Cube vs Grafonnet Dashboards
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted dashboards & startpages options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Cube
Semantic layer and headless BI for building data apps
VS
Grafonnet Dashboards
Library for generating Grafana dashboards as code
| Feature | Cube | Grafonnet Dashboards |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Dashboards & Startpages | Dashboards & Startpages |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Rust | Jsonnet |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 20,572 | ★ 547 |
| First released | 2019 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Looker, AtScale | Grafana |
Why pick each one
Choose Grafonnet Dashboards if…
- Consistent dashboards
- Easy to review changes
Frequently asked questions
Is Cube or Grafonnet Dashboards better?
Neither is universally better. Cube has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Cube and Grafonnet Dashboards free and open-source?
Yes. Cube is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Grafonnet Dashboards under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cube and Grafonnet Dashboards with Docker?
Cube: yes. Grafonnet Dashboards: check the project docs for container support.