head to head · open source
steampipe vs Lightdash
steampipe has 7,994 GitHub stars, 347 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lightdash has 6,221 stars, 802 forks, 1,018 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. steampipe leads on adoption by 29% (7,994 vs 6,221 stars). steampipe is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Lightdash is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. steampipe has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Lightdash 13%. steampipe 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| steampipe | Lightdash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 6.2K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 347 | ⑂ 802 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick steampipe if
- You weight community size — 8.0K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 steampipe
select from cloud; Steampipe is the zero ETL way to query APIs and services. Use it to expose data sources to SQL. SQL . It's been the data access standard for decades. Live data . Query APIs in real time. Speed . Query APIs faster than you ever thought possible. Concurrency . Query many data sources in parallel. Single binary . Use it locally, deploy it in CI/CD pipelines. Demo time! Documentation See the documentation for: Running queries Managing Steampipe CLI commands Integrations Developing plugins Install Steampipe Install Steampipe from the downloads page: Install a plugin for your favorite service (e.g…
read the full steampipe overview →
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 →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Data Engineering & Integration projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Engineering & Integration field.
Frequently asked questions
Is steampipe or Lightdash more popular?
steampipe has 7,994 GitHub stars and Lightdash has 6,221. steampipe has the larger community by that measure.
Are steampipe and Lightdash free?
Both are open source. steampipe is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Lightdash has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between steampipe and Lightdash?
steampipe is written in Go 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, steampipe or Lightdash?
Choose steampipe if you want the larger community (7,994 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Lightdash if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.