head to head · open source
Cube vs OpenContracts
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars, 2,138 forks, 1,185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenContracts has 1,481 stars, 189 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cube leads on adoption by 1,308% (20,857 vs 1,481 stars). Cube is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; OpenContracts is written in Python under MIT. Cube has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, OpenContracts 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 (ai), 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.
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Side by side
| Cube | OpenContracts | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 189 |
| 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 OpenContracts if
- You want the OpenContracts feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and OpenContracts 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 OpenContracts
OpenContracts is an MIT licensed, self hosted document intelligence platform that turns a repository of documents into a programmable citation graph, built for builders and hackers who need a document management system for the agentic world as much as a place to store files.
read the full OpenContracts overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Cube or OpenContracts more popular?
Cube has 20,857 GitHub stars and OpenContracts has 1,481. Cube has the larger community by that measure.
Are Cube and OpenContracts free?
Both are open source. Cube has no licence declared in this registry, and OpenContracts is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Cube and OpenContracts?
Cube is written in Rust and OpenContracts in Python. 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 OpenContracts?
Choose Cube if you want the larger community (20,857 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose OpenContracts if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.