaMetrics support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. VictoriaMetrics can be deployed cloud / SaaS, hybrid and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/blog/not-all-telemetry-deserves-premium-pricing/","question":"Can VictoriaMetrics be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 10 integrations for VictoriaMetrics, including Prometheus, Logstash, Fluentbit, Promtail, Elasticsearch, Loki, Grafana and OpenLIT, plus 2 more. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/blog/not-all-telemetry-deserves-premium-pricing/","question":"What does VictoriaMetrics integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed ISO 27001 for VictoriaMetrics. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as VictoriaMetrics not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/security","question":"What security certifications does VictoriaMetrics have?","confidence":0.7},{"answer":"Yes. VictoriaMetrics 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/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics","question":"Is VictoriaMetrics open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"VictoriaMetrics is available worldwide. The vendor is headquartered in Ukraine.","source":"https://victoriametrics.com/blog/not-all-telemetry-deserves-premium-pricing/","question":"Where is VictoriaMetrics available?","confidence":0.75}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":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. | A high-performance time-series database optimized for storing, querying, and managing large volumes of metrics data cost-effectively, commonly used for monitoring and observability in cloud-native environments. |
| 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":"both","deployment":"self_hosted","downsampling":"continuous_aggregates","ingest_model":"both","licence_class":"permissive_oss","retention_ttl":"manual","query_language":"MetricsQL (metrics), LogsQL (logs)","high_cardinality":"strong","sql_compatibility":"non_sql","prometheus_remote_write":true}` |
| integrations.count | 4 | 8 |
| 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":"Prometheus"},{"name":"Logstash"},{"name":"Fluentbit"},{"name":"Promtail"},{"name":"Elasticsearch"},{"name":"Loki"},{"name":"Grafana"},{"name":"OpenLIT"},{"name":"S3"},{"name":"GCS"},{"name":"Graphite","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"bidirectional"},{"name":"InfluxDB","native":false,"category":"data_source","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"DataDog","native":false,"category":"monitoring","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"StatsD","native":false,"category":"metrics","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"OpenTSDB","native":false,"category":"data_source","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Kubernetes","native":false,"category":"platform","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"Jaeger","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"inbound"},{"name":"OpenTelemetry","native":true,"category":"observability","direction":"inbound"}]` |
| language.primary | Go | Go |
| license.spdx | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"hqCountry":"UA","primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"mac":true,"linux":true,"windows":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://m3db.io","retrievedAt":"2026-08-14T08:30:20.373Z"}` | `{"type":"hybrid","summary":"Open source with free evaluation; enterprise support available","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://victoriametrics.com","retrievedAt":"2026-09-14T13:27:23.831Z"}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | commercial |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.transparent | yes | no |
| release.cadence_days | 12 | - |
| 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/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.154.0","date":"2026-10-12T11:48:06Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.154.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.153.0","date":"2026-09-28T08:49:46Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.153.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.152.0","date":"2026-09-14T10:36:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.152.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.151.0","date":"2026-08-31T10:58:41Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.151.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.150.0","date":"2026-08-17T09:53:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.150.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.1","date":"2026-08-05T12:38:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.136.15","date":"2026-08-05T12:38:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.136.15"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.149.0","date":"2026-08-05T12:38:55Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.149.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.136.14","date":"2026-07-20T11:02:10Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.136.14"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.122.27","date":"2026-07-20T11:02:19Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.122.27"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.6","date":"2026-10-12T11:47:43Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.6"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.5","date":"2026-09-28T08:49:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.5"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.4","date":"2026-09-14T10:36:21Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.4"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.3","date":"2026-08-31T10:58:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.3"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.2","date":"2026-08-17T09:53:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.2"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.148.0","date":"2026-07-20T11:02:29Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.148.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.147.0","date":"2026-07-06T14:08:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.147.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.136.13","date":"2026-07-06T14:08:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.136.13"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.122.26","date":"2026-07-06T14:08:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.122.26"},{"url":"https://github.com/VictoriaMetrics/VictoriaMetrics/releases/tag/v1.136.12","date":"2026-06-22T11:09:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.136.12"}]` |
| reliability.status_page | - | yes |
| security.disclosure_policy | - | yes |
| security.iso27001 | - | yes |
| security.scorecard | 3.4 | 5.5 |
| 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":1,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2FVictoriaMetrics%2FVictoriaMetrics&per_page=100","last_12m":1,"max_severity":"LOW"}` |

## Capabilities (Time-Series Databases)

| Capability | M3DB | VictoriaMetrics |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Query** |  |  |
| Query language (SQL / PromQL / InfluxQL-Flux / Graphite) | PromQL, Graphite | MetricsQL (metrics), LogsQL (logs) |
| SQL compatibility | Non-SQL | Non-SQL |
| **Ingest** |  |  |
| Ingest model | Push | Both |
| **Model** |  |  |
| Data model | Metrics (labels/tags) | Both |
| **Lifecycle** |  |  |
| Downsampling / rollups | Retention policies | Continuous aggregates |
| Retention / TTL | Automatic | Manual |
| **Storage** |  |  |
| Compression (columnar / delta / Gorilla) | 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 |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T19:19:10.909Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*