Comparison

DevLake gives you a database. We give you the product.

By the CodPal team · Open-source engineering intelligence

Apache DevLake is a genuinely good project, and we're glad it exists. If you want an open-source pipeline that pulls Jira, GitHub, GitLab, and more into a tidy database, it's excellent. But it's worth being clear about what DevLake actually hands you — and where it stops.

DevLake is the plumbing

DevLake is, at heart, an ELT tool: it extracts data from your dev tools, normalizes it into a database schema, and ships some Grafana dashboards on top. That's real, valuable engineering. But the deliverable is a database and a BI layer — and Grafana is a general-purpose charting tool, not an engineering product. To get from "data in a table" to "something my VP will actually open," you assemble it: wire up panels, write SQL, tune queries, and maintain it as your schema evolves.

Deckgauge is the product

Deckgauge starts where DevLake's output ends. It's a finished application: a Monday-style board that unifies your tools, a configurable engineering intelligence dashboard with DORA and flow widgets built specifically for delivery (not generic Grafana panels), auto-generated roadmaps, and org trees. You connect a source and you have something to show leadership the same day — no dashboard-building project.

Both are open source — pick by what you want to own

This isn't open-source-versus-proprietary; Deckgauge is open source too, and runs in your own stack. It's a database you assemble versus a product that just runs. If you have a data team that wants raw tables to build on, DevLake is a great foundation. If you're an engineering leader who wants boards, dashboards, and roadmaps working today, that's Deckgauge.

Deploy Deckgauge free and connect a source in minutes — then compare it to the afternoon you'd spend in Grafana.