Metabase
Business intelligence simple enough that non-analysts actually use it.
- Analytics
- Development
- from $100/mo
Metabase is a business intelligence tool for asking questions of a database, either by clicking through a query builder or by writing SQL, and assembling the answers into dashboards. It is open source and free to self-host, with paid cloud plans that add permissions, embedding and support.
Metabase: the short answer
Every line below is drawn from facts verified on 9 August 2026.
- What it is
- Business intelligence simple enough that non-analysts actually use it
- Best for
- Teams that want non-analysts querying data safely
- Starts at
- Open Source free and self-hosted; Starter $100/month plus $6 per user
- Free option
- Free plan available, 14 days trial
- Biggest strength
- Non-analysts genuinely use it, which is rare in this category
- Biggest drawback
- Embedded end users count towards your billable user total
- Closest alternative
- Power BI - Far deeper modelling and much cheaper per seat if you run Microsoft
- True annual cost
- from $1200 a year at the cheapest paid tier
Metabase at a glance
| Best for | Teams that want non-analysts querying data safely, Organisations wanting free self-hosted BI, Straightforward dashboards over a clean warehouse |
|---|---|
| Category | Analytics, Development |
| Starting price | Open Source free and self-hosted; Starter $100/month plus $6 per user |
| Free plan | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days |
| Pricing model | subscription |
| Company | Metabase, Inc. |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Founders | Sameer Al-Sakran, Tom Robinson |
| Platforms | Web, CLI |
| Public API | Yes |
| Browser extension | No |
| Mobile apps | None |
| Self-hosting | Yes |
| Affiliate programme | No |
| Data source | Vendor pricing page and public records |
| Last checked | August 2026 |
Metabase pricing
Prices below were read from the vendor's own pricing page on 9 August 2026. Pricing model: subscription. Free trial: 14 days.
| Plan | Price | Billing | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | $0 | per one-time | Self-hosted, free unlimited users, 20+ data sources, AI question asking |
| Starter | $100 | per month | $90/month billed yearly ($1,080). Plus $6 per user/month. First 5 users included |
| Pro | $575 | per month | $517.50/month billed yearly ($6,210). Plus $12 per user/month. First 10 included |
| Enterprise | Custom pricing | Negotiated | Starts at $20,000 per year. Air gap available, 1-day support SLA |
What Metabase actually costs over a year
A monthly price is not the same thing as a monthly contract. These are the plans above multiplied out to twelve months, per seat or unit where the plan is charged that way.
| Plan | Monthly | Over 12 months |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $100 | $1200 |
| Pro | $575 | $6900 |
Which Metabase plan should you buy?
| Your situation | Recommended | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You can run a container and want free BI | Open Source | Free, self-hosted, unlimited users. A complete BI deployment at no licence cost, missing only the governance layer. |
| You want it hosted with support | Starter | $100 a month plus $6 per user, with the first five users included. |
| You need row-level permissions, SSO or embedding | Pro | $575 a month plus $12 per user. A steep step, but the only tier with governance and multi-tenant embedding. |
| You embed dashboards for your customers | Count your customers as users first | Embedded end users count towards billable users. 500 embedded customers on Starter is roughly $3,070 a month, not $100. |
| You need deep semantic modelling | Consider Power BI instead | Power BI's modelling is far stronger and cheaper per seat if you run Microsoft. |
Verdict by who you are
Small company wanting self-hosted BIYes
Free, unlimited users, deployable in minutes. Nothing else offers this combination.
Team where non-analysts must answer their own questionsYes
The query builder generates real SQL from clicking, which is the thing that actually gets data used rather than requested.
SaaS company embedding analyticsNo
Your customers become billable users. Price this against purpose-built embedding vendors, not against other BI tools.
Analyst wanting deep visual explorationCompare first
Adequate, but Tableau is materially better at open-ended exploration.
Should you buy Metabase?
Buy Metabase if…
- Teams that want non-analysts querying data safely
- Organisations wanting free self-hosted BI
- Straightforward dashboards over a clean warehouse
Do not buy Metabase if…
- Complex governed semantic modelling
- Embedded analytics with very many end users
- Organisations needing Tableau-grade visual exploration
Key features
- Query builder that produces SQL without writing it
- Native SQL editor with variables and snippets
- AI-assisted question asking and SQL generation
- Dashboards with filters and drill-through
- Scheduled email and Slack subscriptions
- Row and column level permissions on Pro
- Embedded analytics with multi-tenant segregation on Pro
- Open source, self-hostable and free
Integrations
- PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift and 20+ more
- Slack for dashboard subscriptions
- Google Sheets export
- SSO via SAML and JWT on Pro
- Metabase API
Metabase screenshots
Captured by us in August 2026 at 1440px, unedited. Interfaces change, so these show the product as it looked on the date we verified this profile. Vendors localise pricing by visitor region, so a pricing screenshot may display a different currency to the USD figures recorded above.
Our assessment
Metabase gets the hardest thing about business intelligence right, which is getting people who are not analysts to actually use it. The query builder produces real SQL from clicking, so a support lead can answer their own question without learning a language or waiting on the data team, and that changes how data gets used far more than another chart type would. Self-hosting is free with unlimited users, which makes it the obvious starting point for a small company. The pricing needs care in one specific case: users include the end users of anything you embed, so an embedded analytics deployment counts your customers, not your staff, and that turns a $100 plan into something else entirely.
