head to head · open source
debezium vs Lightdash
debezium has 13,137 GitHub stars, 3,043 forks, 131 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Lightdash has 6,145 stars, 777 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped today. debezium leads on adoption by 114% (13,137 vs 6,145 stars). debezium is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. debezium has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. Lightdash 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
| debezium | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 777 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick debezium if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- 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 debezium
Debezium is an open source, low latency change data capture (CDC) platform that monitors databases and turns every row level change into an ordered event stream that applications consume, and it is built for Java teams already running Apache Kafka and Kafka Connect.
read the full debezium overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is debezium or Lightdash more popular?
debezium has 13,137 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,145. debezium has the larger community by that measure.
Are debezium and Lightdash free?
Both are open source. debezium is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between debezium and Lightdash?
debezium is written in Java 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, debezium or Lightdash?
Choose debezium if you want the larger community (13,137 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.