Metabase
FreemiumThe easy, open-source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from data.
Scores
About
Metabase is one of the most popular open-source business intelligence tools, designed to make data exploration accessible to non-technical users. Built primarily in Clojure with a TypeScript/React frontend, Metabase lets users create dashboards, visualizations, and automated reports without writing SQL. Its query builder (the 'Question' interface) allows filtering, grouping, and summarizing data through dropdown menus. For power users, a native SQL editor is available. Metabase can be self-hosted (free, AGPL license) or run on Metabase Cloud. The commercial tiers add embedded analytics, SSO, advanced permissions (row/column-level security), and audit logging — making it a popular choice for embedding analytics into SaaS products. With 46k+ GitHub stars and v0.59 in 2026, Metabase is widely used across startups and mid-market companies for internal dashboards and customer-facing analytics.
Key Features
- No-code question builder for non-technical users
- Native SQL editor for advanced queries
- Dashboard creation with filters, drill-throughs, and click behavior
- Interactive and static embedding for SaaS products
- Row and column-level permissions for multi-tenant use cases
- Automated reports via email and Slack subscriptions
- 40+ data source connectors (PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.)
- Models layer for defining reusable business logic
Pros
- Intuitive no-SQL interface makes data accessible to non-technical team members
- Free self-hosted tier (AGPL) is fully featured for internal use
- Embedded analytics with iframe or signed embedding for SaaS products
- Strong community and 46k+ GitHub stars — extensive plugin ecosystem
- Automated Slack/email subscriptions for recurring reports
Cons
- Performance degrades on large datasets or high concurrent query volumes
- Limited chart customization and branding control on lower tiers
- Self-hosting maintenance burden — upgrades and security patching require effort
- Embedded analytics white-labeling requires Pro/Enterprise tier
- No-code builder has ceiling — complex analyses still require SQL
Pricing
Freemium- · Self-hosted only (AGPL license)
- · Unlimited dashboards, questions, and users
- · 40+ database connectors
- · Community support
- · Includes 10 users ($10/additional user/month)
- · Metabase Cloud hosted
- · Audit logs
- · Official support
- · Everything in Starter
- · Interactive embedding for external users
- · Row and column-level permissions
- · Advanced sandboxing
- · Starts at $20,000/year
- · On-premises or cloud deployment
- · SLA and dedicated support
- · Advanced security and compliance
Possible Stacks
Metabase + PostgreSQL
ProjectBusiness intelligence dashboards on top of a PostgreSQL database with Metabase.
Databases
BI
Metabase + MySQL
ProjectBusiness intelligence dashboards on top of a MySQL database with Metabase — ask questions of your data without writing SQL.
GCP ELT Pipeline
ProjectA fully managed, serverless ELT pipeline on Google Cloud: Fivetran handles ingestion with zero-maintenance connectors; BigQuery stores and queries petabytes without cluster management; dbt transforms data into analytics-ready models; Dagster orchestrates the pipeline as typed, lineage-tracked assets; Metabase provides self-service BI on top.
Related Tools
Works well with (1)
Integrates with (4)
Alternative to (6)
Learning Resources
No resources yet — check back soon.
Vendor
Metabase, Inc.
Website →Tags
Details
- Maintained
- Yes
- Interface
- Both
- Self-hostable
- Yes
- Embedded analytics
- Yes
- Connectors
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, MongoDB
- GitHub stars
- 47k
- Stars updated
- 2026-04-26