What is InfluxDB used for?

InfluxDB 3 Core is an open-source time series database for ingesting and querying events and metrics in near real time, built on Apache Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet. It is a good fit for server and application monitoring data, IoT and sensor data collection, and financial market and behavioral analytics.

Is InfluxDB open source?

Yes. InfluxDB is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at influxdata/influxdb and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. InfluxDB is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host InfluxDB?

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

What is InfluxDB an alternative to?

InfluxDB is an open-source alternative to KX kdb+ and Azure Data Explorer. Other open-source alternatives to KX kdb+ include TimescaleDB, QuestDB and ClickHouse.

Is InfluxDB actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to InfluxDB was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.11.4, published on 8 September 2026. The project has 32k stars on GitHub.

InfluxDB: open-source alternative to KX kdb+

About InfluxDB

InfluxDB is an open-source time series database for collecting, processing, transforming and storing event and metrics data. The current Core edition of InfluxDB 3 is written in Rust and builds on Apache Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet, and it targets workloads where data must be ingested continuously and queried quickly enough to drive dashboards, interactive interfaces and automation.

The README lists typical uses such as sensor monitoring, server and network monitoring, application performance monitoring, financial market analytics and behavioral analytics. Feature highlights include a diskless architecture that can store data in object storage or on local disk with no extra dependencies, an embedded Python virtual machine for plugins and triggers, and persistence in Parquet files. The project quotes very low query latency for last-value lookups, though real numbers depend on your hardware and data.

InfluxDB is Apache-2.0 licensed and can be run on your own servers. InfluxData, the company behind it, also sells hosted and commercial editions. The topics list monitoring, metrics and time series, and it commonly sits behind visualization tools such as Grafana in observability stacks.

Key features

Time series storage for events and metrics
Diskless architecture with object storage support
Embedded Python VM for plugins and triggers
Parquet file persistence
Built on Apache Arrow and DataFusion
Fast queries for dashboards and monitoring

Good fit for

→Server and application monitoring data
→IoT and sensor data collection
→Financial market and behavioral analytics

Built with: Rust; Go; React
Tags: time-series; database; metrics; monitoring; rust; apache-arrow; analytics; observability; iot

InfluxDB: questions and answers

What is InfluxDB used for?: InfluxDB 3 Core is an open-source time series database for ingesting and querying events and metrics in near real time, built on Apache Arrow, DataFusion and Parquet. It is a good fit for server and application monitoring data, IoT and sensor data collection, and financial market and behavioral analytics.
Is InfluxDB open source?: Yes. InfluxDB is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at influxdata/influxdb and is written mainly in Rust.
Is InfluxDB free?: Yes. InfluxDB is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host InfluxDB?: Yes. InfluxDB can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is InfluxDB an alternative to?: InfluxDB is an open-source alternative to KX kdb+ and Azure Data Explorer. Other open-source alternatives to KX kdb+ include TimescaleDB, QuestDB and ClickHouse.
Is InfluxDB actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to InfluxDB was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.11.4, published on 8 September 2026. The project has 32k stars on GitHub.