OpenSearch Dashboards
Apache-2.0 fork of Kibana, paired with OpenSearch. The de-facto self-hosted alternative to Elastic for logs visualization.
| License | Apache-2.0 |
| Repository | https://github.com/opensearch-project/OpenSearch-Dashboards |
| GitHub stars (approx) | 2000 |
| Language | TypeScript |
| Self-host deployment | docker, kubernetes helm, tarball |
| Commercial hosted option | yes (vendor-run) |
| Freshness status | Fresh |
| Freshness checked | 2026-05-17 |
| Categories | logs |
| Replaces SaaS | splunk, datadog |
OpenSearch Dashboards is the visualization layer for OpenSearch — the AWS-stewarded Apache-2.0 fork of Elastic Stack created after Elastic’s 2021 license change. It is Kibana, minus the SSPL license trap, with feature parity for log search, dashboards, and alerting.
Pick it if: you need Kibana-style search and visualization but the SSPL/Elastic License is a blocker for redistribution, embedded use, or your legal team. Excellent fit if you already operate OpenSearch as your log backend or are migrating off Elasticsearch.
Skip it if: you can live with Elastic License limitations — recent Kibana versions have features (e.g., ES|QL UI, newer ML) that have not yet landed in OpenSearch Dashboards. Also skip if you only need logs viz and have no need for full-text search; Grafana + Loki is lighter.
Deployment: ships as a tarball, Docker image, and Helm chart. Pair with a 3+ node OpenSearch cluster. Memory-hungry — plan accordingly.