head to head · open source
parse-server vs Apache Pinot
parse-server has 21,409 GitHub stars, 4,807 forks, 561 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Apache Pinot has 6,139 stars, 1,509 forks, 1,403 open issues and last shipped yesterday. parse-server leads on adoption by 249% (21,409 vs 6,139 stars). parse-server is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0; Apache Pinot is written in Java under Apache-2.0. parse-server has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, Apache Pinot 25%. Apache Pinot 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
| parse-server | Apache Pinot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 6.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 4.8K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick parse-server if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Apache Pinot if
- You want the Apache Pinot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Apache Pinot fits your workflow better
About parse-server
Parse Server is an open source backend, built for Node.js and the Express web application framework, that can be deployed to any infrastructure able to run Node.js and that serves applications written against the Parse Platform.
read the full parse-server overview →
About Apache Pinot
Apache Pinot is a real time distributed OLAP datastore built to deliver scalable real time analytics at low latency. It lives in the Java ecosystem, is licensed under Apache 2.0, and was originally built by engineers at LinkedIn and Uber. The project ingests from batch data sources such as Hadoop HDFS, Amazon S3, Azure ADLS, and Google Cloud Storage, as well as from stream data sources such as Apache Kafka. It is designed to scale up and out with no upper bound, and its performance stays constant based on the size of the cluster and an expected query per second threshold.
read the full Apache Pinot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is parse-server or Apache Pinot more popular?
parse-server has 21,409 GitHub stars and Apache Pinot has 6,139. parse-server has the larger community by that measure.
Are parse-server and Apache Pinot free?
Both are open source. parse-server is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Apache Pinot under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between parse-server and Apache Pinot?
parse-server is written in JavaScript and Apache Pinot in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, parse-server or Apache Pinot?
Choose parse-server if you want the larger community (21,409 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Apache Pinot if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.