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Databases · head to head

RavenDB vs Timeplus

RavenDB logo

RavenDB

Databases

The fully transactional NoSQL document database

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: RavenDB the free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal; 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: RavenDB covers ACID Transactions, Timeplus covers Streaming SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which RavenDB and Timeplus actually diverge.

Attributes where RavenDB and Timeplus differ
AttributeRavenDBTimeplus
Pricing modelfreemiumPer month for cloud, quoted for self-hosted
PlatformsLinux, Windows, Mac, Docker, WebLinux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web
Founded2010Unknown

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 RavenDB

  • ACID Transactions
  • Auto-indexing
  • Full-text Search
  • Graph Queries
  • Distributed Counters
  • Time Series
  • Document Compression
  • .NET

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.

RavenDB

  • Running a distributed document database with ACID transactionsnot Timeplus
  • Self hosting a multi node database cluster on your own hardwarenot Timeplus
  • Replicating operational data out to analytics systems through ETLnot Timeplus

Timeplus

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

Where each one falls short

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

RavenDB

  • The free Developer licence bars commercial use and expires every 6 months, requiring renewal
  • The free Community licence caps a customer at 60 cores and forces you to stay on the latest major version
  • The Professional licence is limited to a single database, a 5 node cluster, 40 cores and 240 GB RAM
  • Sharding across nodes, ETL to OLAP, Elasticsearch and Kafka, and data archival are Enterprise only
  • Enterprise and AI licence pricing is contact us only with no published rate

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

RavenDB

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • 3 cores
    • 6GB RAM
    • Community support
  • Professional$499/year
    • Production use
    • Professional support
    • Advanced features

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 RavenDB if

  • You need acid transactions.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web.
  • You also want auto-indexing.
RavenDB 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 RavenDB or Timeplus better?
Neither clearly leads. RavenDB 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, RavenDB or Timeplus?
RavenDB starts at Free and Timeplus at Free.
Does RavenDB or Timeplus run on more platforms?
RavenDB runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Docker, Web. Timeplus runs on Linux, macOS, Docker, Kubernetes, Web.
Can I use RavenDB for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is RavenDB best used for?
RavenDB is most often used for running a distributed document database with acid transactions, self hosting a multi node database cluster on your own hardware, replicating operational data out to analytics systems through etl. Of those, running a distributed document database with acid transactions and self hosting a multi node database cluster on your own hardware are not what Timeplus is typically brought in for.
What can RavenDB do that Timeplus cannot?
RavenDB covers ACID Transactions, Auto-indexing, Full-text Search, Graph Queries. Timeplus covers Streaming SQL, Unified streaming and historical, ClickHouse-based engine, Single binary deployment.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

RavenDB: Is RavenDB free or open source?

RavenDB is open source under the AGPLv3 license and available on GitHub. It also offers a free developer license with enterprise-level features limited to 9 cores, 36GB max RAM, 3 nodes, and non-commercial use.

Source
Timeplus: Is Timeplus open source?

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

RavenDB: Can I use RavenDB commercially for free?

RavenDB offers a free Community License that permits commercial deployment with unlimited databases and sizes, subject to a 60-core maximum per customer and requirement to run the latest major version.

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.

RavenDB: What commercial licensing options does RavenDB offer?

RavenDB offers Professional, Enterprise, and AI tiers for commercial use. Pricing for these tiers requires contacting their sales team at [email protected].

Source
Timeplus: Can Proton run in production?

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

RavenDB: Does RavenDB offer a cloud hosting option?

RavenDB Cloud provides a fully managed cloud database with maintenance, failover, and backups included. Pricing is available at cloud.ravendb.net/pricing.

Source
Timeplus: How much is the cloud?

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

RavenDB: Is there a refund window if I purchase RavenDB?

RavenDB offers a 30-day refund window for purchased licenses.

Source
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