Evidence vs Redash
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Evidence | Redash |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,958 | ★ 28,808 |
| First released | 2021 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Tableau, Looker | Tableau, Mode Analytics |
What are Evidence and Redash?
Evidence
Evidence is a code-driven business intelligence framework where reports are written in Markdown with embedded SQL. It builds fast static analytics sites that can be self-hosted.
- Markdown plus SQL reports
- Static site output
- Version-controlled BI
- Fast builds
Redash
Redash is an open-source tool for querying data sources, visualizing results, and assembling dashboards. It supports a wide range of databases and APIs with collaborative query editing.
- SQL query editor
- Many data sources
- Dashboards and alerts
- Collaborative sharing
Evidence vs Redash: key differences
Evidence is written in TypeScript, while Redash is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Evidence versus BSD-2-Clause for Redash. Evidence is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Redash. Redash is the more established project (first released 2013), while Evidence arrived in 2021. Redash has the considerably larger community, at 28,808 GitHub stars versus 6,958.
Why pick each one
Choose Evidence if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Redash if…
- SQL-first query editor
- Many data source connectors
- Scheduled reports and alerts
Watch out for
- Slow release cadence
- Multi-service Docker stack
Frequently asked questions
Is Evidence or Redash better?
Neither is universally better. Redash has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Evidence and Redash free and open-source?
Yes. Evidence is licensed under MIT and Redash under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Evidence and Redash with Docker?
Evidence: yes. Redash: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Evidence or Redash?
Evidence has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Redash. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.