Metabase vs Microsoft Power BI

Updated November 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Metabase

Open-source BI tool for asking questions of your databases and sharing dashboards.

Open sourceSelf-hostable

Visit Metabase Metabase profile

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft's business intelligence suite for data modelling, reports and shared dashboards.

Free plan + paid

Visit Microsoft Power BI Microsoft Power BI profile

The short answer

Metabase suits startups and product teams that want quick, self-hosted dashboards on their own database, with a free open-source edition and unlimited users. Power BI suits organisations on Microsoft 365 that need deep data modelling and reports shared through Excel and Teams. The biggest difference is approach: Metabase is a lightweight, open-source question builder; Power BI is a full modelling suite with Windows-only authoring.

Metabase or Microsoft Power BI: our take

Metabase is built so people who don't write SQL can still answer questions from a company database. You connect Postgres, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake or another source, build questions by clicking through filters and summaries or switch to SQL, and combine them into dashboards, alerts and scheduled reports. Power BI is centred on Power BI Desktop, a free Windows app with data modelling, the DAX formula language and a wide range of visuals; reports are then published to the Power BI service for sharing, refreshes and mobile viewing, with Copilot features for drafting reports.

Hosting and openness differ sharply. Metabase's Open Source edition is free under the AGPL with unlimited users and runs on your own server via Docker or a JAR file. Power BI is a Microsoft cloud service, and serious authoring requires Windows. Metabase is also a popular choice for embedding analytics inside a product.

Pricing follows those models. Metabase's paid cloud plans start at $100/month (Starter), with a set number of users included, and add hosting, SSO, row-level security and support, with a 14-day trial. Power BI's free account covers personal use, but sharing reports with colleagues needs Pro at $14 per user/month (paid yearly) or Premium Per User at $24 per user/month (paid yearly), and capacity licensing around Fabric can be confusing.

Choose Metabase if you have a technical team, want to self-host for free, need embedded analytics, or have people on Mac and Linux. Choose Power BI if your company already lives in Excel, Teams and Microsoft 365, needs heavier data modelling, and is comfortable paying per user to share reports.

Choose Metabase if…

Startups and product teams wanting quick, self-hosted dashboards on top of their own database
You want open-source software
You need to host it on your own servers
You need Self-hosted, which Microsoft Power BI doesn't list
Free open-source edition with unlimited users

Choose Microsoft Power BI if…

Organisations on Microsoft 365 that want affordable, full-featured dashboards and reports
You need Windows, iOS and Android, which Metabase doesn't list
Free Desktop authoring app with strong data modelling
Lower per-user price than most enterprise BI tools

What is Metabase?

Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool built so that people who don't write SQL can still answer questions from a company database. You point it at Postgres, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake or one of its other supported sources, then build questions by clicking through filters and summaries, or switch to a SQL editor when needed. Questions combine into dashboards, alerts and scheduled reports, and Metabase is also widely used to embed analytics inside other products. The Open Source edition is free under the AGPL with unlimited users and runs as a Java JAR or Docker container on your own server. Metabase Cloud and the paid Starter, Pro and Enterprise plans add hosting, permissions such as row-level security, SSO and support, priced per month with a set number of users included. It is simpler than Tableau or Power BI for heavy modelling, but quicker to set up for startups and product teams.

What is Microsoft Power BI?

Power BI is Microsoft's business intelligence platform and the most common choice in organisations already using Microsoft 365. Reports are built in Power BI Desktop, a free Windows app with data modelling, a formula language (DAX) and a wide range of visuals, then published to the Power BI service in the browser, where teams share dashboards, set up refreshes and view reports on mobile apps. It connects to Excel, SQL databases, cloud services and Microsoft Fabric, and recent versions include Copilot features for drafting reports. The free account covers personal use, while sharing reports with colleagues needs a Pro or Premium Per User licence, priced per user per month, with capacity-based options for large deployments. Its main drawbacks are that serious authoring is Windows-only and the licensing structure, especially around Fabric capacity, can be confusing. For teams living in Excel and Teams it is often the cheapest full-featured option.

Side by side

Attribute	Metabase	Microsoft Power BI
Pricing	Open source	Free plan + paid
Open source	Yes	No
Self-hostable	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Self-hosted	Web, Windows, iOS, Android
Best for	Startups and product teams wanting quick, self-hosted dashboards on top of their own database	Organisations on Microsoft 365 that want affordable, full-featured dashboards and reports
Status	Active	Active

Verified facts, compared

Facts both apps publish, checked on each vendor's own site.

Fact	Metabase	Microsoft Power BI
Starting price	$100/month (Starter)	$14 per user/month (Pro, paid yearly)