SEO & Growth · Analytics & Data

Metabase

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool for dashboards and data questions, free to self-host or hosted by Metabase from $100 a month.

Our take: Metabase pairs a free self-hosted edition with hosted plans priced as a base fee plus extra users.

Best forSelf-hosted team dashboards

ReviewedOct 2026Freemium

7.55 criteria · see breakdown

Try MetabaseOpen Source free; $100/mo billed monthly (Starter)

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool for asking questions of your databases and sharing the answers as dashboards. The Open Source edition is free to self-host with unlimited users. Metabase Cloud starts at $100 a month billed monthly (Starter, 5 users included), Pro is $575 a month, and Enterprise is quote-based with a price that starts at $20,000 a year.

The bottom line

A flexible open-source BI option: start with the free edition if you can host it, and pick Cloud when you want Metabase to run it.

Our score

Reviewed by the Conversion Gems editorial team. Hover a facet to focus it; click to pin.Tap a facet to focus it.

What it is, and why we rate it

One line each. Open a row for detail.

What it really isAn open-source BI tool for dashboards and data questions, free to self-host or hosted by Metabase for a monthly fee.

Our takeMetabase pairs a free self-hosted edition with hosted plans priced as a base fee plus extra users.

The free edition covers unlimited questions and dashboards, while row and column permissions, SSO and white-label embedding sit on Pro. Support on Open Source is the community forum.

Why we rate itMetabase publishes its prices, offers a free open-source edition and states that cost does not rise with the number of dashboards, queries or data sources.

Its plan comparison page lists support, license and branding differences by edition.

The catchOpen Source support is the community forum, Metabase branding appears on some outputs below Pro, and permissions, SSO and white-label embedding need Pro from $575 a month billed monthly.

Best / not good for

Best for

Teams that want self-service dashboards on their own databases
Developers who embed analytics in their own product
Teams that can host the free edition and later move to Cloud

Not good for

Teams that want vendor support on the free edition, since Open Source lists the community forum
Buyers who need one fixed price, since hosted plans add per-user fees and Enterprise is quote-based

Trade-offs

Friction report

Trade-offs to know before signing up.

Time to value
Cloud has a 14-day trial; self-hosting starts with one Docker command or a JAR file on a server you manage.
Scale breakpoint
Included users stop at 5 on Starter and 10 on Pro, after which each user adds a fee; Enterprise starts at $20,000 a year.
Walled garden
Open Source is AGPL-licensed and Enterprise features need a commercial license; Metabase lists a path to migrate to Cloud at any time.

Still a fit?

If none of these block you, start on the free plan.

Try Metabase

Metabase pricing by plan

Plan	Where it runs	Billed monthly	Billed yearly	Users included	Extra users
Open Source	Self-hosted	Free	Free	Free unlimited users	Free
Starter	Metabase Cloud only	$100/month	$90/month ($1,080/year)	5	$6/user/month, or $65/user/year billed yearly
Pro	Cloud or self-hosted	$575/month	$517.50/month ($6,210/year)	10	$12/user/month, or $130/user/year billed yearly
Enterprise	Cloud or self-hosted	Quote-based	Quote-based; $20,000/year and up	Custom	Custom

From Metabase's pricing page, checked 28 October 2026. Prices exclude taxes. Starter and Pro have a 14-day free trial. Metabase lists community-forum support for Open Source, 3-day support for Starter and Pro, and a 1-day support SLA for Enterprise.

Optional usage-based charges

Feature	What Metabase charges	Notes
Metabase AI service	$3.75 per 1 million tokens	1 million tokens included; Metabase says most users bring their own AI provider API key instead
Transforms	1,000 runs included on Starter and Pro, then $0.01 per run	Self-hosted transforms are unlimited because they run on your own infrastructure
Advanced transforms	1,000 runs included, then $0.02 per run on Cloud	$0.01 per run after the included runs (self-hosted)
Storage	$2 and up for 1 million rows	The first 1 million stored rows are free; optional, for uploaded spreadsheets and CSVs

From Metabase's pricing page, checked 28 October 2026. Enterprise usage pricing is arranged with Metabase's sales team.

What each Metabase plan adds

Plan	Listed on Metabase's pricing page
Open Source	AI questions on your preferred model, MCP server, 20+ data sources, unlimited questions and dashboards, SQL or point-and-click exploration; community forum support; AGPL license
Starter	The Open Source feature set with Metabase handling the hosting; 3-day support by email, support form, Slack or Teams
Pro	Row and column level permissions, SSO, required 2FA, IP allowlists on Cloud, caching controls, usage analytics and auditing, multi-tenant embedded analytics, white-label embedding, AI usage auditing and controls
Enterprise	Everything in Pro, plus custom pricing, help with procurement, a dedicated success engineer, a 1-day support SLA, and air-gapped deployment for an additional fee

From Metabase's pricing and plan comparison pages, checked 28 October 2026. Metabase says Pro and Enterprise are the same software; they differ in support, procurement, pricing and deployment options.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Metabase?

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence platform. You connect it to your databases, ask questions with a query builder or SQL, and share the results as charts and dashboards, or embed them in your own product. Its docs list connectors for databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake and Redshift, and say it can run on Metabase Cloud or on your own server with Docker or a JAR file.

Is Metabase free?

Partly. The Open Source edition is free to self-host, with free unlimited users, and it is licensed under the AGPL (checked 28 October 2026). You run it on your own infrastructure. Metabase Cloud and the commercial self-hosted plans are paid: Starter and Pro come with a 14-day free trial, and Enterprise is quote-based.

How much does Metabase cost?

On Metabase's pricing page, Starter (Cloud only) is $100 a month billed monthly or $90 a month billed yearly ($1,080 a year), with 5 users included and extra users at $6 a month ($65 a year). Pro is $575 a month billed monthly or $517.50 a month billed yearly ($6,210 a year), with 10 users included and extra users at $12 a month ($130 a year). Enterprise is custom-priced and the page says its price starts at $20,000 a year. Prices exclude taxes, and optional usage fees apply to the Metabase AI service, transforms and stored data (checked 28 October 2026).

What are the drawbacks of Metabase?

These are the catches shown on Metabase's own plan pages, not a verdict (checked 28 October 2026). The Open Source edition lists community-forum support, and Open Source and Starter show Metabase branding on scheduled deliveries and a Powered by Metabase badge on guest embeds. Row and column permissions, SSO and white-label embedding are on Pro, from $575 a month, and hosted plans add a per-user fee beyond the included users. Metabase Cloud handles setup, backups and upgrades, so with Open Source your own team handles them.

Is Metabase better than Tableau?

Conversion Gems does not rank them, because they are priced and deployed differently (checked 28 October 2026). Tableau's pricing page lists Tableau Cloud Standard from $15 per user per month billed annually and says every deployment needs at least one Creator license. Metabase's hosted plans charge a base fee with users included, and its Open Source edition is free to self-host. The better fit depends on your data sources, who needs to build reports and whether you want to host the software yourself.

Who owns Metabase?

Metabase's website names no parent company. Its jobs page describes a venture-funded company with an office in San Francisco. Insight Partners announced on 19 August 2021 that it led a $30 million Series B, bringing total invested capital to $42.5 million, and the release names Sameer Al-Sakran as co-founder and CEO.