TimescaleDB
Ranked 2 of 6 time series databases by recommenders
Postgres extension for time-series data, praised for compression and continuous aggregates. Main caveat: its license limits compression, and some features need the vendor's cloud.
Postgres extension for time-series data, praised for compression and continuous aggregates. Main caveat: its license limits compression, and some features need the vendor's cloud.
32 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 66%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Performs well on time-series workloads
“a very popular and performant time series database provided as a Postgres extension”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “It's 2026, Just Use Postgres” “can take you pretty far for metrics and would be Good Enough for almost all users”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “Just Use Postgres for Durable Workflows” “I think Timescale performs quite well.”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Pg_ClickHouse: A Postgres extension for querying ClickHouse” - Comment from 2 Feb 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2026)”
Fast, effective compression
“I really achieved this compression on real database where I have devices via MQTT connected.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “How TimescaleDB compresses time-series data” “I use TimescaleDB which is fast with the compression.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Printable Claude Code Cheat Sheet (auto-updated daily)” “which is fast with the compression”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Printable Claude Code Cheat Sheet (auto-updated daily)” Simple Postgres extension, familiar SQL
“TimescaleDB is an extension to PostgreSQL, so there's a lot of information, guides, and community support online”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “How TimescaleDB compresses time-series data” “The developer experience is good and it is very convenient to be able to JOIN against your hypertables.”
Comment from 19 Jun 2026 in “Ten years of ClickHouse in open source” “just add an extension and you're good to go”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “It's 2026, Just Use Postgres” Continuous aggregates save work
“it can also update the materialized views when you update/delete old raw data”
Comment from 19 Aug 2026 in “PostgreSQL for Everything” “continuous aggregates have been a huge boon”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (March 2026)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Licensing limits compression and support
“We can't offer Timescale because of the license (except for the version without compression), which blocks some potential customers from using us.”
Comment from 16 Jun 2026 in “How TimescaleDB compresses time-series data” “timescaledb's licensing (and therefore its lack of good support in azure managed postgres) is a bummer”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “You probably don't need another database” “Compression uses a different license than Apache.”
Comment from 15 Jun 2026 in “How TimescaleDB compresses time-series data” - Comment from 11 May 2026 in “I returned to AWS, and was reminded why I left”
Other time series databases people recommend
The four most recommended other time series databases, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VictoriaMetrics | 26 | 2 | 93% | 12 | — | Approved |
| TimescaleDBThis page | 21 | 11 | 66% | 7 | — | — |
| Grafana Mimir | 12 | 6 | 67% | 5 | — | Approved |
| kdb+ by KX | 9 | 8 | 53% | 7 | — | — |
| RRDtool | 6 | 1 | 86% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
31 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“if you're evaluating postgres, check out timescaledb”
“it can also update the materialized views when you update/delete old raw data”
“composes badly with other workloads on the same DB server”
“timescaledb's licensing (and therefore its lack of good support in azure managed postgres) is a bummer”
“The developer experience is good and it is very convenient to be able to JOIN against your hypertables.”
“it really feels like an alpha product sometimes”
“We can't offer Timescale because of the license (except for the version without compression), which blocks some potential customers from using us.”
“No issues so far after 8 years.”
“Timescale is quite a successful project!”
“TimescaleDB is an extension to PostgreSQL, so there's a lot of information, guides, and community support online”
“Compression uses a different license than Apache.”
“I really achieved this compression on real database where I have devices via MQTT connected.”
“Generally timescale has been great for us.”
“can take you pretty far for metrics and would be Good Enough for almost all users”
“it's usually a trap as you can't get the value without using the vendor's cloud offerings”
“TimescaleDB went from Apache to Apache + TLS”
“I've found it very useful for storing geospatial data over time.”
“We use TimescaleDB, which relies heavily on postgres partitions, have a bit under 100 million rows in our active set”
“I use TimescaleDB which is fast with the compression.”
“which is fast with the compression”
“Either use an external warehouse or a columnar plug-in like Timescale.”
“continuous aggregates have been a huge boon”
“a very popular and performant time series database provided as a Postgres extension”
“just add an extension and you're good to go”
“but no documentation how to use it”
“I use TimescaleDB every day.”
“I still cannot reliably restore any Postgres DB with the TimescaleDB extensions on it”
“typically faster and more scalable than TimescaleDB”
“I think Timescale performs quite well.”
“since Timescale's mixes their cloud product documentation in, really muddying the water.”
“Depending on your workload you might also be able to use Timescale to have very fast analytical queries inside postgres directly.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.