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Preact vs Timeplus

Preact logo

Preact

Web Development

3kB alternative to React with the same modern API

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: Preact compatibility through preact/compat is good but not total, and some React libraries break in ways that are hard to diagnose; 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: Preact covers 3kB runtime, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Preact and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where Preact and Timeplus differ
AttributePreactTimeplus
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsWebLinux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
CategoryWeb DevelopmentDatabases

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

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 Preact

  • 3kB runtime
  • preact/compat
  • Same modern API
  • Fast rendering

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.

Preact

  • Embedded widgets that load inside someone else’s page and must stay smallnot Timeplus
  • Marketing and content sites where JavaScript payload affects Core Web Vitalsnot Timeplus
  • Applications targeting low-bandwidth or low-powered devicesnot Timeplus

Timeplus

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

Where each one falls short

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

Preact

  • Compatibility through preact/compat is good but not total, and some React libraries break in ways that are hard to diagnose
  • Behavioural differences from React exist in edge cases, particularly around event handling
  • A much smaller community, so unusual problems have fewer existing answers than React

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

Preact

Free
  • PreactFree
    • Full library
    • Commercial use permitted
    • 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 Preact if

  • You need 3kb runtime.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want preact/compat.
Preact 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 Preact or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. Preact 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, Preact or Timeplus?
Preact starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does Preact or Timeplus run on more platforms?
Preact runs on Web. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use Preact for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Preact best used for?
Preact is most often used for embedded widgets that load inside someone else’s page and must stay small, marketing and content sites where javascript payload affects core web vitals, applications targeting low-bandwidth or low-powered devices. Of those, embedded widgets that load inside someone else’s page and must stay small and marketing and content sites where javascript payload affects core web vitals are not what Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can Preact do that Timeplus cannot?
Preact covers 3kB runtime, preact/compat, Same modern API, Fast rendering. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Preact: Is Preact free?

Yes, open source under the MIT licence.

Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

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

Preact: Can I use React libraries with Preact?

Most, through the preact/compat layer. Compatibility is good but not complete, so libraries relying on React internals can break.

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.

Preact: Why choose Preact over React?

Bundle size, almost always. If payload is not a binding constraint, React’s ecosystem is usually the better trade.

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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