Glances
Glances 4.5.9 closes out the 4.x line as a 5.0 beta opens for testing.
Comparison · Analytics
Cortex vs OpenCTI
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Cortex and OpenCTI — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Cortex vs OpenCTI: 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 OpenCTI?
OpenCTI adds custom fields to cases and backports its draft-access fix to both LTS lines.
OpenCTI 7.261106.0 adds custom fields and templates to Cases and Incidents, a configurable de-duplication window for sightings, blog post items and form intake for view-only users, plus Elasticsearch query speedups. The same week, LTS 7.260811.0-lts.2 and 7.260309.0-lts.9 backport the security fixes from the main line: draft-context checks on TAXII and HTTP routes, a timeout for JSONPath ingestion scripts and a size cap on artifact imports.
Cortex vs OpenCTI: 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.
OpenCTI
5.0ANALYTICS
OpenCTI adds custom fields to cases and backports its draft-access fix to both LTS lines.
◆ Current state
OpenCTI 7.261106.0 adds custom fields and templates to Cases and Incidents, a configurable de-duplication window for sightings, blog post items and form intake for view-only users, plus Elasticsearch query speedups. The same week, LTS 7.260811.0-lts.2 and 7.260309.0-lts.9 backport the security fixes from the main line: draft-context checks on TAXII and HTTP routes, a timeout for JSONPath ingestion scripts and a size cap on artifact imports.
◆ Where it's heading
The main line keeps adding analyst and case-management features every few days, while two LTS lines get the security fixes. Case management is gaining configurability, after custom views and Hub imports in late October.
◆ Prediction
Expect further case and incident customization in the next main releases and another LTS round when security fixes land.
Alternatives to Cortex and OpenCTI
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 OpenCTI.
Calibre
Calibre MCP lets your coding agent read RUM and Lighthouse data, then fix the slow code
Dovetail
Dovetail opens its docs to Claude and ChatGPT as co-authors.
Apache SkyWalking
SkyWalking 11.1 builds service maps from OpenTelemetry traces, no SkyWalking agent required.
OpenReplay
OpenReplay's feed is Helm chart bumps behind its asset-cacher deny list.
Tinybird
Tinybird shrinks its Local image by a third after a run of observability updates.
See all Cortex alternatives → · See all OpenCTI alternatives →
Recent activity from Cortex and OpenCTI
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI 7.261106.0: custom fields and templates for cases
- 3d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI LTS 7.260811.0-lts.2 backports draft-access fix
- 3d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI LTS 7.260309.0-lts.9 backports draft-access fix
- 6d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI 7.261103.0: Filigran license install, draft access checks
- 10d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI 7.261030.1: indicator lifecycle kept on low-confidence upsert
- 10d agoOpenCTIOpenCTI 7.261030.0: Hub import for views, manual coverage updates
- 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
- 1mo agoCortex1.22 candidate: sharded Parquet, query eviction, OCI storage
- 5mo agoCortex1.21.1 candidate hardens gossip, ingestion and status pages
- 6mo agoCortex1.21.0-rc.1 fixes memberlist, tenant federation and a memory leak
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Cortex and OpenCTI?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. OpenCTI 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 OpenCTI?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. OpenCTI 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 OpenCTI?
Top OpenCTI alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "OpenCTI alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/opencti for the full list with editorial commentary on each.