Metabase alternatives

3 tools to consider instead of Metabase, shown against it.

Metabase Microsoft Power BI Tableau Looker
Vendor Metabase, Inc. Microsoft Tableau Software, LLC (a Salesforce company) Google LLC (Google Cloud)
Pricing model Open source + paid options Free tier + paid plans Free tier + paid plans Quote only
Free tier Yes Yes Yes No
Deployment Cloud, Self-hosted Cloud, Self-hosted Cloud, Self-hosted Cloud
Open source Yes (AGPL-3.0) No No No
Best for Data teams wanting a self-hosted or cloud, open-source BI tool with self-service dashboards. Organizations standardized on Microsoft 365 that need self-service BI and reporting. Analysts and BI teams needing rich, governed visual analytics across many data sources. Enterprises wanting a governed, centrally modeled semantic layer for BI and embedded analytics.
Pricing

The Open Source edition is free and self-hosted with unlimited users; Starter, Pro, and Enterprise are paid Cloud or self-hosted plans.

Open Source Free
Starter $100/month or $1,080/year (also $6/user/month or $65/user/year)
Pro $575/month or $6,210/year (also $12/user/month or $130/user/year)
Enterprise Custom, starting at $20,000/year

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 19, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Free tier for individual report authoring; Pro and Premium Per User are priced per user per month; Embedded requires contacting sales.

Free Free
Power BI Pro $14.00 USD user/month, paid yearly
Power BI Premium Per User $24.00 USD user/month, paid yearly
Power BI Embedded Variable

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 19, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Tableau Desktop Free Edition is free for local analysis; Tableau Cloud is priced per user per month; higher tiers require sales.

Tableau Desktop (Free Edition) Free
Tableau Standard Starting at $15 USD/user/month
Tableau Enterprise Starting at $35 USD/user/month
Tableau Cloud+ Contact Sales

Prices read from the vendor's own page on September 19, 2026. Vendors change prices; check the source before you budget.

Looker pricing has platform and per-user components; every edition and user license requires contacting Google Cloud sales for a quote.

Checked on the vendor's own page on September 19, 2026: no prices are published. Expect to be quoted.

Features
  • No-code visual query builder
  • SQL editor for advanced queries
  • AI assistant (Metabot) for natural-language querying
  • Interactive, filterable dashboards
  • Embedded Analytics SDK
  • Row- and column-level permissions
  • Single sign-on (SSO)
  • 50+ data source connectors
  • Interactive data visualization and dashboards
  • Copilot natural-language querying
  • Self-service report authoring
  • Data connectivity across cloud and on-premises sources
  • DAX-based data modeling
  • Integration with Microsoft Fabric and OneLake
  • Row-level security and governance
  • Embedded analytics via Power BI Embedded
  • Drag-and-drop visual analytics
  • Tableau Desktop authoring (free edition available)
  • Browser-based web authoring
  • Tableau Prep Builder for data preparation
  • Tableau Pulse AI-generated insights
  • Tableau Agent conversational analytics
  • Governed semantic layer
  • Self-hosted (Server) or fully hosted (Cloud) deployment
  • Governed semantic layer defined in LookML
  • Conversational Analytics (natural-language querying via Gemini)
  • Embedded analytics via APIs and SDKs
  • Self-service dashboards and exploration
  • Scheduled reports and alerts
  • Broad SQL dialect support (BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks)
  • Developer, Standard, and Viewer user role types

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