head to head · open source
shardingsphere vs Lightdash
shardingsphere has 20,801 GitHub stars, 6,900 forks, 197 open issues and last shipped today. Lightdash has 6,145 stars, 777 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped today. shardingsphere leads on adoption by 239% (20,801 vs 6,145 stars). shardingsphere is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. shardingsphere has attracted 33% 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
| shardingsphere | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 777 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick shardingsphere if
- You weight community size — 21K 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 shardingsphere
Apache ShardingSphere is an Apache 2.0 licensed, Java based distributed database ecosystem positioned as Database Plus — a standards and enhancement layer that sits above heterogeneous databases so applications can connect to, govern, and compute across them as if they were one database, aimed at enterprise data architects and developers running sharded, multi database estates.
read the full shardingsphere 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 shardingsphere or Lightdash more popular?
shardingsphere has 20,801 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,145. shardingsphere has the larger community by that measure.
Are shardingsphere and Lightdash free?
Both are open source. shardingsphere 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 shardingsphere and Lightdash?
shardingsphere 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, shardingsphere or Lightdash?
Choose shardingsphere if you want the larger community (20,801 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.