head to head · open source
CloudQuery vs Lightdash
CloudQuery has 6,550 GitHub stars, 567 forks, 166 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Lightdash has 6,221 stars, 802 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. CloudQuery leads on adoption by 5% (6,550 vs 6,221 stars). CloudQuery is written in Go under MPL-2.0; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. CloudQuery has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. Lightdash 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
| CloudQuery | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.5K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 567 | ⑂ 802 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick CloudQuery if
- You weight community size — 6.5K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 CloudQuery
CloudOps, without the chaos CloudQuery is a cloud asset inventory built for platform teams. Sync your cloud infrastructure metadata into your data warehouse, powering insights and automation. Unify data and provide context across AWS, Azure, GCP, and 70+ cloud and SaaS sources such as Wiz, Finout, and GitHub. Installation Check out the quickstart guide for install guides for Linux and Windows and for step by step instructions on completing your first sync with CloudQuery. Why CloudQuery? Specialized plugin coverage Support for cloud infrastructure, security, and FinOps sources with normalization, rate limit…
read the full CloudQuery overview →
About Lightdash
Open source Agentic BI for modern data teams Build governed metrics, dashboards, AI agents, and data apps from your context layer. Ship analytics through Git, CI, MCP, and the Lightdash CLI. Why Lightdash Lightdash is the Agentic BI platform for teams that want analytics to move like software. Your context layer defines trusted metrics, joins, permissions, business logic, and caching once, then powers every way people consume data: dashboards, AI agents, data apps, embedded analytics, SDKs, and MCP. Data teams can build and maintain analytics with any AI agent, then use the terminal, pull requests, and CI to…
read the full Lightdash overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is CloudQuery or Lightdash more popular?
CloudQuery has 6,550 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,221. CloudQuery has the larger community by that measure.
Are CloudQuery and Lightdash free?
Both are open source. CloudQuery is licensed under MPL-2.0, and Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between CloudQuery and Lightdash?
CloudQuery is written in Go 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, CloudQuery or Lightdash?
Choose CloudQuery if you want the larger community (6,550 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.