head to head · open source
Vector vs airframe
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars, 2,371 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. airframe has 666 stars, 67 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Vector leads on adoption by 3,322% (22,793 vs 666 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; airframe is written in Scala under Apache-2.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, airframe 10%. Vector was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (metrics), 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
| Vector | airframe | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 666 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Scala |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 67 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Vector if
- You weight community size — 23K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick airframe if
- You want the airframe feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Scala
- You evaluated both and airframe fits your workflow better
About Vector
Quickstart • Docs • Guides • Integrations • Chat • Download • Container Images • Rust Crate Docs What is Vector? Vector is a high performance, end to end (agent & aggregator) observability data pipeline that puts you in control of your observability data. [Collect][docs.sources], [transform][docs.transforms], and [route][docs.sinks] all your logs and metrics to any vendors you want today and any other vendors you may want tomorrow. Vector enables dramatic cost reduction, novel data enrichment, and data security where you need it, not where it is most convenient for your…
read the full Vector overview →
About airframe
[![Gitter Chat][gitter badge]][gitter link] [![CI Status][gha badge]][gha link] [![scala index][sindex badge]][sindex link] [![maven central][central badge]][central link] [circleci badge]: [circleci link]: [gha badge]: [gha link]: [gitter badge]: [gitter link]: [coverall badge]: [coverall link]: [sindex badge]: [sindex link]: [central badge]: [central link]: Airframe is essential building blocks for developing applications in Scala, including logging, object serialization using JSON or MessagePack, dependency injection, http server/client with RPC support, functional testing with AirSpec, etc. Resources…
read the full airframe overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Vector or airframe more popular?
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars and airframe has 666. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and airframe free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and airframe under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and airframe?
Vector is written in Rust and airframe in Scala. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Vector or airframe?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,793 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose airframe if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.