Cetus vs HeliosProxy
Cetus
github.com
HeliosProxy
heliosdb.comSide by side
| Figure | Cetus | HeliosProxy |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 0 | 1 |
| Spec score · Database Proxy Software | 7.3 (#22) | 7.8 (#8) |
| Deployment | Cetus runs only on Linux, and its installation guide describes compiling and installing it from source. | The maker documents Docker, Kubernetes, and standalone deployment options. |
| License | The repository identifies Cetus as GPL-2.0 licensed. | HeliosProxy is open source under the Apache 2.0 license. |
| Security | The repository lists security management and client-side SSL/TLS support as features, while its usage constraints page says TLS is unsupported; the pages therefore give conflicting TLS information. | The proxy supports JWT, OAuth 2.0, LDAP, and API-key authentication, with identity claim-to-database-role mapping. |
| Support | The repository directs users to open an issue for bugs or feature requests and asks them to search existing issues first. | The company lists a support contact at [email protected] and links to community support on Discord. |
Plans
In their own words
HeliosProxy
HeliosProxy is a self-hosted, programmable PostgreSQL data-plane for routing connections, handling failover, replaying traffic, and supporting database upgrades. It provides session, transaction, and statement pooling, with multiplexing up to 100:1. Routing can account for replica lag, workload type, and failing backends through circuit breaking. Cache options include local memory, Redis-backed storage, and semantic tiers, with invalidation when writes occur. Transaction Replay can move sessions to a new primary and optionally replay reads or transactions when conditions permit, although prepared statements, temporary tables, open cursors, advisory locks, and extended-protocol SET statements are not restored. A WebAssembly plugin runtime offers five hook points, Ed25519 verification, and OCI distribution. The admin console includes topology, plugin, chaos, shadow-execution, and traffic-replay panels. Authentication supports JWT, OAuth 2.0, LDAP, and API keys. HeliosProxy works with PostgreSQL 12+ and compatible databases, and deployment documentation covers Docker, Kubernetes, and standalone setups. It is open source under Apache 2.0 and costs nothing.