TDengine

TDengine is a time-series database and industrial data platform for organizations collecting operational data across equipment and legacy systems. It suits industrial teams that need broad connectivity and deployment flexibility. Its free self-hosted tier is a useful bounded entry point, but paid cloud and larger self-hosted plans carry substantial costs.

Overview

TDengine combines TSDB, a distributed time-series database, with IDMP for industrial data ingestion, storage, analytics, modeling, visualization, and AI applications. TSDB adds caching, stream processing, and data subscriptions. Built-in ETL cleans and transforms data from sources including OPC, MQTT, and Kafka, making the platform relevant when data arrives directly from industrial systems rather than as prepared metrics.

SQL, retention policies, and horizontal scaling cover core database needs. Ingestion also supports InfluxDB Line Protocol, OpenTSDB protocols, CSV, PI System, and data from MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and MongoDB. TDengine claims more than 10 times the write and query performance of general-purpose databases and storage costs reduced to one tenth; those are the company's claims, not a guarantee for every workload.

Key features

Industrial connectivity and integrations

Official integrations include monitoring and data tools such as Prometheus, Telegraf, Kafka, Flink, and Grafana, alongside Power BI, Tableau, Spark, Pandas, DBeaver, Node-RED, and Ignition. This breadth can help teams connect collection, analysis, and visualization workflows without treating the database as an isolated store. Developer access includes a REST API described by OpenAPI, JDBC, ODBC, Kafka, MQTT, iframe embedding, and an Excel Add-In.

Deployment and security

Self-hosted installations can run at the edge, in containers or virtual machines, on local servers, or in public, private, and hybrid clouds. TDengine Cloud is managed on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Cloud security controls include encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access, IP whitelisting, scheduled backups, and cross-cloud or cross-region replication. TDengine states support for 21 CFR Part 11 technical controls and compliance with SOC 2 and ISO 27001/27017 standards.

TSDB-OSS is fully open source under AGPL and includes clustering. That offers a capable self-managed route, but organizations should ensure the license fits their intended use. Standard Support comes with annual plans; Premium Support, including 24×7 coverage for Severity 1 incidents, costs extra.

Pricing

The free tier is self-hosted and capped at 5,000 tags, making it the lowest-risk way to evaluate a bounded deployment. Teams wanting managed hosting can choose Starter at $970 a month, billed monthly, for 5,000 tags. The same tag ceiling makes it easier to compare against the free tier, but the paid plan's managed-cloud deployment is its clear distinction.

• Free Tier: free; self-hosted, up to 5,000 tags.
• Starter: $970 a month, billed monthly; fully managed cloud, 5,000 tags.
• Optional Annual Support: $3,375 a year, billed annual support; for free-tier deployments up to 5,000 tags.
• 7,500-tag Annual License: $12,500 a year, billed annual license; self-hosted, 7,500 tags.
• 7,500-tag Perpetual License: $31,250, paid once, billed perpetual license; self-hosted, 7,500 tags.

The larger self-hosted licenses raise capacity to 7,500 tags but represent a major step up in cost from the free tier. Annual support is a separate option for free-tier deployments, while Premium Support adds further cost. The pricing model is freemium, but these paid options make it most appropriate for organizations with industrial workloads substantial enough to justify a dedicated platform.

Platforms

TDengine supports API access, Linux, macOS, Windows, web access, and self-hosted deployment. Its edge, server, virtualized, and cloud deployment choices suit varied infrastructure, although the Starter plan is specifically fully managed cloud.

Who it's for

TDengine is designed for industrial enterprises and organizations running traditional data historians or legacy industrial IoT platforms. It is a strong fit for teams consolidating operational data from varied equipment and systems, especially when industrial protocols, transformation, analytics, and deployment control matter together. It is less compelling for a small deployment that can live within the 5,000-tag free cap but cannot justify paid cloud or license costs.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Broad industrial ingestion, including OPC UA, OPC DA, MQTT, Kafka, and PI System, reduces the need to normalize every source before it reaches the platform.
• Pro: Edge, self-hosted, and managed-cloud deployment options let organizations match placement to their infrastructure needs.
• Pro: TSDB-OSS includes clustering and is open source, providing a self-managed route for teams comfortable with AGPL.
• Con: The free tier stops at 5,000 tags, while the listed 7,500-tag self-hosted licenses cost $12,500 a year or $31,250, paid once.
• Con: Starter costs $970 a month for managed cloud at 5,000 tags, so teams seeking a low-cost managed entry point may find it difficult to justify.
• Con: Premium 24×7 Severity 1 support costs extra, adding to the commitment for organizations that need that coverage.

Alternatives

Consider InfluxDB if a freemium time-series database with a free usage-based cloud data-in option better fits the deployment; its Cloud Serverless - Data In plan is free, pay for what you use. LinDB is a free Apache 2.0 open-source option for teams prioritizing a no-cost license. QuestDB may fit readers seeking a free Apache 2.0 core with self-managed single-instance deployment and community support.

VictoriaMetrics is another freemium option with open-source single-node and cluster versions. Prometheus is a free Apache 2.0 monitoring and alerting toolkit, a better fit when that focused role is the priority. Apache IoTDB is a free open-source time-series database with downloadable binaries and source.

DolphinDB offers a free Community Edition limited to two nodes, with 2 CPU cores and 8 GB RAM per node. TimeBase is a free Community Edition with unlimited data storage, an Apache 2.0 license, and technical support via GitHub.

Browse more options in Time-Series Databases, OLAP Software, and IoT Analytics Software.

Verdict

TDengine is best for industrial organizations that need to bring diverse equipment and legacy-system data into a platform with database, analytics, and deployment choices in one stack. Its industrial connectivity and flexible deployment are the strongest reasons to choose it; the 5,000-tag free cap and costly paid plans are the clearest reasons to look elsewhere if the workload is small or budget-sensitive.