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Databases · head to head

Memcached vs Timeplus

M

Memcached

Databases

Distributed memory object caching system

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: Memcached no persistence at all: restart a node and its cache is gone, which every design must assume; 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: Memcached covers In-memory key-value cache, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Memcached and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where Memcached and Timeplus differ
AttributeMemcachedTimeplus
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence fee; managed cloud billed separatelyPer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsLinux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Self-hostedLinux, 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 Memcached

  • In-memory key-value cache
  • Multithreaded
  • Client-side sharding
  • Predictable memory use

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.

Memcached

  • Caching expensive database query results to cut loadnot Timeplus
  • Session storage where losing sessions on restart is acceptablenot Timeplus
  • Fronting an API whose responses are costly and change slowlynot Timeplus

Timeplus

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

Where each one falls short

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

Memcached

  • No persistence at all: restart a node and its cache is gone, which every design must assume
  • No replication or failover, so losing a node loses that share of the cache
  • Only simple key-value, with none of the lists, sorted sets or streams Redis offers
  • Values are capped at 1MB by default, which surprises teams caching large documents

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

Memcached

Free
  • MemcachedFree
    • Full functionality
    • Self-hosted
    • No usage limits

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 Memcached if

  • You need in-memory key-value cache.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Self-hosted.
  • You also want multithreaded.
Memcached 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 Memcached or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. Memcached 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, Memcached or Timeplus?
Memcached starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does Memcached or Timeplus run on more platforms?
Memcached runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker, Self-hosted. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use Memcached for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Memcached best used for?
Memcached is most often used for caching expensive database query results to cut load, session storage where losing sessions on restart is acceptable, fronting an api whose responses are costly and change slowly. Of those, caching expensive database query results to cut load and session storage where losing sessions on restart is acceptable are not what Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can Memcached do that Timeplus cannot?
Memcached covers In-memory key-value cache, Multithreaded, Client-side sharding, Predictable memory use. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Memcached: Is Memcached free?

Yes, open source with no licence fee.

Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

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

Memcached: Memcached or Redis?

Memcached is a pure cache: simpler, multithreaded and very predictable. Redis adds persistence, replication and rich data structures, which is why it is the default choice unless you specifically want a cache and nothing more.

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.

Memcached: Does Memcached persist data?

No. Everything is in memory and lost on restart, by design.

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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