TDengine:
The Modern PI System Alternative
Why stay locked into legacy PI System when you can move to a cloud-native, AI-ready industrial data management platform — with predictable costs and faster innovation? TDengine delivers everything you expect from PI System, plus more.
The PI System Problem
Industrial enterprises have relied on PI system for decades, but today it’s holding them back:
Tag-based pricing
Costs balloon as your operations expands
Legacy architecture
Built before cloud and AI; hard to modernize
Slow innovation
Minimal support for AI or LLMs, unable to leverage the latest digital transformation tools
Closed ecosystem
Integrations are limited, forcing vendor lock-in
Feature Comparison: PI System vs. TDengine
See a big-picture comparison here, or view the tables below to find specific features
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Tree structure | ✅ | ✅ |
| Element references | ✅ | ✅ |
| Process model | ✅ | ❌ |
| Traits for attributes | ✅ | ✅ |
| Data reference setting | ✅ | ✅ |
| Units of measurement | ✅ | ✅ |
| Templates & base templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Search/Filter | ✅ | ✅ |
| Version control | ✅ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Triggers | Data input, periodic | Data input, periodic, and more |
| Expression analysis | ✅ | ✅ |
| Rollup analysis | ✅ | ✅ |
| Event frame analysis | ✅ | ✅ |
| SQC analysis | ✅ | ❌ (planned) |
| Backfill and recalculation | ✅ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Value capture | ✅ | ✅ |
| Acknowledge event frames | ✅ | ✅ |
| Transfer | ✅ | ❌ |
| Data reference to elements | ✅ | ✅ |
| Event templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Notification templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trigger criteria | ✅ | Only based on severity level |
| Delivery endpoints | ✅ | ✅ |
| Escalation | ✅ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Symbols supported | Trend, value, table, gauge, bar chart, XY plot, asset comparison table | Trend, value, table, gauge, bar chart, XY plot, map, rich text |
| Display (Canvas) | ✅ | ❌ (planned) |
| Events | ✅ | Partially matched |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| OPC | ✅ | ✅ |
| MQTT | ✅ | ✅ |
| Kafka | ❌ | ✅ |
| Relational databases | ✅ | ✅ |
| CSV files | ✅ | ✅ |
| Other industrial protocols | ✅ | ❌ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✅ | ✅ |
| Kafka | ❌ | ✅ |
| MQTT | ❌ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Role-based access control (RBAC) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | ✅ | Planned |
| Data encryption | ✅ | ✅ |
| SOC 2 certification | ✅ | ✅ |
| ISO 27001 certification | ✅ | ✅ |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Server access | Dedicated client program on windows | Browser |
| Windows | ✅ | ✅ |
| Linux | ❌ | ✅ |
| Installation package | ✅ | ✅ |
| Ansible deployment | ❌ | ✅ |
| Helm deployment | ❌ | ✅ |
| Cloud service | Not the same as on-prem solution | Same as on-prem |
| Supported cloud platforms | Azure | Azure, AWS, and GCP |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✅ | ✅ |
| JDBC and ODBC | ✅ | ✅ |
| Power BI | ✅ | ✅ |
| Tableau | ✅ | ✅ |
| Seeq | ✅ | ✅ |
| Grafana | ✅ | ✅ |
| Excel | DataLink | Only through ODBC |
| PI System | TDengine | |
|---|---|---|
| Chat BI | ❌ | ✅ |
| Zero-Query Intelligence | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI-based time-series forecasting | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI-based anomaly detection | ❌ | ✅ |
| Integration with third-party AI applications | Hard | Easy |
| PI System | TDengine | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset Modeling | Tree structure | ✅ | ✅ |
| Element references | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Process model | ✅ | ❌ | |
| Traits for attributes | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Data reference setting | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Units of measurement | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Templates & base templates | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Search/Filter | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Version control | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Asset Analytics | Triggers | Data input, periodic | Data input, periodic, and more |
| Expression analysis | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Rollup analysis | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Event frame analysis | ✅ | ✅ | |
| SQC analysis | ✅ | ❌ (planned) | |
| Backfill and recalculation | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Event Frames | Value capture | ✅ | ✅ |
| Acknowledge event frames | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Transfer | ✅ | ❌ | |
| Data reference to elements | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Event templates | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Notifications | Notification templates | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trigger criteria | ✅ | Only based on severity level | |
| Delivery endpoints | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Escalation | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Visualizations | Symbols supported | Trend, value, table, gauge, bar chart, XY plot, asset comparison table | Trend, value, table, gauge, bar chart, XY plot, map, rich text |
| Display (Canvas) | ✅ | ❌ (planned) | |
| Events | ✅ | Partially matched | |
| Data Ingestion | OPC | ✅ | ✅ |
| MQTT | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Kafka | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Relational databases | ✅ | ✅ | |
| CSV files | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Other industrial protocols | ✅ | ❌ | |
| Data Distribution | REST API | ✅ | ✅ |
| Kafka | ❌ | ✅ | |
| MQTT | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Security | Role-based access control (RBAC) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | ✅ | Planned | |
| Data encryption | ✅ | ✅ | |
| SOC 2 certification | ✅ | ✅ | |
| ISO 27001 certification | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Application | Server access | Dedicated client program on windows | Browser |
| Platforms & Deployment | Windows | ✅ | ✅ |
| Linux | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Installation package | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Ansible deployment | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Helm deployment | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Cloud service | Not the same as on-prem solution | Same as on-prem | |
| Supported cloud platforms | Azure | Azure, AWS, and GCP | |
| Integrations | REST API | ✅ | ✅ |
| JDBC and ODBC | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Power BI | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Tableau | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Seeq | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Grafana | ✅ | ✅ | |
| Excel | DataLink | Only through ODBC | |
| AI | Chat BI | ❌ | ✅ |
| Zero-Query Intelligence | ❌ | ✅ | |
| AI-based time-series forecasting | ❌ | ✅ | |
| AI-based anomaly detection | ❌ | ✅ | |
| Integration with third-party AI applications | Hard | Easy |
Meet TDengine
TDengine is an AI-powered data platform designed for industrial applications, combining the high-performance time-series database TDengine TSDB and the AI-native data management platform TDengine IDMP.
