head to head · open source
Lightdash vs docetl
Lightdash has 6,221 GitHub stars, 802 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. docetl has 4,195 stars, 463 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Lightdash leads on adoption by 48% (6,221 vs 4,195 stars). Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence; docetl is written in Python under MIT. Lightdash has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, docetl 11%. 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
| Lightdash | docetl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.2K | ★ 4.2K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 802 | ⑂ 463 |
| 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 docetl if
- You want the docetl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and docetl 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 docetl
DocETL: Declarative & Agentic Map Reduce What is DocETL · Install · Python API · YAML · DocWrangler UI · Docs What is DocETL DocETL helps you process large collections of data (structured and unstructured) with LLMs. You write each operation in natural language, e.g., "pull out every complaint in this ticket," and DocETL provides the operators you need (map, reduce, filter, and more) and orchestrates them, parallelizing work across your data, optimizes your pipeline automatically, swapping models, rewriting prompts, decomposing operations, and replacing subtasks with code wherever possible, to raise accuracy and…
read the full docetl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lightdash or docetl more popular?
Lightdash has 6,221 GitHub stars and docetl has 4,195. Lightdash has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lightdash and docetl free?
Both are open source. Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry, and docetl is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Lightdash and docetl?
Lightdash is written in TypeScript and docetl 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, Lightdash or docetl?
Choose Lightdash if you want the larger community (6,221 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose docetl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.