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Citus vs silx

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Citus and silx — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Citus vs silx: at a glance

FeatureCitussilx
SectorAnalyticsAnalytics
Velocity score2.55.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themespostgres, distributed-sql, maintenance-branches, backportsscientific-computing, data-visualization, synchrotron, qt
Last editorial update12d ago2h ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Citus?

Citus is in maintenance mode across four branches, with the feature work invisible from the feed.

Citus is the Postgres extension that shards tables across a cluster, and its release feed right now is almost entirely branch upkeep. Four lines are live at once — 12.1, 13.3, 14.0 and 14.1 — and the recent tags are backports and CI fixes moving between them, authored by a small handful of maintainers. The last release with user-facing feature text is Citus 14.0 in February, which added PostgreSQL 18.1 support and pointed at a blog post rather than listing what changed.

Read the full Citus trajectory →

What is silx?

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

Read the full silx trajectory →

Citus vs silx: editorial side-by-side

C
Citus
ANALYTICS
2.5

Citus is in maintenance mode across four branches, with the feature work invisible from the feed.

◆ Current state

Citus is the Postgres extension that shards tables across a cluster, and its release feed right now is almost entirely branch upkeep. Four lines are live at once — 12.1, 13.3, 14.0 and 14.1 — and the recent tags are backports and CI fixes moving between them, authored by a small handful of maintainers. The last release with user-facing feature text is Citus 14.0 in February, which added PostgreSQL 18.1 support and pointed at a blog post rather than listing what changed.

◆ Where it's heading

The shape here is a mature extension keeping several supported branches alive rather than pushing new capability. Correctness is the live concern: the 12.1 patches fix wrong query results, an EXPLAIN segfault, a standby coordinator crash and a deadlock, all backported from work done on newer branches. Note that the release notes are thin by design — 13.3 and 14.1 list only PR titles for backports and test plumbing, so the feed understates whatever is landing on the main line.

◆ Prediction

More 12.1 patch tags are the safe expectation while that branch stays supported. Whether the 14.x line picks up new distributed-query features is not visible from these entries — the notes only cover backports, so the main-branch work would have to be read elsewhere.

S
silx
ANALYTICS
5.0

silx settles into maintenance a release after its PySide6 migration

◆ Current state

silx is in the quiet phase after a generational release. 3.1.1 is a single fix to FitWidget loading a fit function from file. The release before it, 3.1.0, was the first real feature work since the migration - asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, and dark-theme icons - and 3.0.1 was similarly small. The 3.0.0 cut that reset the Qt binding and Python floor still defines what the line is doing.

◆ Where it's heading

The cadence has slowed markedly since April, and the content has shifted from structural change to plotting and colormap refinement. That is the expected shape after a binding migration: downstream beamline code needs a stable target, so the project trades feature velocity for a quiet surface. The gap between 3.0.1 in May and 3.1.0 in August is the clearest signal of the deliberate slowdown.

◆ Prediction

Expect further point releases servicing the plotting and fitting widgets rather than another structural change, with feature work continuing to arrive in the 3.1.x minors rather than patches.

Alternatives to Citus and silx

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 Citus or silx.

See all Citus alternatives → · See all silx alternatives →

Recent activity from Citus and silx

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 5h agosilxFitWidget fix for loading a fit function from file
  2. 9d agosilx3.1.0: asinh axis scaling, twilight colormaps, dark-theme icons
  3. 12d agoCitus12.1.14 fixes wrong results, an EXPLAIN segfault and a standby crash
  4. 1mo agoCitusCitus 14.1 ships as a backport and CI maintenance release
  5. 1mo agoCitus12.1.13 fixes a deadlock, crashes and internal UDF ownership
  6. 1mo agoCitusCitus 13.3 lands as a backport-only release on the 13.x line
  7. 3mo agosilx3.0.1: silx view fails to disable HDF5 file locking
  8. 3mo agosilx3.0.0: PySide6 becomes the default Qt binding, Python 3.10 required
  9. 3mo agosilx3.0.0rc1: release candidate for the PySide6 migration
  10. 6mo agoCitusCitus 14.0 adds PostgreSQL 18.1 support
  11. 1y agosilx2.2.2: plot axes limits, OpenGL axes and libhdf5 1.14 fixes

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Citus and silx?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. silx 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 Citus better than silx?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. silx 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 Citus?

Top Citus alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Citus alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/citus for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to silx?

Top silx alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "silx alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/silx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.