Fulcrum
Fulcrum turns on Insights, its AI assistant for field data, for every customer.
Comparison · Analytics
Highlight vs HyperDX
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Highlight and HyperDX — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:observabilityopentelemetry
Highlight vs HyperDX: at a glance
What is Highlight?
Highlight grew from session replay into SQL-driven observability, then went quiet in August 2025.
Highlight is an open-source observability stack covering session replay, errors, logs, traces and metrics. Its last tagged self-hosted release, docker-v0.5.6, shipped in August 2025 with session-replay performance fixes and session restarts. Nothing has been tagged since.
What is HyperDX?
HyperDX now tags every ClickHouse query it runs, so teams can see which dashboard drives the load.
HyperDX ships as a monorepo of versioned packages (app, api, CLI, common-utils, collector), so one release shows up as several changelog entries. The 2.41.0 wave on October 13 adds PromQL heatmaps, a minimum auto granularity on PromQL sources, and query attribution: every ClickHouse and PromQL query carries an hdx- query_id and a JSON log_comment naming the dashboard, tile, search or alert behind it. The API also stops falling back to a public session secret, and AI assistant calls now emit OpenTelemetry GenAI-convention spans.
Highlight vs HyperDX: editorial side-by-side
Highlight
0.0ANALYTICS
Highlight grew from session replay into SQL-driven observability, then went quiet in August 2025.
◆ Current state
Highlight is an open-source observability stack covering session replay, errors, logs, traces and metrics. Its last tagged self-hosted release, docker-v0.5.6, shipped in August 2025 with session-replay performance fixes and session restarts. Nothing has been tagged since.
◆ Where it's heading
Through 2025 the releases added OpenTelemetry metrics ingest, a SQL editor and builder for graphs, SQL alerts and dashboards created from log and trace views. That pushed Highlight from a replay tool toward a general telemetry platform. The cadence then slowed from roughly monthly to a two-month gap before stopping.
◆ Prediction
The entries show no release in more than a year, so the self-hosted line's future is unclear. Any new tag would most likely be maintenance on session replay and OTel ingestion.
HyperDX
6.3ANALYTICS
HyperDX now tags every ClickHouse query it runs, so teams can see which dashboard drives the load.
◆ Current state
HyperDX ships as a monorepo of versioned packages (app, api, CLI, common-utils, collector), so one release shows up as several changelog entries. The 2.41.0 wave on October 13 adds PromQL heatmaps, a minimum auto granularity on PromQL sources, and query attribution: every ClickHouse and PromQL query carries an hdx- query_id and a JSON log_comment naming the dashboard, tile, search or alert behind it. The API also stops falling back to a public session secret, and AI assistant calls now emit OpenTelemetry GenAI-convention spans.
◆ Where it's heading
Two threads continue: Grafana-style metrics parity (multi-expression PromQL, macros, granularity floors, now heatmaps) and controlling query cost on ClickHouse (bounded Map-key scans, now per-surface query attribution in system.query_log). Security defaults are being tightened for self-hosted deployments, and HyperDX is applying OpenTelemetry's GenAI conventions to its own AI features. The CLI keeps picking up the web app's chart types.
◆ Prediction
Expect query attribution to show up inside the product, for example per-dashboard cost views or limits, and more PromQL visualization types to catch up with the builder. The entries don't show a timeline for either.
Alternatives to Highlight and HyperDX
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 Highlight or HyperDX.
Holistics
Holistics lets admins put a key dashboard on everyone's Home page.
ThingsBoard
ThingsBoard updates time zone data on three release lines for 2026 daylight saving changes.
Lightdash
Lightdash opens AI-built chart types to every cloud user, through the app or MCP.
Hex
Hex exposes agent usage and credit data as its AI agent becomes a metered product.
OpenPanel
OpenPanel reaches 3.9.0 within six days of 3.0.0, still with no release notes.
See all Highlight alternatives → · See all HyperDX alternatives →
Recent activity from Highlight and HyperDX
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 13d agoHyperDXHyperDX CLI 0.7.0 adds stacked-area charts
- 13d agoHyperDX@hyperdx/[email protected]
- 13d agoHyperDX@hyperdx/[email protected]
- 13d agoHyperDX@hyperdx/[email protected]
- 13d agoHyperDXHyperDX CLI 0.7.0 adds stacked-area charts
- 24d agoHyperDXHyperDX CLI 0.6.4: more precise axis ticks in terminal charts
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.6: session replay performance and session restarts
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.5: SQL alerts, log downloads, video in replays
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.4: SQL joins and graphed error metrics
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.3: dashboards and alerts from logs and traces
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.2: OTel metrics in the web SDK
- 1y agoHighlightdocker-v0.5.1: SQL editor for graphs and OTel metrics export ⚡
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Highlight and HyperDX?
Both compete on the same themes — observability, opentelemetry — within Analytics. HyperDX is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), 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 Highlight better than HyperDX?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. HyperDX is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), 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 Highlight?
Top Highlight alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Highlight alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/highlight for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to HyperDX?
Top HyperDX alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "HyperDX alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/hyperdx for the full list with editorial commentary on each.