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Comparison · Analytics
Cortex vs Tinylytics
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Cortex and Tinylytics — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Cortex vs Tinylytics: 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 Tinylytics?
Tinylytics is cleaning its numbers and adding an AI-ranked SEO audit for Ultra customers
Tinylytics shipped a simpler embed script, moved widget setup into Settings, and now excludes hits from cloud hosting networks and Tor, after filtering a Singapore bot source in September that accounted for around 95% of traffic from that country. On Ultra, a new SEO audit has an AI model rank findings into a fix list, with weekly re-checks. Form tracking, Named Goals, stat cards, and timestamped hit imports fill out the period.
Cortex vs Tinylytics: 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.
Tinylytics
5.0ANALYTICS
Tinylytics is cleaning its numbers and adding an AI-ranked SEO audit for Ultra customers
◆ Current state
Tinylytics shipped a simpler embed script, moved widget setup into Settings, and now excludes hits from cloud hosting networks and Tor, after filtering a Singapore bot source in September that accounted for around 95% of traffic from that country. On Ultra, a new SEO audit has an AI model rank findings into a fix list, with weekly re-checks. Form tracking, Named Goals, stat cards, and timestamped hit imports fill out the period.
◆ Where it's heading
Three lines are running together: data quality, tools that say what to do next, and agent access. Each filtering change makes the numbers more defensible, the SEO audit moves the product from reporting toward recommending, and the MCP and API keep gaining tools with most releases. The old-hit import, with its original timestamps, also courts users switching from other analytics tools.
◆ Prediction
Expect more audit-style features on Ultra and MCP tools that follow each new dashboard surface, as content issues and widget settings just did. Further traffic filtering is likely, given how often it has come up since September.
Alternatives to Cortex and Tinylytics
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 Tinylytics.
OpenMetadata
OpenMetadata reaches 2.1 rc1 after a month of repairing 2.0's connectors.
Stitch
Stitch keeps patching connectors one replication bug at a time.
Datawrapper
Datawrapper's October is touch tooltips, keyboard focus and small chart repairs.
Fluent Bit
Fluent Bit spends October bounding what its inputs will accept.
Axiom
Axiom makes agent work checkable, and points alerts straight at coding agents
See all Cortex alternatives → · See all Tinylytics alternatives →
Recent activity from Cortex and Tinylytics
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5d agoTinylyticsA simpler embed script, cleaner stats and archiving that keeps your history
- 12d agoTinylyticsAn SEO audit with a ranked fix list, page names, and imports that keep their dates
- 17d agoTinylyticsAutomatic form tracking, a Direct row in Referrers, and more countries in email reports
- 26d agoCortex1.22 candidate 4 fixes tenant-deletion cleanup on GCS and Azure
- 26d agoTinylyticsStat cards, new widget looks, Developer mode, and achievements
- 1mo agoTinylyticsCleaner stats: Singapore bot traffic is now filtered out
- 1mo agoCortex1.22 candidate 3 fixes the ingestion-delay histogram
- 1mo agoTinylyticsNamed Goals, Rebuilt Docs, and a Bigger MCP Toolbox
- 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 Tinylytics?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Tinylytics 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 Tinylytics?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Tinylytics 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 Tinylytics?
Top Tinylytics alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Tinylytics alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tinylytics for the full list with editorial commentary on each.