head to head · open source
shardingsphere vs Elementary Data
shardingsphere has 20,817 GitHub stars, 6,906 forks, 197 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Elementary Data has 2,429 stars, 239 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. shardingsphere leads on adoption by 757% (20,817 vs 2,429 stars). shardingsphere is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Elementary Data is written in HTML under Apache-2.0. shardingsphere has attracted 33% as many forks as stars, Elementary Data 10%. shardingsphere was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-pipeline), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Elementary Data | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 239 |
| 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 Elementary Data if
- You want the Elementary Data feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and Elementary Data fits your workflow better
About shardingsphere
Apache ShardingSphere Enterprise Distributed Database Ecosystem Building the standards and ecosystem on top of heterogeneous databases, empowering enterprise data architecture transformation Official Website: OVERVIEW Apache ShardingSphere is positioned as Database Plus , a standard and ecosystem built on top of heterogeneous databases. As an operating system layer above databases, ShardingSphere does not create new databases but focuses on maximizing the computing capabilities of existing databases, providing unified data access and enhanced computing capabilities. Database Plus Core Concept : By building a…
read the full shardingsphere overview →
About Elementary Data
Elementary OSS: dbt native data observability Docs » Join the Elementary Community » ⭐️ Star the repo Built by the Elementary team, helping you deliver trusted data in the AI era. Elementary OSS is the open source CLI for dbt native data observability. It works with the Elementary dbt package to generate the basic Elementary observability report and send alerts to Slack and Microsoft Teams. For teams that need data reliability at scale, we offer Elementary Cloud , a full Data & AI Control Plane with automated ML monitoring, column level lineage from source to BI, a built in catalog, and AI agents that scale…
read the full Elementary Data overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is shardingsphere or Elementary Data more popular?
shardingsphere has 20,817 GitHub stars and Elementary Data has 2,429. shardingsphere has the larger community by that measure.
Are shardingsphere and Elementary Data free?
Both are open source. shardingsphere is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Elementary Data under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between shardingsphere and Elementary Data?
shardingsphere is written in Java and Elementary Data in HTML. 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 Elementary Data?
Choose shardingsphere if you want the larger community (20,817 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Elementary Data if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.