Tinybird vs Hex
Side-by-side trajectory, velocity, and editorial themes.
Tinybird's Forward platform matures through steady weekly connector, query, and ops upgrades.
Tinybird is a managed real-time analytics platform built on ClickHouse, shipping on a tight weekly changelog cadence. The current focus is hardening its next-generation "Forward" architecture: lightweight deletes just entered beta, Tinybird Local now runs natively on arm64, and the engine moved from ClickHouse 25.3 to 25.8.
The throughline is migrating users off "Classic" onto Forward while widening the data-ingress and query surface — new connectors (DynamoDB, Kafka pause visibility), query features (PREWHERE, on-demand copy-job compute), and operational controls (workspace cluster selection, explicit flags for destructive schema changes, quarantine auto-cleanup). A migrate-to-forward CLI and vector search show the platform closing gaps to make Forward the default.
Expect continued weekly increments on Forward — more connectors, ClickHouse version tracking, and migration tooling — with lightweight deletes the likely candidate to graduate from beta toward general availability.
Hex is remaking its notebook into an agent that both uses and plugs into MCP
Hex is converting its analytics notebook into an AI agent platform. It now runs as an MCP client, is invocable from Codex, and ships generative data apps built from prompts, while keeping its model roster current with Kimi K2.7 and Fable 5 and giving admins default-model and branding controls. Integration and governance work — a Figma connector, AWS IAM-role support, signed embedding — rounds out the core.
The arc points at Hex as connective agent infrastructure: consuming external context and tools via MCP, distributing itself into other agent surfaces like Codex, and letting analysts assemble apps and dashboards from prompts. Expect the agent, rather than the notebook grid, to become the primary interface, with model choice and governance layered on top.
Likely next steps deepen the agent's tool-use over MCP connections and push generative apps further toward production embedding and governance controls.
See more alternatives to Tinybird →
See more alternatives to Hex →