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Databases · head to head

Dragonfly vs Timeplus

Dragonfly logo

Dragonfly

Databases

High-performance Redis-compatible in-memory datastore with 25x better throughput

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Timeplus logo

Timeplus

Databases

Streaming SQL engine built on ClickHouse internals, shipping as one small binary

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dragonfly flex tier starting at $36/month may be underpriced, requiring careful usage monitoring; Timeplus proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • They diverge on capability: Dragonfly covers Redis API compatibility, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dragonfly and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where Dragonfly and Timeplus differ
AttributeDragonflyTimeplus
Pricing modelUsage-based cloud pricing with flexible tiersPer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsCloud, AWS, GCP, AzureLinux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Databases).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Dragonfly

  • Redis API compatibility
  • Thread-per-core architecture
  • High-performance caching
  • Memory efficiency
  • Real-time leaderboards
  • Message queue support
  • ML feature serving
  • Cloud deployment

Only in Timeplus

  • Streaming SQL
  • Unified streaming and historical
  • ClickHouse-based engine
  • Single binary deployment
  • External streams
  • Materialised views

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Dragonfly

  • High-throughput caching for web applicationsnot Timeplus
  • Real-time leaderboards and rankingsnot Timeplus
  • Message queue and event processingnot Timeplus
  • ML model feature serving at millisecond latenciesnot Timeplus
  • Gaming session state and player data storagenot Timeplus

Timeplus

  • Real-time alerting on Kafka topics where standing up a Flink cluster is more work than the use case justifiesnot Dragonfly
  • Fraud or anomaly detection that must join a live event stream against recent history in one querynot Dragonfly
  • Streaming ETL from Kafka or MySQL change data capture into ClickHouse without writing Javanot Dragonfly
  • A small data team that needs continuous aggregation but has no platform engineers to operate JVM infrastructurenot Dragonfly

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Dragonfly

  • Flex tier starting at $36/month may be underpriced, requiring careful usage monitoring
  • Business tier $2,000/month represents significant jump in cost
  • Limited to in-memory storage, not suitable for cold data or archival
  • Bring-your-own-cloud requirement on Business tier adds operational complexity
  • Cloud availability dependent on AWS/GCP/Azure uptime

Timeplus

  • Proton, the free version, is single-node by design, so any requirement for high availability or horizontal scale forces the commercial licence; the open source edition is a trial in practical terms.
  • It is a young project against Apache Flink’s decade of production history, so the hiring pool, the connector library and the body of known failure modes are all much smaller.
  • Inheriting ClickHouse internals also inherits ClickHouse constraints: memory-hungry queries, awkward updates and a SQL dialect that is not portable to other engines.
  • Exactly-once semantics and state recovery guarantees are less battle-tested than Flink checkpointing, which matters if the pipeline moves money.
  • Cloud pricing is by provisioned instance size rather than usage, so a bursty workload pays for peak capacity around the clock or has to be resized by hand.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dragonfly

Free
  • Free TierFree
    • 100 cloud credits for new signups
    • Equivalent to free trial
  • Business$2000/month
    • Starting price for enterprise offering
    • Bring-your-own-cloud deployment
    • Auto-scaling with custom SLAs
  • Enterprise$undefined/custom
    • Custom pricing
    • Any-cloud deployment
    • Custom instances and sizing

Timeplus

Free
  • Timeplus ProtonFree
    • Apache 2.0 licence
    • Single node only
    • Full streaming SQL engine
  • Timeplus Cloud$199/month
    • One to thirty-two CPUs
    • 4 GB to 128 GB memory
    • From 250 GB SSD storage
  • Self-hosted or BYOC$undefined/year
    • Multi-node clustering
    • Kubernetes or bare metal
    • Customisable compute and storage

Which should you pick?

Choose Dragonfly if

  • You need redis api compatibility.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Cloud, AWS, GCP, Azure.
  • You also want thread-per-core architecture.
Dragonfly review

Choose Timeplus if

  • You need streaming sql.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
  • You also want unified streaming and historical.
Timeplus review

Questions people ask

Is Dragonfly or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. Dragonfly starts at Free and Timeplus at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dragonfly or Timeplus?
Dragonfly starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does Dragonfly or Timeplus run on more platforms?
Dragonfly runs on Cloud, AWS, GCP, Azure. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use Dragonfly for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Dragonfly best used for?
Dragonfly is most often used for high-throughput caching for web applications, real-time leaderboards and rankings, message queue and event processing, ml model feature serving at millisecond latencies. Of those, high-throughput caching for web applications and real-time leaderboards and rankings are not what Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can Dragonfly do that Timeplus cannot?
Dragonfly covers Redis API compatibility, Thread-per-core architecture, High-performance caching, Memory efficiency. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dragonfly: How much faster is Dragonfly than Redis?

Dragonfly achieves 3.97M queries per second compared to Redis's 718K QPS, representing a 25x improvement. Memory efficiency is also 30% better.

Source
Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

The core engine, Timeplus Proton, is Apache 2.0. Timeplus Enterprise and Cloud are commercial.

Dragonfly: Can I migrate from Redis to Dragonfly without code changes?

Yes. Dragonfly maintains full API compatibility with Redis and Memcached, allowing drop-in replacement with minimal to no code modifications.

Source
Timeplus: What is the difference from Flink?

Timeplus is one binary with SQL as the only interface; Flink is a JVM cluster with a Java and SQL API and far more operational surface.

Timeplus: Can Proton run in production?

It can, but it is single-node only, so there is no high availability without the commercial edition.

Timeplus: How much is the cloud?

From 199 US dollars a month, sized by CPU and memory, with a fourteen day trial.

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