head to head · open source
hydra vs helicalinsight
hydra has 17,590 GitHub stars, 1,607 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. helicalinsight has 1,079 stars, 770 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. hydra leads on adoption by 1,530% (17,590 vs 1,079 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; helicalinsight is written in JavaScript under AGPL-3.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, helicalinsight 71%. helicalinsight 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
| hydra | helicalinsight | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-09-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 770 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hydra if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick helicalinsight if
- You want the helicalinsight feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and helicalinsight fits your workflow better
About hydra
Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.1 provider written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, built for teams that need standards compliant token issuance, client management, and consent flows while user accounts stay in their own existing identity system.
read the full hydra overview →
About helicalinsight
Helical Insight is a free, self hosted, open source BI platform for teams that want dashboards, pixel perfect paginated reports, and AI conversational analytics without buying a commercial BI licence.
read the full helicalinsight overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or helicalinsight more popular?
hydra has 17,590 GitHub stars and helicalinsight has 1,079. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and helicalinsight free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and helicalinsight under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and helicalinsight?
hydra is written in Go and helicalinsight in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, hydra or helicalinsight?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,590 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose helicalinsight if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.