What works in Metabase
- Non-analysts genuinely use it, which is rare in this category
- Open source and free to self-host with unlimited users
- Query builder generates real SQL you can inspect and edit
- Fast to deploy, in minutes rather than a project
What doesn't
- Embedded end users count towards your billable user total
- Weaker semantic modelling than Power BI or Looker
- Visual exploration is basic next to Tableau
- Pro is a steep jump at $575/month before per-user fees
EveryAny Decision Score
Scored by dimension rather than averaged into one number, because the trade-offs are the useful part. 3 of these 8 dimensions are calculated from verified facts by published formula; the rest are editorial judgement, labelled as such. How each score is calculated.
- Cost position0/10
derivedentry tier at $100 a month against a category median of $15 across 3 comparable tools
- Portability9/10
derivedself-hostable, public API, open source
- Subscription flexibility8/10
derivedfree plan, free trial, subscription, monthly billing
- Feature depth7/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Ease of learning9/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Collaboration8/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- AI capability6/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
- Professional adoption8/10
editorialeditorial judgement, reviewed at last check
What leaving Metabase would cost
low lock-in
Calculated as 10 minus a portability score of 9, built from four signals (self-hosting, a public API, open-source licensing and a documented export path) . Metabase scores on: self-hostable, public API, open source. Formula.
Metabase competitors and alternatives
| Alternative | Why you might pick it instead |
|---|---|
| Power BI | Far deeper modelling and much cheaper per seat if you run Microsoft. |
| Tableau | Better visual exploration for analysts, at considerably more cost. |
| Apache Superset | Also open source, more powerful and considerably harder to run. |
Microsoft Power BI
Analytics
Business intelligence priced low enough that finance stopped arguing.
Tableau
Analytics
Visual analysis for people who explore data rather than report it.
Embedded end users count as users
This is the one thing that can make Metabase unexpectedly expensive, and Metabase states it plainly on the pricing page, repeated under every plan:
Both your internal team developing analytics and users of your embeds accessed through your product count as users.
So if you embed dashboards in your own SaaS product for customers, your customers are billable users. A Starter plan at $100 a month with 500 embedded customers is $100 plus 495 chargeable users at $6, which is around $3,070 a month rather than $100.
For internal business intelligence this never bites, because you are counting staff. For embedded analytics it is the whole cost model, and it is the reason to price Metabase against purpose-built embedding vendors rather than against other BI tools.
The ladder, including the yearly discount
| Plan | Monthly | Billed yearly | Per-user | Users included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Free | Free | Free, unlimited | Unlimited |
| Starter | $100 | $90/mo, $1,080/yr | $6/mo or $65/yr | First 5 |
| Pro | $575 | $517.50/mo, $6,210/yr | $12/mo or $130/yr | First 10 |
| Enterprise | Custom | From $20,000/yr | Custom | Custom |
Yearly billing saves 10%. There is a 14-day trial, and a separate deployment toggle for Cloud versus self-hosted.
The gap between Starter and Pro is the notable step: $100 to $575 a month, plus the per-user rate doubling. What you get for it is row and column level permissions, SSO, caching controls, usage auditing and multi-tenant embedding. If you need any one of those, you need Pro.
Open Source is a real product, not a teaser
Self-hosted Metabase is free, with unlimited users, more than 20 data sources, unlimited questions and dashboards, and the AI question-asking features. For a company that can run a container and has a database worth querying, this is a complete BI deployment at no licence cost.
What it lacks is the governance layer: granular permissions, SSO, auditing and official support. Those are exactly the things that start mattering when the tool spreads beyond the team that installed it, which is the honest upgrade trigger.
Where it sits against the big two
Power BI has far stronger semantic modelling and costs $14 a seat, which is hard to beat if your organisation already runs Microsoft. Tableau is better for open-ended visual exploration by analysts.
Metabase wins on adoption and on getting started. It is the tool where the question “can someone just look this up themselves?” has a yes answer, and for many companies that is worth more than modelling depth they would never use.
Metabase questions, answered
- Is Metabase worth it?
- Metabase gets the hardest thing about business intelligence right, which is getting people who are not analysts to actually use it.
- How much does Metabase cost?
- Open Source free and self-hosted; Starter $100/month plus $6 per user. The cheapest paid tier we recorded works out at $100 a month, or $1200 over a year. Verified against the vendor's pricing page.
- Does Metabase have a free plan or free trial?
- Metabase has a free plan. A free trial is available: 14 days.
- What is the best Metabase alternative?
- It depends on the job. Power BI: Far deeper modelling and much cheaper per seat if you run Microsoft. Tableau: Better visual exploration for analysts, at considerably more cost. Apache Superset: Also open source, more powerful and considerably harder to run.
- Can I self-host Metabase?
- Yes. Metabase can be run on your own infrastructure, so the data stays under your control.
Provenance and freshness
When each fact was last checked
- Pricing ·
- Plans ·
- Free trial
- Features
- Platforms
- Integrations
- Affiliate programme
- Company details
What has changed
-
August 2026
- Pricing verified, including that embedded end users count as billable users
- Added plan picker and verdicts
Sources & verification
Facts on this page were read from the sources below on the dates shown. Where a vendor does not publish a figure, we record it as not disclosed rather than estimating it.
- Metabase pricing - checked 9 August 2026
Spotted something out of date? Email [email protected] and we will re-check it. Corrections are logged on the page.
