Lightdash vs Metabase
No clear leader: Lightdash (64.2) and Metabase (59.5) are within the 5-point margin; treat as a tie. The attribute-by-attribute breakdown below, with a source and date on every value, is the honest way to compare them.
Capabilities
Feature-by-feature on the axes that matter for bi software. “-” means undocumented, not absent.
What each one is
The product in its own terms, so the numbers below have context.
Lightdash
An agentic BI platform that defines trusted metrics and business logic in dbt, then powers self-serve analytics across dashboards, natural-language AI agents, and embedded data apps. Available as open-source for self-hosting or managed cloud.
Metabase
Open source tool for business intelligence and embedded analytics that enables users to work with data from connected databases
Pricing
List pricing as published by each vendor, with the date we read it. Always verify at the source before you buy.
Lightdash
Open source free tier, Cloud Pro at $3,000/month (unlimited users), Enterprise custom. No per-seat pricing.
- Open SourceFree
- Unlimited seats
- Data explorer and report builder
- Native dbt integration
- Scheduled deliveries
- Alerting
- +11 more
- Cloud Pro$3,000/month flat rate, unlimited users and visualizations
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited visualizations
- Native dbt integration with open semantic layer
- Scheduled reports and alerting
- Dashboards as code
- +11 more
- EnterpriseContact sales
- All Cloud Pro features, plus:
- Cloud or on-premises deployment
- SAML 2.0 and SCIM 2.0 provisioning
- Advanced user management with custom roles
- SOC 2 Type II compliance
- +9 more
Metabase
Free tier with unlimited users. Starter from $100/month (5 users included). Pro from $575/month (10 users included). Enterprise custom, starts $20,000/year. Usage-based pricing for optional features.
- Open SourceFree
- Ask questions with AI
- SQL generation
- 20+ supported data sources
- Unlimited questions & dashboards
- Write SQL or explore by clicking
- +2 more
- Starter$100/month or $90/month yearly (first 5 users included, then $6/user/month)
- All Open Source features
- Ask questions with AI
- SQL generation
- Unlimited questions & dashboards
- 3-day email support
- +1 more
- Pro$575/month or $517.50/month yearly (first 10 users included, then $12/user/month)
- All Starter features
- Embed unlimited charts and dashboards
- Multi-tenant data segregation
- Row and column level permissions
- SSO
- +4 more
- EnterpriseContact sales
- All Pro features
- Custom pricing aligned with business model
- Procurement assistance
- Dedicated success engineer
- Air gap deployment available
- +1 more
Platform & deployment
Where each product runs and how it can be hosted. A dash means undocumented, not unsupported.
Integrations
What each product connects to. Counts come from the vendor's own integration directory where one exists.
- Slack
Lightdash
- BigQuery
- Snowflake
- Redshift
- Databricks
- Postgres
- Trino
- ClickHouse
- Athena
- DuckDB
- GitHub
- GitLab
- Azure DevOps
- Bitbucket
- Microsoft Teams
- Google Sheets
- dbt
- Rollstack
- MotherDuck
- Google Slides
- PowerPoint
Metabase
- Vanta
- Drata
- Okta
- Pendo
- Contentsquare
- PostHog
- Amplitude
- Mixpanel
- Zendesk
- Intercom
- Front
- Freshdesk
- Gorgias
- Kustomer
- Pylon
- Plain
- LiveAgent
- Jitbit
- Crisp
- Drag
- Productboard
- Aha!
- Canny
- Typeform
- +7 more
Lightdash or Metabase: which one depends on you
A composite score cannot know your constraints. Describe them and both get re-weighted against what you actually need, with the evidence behind every position.
Free to run, no account needed to start. How the evaluation works
Comparison generated from independently-sourced facts. Every value links to its source and retrieval date. See the method.