head to head · open source
Vector vs hubble
Vector has 22,799 GitHub stars, 2,370 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hubble has 4,378 stars, 305 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Vector leads on adoption by 421% (22,799 vs 4,378 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; hubble is written in Makefile under Apache-2.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, hubble 7%. 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 | hubble | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Makefile |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 305 |
| 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 hubble if
- You want the hubble feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Makefile
- You evaluated both and hubble 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 hubble
Network, Service & Security Observability for Kubernetes What is Hubble? Getting Started Features Service Dependency Graph Metrics & Monitoring Flow Visibility Get in touch / Community Authors What is Hubble? Hubble is a fully distributed networking and security observability platform for cloud native workloads. It is built on top of [Cilium] and [eBPF] to enable deep visibility into the communication and behavior of services as well as the networking infrastructure in a completely transparent manner. Hubble can answer questions such as: Service dependencies & communication map: What services are communicating…
read the full hubble overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Vector or hubble more popular?
Vector has 22,799 GitHub stars and hubble has 4,378. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and hubble free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and hubble under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and hubble?
Vector is written in Rust and hubble in Makefile. 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 hubble?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,799 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose hubble if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.