Pick QuestDB if
teams who will stay on the Apache self-host at $0 while they open a first console chart, then talk to QuestDB about Enterprise because /pricing does not print a Cloud $ tile.
Read the QuestDB pageQuestDB vs Timescale
Our take
Pick QuestDB if teams who will stay on the Apache self-host at $0 while they open a first console chart, then talk to QuestDB about Enterprise because /pricing does not print a Cloud $ tile. Pick Timescale if teams who will burn the 30-day Performance trial (no card), then land on Performance at $30/month compute + $0.177/GB-month when the job is time-series on Postgres — not a serverless branch database.
Best for
QuestDB Ingest-and-chart SQL you start at $0 on your host
Timescale Time-series Postgres you start on a printed $ tile
Free plan
QuestDB $0 · apache-2.0. You run the binary + the web console. Confirmed by LICENSE.txt (“Apache License / Version 2.0”)
Timescale No free plan
Lowest paid
QuestDB
Timescale Scale $36/mo
Runs where
QuestDB
Timescale Hosted
Watch out
QuestDB $0 is the license, not the ingest disk
Timescale No forever-free Cloud card
Last checked
QuestDB 2026-10-23 · github.com/questdb/questdb/blob
Timescale 2026-10-23 · timescale.com/pricing
Which one, then?
Pick Timescale if
teams who will burn the 30-day Performance trial (no card), then land on Performance at $30/month compute + $0.177/GB-month when the job is time-series on Postgres — not a serverless branch database.
Read the Timescale page