head to head · open source
steampipe vs whodb
steampipe has 7,994 GitHub stars, 347 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. whodb has 5,049 stars, 241 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped yesterday. steampipe leads on adoption by 58% (7,994 vs 5,049 stars). steampipe is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; whodb is written in Go under Apache-2.0. steampipe has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, whodb 5%. whodb 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
| steampipe | whodb | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.0K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 347 | ⑂ 241 |
| 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 whodb if
- You want the whodb feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and whodb 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 whodb
WhoDB A lightweight, self hosted workspace for your databases Available on Quick start · Documentation · Live demo · Community WhoDB gives you one place to explore your databases, edit data, run queries, and understand how a schema fits together. It runs in the browser, is easy to self host, and is available as a desktop app or terminal CLI too. Use it when you want to inspect a local database, help a teammate explore unfamiliar data, or work without installing a heavyweight database client. AI features are optional: connect Ollama, OpenAI, Anthropic, LM Studio, or another OpenAI compatible provider if you want…
read the full whodb overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is steampipe or whodb more popular?
steampipe has 7,994 GitHub stars and whodb has 5,049. steampipe has the larger community by that measure.
Are steampipe and whodb free?
Both are open source. steampipe is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and whodb under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between steampipe and whodb?
steampipe is written in Go and whodb in Go. 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 whodb?
Choose steampipe if you want the larger community (7,994 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose whodb if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.