With TDengine TSDB handling data ingestion, storage, and processing, and TDengine IDMP providing contextualization, standardization, and AI-powered analytics, TDengine enables industrial enterprises to unlock the true value of their time-series data.
Why companies are choosing
TDengine over PI System
-
Tagless & Predictable: no artificial limits, no runaway costs.
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AI-Native: anomaly detection, predictive analytics, and LLM-powered insights out of the box.
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Cloud-Native: deploy on-premises, hybrid, or cloud with full scalability.
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Unified Platform: time-series, metadata, events, and notifications in one solution.
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Open Integrations: OPC UA, MQTT, Telegraf, Sparkplug B, plus easy connections to BI and AI tools.
Trusted by Industry Leaders
Organizations in energy, manufacturing, and life sciences already rely on TDengine technology to manage billions of data points every day.
By combining TDengine’s scalable time-series engine with semantic integration, we’ve created a unified view of machine operations and domain knowledge that is both high-performance and explainable. This semantic approach lets us ask cross-domain questions and combine expert logic with real-time data — without building fragile custom pipelines.
Stefan Bischof
Senior Research Scientist
Siemens
TDengine has been a game-changer for us. Its features designed for industrial use cases, such as native replication and HA, as well as stream processing, have far exceeded our expectations. Of course, the performance is also brilliant, capable of running well on the edge and in the cloud. The support from the TDengine team has been exceptional, making our transition seamless and ensuring our success from day one.
Alex Tolenaar
Technical Specialist
Extracellular
Seamless Migration
Switching doesn’t have to be painful. TDengine offers:
Flexible deployment: on-prem, hybrid, or cloud.
Proven migration tools for PI data and models.
Fast time-to-value: pilots in weeks, full rollout in 8–12 weeks.
Transparent, Predictable Pricing
With PI System, costs explode as you add more tags. Every new sensor or metric means another license fee.
TDengine IDMP is different.
-
No Tag Limits – store unlimited tags without paying extra.
-
Core-Based Pricing – pay only for the CPU cores you consume.
-
Flat and Predictable – easy to budget, no surprises as you expand.
1 core in TDengine IDMP = performance for ~10,000 PI tags.
Add more data? Just add more cores. Your costs scale linearly, not exponentially.
Result: Most customers cut total costs by 30–50% compared to PI — while gaining AI, LLM, and cloud-native capabilities PI can’t deliver.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PI System and why look for an alternative?
PI System is a long-established data historian widely used in industrial operations. However, it can be expensive, closed, and challenging to scale in modern, cloud-native environments. Many organizations are exploring alternatives that offer better performance, lower cost, and easier integration.
How does TDengine compare to PI System?
TDengine is a modern time-series database designed for IoT and industrial data. Unlike PI System’s traditional architecture, TDengine is cloud-native and AI-native, horizontally scalable, and built on an open-source core.
Can TDengine replace PI System entirely?
In new deployments, yes. TDengine can ingest, store, and analyze the same industrial time-series data that PI System handles. TDengine also provides a zero-code data connector so that you don’t need to rip and replace existing PI System deployments.
Can TDengine IDMP replace PI AF and PI Vision?
Yes. TDengine IDMP offers equivalent modeling (Elements, Templates, Attributes) and built-in dashboards with AI-powered analytics.
How does TDengine integrate with existing industrial tools and standards?
TDengine supports industry-standard protocols and interfaces such as MQTT, OPC, JDBC, and ODBC. This makes it easy to integrate with data collection systems as well as visualization, analytics, and BI platforms—similar to how PI System connects, but with more openness and less vendor lock-in.
What are the cost advantages of TDengine vs. PI System?
TDengine’s core-based pricing model is more flexible that PI System’s tag-based licensing, and you only pay for the resources you use. Many customers report dramatic reductions in infrastructure and licensing costs compared to PI System.
What makes TDengine more scalable than PI System?
TDengine uses a distributed, cloud-native architecture that scales horizontally—just add more nodes to handle more devices or higher data frequency. PI System’s architecture is more centralized, which can make scaling complex and costly.
How does TDengine support AI and machine learning compared to PI System?
TDengine is an AI-driven platform that includes AI functionality out of the box, most notably zero-query intelligence, which uses AI to generate visualizations and real-time analysis tasks without requiring prompts or queries. TDengine TDgpt also enables AI/ML-based forecasting and anomaly detection. By contrast, PI System does not provide native AI capabilities—users typically need to purchase and integrate external analytics modules or rely on third-party platforms.
Take the Next Step
TDengine is the clear choice for PI users who want to modernize without overpaying.
