Metabase

Users familiar with Qlik or Power BI know that creating visuals can be tedious, especially when data is poorly prepared. Additionally, the complex interfaces of these tools often discourage beginners. Beyond these technical difficulties, rigid dashboard deployment processes can slow down functional teams in their work.

Metabase positions itself as a Business Intelligence (BI) solution aimed at solving these issues by focusing on pragmatic data exploration.

This open-source tool, with a modern interface, allows for dashboard creation while also offering additional features that are sometimes missing in other BI technologies.

• SQL support: Users can freely explore data and create extracts independently, reducing the workload on data teams.
• Visual creation: Any SQL or no-code query can be instantly converted into a modern visual.
• Reusable queries: All queries can be saved and turned into reusable data models.

MDN’s point of view

Metabase is a simple and ideal solution for business teams that are not comfortable with BI tools. With the self-hosted version, access to usage data is valuable for analyzing how the tool is used and making informed decisions. The roadmap is detailed and ambitious for the coming months and years. Superset could be a more suitable open-source alternative for expert analysts looking for a wider range of visualizations.

However, Metabase has some limitations. Its high flexibility for data exploration requires good data governance practices, especially regarding access control and KPI sharing. The available visualizations are simple, with limited customization options. Finally, SSO and row-level security (RLS) are only available in the paid Pro and Enterprise versions.

Theodo’s point of view

We recommend Metabase for ad-hoc data exploration and the autonomy it provides to functional teams. It offers similar features to Looker (SQL programming, reusable visuals) while remaining more affordable and accessible for non-developers.