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    Metabase reviews

    Business intelligence dashboards and SQL analytics, free and unlimited self-hosted, or from $100/month for 5 cloud seats.

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    ToolTrim verdict3.6/ 5Average

    Worth the cloud Starter plan at $1,080/year (annual, for the first 5 users) once self-hosting maintenance costs more time than that.

    Metabase, preview 1
    About

    In practice. What you can do with Metabase.

    Metabase builds dashboards and reports from company data with a visual query builder for non-SQL users and a native SQL editor for advanced ones, plus scheduled email/Slack reports and row/table-level permissions.

    The open-source edition is entirely free with unlimited users and dashboards if you self-host it. The cloud Starter plan costs $100/month for the first 5 users, then $6/user/month, with usage add-ons for AI, transforms and storage stacking on top. It suits a small ops team that wants shared dashboards without per-seat BI pricing.

    Practical uses

    • Weekly reportingBuild a dashboard with the visual query builder and schedule it to email the team every Monday.
    • Self-hosted analyticsRun the free open-source edition on your own server to give the whole team unlimited dashboards at no license cost.

    Features & use cases

    Database
    Dashboards
    Data visualisation
    Reporting

    Pros and cons. What Metabase does well, and what to expect.

    Pros

    • Self-hosted open-source edition is fully free with no user or dashboard limit.
    • Covers both a visual query builder for non-SQL users and a native SQL editor for advanced ones.

    Cons

    • Web-based only, no desktop or mobile app.
    • Cloud usage add-ons for AI, transforms and storage stack on top of the seat price.

    When it makes sense. Keep Metabase, or challenge it?

    Keep if

    • You want shared BI dashboards and can either self-host for free or pay per seat on the cloud plan.
    Metabase becomes worthwhile when
    • You use it at least once a week
    • The monthly cost ($90) is small next to the time it saves you

    Challenge if

    • You need a native desktop or mobile app, which Metabase does not offer.
    Metabase becomes too expensive when
    • You use it less than once a month
    • A simple free version or a tool already in your stack would do

    Our verdict. What to know about Metabase.

    Why this verdict

    Average

    Added value

    The self-hosted open-source edition is fully free with unlimited users, dashboards and data sources, a real cost advantage over per-seat BI tools.

    Simplicity

    The visual query builder with joins and aggregations lets non-SQL users produce a usable chart without writing code.

    Fit for purpose

    Delivers interactive dashboards, a native SQL editor and scheduled email/Slack reports as advertised.

    Performance

    Row/table/dashboard permissions, audit trails and SOC 2 compliance cover team-level BI, but the visual builder hits limits on highly complex queries where SQL is still needed.

    Reversibility

    Neutral score: export formats and data portability out of Metabase are not covered by the collected sources.

    MetabaseFrom $90/mo
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