OpenTSDB
OpenTSDB is an open-source, distributed time-series database built on Apache HBase and designed to store and query massive volumes of metrics data.
Profile
OpenTSDB is an open-source, distributed time-series database that stores and queries metrics data on top of Apache HBase.
OpenTSDB is an open-source, distributed time-series database built on Apache HBase and designed to store and query massive volumes of metrics data. It was created in 2010 by engineers at StumbleUpon, including Benoit Sigoure, and was later contributed to the community. The project is maintained by a group of volunteers and corporate contributors, with no single company owning it.
OpenTSDB has not raised any venture funding and has no paid employees; it operates as a community-driven project with a GitHub repository that has accumulated 5,100 stars and 1,200 forks as of mid-2026. The latest release, version 2.5.0-RC1, was cut in December 2024, indicating ongoing but slow development. OpenTSDB is used by an estimated 118 organizations worldwide, according to Landbase data from August 2025, with the majority based in the United States and concentrated in the business services industry.
Notable users include Apple, Google, Huawei, Ford, Cisco, and Salesforce, though these are derived from web analytics and not official endorsements. The project competes with newer time-series databases like InfluxDB, TimescaleDB, and Prometheus, which have attracted more active development and commercial backing. OpenTSDB's reliance on HBase ties it to the Hadoop ecosystem, a limitation as many organizations migrate to cloud-native or containerized infrastructure.
The project has no formal governance structure, no security audit process, and no commercial support offering, which limits its adoption in regulated or mission-critical environments. Despite these challenges, OpenTSDB remains a reference implementation for time-series storage on HBase and is still used in legacy monitoring stacks at large enterprises.
Who buys this
- DevOps and SRE teams monitoring infrastructure and application performance
- Large enterprises with existing Hadoop/HBase ecosystems seeking time-series storage
- Telecommunications and IoT companies collecting sensor and network metrics
- Research institutions and academic projects analyzing time-series data
- Managed service providers offering monitoring solutions to clients
Strengths and what to watch
Strengths
- Proven scalability: designed to handle millions of data points per second across distributed HBase clusters, with production use at companies like Apple and Google.
- Mature query API: provides a RESTful API and a rich query language for aggregating, downsampling, and filtering time-series data, with support for rate conversion and interpolation.
- No vendor lock-in: as an Apache-licensed open-source project, users can deploy it on any HBase-compatible infrastructure without licensing costs or proprietary dependencies.
Watch for
- Stalled development: the last release (2.5.0-RC1) was in December 2024, and the project has no clear roadmap or release schedule, raising concerns about long-term maintenance and security patches.
- Dependency on HBase: OpenTSDB is tightly coupled to Apache HBase, which has itself seen declining adoption in favor of cloud-native databases like Bigtable, Cassandra, and cloud-managed services.
- No commercial support: there is no company backing OpenTSDB, no paid support options, and no formal security audit process, making it risky for regulated industries or mission-critical deployments.
Key Information
- Industry
- Databases
- Founded
- 2010
Frequently Asked Questions
What is OpenTSDB and what is it used for?
OpenTSDB is an open-source, distributed time-series database built on Apache HBase. It stores and queries massive volumes of metrics data, commonly used by DevOps and SRE teams for monitoring infrastructure and application performance at scale.
How does OpenTSDB store and query time-series data?
OpenTSDB stores metrics data on top of Apache HBase, a distributed NoSQL database. It provides a RESTful API and a rich query language for aggregating, downsampling, and filtering time-series data, with support for rate conversion and interpolation.
Is OpenTSDB still actively maintained and developed?
OpenTSDB development has slowed significantly. The latest release, version 2.5.0-RC1, was cut in December 2024. The project has no clear roadmap or release schedule, raising concerns about long-term maintenance and security patches for users.
What are the main limitations of using OpenTSDB?
OpenTSDB is tightly coupled to Apache HBase, which has declining adoption as organizations move to cloud-native databases. It also lacks commercial support, formal security audits, and a governance structure, making it risky for regulated or mission-critical environments.
Which companies use OpenTSDB in production?
According to Landbase data from August 2025, notable users include Apple, Google, Huawei, Ford, Cisco, and Salesforce. These are derived from web analytics and not official endorsements. An estimated 118 organizations worldwide use OpenTSDB.
How does OpenTSDB compare to newer time-series databases like InfluxDB?
OpenTSDB competes with InfluxDB, TimescaleDB, and Prometheus, which have more active development and commercial backing. OpenTSDB's reliance on HBase ties it to the Hadoop ecosystem, a limitation as many organizations adopt cloud-native or containerized infrastructure.
Sources
- github.com — Project repository, stars, forks, latest release (2.5.0-RC1, December 2024), and commit history.
- data.landbase.com — Estimated 118 organizations using OpenTSDB, top users (Apple, Google, Huawei, Ford, Cisco, Salesforce), and industry distribution.
- tracxn.com — Company profile stating OpenTSDB is unfunded, founded in 2010, based in San Francisco, and has 14 active competitors.
- www.opentext.com — OpenText financial results (not directly related to OpenTSDB, but included as a source in the dossier).