Tinybird
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Comparison · Analytics
Highlight vs ThingsBoard
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Highlight and ThingsBoard — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Highlight vs ThingsBoard: 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 ThingsBoard?
ThingsBoard updates time zone data on three release lines for 2026 daylight saving changes.
ThingsBoard keeps three lines patched in parallel: 4.4, 4.3.1 and the 4.2 LTS. On Oct 22 all three got the same update, refreshing Java, Node.js and UI time zone data for 2026 daylight saving changes in Canada, Morocco and Moldova. 4.4 itself, released Sep 29, brought Java 25, a redesigned sidebar and toolbar, and remote agents.
Highlight vs ThingsBoard: 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.
ThingsBoard
5.0ANALYTICS
ThingsBoard updates time zone data on three release lines for 2026 daylight saving changes.
◆ Current state
ThingsBoard keeps three lines patched in parallel: 4.4, 4.3.1 and the 4.2 LTS. On Oct 22 all three got the same update, refreshing Java, Node.js and UI time zone data for 2026 daylight saving changes in Canada, Morocco and Moldova. 4.4 itself, released Sep 29, brought Java 25, a redesigned sidebar and toolbar, and remote agents.
◆ Where it's heading
After the 4.4 feature release the project is back to maintenance across all supported lines, mostly security and runtime data updates. Feature work appears in larger, infrequent releases.
◆ Prediction
The next entries are likely another CVE batch across 4.4, 4.3.1 and 4.2, in line with the cadence before 4.4.
Alternatives to Highlight and ThingsBoard
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 ThingsBoard.
OpenHouse
OpenHouse lays commit-time rule plumbing for column defaults and wires its catalog to Views.
Fulcrum
Fulcrum turns on Insights, its AI assistant for field data, for every customer.
Holistics
Holistics lets admins put a key dashboard on everyone's Home page.
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.
See all Highlight alternatives → · See all ThingsBoard alternatives →
Recent activity from Highlight and ThingsBoard
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.4.0.1: 2026 time zone data update
- 3d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.3.1.7: 2026 time zone data update
- 3d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.2.2.7: 2026 time zone data update
- 27d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.4 Release
- 27d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.3.1.6 Release
- 27d agoThingsBoardThingsBoard 4.2.2.6 Release
- 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 ThingsBoard?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ThingsBoard is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 ThingsBoard?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ThingsBoard is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 ThingsBoard?
Top ThingsBoard alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ThingsBoard alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/thingsboard for the full list with editorial commentary on each.