CDviz vs Apache DevLake
Both are open-source platforms for engineering metrics and SDLC visibility. They take different approaches.
Last updated February 2026. Corrections welcome.
At a glance
| CDviz | Apache DevLake | |
|---|---|---|
| License | Apache 2.0 | Apache 2.0 |
| Self-hosted | ✅ | ✅ |
| SaaS option | ⏳ waitlist | ❌ |
| Commercial support | ✅ | ❌ |
| CDEvents standard | ✅ native | ❌ |
| Data model | Event-driven (push) | Pull-based (polling) |
| Beyond monitoring: trigger workflows | ✅ | ❌ |
| DORA metrics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Built-in integrations | GitHub, GitLab, ArgoCD, Kubernetes… | 50+ (Jira, Jenkins, PagerDuty, SonarQube…) |
| Customizable storage backends | ✅ (PostgreSQL, ClickHouse…) | ❌ |
| Visualization | Grafana, any analytics / AI / IDP tool | built-in Grafana dashboards |
| Maturity | Early stage | Incubating @ Apache |
Key differences
- Standard vs custom model: CDviz uses the open CDEvents specification as its event schema. DevLake uses a proprietary domain model. CDviz data is inherently portable; DevLake data is optimized for its own dashboards.
- Push vs pull: CDviz collects events in real-time as they happen. DevLake polls APIs on a schedule — simpler to start but introduces latency and heavier API load.
- Observe and act: CDviz events are not read-only. The same event stream used for observability can trigger downstream workflows — making it an event-driven SDLC backbone, not just a dashboard. DevLake is monitoring-only.
- Customization depth: CDviz lets you enrich events at ingestion (add context, normalize fields), route to different storage backends (PostgreSQL, ClickHouse…), and visualize in any tool — Grafana, BI platforms, AI agents, MCP-connected tools, Internal Developer Platforms.
- Ecosystem breadth: DevLake has significantly more ready-made integrations today. CDviz relies on webhooks and community-contributed transformers.
- Commercial support: CDviz offers commercial support, making total cost of ownership lower than self-managing an unsupported open-source stack.
When to choose CDviz
- Your team wants to adopt or contribute to the CDEvents open standard.
- You need real-time event streaming (not periodic snapshots).
- You want events to trigger workflows — not just be observed.
- You already run Grafana and want to add SDLC visibility to existing dashboards.
- You need flexible storage (ClickHouse, PostgreSQL) or reporting (BI, AI, MCP, IDP).
- You want commercial support without building and maintaining everything yourself.
- You prefer a managed SaaS option (join the waitlist).
When to choose Apache DevLake
- You need broad out-of-the-box integrations (Jira, Jenkins, PagerDuty, SonarQube…) without writing custom collectors.
- Your team prefers a batteries-included setup with less configuration.
- Monitoring and dashboards are sufficient — no need to trigger workflows.
Summary
DevLake is the safer "broad coverage" choice for pure metrics and dashboards. CDviz is the right bet if open standards, real-time events, event-driven automation, and composable tooling matter to your team — or if you want commercial support to reduce operational risk.