QuestDB
High-performance open-source time-series database for demanding workloads
About QuestDB
QuestDB is an open-source, high-performance time-series database built from scratch for demanding workloads like financial trading, IoT, and infrastructure monitoring. It delivers ultra-low latency queries via standard SQL, supports nanosecond timestamps, and can ingest up to 4 million rows per second per instance.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Exceptional ingestion speed of up to 4 million rows per second
- Blazing fast query performance with sub-500ms group-by queries on large datasets
- Standard SQL interface reduces learning curve compared to proprietary query languages
- Open-source core with no vendor lock-in and Apache Parquet portability
- Easy to deploy with good documentation and straightforward setup
- Active and responsive developer community
Cons
- Scaling is primarily vertical rather than horizontal for parallel ingestion
- Relatively newer database with fewer online resources and community solutions
- No managed hosted option in open-source tier — requires self-hosting
- Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales with no published rates
Key Features
High-Speed Data Ingestion
Ingest up to 4 million rows per second per instance with minimal latency
SQL Query Engine
Query years of historical time-series data in milliseconds using standard SQL
Nanosecond Timestamps
Native support for nanosecond-precision timestamps for financial and scientific data
ASOF Joins
Time-series specific join operations for correlating data across different time intervals
Materialized Views
Pre-computed query results that update automatically for faster analytical queries
Apache Parquet Support
Native read/write support for Parquet format keeping data portable and AI-ready
Multi-Tier Storage Engine
Automatically manages data across hot and cold storage tiers for cost optimization
Built-in Web Console
Browser-based UI for running queries, visualizing results, and monitoring server configuration
Time-Partitioned Storage
Data natively indexed by timestamp and partitioned by time for optimal query performance
ILP & PostgreSQL Wire Protocol
Supports InfluxDB Line Protocol for ingestion and PostgreSQL wire protocol for querying
Pricing
- Full SQL query engine
- High-performance ingestion
- Web console UI
- Community support
- Apache Parquet support
- PostgreSQL wire protocol
- All Open Source features
- Role-based access control
- Cold storage tiering
- Replication & high availability
- Dedicated support & SLAs
- Compliance & audit logging
- All Enterprise features
- Bring Your Own Cloud deployment
- Full data sovereignty
- Managed database operations
- Priority engineering support
Best For
Financial Market Data
Store and analyze tick data, trades, order books, and OHLC data with nanosecond precision timestamps and ASOF joins
IoT Sensor Monitoring
Ingest millions of sensor readings per second and run real-time analytical queries for anomaly detection
Infrastructure Observability
Collect and query metrics, logs, and traces from servers and applications with low-latency dashboards
Real-Time Analytics
Power live dashboards and materialized views over streaming time-series data for operational intelligence
Similar Tools
Notion
The connected workspace for docs, wikis, and projects
Visual Studio Code
Free, open-source code editor from Microsoft
Chat2DB
AI-powered SQL client that turns natural language into database queries
Chroma
The open-source AI-native vector database for search and retrieval
Zed
The fastest AI code editor — built in Rust for speed and collaboration
Activepieces
Open-source, AI-first business automation