9 Best Metabase Alternatives for BI and Embedding

The quick answer

Quick answer: the closest open-source Metabase alternatives are Apache Superset (free, Apache 2.0, with Preset as the managed version) and Redash (free, BSD-2-Clause, self-hosted). If your team works in dbt, Lightdash turns your dbt project into BI. If you prefer BI as code, look at Evidence or Holistics. For a free hosted tool, Data Studio (the new name for Looker Studio) costs nothing for creators and viewers. Power BI is the low-cost per-seat option at $14 per user a month. If the real reason you are leaving Metabase is customer-facing embedding, an embedding-first vendor such as Luzmo is built for that job. Prices are as of October 2026, checked on each vendor's own site.

What Metabase costs today, and why teams look elsewhere

Metabase is popular because its open-source edition is free to self-host and the question builder is easy for non-analysts. The paid plans, as listed on metabase.com in October 2026:

• Open Source: free, self-hosted, unlimited users.
• Starter: $100 a month on Metabase Cloud, first 5 users included, then $6 per user a month.
• Pro: $575 a month ($6,210 a year), first 10 users included, then $12 per user a month. Adds row and column-level permissions, SSO, usage analytics and multi-tenant embedded analytics.
• Enterprise: custom, starting at $20,000 a year.

The usual reasons to look elsewhere are cost at scale (Metabase counts both your internal team and the people using your embeds as billed users), the need for a code-based semantic layer, or embedding requirements such as SSO and white-labeling that sit on Pro and above.

Metabase alternatives compared

1. Apache Superset and Preset

Who it is for: teams that want a free, open-source BI platform with more chart types and SQL depth than Metabase, and are comfortable running it.

Pricing: Superset is free to self-host. Preset, the managed version, has a free Starter plan (up to 5 users), Professional at $20 per user a month billed annually ($25 monthly) and a custom Enterprise plan. Embedded dashboards are an add-on starting at $500 a month for 50 viewer licences.

Strengths: an Apache Software Foundation project under Apache 2.0. Embedding works through the embedded SDK with a guest token issued by your backend, and guest tokens can carry row-level security rules.

Limits: self-hosting means you run and upgrade Superset yourself (or pay for Preset), and Preset notes that embedded viewers get limited interactive capabilities.

2. Lightdash

Who it is for: analytics teams that already define models and metrics in dbt.

Pricing: the open-source version is free to self-host. Cloud Pro is $3,000 a month with no per-seat pricing. Embedding is an add-on: the first 1,000 loads are free, then $0.05 per load, or $790 a month per 100,000 loads.

Strengths: metrics live in your dbt YAML, so the BI layer and the transformation layer stay in sync. Embedding uses iframes or a React SDK secured with JWTs, with user attributes for row and column-level security.

Limits: Lightdash's own FAQ says you need dbt to use it.

3. Redash

Who it is for: SQL-literate teams that want a lightweight query editor, dashboards and alerts on their own servers.

Pricing: free and open source; redash.io now points only to self-hosted setup.

Strengths: BSD-2-Clause licence, many data sources, and an active repository (a release shipped in late September 2026). Databricks acquired Redash in 2020, and the open-source project continues.

Limits: no hosted plan and no dedicated embedded analytics SDK, so treat it as internal BI only.

4. Evidence

Who it is for: analysts who prefer writing reports as code (SQL plus Markdown) and versioning them in Git.

Pricing: the open-source framework is free (MIT). Evidence Studio Team is $2,500 a month with unlimited users; Enterprise is custom.

Strengths: reports are code, so review, testing and deployment follow the same workflow as software.

Limits: embedding, white-labeling and external viewers are Enterprise-only, and there is no drag-and-drop question builder like Metabase's.

5. Holistics

Who it is for: data teams that want a governed semantic layer defined in code, with self-service exploration on top.

