TiCDC

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Score6.7

Rank#8 of 30

PriceFree

Free planYes

Runs onAPI, Linux, macOS, Self-hosted

Summary

TiCDC is a free, open-source, self-hosted tool for sending incremental data changes from TiDB to other systems. It captures TiKV change logs, orders the changes, and exports row-based data. Destinations include TiDB, MySQL-compatible databases, Kafka, Amazon S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage, and NFS. For Kafka, recommended formats include Canal-JSON, Avro, and Debezium. Filters can limit replication by database, table, DML, or DDL, and the Open API can check task status, change configurations, and create or remove tasks. TiCDC can replicate between TiDB clusters for disaster recovery, with second-level RPO and minute-level RTO, and supports bidirectional replication for multi-active setups. It can run alongside a new cluster or be added to an existing one; production guidance recommends at least two instances. The system supports dynamic node changes and has no single point of failure. Delivery is at least once, so repeated statements or Kafka messages can occur after failures.

Who it is for

TiCDC suits teams operating TiDB that need change-data feeds, cluster replication, or downstream data for monitoring, caching, indexing, and analysis. It is self-hosted and supports API and Linux environments.

What is good

Free and open source.
Supports multiple database and storage destinations.
Can filter databases, tables, DMLs, and DDLs.
Supports bidirectional cluster replication.
Nodes can be added or removed dynamically.

What to know first

Delivery is at least once, so repeats can occur.
Generally requires a valid table index.
Extremely large transactions can pose out-of-memory risk.

Verdict

TiCDC offers TiDB change replication to a range of downstream systems, with filtering and cluster-level replication options. Teams should account for at-least-once delivery and the listed unsupported or partially supported cases.

TiCDC plans and pricing

All plans

TiCDC (open-source) Free No paid plans or usage caps stated on the TiCDC pages opened docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026

Compared on database proxy software

Deployment model: self-hosteddocs.pingcap.com
Capture method: log-baseddocs.pingcap.com
Schema evolution: Yesdocs.pingcap.com
Initial snapshot: Yesdocs.pingcap.com

Facts

Purpose: TiCDC replicates incremental data from TiDB by capturing TiKV change logs, sorting the changes, and exporting row-based data to downstream systems.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Disaster recovery: TiCDC can replicate between TiDB clusters with second-level RPO and minute-level RTO.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Multi-active: TiCDC supports bidirectional replication between TiDB clusters for multi-active deployments.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Downstream sinks: TiCDC can replicate to TiDB, MySQL-compatible databases, Kafka, Amazon S3, GCS, Azure Blob Storage, and NFS.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Kafka formats: Recommended Kafka data formats include Canal-JSON, Avro, and Debezium.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Filtering and management: TiCDC can filter databases, tables, DMLs, and DDLs, and its Open API can query task status, modify task configuration, and create or delete tasks.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Availability: TiCDC has no single point of failure and supports dynamically adding and deleting TiCDC nodes.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Delivery semantics: TiCDC outputs each DDL or DML at least once, so failures can cause repeated statements or Kafka messages.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Index requirement: TiCDC generally replicates only tables with at least one valid index, though the force-replicate option can replicate tables without one.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Unsupported cases: The docs list RawKV-only clusters, CREATE SEQUENCE and SEQUENCE functionality, and TiDB Lightning physical import on tables being replicated as unsupported scenarios.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Large transactions: TiCDC only partially supports upstream large transactions, and its new architecture has an out-of-memory risk with extremely large transactions.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Deployment and scale: TiCDC can be deployed with a new TiDB cluster or added to an existing cluster, and the deployment documentation recommends at least two instances in production.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Security: The deployment guide documents enabling TLS between TiDB components, including TiCDC.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026
Intended users: Documented use cases include disaster recovery, real-time data feeds for monitoring, caching, indexing and analysis, and replication between heterogeneous databases.docs.pingcap.com · 2 Oct 2026