SHSelfHostIndex

Cube vs Grafana Image Renderer

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?
CU Cube Semantic layer and headless BI for building data apps VS GR Grafana Image Renderer Render Grafana panels and dashboards as images and PDFs
FeatureCubeGrafana Image Renderer
CategoryDashboards & StartpagesDashboards & Startpages
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageRustGo
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, sourcedocker, binary, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 20,572★ 520
First released20192019
ReplacesLooker, AtScaleGrafana Enterprise Reporting

Why pick each one

Choose Cube if…

  • Consistent metrics across tools
  • Strong API surface
Cube details

Choose Grafana Image Renderer if…

  • Enables image alerts and reports
  • Simple Docker deployment
Grafana Image Renderer details

Frequently asked questions

Is Cube or Grafana Image Renderer better?

Neither is universally better. Cube has the larger community, while Grafana Image Renderer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Cube and Grafana Image Renderer free and open-source?

Yes. Cube is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Grafana Image Renderer under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Cube and Grafana Image Renderer with Docker?

Cube: yes. Grafana Image Renderer: yes.

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