head to head · open source
Cube vs hop
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars, 2,138 forks, 1,185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hop has 1,465 stars, 477 forks, 431 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cube leads on adoption by 1,324% (20,857 vs 1,465 stars). Cube is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; hop is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Cube has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, hop 33%. Cube 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Cube | hop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 477 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Cube if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hop if
- You want the hop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and hop fits your workflow better
About Cube
Cube Core is an open source semantic layer for AI, BI, and embedded analytics. It lives in the data analytics and data engineering ecosystem for SQL warehouses, BI tools, applications, and AI agents. It lets teams define metrics, dimensions, joins, and access rules once in code, then expose them through SQL, REST, and GraphQL APIs. It is headless and ships no user interface.
About hop
Apache Hop is an open source data and metadata orchestration platform in the Apache ecosystem. It is written in Java, licensed under Apache 2.0, and positioned for data engineering and integration work. Its stated aim is to facilitate all aspects of data and metadata orchestration.
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Engineering & Integration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Engineering & Integration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cube or hop more popular?
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars and hop has 1,465. Cube has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cube and hop free?
Both are open source. Cube has no licence declared in this registry, and hop is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cube and hop?
Cube is written in Rust and hop in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Cube or hop?
Choose Cube if you want the larger community (20,857 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hop if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.