head to head · open source
Vector vs whisper
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars, 2,371 forks, 2,512 open issues and last shipped yesterday. whisper has 1,260 stars, 320 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Vector leads on adoption by 1,709% (22,793 vs 1,260 stars). Vector is written in Rust under MPL-2.0; whisper is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Vector has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, whisper 25%. 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 | whisper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 23K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | MPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2025-12-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 320 |
| 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 whisper if
- You want the whisper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and whisper 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 whisper
Whisper Overview Whisper is one of three components within the Graphite project: 1. Graphite Web, a Django based web application that renders graphs and dashboards 2. The Carbon metric processing daemons 3. The Whisper time series database library Whisper is a fixed size database, similar in design and purpose to RRD (round robin database). It provides fast, reliable storage of numeric data over time. Whisper allows for higher resolution (seconds per point) of recent data to degrade into lower resolutions for long term retention of historical data. Installation, Configuration and Usage Please refer to the…
read the full whisper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Vector or whisper more popular?
Vector has 22,793 GitHub stars and whisper has 1,260. Vector has the larger community by that measure.
Are Vector and whisper free?
Both are open source. Vector is licensed under MPL-2.0 and whisper under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Vector and whisper?
Vector is written in Rust and whisper in Python. 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 whisper?
Choose Vector if you want the larger community (22,793 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose whisper if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.