What is Cube used for?

Cube is an open-source, headless semantic layer where you define metrics and access rules once in code and expose them to BI tools, apps and AI agents through SQL, REST and GraphQL. It is a good fit for embedded analytics in customer-facing products, consistent metrics across BI tools and governed data access for AI agents.

Yes. Cube is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cube-js/cube and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. Cube is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $40 per seat per month.

Can I self-host Cube?

Yes. Cube can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Cube an alternative to?

Cube is an open-source alternative to Looker, Sisense, GoodData and AtScale. Other open-source alternatives to Looker include Metabase, Superset and Saiku.

Is Cube actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Cube was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.7.48, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 21k stars on GitHub.

Cube: open-source alternative to Looker, Sisense, GoodData

About Cube

Cube Core is an open-source semantic layer. You describe your metrics, dimensions, joins and permissions a single time, as code, and Cube exposes that model through SQL, REST and GraphQL APIs to whatever sits downstream: BI tools, custom applications or AI agents. It is headless, meaning it ships no user interface of its own, which leaves you free to design the analytics experience your product needs.

The project argues that every BI tool already relies on a semantic layer to hide data complexity, but most are proprietary and tied to a single platform. Cube aims to make that layer reusable. It connects to any SQL data source, including warehouses such as BigQuery, Snowflake and Databricks, engines such as Amazon Athena and Presto, and application databases such as Postgres. A built-in relational caching engine delivers fast responses and high concurrency for API requests.

The core is written in Rust and JavaScript, and its license is listed as 'Other' on GitHub, so review the terms for commercial use. Cube can be self-hosted, and the company also offers Cube Cloud. It suits data teams building embedded analytics or wanting consistent metric definitions across tools.

Key features

Metrics and dimensions defined as code
SQL, REST and GraphQL APIs
Headless design with no built-in UI
Connects to Snowflake, BigQuery and Databricks
Built-in caching engine
Access rules for governed data

Good fit for

→Embedded analytics in customer-facing products
→Consistent metrics across BI tools
→Governed data access for AI agents

Built with: Rust; PostgreSQL; MySQL
Tags: semantic-layer; headless-bi; analytics; embedded-analytics; sql; graphql; rest-api; metrics; data

Cube: questions and answers

What is Cube used for?: Cube is an open-source, headless semantic layer where you define metrics and access rules once in code and expose them to BI tools, apps and AI agents through SQL, REST and GraphQL. It is a good fit for embedded analytics in customer-facing products, consistent metrics across BI tools and governed data access for AI agents.
Is Cube open source?: Yes. Cube is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at cube-js/cube and is written mainly in Rust.
Is Cube free?: Yes. Cube is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence. A managed cloud version is also available, with paid plans from $40 per seat per month.
Can I self-host Cube?: Yes. Cube can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Cube an alternative to?: Cube is an open-source alternative to Looker, Sisense, GoodData and AtScale. Other open-source alternatives to Looker include Metabase, Superset and Saiku.
Is Cube actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Cube was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.7.48, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 21k stars on GitHub.