What is Apache IoTDB used for?

Apache IoTDB is a time series database built for IoT data, covering collection, storage and analysis with integration into Hadoop and Spark. It is a good fit for industrial IoT sensor data storage and large-scale time series analytics.

Is Apache IoTDB open source?

Yes. Apache IoTDB is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/iotdb and is written mainly in Java.

Is Apache IoTDB free?

Yes. Apache IoTDB is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Apache IoTDB?

Yes. Apache IoTDB can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Apache IoTDB an alternative to?

Apache IoTDB is an open-source alternative to KX kdb+. Other open-source alternatives to KX kdb+ include InfluxDB, TDengine and TimescaleDB.

Is Apache IoTDB actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Apache IoTDB was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.0.11, published on 11 September 2026. The project has 6.4k stars on GitHub.

Apache IoTDB: open-source alternative to KX kdb+

About Apache IoTDB

Apache IoTDB manages time series data produced by Internet of Things devices. It provides services for collecting, storing and analyzing measurements, and is designed for the industrial IoT field, where datasets are very large and data arrives at high throughput.

The project highlights a lightweight structure, high performance and usable features, along with integration with the Hadoop and Spark ecosystems for complex analysis. It relies on TsFile, a columnar storage file format created for time series data, which is developed as a related project. The system is written in Java and is categorized as a NoSQL time series database.

IoTDB is an Apache Software Foundation project under the Apache-2.0 license and can be deployed on your own servers. The README is available in English and Chinese, and it suits teams that need to store and analyze large volumes of sensor readings.

Key features

Time series data collection and storage
Columnar TsFile storage format
Hadoop and Spark integration
High-throughput data ingestion
Lightweight, high-performance architecture
Analysis of large IoT datasets

Good fit for

→Industrial IoT sensor data storage
→Large-scale time series analytics

Built with: Java
Tags: time-series; iot; database; apache; java; tsdb; big-data

Apache IoTDB: questions and answers

What is Apache IoTDB used for?: Apache IoTDB is a time series database built for IoT data, covering collection, storage and analysis with integration into Hadoop and Spark. It is a good fit for industrial IoT sensor data storage and large-scale time series analytics.
Is Apache IoTDB open source?: Yes. Apache IoTDB is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/iotdb and is written mainly in Java.
Is Apache IoTDB free?: Yes. Apache IoTDB is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Apache IoTDB?: Yes. Apache IoTDB can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Apache IoTDB an alternative to?: Apache IoTDB is an open-source alternative to KX kdb+. Other open-source alternatives to KX kdb+ include InfluxDB, TDengine and TimescaleDB.
Is Apache IoTDB actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Apache IoTDB was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v2.0.11, published on 11 September 2026. The project has 6.4k stars on GitHub.