Pricing: Entry $800 a month, Standard $1,000 a month and the Security Compliance Suite $2,000 a month (all billed yearly; monthly billing costs more). Plans include the first 10 users, with extra users at $12.50 a month on yearly billing. Embedded analytics is a custom plan.

Strengths: models are written in Holistics' AML language and managed with Git, with dbt integration and data centers in the US, EU and APAC.

Limits: no free plan beyond the trial, and embedded pricing is not published.

6. Microsoft Power BI

Who it is for: companies on Microsoft 365 whose analysts already use Microsoft tools.

Pricing: a free account (which cannot share reports), Power BI Pro at $14 per user a month and Premium Per User at $24 per user a month, both paid yearly. Pro is included in Microsoft 365 E5.

Strengths: deep modeling in Power BI Desktop (a free download) and a large ecosystem. Customer-facing embedding is available through Power BI Embedded capacity on Azure.

Limits: the free account cannot share reports, so every viewer needs a paid licence unless you buy embedded capacity.

7. Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio)

Who it is for: small teams that want free, hosted dashboards on Google data sources.

Pricing: Google states Data Studio is available at no charge for creators and report viewers. Data Studio Pro is $9 per user per project a month. Google renamed Looker Studio to Data Studio in April 2026.

Strengths: zero setup, easy sharing, and a report embed option for web pages.

Limits: Google does not offer a multi-tenant SSO embedding SDK for it, and it is a separate product from Looker, Google's enterprise BI platform.

8. Grafana

Who it is for: engineering and operations teams whose dashboards are mostly metrics, logs and time series.

Pricing: Grafana is open source under AGPL-3.0. Grafana Cloud is free for up to 3 active users, Pro starts at a $19 a month platform fee plus usage (from $8 per extra active user for visualization), and Enterprise starts at a $25,000 a year commitment.

Strengths: it ships SQL data sources (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server) as well as observability sources, and shared dashboards can be opened by anyone with the link.

Limits: it is built for operations data, not for business users exploring a product database, and iframe embedding must be switched on in its configuration.

9. Luzmo

Who it is for: SaaS teams whose main Metabase use is customer-facing dashboards inside their product.

Pricing: one plan from €1,995 a month, billed annually.

Strengths: embedding is the whole product: token-based authorization, multi-tenancy through row-level filters, white-labeling, and components for React, Angular, Vue and web components.

Limits: it is not an internal BI replacement, and the entry price is above Metabase Pro. For more vendors in this category, see our list of embedded analytics platforms.

How to pick a Metabase alternative

Start with why you are leaving. If it is cost and you can run servers, Superset or Redash keep you open source. If it is metric consistency, Lightdash (with dbt) or Holistics give you a semantic layer in code. If it is customer-facing analytics, compare embedding-first vendors with Metabase's own Pro plan rather than other internal BI tools, because the security model matters more than chart types. Our dashboard reporting tools roundup and the Looker alternatives list cover more of the BI side.

For product teams, BI is usually only half the picture. Event-based tools such as those in our user behavior analytics comparison answer questions about what users do inside your app, which a SQL dashboard on your production database answers poorly.

FAQs

What is the best free alternative to Metabase?

Apache Superset (Apache 2.0) and Redash (BSD-2-Clause) are free to self-host. If you want a free hosted tool instead, Data Studio is free for creators and viewers.

Is Metabase still free?

Yes. The open-source edition is free to self-host with unlimited users. Paid plans start at $100 a month (Starter, Metabase Cloud) and Pro is $575 a month, as of October 2026.

Which Metabase alternative is best for embedding dashboards in a SaaS product?

For open source, Superset (or Preset's embedded add-on from $500 a month for 50 viewers) supports guest tokens with row-level security. For an embedding-first product, Luzmo starts at €1,995 a month, billed annually.

Which Metabase alternative works with dbt?

Lightdash is built on dbt and requires it. Holistics also integrates with dbt while keeping its own semantic layer.