OpenMetadata
OpenMetadata 2.0.8 widens Hex, Sigma and BigQuery coverage while 2.1 waits in release candidates.
Comparison · Analytics
Cortex vs OpenHouse
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Cortex and OpenHouse — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Cortex vs OpenHouse: at a glance
What is Cortex?
Cortex 1.22 is on its fourth candidate, with sharded Parquet and years of deprecated flags removed.
Cortex 1.22.0 has been in release candidates since 12 September, reaching rc.3 on 6 October, and GitHub shows no final yet. The candidate adds sharded Parquet conversion and querying, resource-based query eviction that cancels the heaviest query when CPU or heap crosses a threshold, OCI Object Storage as a backend, and an active-series tracker per tenant. It also removes long-deprecated flags and config fields, some of which now stop Cortex from starting if left in place.
What is OpenHouse?
OpenHouse adds time-zone-aware retention and per-database table caps.
OpenHouse ships small versioned releases straight from merged pull requests. On November 13 it shipped five: retention policies on string date columns can now take a time zone, operators can cap live tables per database with metrics on usage and rejections, view requests and operations are now audited in full, and two fixes make view property SET/UNSET and REPLACE behave. Earlier in November failed Spark maintenance jobs began exiting as failed.
Cortex vs OpenHouse: editorial side-by-side
Cortex
2.5ANALYTICS
Cortex 1.22 is on its fourth candidate, with sharded Parquet and years of deprecated flags removed.
◆ Current state
Cortex 1.22.0 has been in release candidates since 12 September, reaching rc.3 on 6 October, and GitHub shows no final yet. The candidate adds sharded Parquet conversion and querying, resource-based query eviction that cancels the heaviest query when CPU or heap crosses a threshold, OCI Object Storage as a backend, and an active-series tracker per tenant. It also removes long-deprecated flags and config fields, some of which now stop Cortex from starting if left in place.
◆ Where it's heading
The storage arc toward Parquet continues: after 1.21 made Parquet a Store Gateway query mode, 1.22 shards files that exceed column limits. A second arc is protecting shared clusters from heavy tenants, through query eviction, resource-based throttling and concurrent data-byte limits on store gateways. The cleanup is the maturity arc from 1.21 carried further: no-op flags that were tolerated for releases now fail at startup.
◆ Prediction
1.22.0 final should follow rc.3, which added only two fixes. Operators should expect upgrade failures from leftover deprecated flags, and the release notes tell them to grep runtime configs before upgrading.
OpenHouse
5.0ANALYTICS
OpenHouse adds time-zone-aware retention and per-database table caps.
◆ Current state
OpenHouse ships small versioned releases straight from merged pull requests. On November 13 it shipped five: retention policies on string date columns can now take a time zone, operators can cap live tables per database with metrics on usage and rejections, view requests and operations are now audited in full, and two fixes make view property SET/UNSET and REPLACE behave. Earlier in November failed Spark maintenance jobs began exiting as failed.
◆ Where it's heading
OpenHouse is adding the controls a shared lakehouse needs at scale: quotas, audit trails and retention that matches business calendars. Views are getting the same governance tables already had.
◆ Prediction
Expect more views milestones after audit (the release is labeled Views M1), and further operator controls for quotas and maintenance.
Alternatives to Cortex and OpenHouse
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Cortex or OpenHouse.
Dovetail
Dovetail lets admins choose which connectors members can plug into the workspace.
Dagster
Dagster drops Python 3.10 and lets agents run schedules and sensors through MCP.
Countly
Countly 25.03.59 defaults to Node 26, supports MongoDB 9 and tightens app scoping.
Kubecost
Kubecost cuts three 3.3.2 release candidates in two days, still without notes.
RStudio
RStudio opens the 2026.11 train with another NOTICE file update.
See all Cortex alternatives → · See all OpenHouse alternatives →
Recent activity from Cortex and OpenHouse
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 14h agoOpenHouseRetention policies on string date columns accept a time zone
- 16h agoOpenHouseOpenHouse adds an optional per-database table count limit
- 18h agoOpenHouseFix: ALTER VIEW UNSET now removes view properties
- 1d agoOpenHouseFix view REPLACE property validation
- 1d agoOpenHouseOpenHouse audits view requests and operations in full
- 4d agoOpenHouseFailed Spark maintenance jobs now exit as failed
- 1mo agoCortex1.22 candidate 4 fixes tenant-deletion cleanup on GCS and Azure
- 1mo agoCortex1.22 candidate 3 fixes the ingestion-delay histogram
- 1mo agoCortex1.22 candidate 2 adds three bug fixes
- 2mo agoCortex1.22 candidate: sharded Parquet, query eviction, OCI storage
- 5mo agoCortex1.21.1 candidate hardens gossip, ingestion and status pages
- 7mo agoCortex1.21.0-rc.1 fixes memberlist, tenant federation and a memory leak
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Cortex and OpenHouse?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. OpenHouse is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Cortex better than OpenHouse?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. OpenHouse is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 2.5), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Cortex?
Top Cortex alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Cortex alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cortex-metrics for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to OpenHouse?
Top OpenHouse alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "OpenHouse alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/openhouse for the full list with editorial commentary on each.