head to head · open source
Airbyte vs Lightdash
Airbyte has 22,082 GitHub stars, 5,350 forks, 2,395 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightdash has 6,139 stars, 777 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Airbyte leads on adoption by 260% (22,082 vs 6,139 stars). Airbyte is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Airbyte has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. Airbyte was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Airbyte | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 777 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Airbyte if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Lightdash if
- You want the Lightdash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Lightdash fits your workflow better
About Airbyte
Airbyte open source data movement project. It lives in data engineering and data integration ecosystem. It moves data from APIs, databases, and files into warehouses, data lakes, and AI applications. It supports ELT and ETL pipelines. It also supports AI agents needing business data.
read the full Airbyte overview →
About Lightdash
Lightdash is an open source, agentic business intelligence platform for modern data teams, written in TypeScript and distributed under a NOASSERTION license. It lives in the data and analytics ecosystem, specifically the data engineering and integration space, and it is built around dbt and warehouse native workflows. The project describes itself as agentic BI, meaning analytics is intended to move at the speed of code rather than through point and click configuration alone.
read the full Lightdash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Airbyte or Lightdash more popular?
Airbyte has 22,082 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,139. Airbyte has the larger community by that measure.
Are Airbyte and Lightdash free?
Neither Airbyte nor Lightdash declares a licence in this registry, so check each project's own repository before relying on either for a commercial use. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Airbyte and Lightdash?
Airbyte is written in Python and Lightdash in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Airbyte or Lightdash?
Choose Airbyte if you want the larger community (22,082 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.