Cortex vs kdb+
| Cortex | kdb+ | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Paid from | — | — |
| Open source | No | No |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Windows | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Deployment | self_hosted | both |
| SQL support | No | Yes |
| Retention policies | Yes | Yes |
| Horizontal scaling | Yes | Yes |
| Query languages | PromQL | q, q-SQL |
| Ingestion methods | Prometheus remote_write; OpenTelemetry Protocol (OTLP) | tickerplant, feed handlers, batch mode, TCP/IP, Apache Kafka, Python, Java, C |
Both are listed in Best Time-Series Databases. On Freedom251, kdb+ scores higher on our published basis.