head to head · open source
dlt vs lakeFS
dlt has 6,051 GitHub stars, 649 forks, 434 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. lakeFS has 5,575 stars, 490 forks, 443 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dlt leads on adoption by 9% (6,051 vs 5,575 stars). dlt is written in Python under Apache-2.0; lakeFS is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. dlt has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, lakeFS 9%. lakeFS was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (data-engineering, data-lake), 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| dlt | lakeFS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.1K | ★ 5.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 649 | ⑂ 490 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick dlt if
- You weight community size — 6.1K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick lakeFS if
- You want the lakeFS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and lakeFS fits your workflow better
About dlt
data load tool (dlt) — the open source Python library that automates all your tedious data loading tasks Be it a Google Colab notebook, AWS Lambda function, an Airflow DAG, your local laptop, or an AI coding agent— dlt can be dropped in anywhere. 🚀 Join our thriving community of likeminded developers and build the future together! Installation dlt supports Python 3.10 through Python 3.14. Note that some optional extras are not yet available for Python 3.14, so support for this version is considered experimental. Add the extras you need for your sources and destinations, for example: Prefer uv? uv add…
About lakeFS
lakeFS is Data Version Control (Git for Data) lakeFS is an open source tool that transforms your object storage into a Git like repository. It enables you to manage your data lake the way you manage your code. With lakeFS you can build repeatable, atomic, and versioned data lake operations from complex ETL jobs to data science and analytics. lakeFS supports AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, and Google Cloud Storage as its underlying storage service. It is API compatible with S3 and works seamlessly with all modern data frameworks such as Spark, Hive, AWS Athena, DuckDB, and Presto. For more information, see the…
read the full lakeFS overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Warehousing & Processing projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Warehousing & Processing field.
Frequently asked questions
Is dlt or lakeFS more popular?
dlt has 6,051 GitHub stars and lakeFS has 5,575. dlt has the larger community by that measure.
Are dlt and lakeFS free?
Both are open source. dlt is licensed under Apache-2.0, and lakeFS has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between dlt and lakeFS?
dlt is written in Python and lakeFS in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, dlt or lakeFS?
Choose dlt if you want the larger community (6,051 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose lakeFS if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.