head to head · open source
Lightdash vs helix-foundry
Lightdash has 6,209 GitHub stars, 795 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped yesterday. helix-foundry has 1,683 stars, 257 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightdash leads on adoption by 269% (6,209 vs 1,683 stars). Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; helix-foundry is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. Lightdash has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, helix-foundry 15%. helix-foundry 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
| Lightdash | helix-foundry | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.2K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 795 | ⑂ 257 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lightdash if
- You weight community size — 6.2K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick helix-foundry if
- You want the helix-foundry feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and helix-foundry fits your workflow better
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 →
About helix-foundry
Helix Foundry Connect your company's data, let an agent draft an ontology over it, and load it into HelixDB as one connected graph you can explore and ask questions of. Connect PostgreSQL, MySQL, Amazon S3, Stripe, PostHog, WorkOS, GitHub, Linear, Granola and Cal.com, and upload documents (Markdown, text, PDF) and table files (CSV, TSV, JSON, JSON Lines, Parquet). An agent drafts the ontology: types, links, the tables and documents each comes from, and rules. You review it, edit it and make a version current. A load writes the version into HelixDB. Explore it as a graph or as records, follow every value back to…
read the full helix-foundry overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightdash or helix-foundry more popular?
Lightdash has 6,209 GitHub stars and helix-foundry has 1,683. Lightdash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightdash and helix-foundry free?
Both are open source. Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry, and helix-foundry is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Lightdash and helix-foundry?
Lightdash is written in TypeScript and helix-foundry 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, Lightdash or helix-foundry?
Choose Lightdash if you want the larger community (6,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose helix-foundry if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.