VictoriaMetrics vs DolphinDB

VictoriaMetrics8.5Visit DolphinDB7.6Visit

Higher score VictoriaMetrics #8 in Time-Series Databases 8.5/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 2 of 3 features Try VictoriaMetrics

vs

DolphinDB #14 in Time-Series Databases 7.6/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 3 of 3 features Visit DolphinDB

• VictoriaMetrics fits best

  Prometheus-compatible metrics at scale

• DolphinDB fits best

  Complex streaming and time-series analytics

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Side by side

Feature	VictoriaMetrics 8.5/10 Visit ↗	DolphinDB 7.6/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	8.5	7.6
Ranking	#8 in Time-Series Databases	#14 in Time-Series Databases
Best for	Prometheus-compatible metrics at scale	Complex streaming and time-series analytics
Pricing model	Free plan + paid	Free
Starting price	Free plan	Free
Free plan	✓	✓
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud, Self-hosted	Cloud, Self-hosted
Platforms	Web, Windows, Linux	Web, Windows, Linux
Support	Email, Community, Docs	Community, Docs
Integrations	15 integrations	20 integrations
Built for	Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise	Mid-market, Enterprise
Features VictoriaMetrics 2/3 · DolphinDB 3/3
SQL support	—	✓ (best)
Retention policies	✓	✓
Horizontal scaling	✓	✓
Specs
Deployment	Both	Both
Query languages	MetricsQL, PromQL	DolphinDB SQL; ANSI SQL/SQL-92; DolphinDB scripting language
Ingestion methods	Prometheus scraping, Prometheus remote write, Prometheus exposition, InfluxDB line protocol, Graphite plaintext, OpenTSDB, JSON line, CSV, native binary, DataDog, NewRelic, OpenTelemetry, Zabbix Connector	Text, binary, JSON, HDF5, Parquet, Arrow, ODBC, APIs, Kafka, MQTT, ZeroMQ, MySQL, MongoDB, HBase, kdb+
Our review
Pros	Free Apache 2.0 open-source edition with single-node and cluster versions PromQL-compatible querying, MetricsQL, and long-term Prometheus storage Horizontal scaling, replication, multi-tenancy, and configurable retention	Distributed storage with horizontal scaling and data rebalancing Streaming engines, retention policies, and tiered storage Broad APIs, languages, and messaging integrations
Cons	Cloud pricing starts at $200 per month Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales Metrics-focused design excludes SQL support	Community Edition is limited to 2 nodes Each Community Edition node allows up to 2 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM Paid pricing requires contacting sales
Our verdict	VictoriaMetrics is an open-source time-series database and monitoring solution for teams collecting, storing, and querying high-cardinality metrics. It supports self-hosted single-node deployments, horizontally scalable clusters, and a… Read the review →	DolphinDB is a distributed time-series database and real-time analytics platform for organizations handling large volumes of structured or streaming data. Its feature set is aimed at financial institutions and operational teams in energy,… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• VictoriaMetrics — where it wins

  • Free Apache 2.0 open-source edition with single-node and cluster versions
  • PromQL-compatible querying, MetricsQL, and long-term Prometheus storage
  • Horizontal scaling, replication, multi-tenancy, and configurable retention

  Where it doesn't

  • Cloud pricing starts at $200 per month
  • Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales
  • Metrics-focused design excludes SQL support

• DolphinDB — where it wins

  • Distributed storage with horizontal scaling and data rebalancing
  • Streaming engines, retention policies, and tiered storage
  • Broad APIs, languages, and messaging integrations

  Where it doesn't

  • Community Edition is limited to 2 nodes
  • Each Community Edition node allows up to 2 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM
  • Paid pricing requires contacting sales

• VictoriaMetrics8.5/10 · Free plan

  A strong Prometheus-compatible metrics store, but not a SQL-oriented database.

  Try VictoriaMetricsFull verdict →
• DolphinDB7.6/10 · Free plan

  A distributed time-series platform for complex streaming, scaling, and analytics workloads.

  Visit DolphinDBFull verdict →