head to head · open source
Cube vs Lightdash
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars, 2,138 forks, 1,185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightdash has 6,139 stars, 777 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cube leads on adoption by 240% (20,857 vs 6,139 stars). Cube is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. Cube has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. Cube was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (business-intelligence), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 777 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
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 Lightdash more popular?
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,139. Cube has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cube and Lightdash free?
Neither Cube 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 Cube and Lightdash?
Cube is written in Rust 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, Cube or Lightdash?
Choose Cube if you want the larger community (20,857 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.