Metabase Alternatives (2026): Superset, Redash, Grafana and More

I lead ERPNext, Frappe and open-source deployments at MithTech, and we put dashboards on ERP data for a living. Most teams that ask us for a Metabase alternative do not have a Metabase problem. They have a server problem, a licence question about the paid editions, or analysts who have outgrown the question builder.

Honest take: switching BI tools moves every dashboard by hand. Be sure the reason is the tool, not the way it is run.

Why look for a Metabase alternative?

Four reasons come up, in this order. The first is skill: analysts who live in SQL find Metabase's question builder slow and want a fuller SQL workbench. The second is licence: Metabase's open-source edition is AGPL, and some governance, embedding and row-level features sit in its paid editions. The third is the model layer: teams with a dbt project want metrics defined once, in code. The fourth is the job: a live operations wall is a different tool from a monthly sales report.

If none of these applies and the real trouble is upgrades, backups or a lost application database, a different tool will not fix it. Our managed Metabase hosting guide covers that path.

Which open-source tools replace Metabase?

Release numbers come from each project's GitHub releases page. They move often; check before you plan an install.

Is Apache Superset the closest swap for Metabase?

Superset covers what most teams use Metabase for: a SQL editor, saved datasets, dashboards with filters, and role-based access. Its chart gallery is wider, including geospatial charts, and it is an Apache Software Foundation project under the Apache 2.0 licence, with no enterprise folder held back.

The trade is effort. Superset expects users to know their data and some SQL, and running it means looking after Python services, a metadata database, a cache and workers as use grows. Our Power BI alternatives guide sets Superset and Metabase side by side in more detail.

When is Redash the better fit?

Redash starts from the SQL query. You write it, save it, add a chart and a parameter, and share the link. Dashboards are collections of those saved queries. For a data team that answers questions with SQL and wants a shared library of them, that is simpler than Metabase. For business users who never write SQL, it offers less. It is BSD-2-Clause licensed, and its releases have continued through 2026.

What does Lightdash do differently?

Lightdash reads metrics, dimensions and joins from a semantic layer: your dbt project, or Lightdash's own YAML pointed at a warehouse. Users then explore those defined metrics without writing SQL. It fits a company that already models its data in a warehouse. For an ERP feeding reports straight from its own database, it adds a warehouse step first. Most of the code is MIT; one enterprise folder carries its own licence.

Can Grafana replace Metabase?

Grafana is an observability and visualisation platform: metrics, logs and traces from Prometheus, Loki, Elasticsearch, PostgreSQL, MySQL and many more. It is excellent for screens that refresh every few seconds, such as orders per hour or a warehouse's pick rate. It is a weaker fit for "which customers bought less this quarter than last", the ad-hoc question Metabase is built for. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Who is Evidence for?

Evidence builds reports from SQL and Markdown files. The output is a static site you host anywhere, or publish on Evidence's own hosted service. Reports live in Git, are reviewed like code and cannot be broken by a stray click. That suits a finance or data team publishing the same monthly pack. It does not suit managers who want to build their own charts.

Which should you pick?

How do these tools read ERP data?

Most of our clients report from ERPNext, which runs on MariaDB. Metabase, Superset, Redash and Grafana can all read a MariaDB or MySQL database directly; give the tool a dedicated read-only user on a replica or reporting copy, never the live database people post invoices into. Lightdash and Evidence work best from a warehouse or reporting database, so plan that copy first. Tally and Zoho data needs exporting or pulling through an API into a reporting database whichever tool you choose.

How do you move off Metabase?

There is no import from Metabase into the others, so plan it as a rebuild:

1. List the questions and dashboards people actually open: ask the people who use them, or check Metabase's usage analytics if your edition includes it. Many will not need moving.
2. Save the SQL behind each one you keep. For questions built in the question builder, open the generated SQL and copy it.
3. Rebuild the datasets and charts in the new tool, starting with the dashboards opened most.
4. Run both tools side by side for a month, compare the numbers, then switch Metabase to read-only.
5. Back up Metabase's application database before you turn it off, in case a forgotten report is needed later.

How we build the reports themselves, on any of these tools, is on the analytics and BI page. If you stay on Metabase, the self-host Metabase guide walks through a production setup, and managed hosting is there if nobody wants the server.

Frequently asked questions

Prefer to explore first? See the analytics and BI page for how we build the reports themselves.