Cortex vs QuestDB
| Cortex | QuestDB | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Free trial | No | Yes |
| Paid from | — | Free |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Windows | api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Web, Windows |
| Deployment | self_hosted | both |
| SQL support | No | Yes |
| Retention policies | Yes | Yes |
| Horizontal scaling | Yes | Yes |
| Query languages | PromQL | QuestDB SQL, PostgreSQL wire protocol, REST API, Apache Parquet |
| Ingestion methods | Prometheus remote_write; OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) | QuestDB Wire Protocol, InfluxDB Line Protocol, REST API, native client libraries, SQL INSERT, Kafka connector, CSV import |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
Both are listed in Best Time-Series Databases. On Everything Xiaomi, QuestDB scores higher on our published basis.