Metabase

Metabase is open-source business intelligence software for dashboards and ad hoc questions on a team's own database, self-hosted or hosted by the vendor.

Metabase turns the tables in a company's production database into charts and dashboards that anyone can explore by clicking. People who never write SQL build their questions from filters and groupings, while analysts keep a SQL editor for the harder ones. Metabase, Inc., which has stayed independent since its founding in 2015, makes it and runs the hosted Metabase Cloud service; the same product can be self-hosted from the Open Source edition. The query builder puts filters, summaries and groupings behind clicks, and every result becomes a chart that can sit on a dashboard. Dashboards carry linked filters and drill-through, so clicking a bar narrows the neighbouring cards or opens the underlying rows. Metrics are defined once in the data model and reused across questions, and Metabot, the Metabase AI, builds queries against that semantic layer from a plain-language question. Dashboard subscriptions send snapshots by email or Slack on a schedule. Data Studio adds transforms written in SQL or Python, with lineage and dependency diagnostics that show what an upstream change touches. Paid plans add row and column security by user attribute, SSO, caching controls, usage auditing, multi-tenant embedded analytics and whitelabel embedding. Metabase suits data and operations teams that want self-serve reporting on a database they already run, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift and Databricks. Product and engineering teams use the embedded analytics to put reporting inside their own application under their own branding. Teams that must keep the platform on their own servers, including air-gapped environments on the Enterprise plan, take the self-hosted route. It is bought as one platform on a plan that includes a block of users, with each additional user billed per seat. A company's KPI dashboards live in Metabase, and it is the tool an analyst opens for an ad hoc question before anyone writes a report. It connects to its supported data sources, and it can store uploaded spreadsheets and CSVs for teams without a warehouse. Slack receives dashboard subscriptions alongside email, and the embedding features put the same charts into a customer-facing product. The Open Source edition and the hosted plans are the same product, so a team can start on its own server and migrate to Metabase Cloud, or the other way round.