Metabase
Metabase, Inc., Spring Valley, California ·www.metabase.com· As of: 2026-09-28
Work through this tool with an AI
Our verdict
Figures that everyone in the company reads the same way are part of the basic kit of a growing software business. Power BI, Looker and Hex answer the same question, and any competitor can install Metabase on the same day. The effort lies in the groundwork: clean tables, agreed metrics, a permission model that fits the organisation. Anyone embedding analyses in their own product moves the tool closer to the core product, because customers are then looking at the charts. That only works from the Pro package upwards and changes nothing about the verdict for internal use.
Evidence:Cloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistantOpen sourceSelf-hosting licence dated 3 November 2025: data and analyses belong to the customer alone, the AI assistant runs on the customer's own keyOpen sourceCloud privacy policy dated 1 June 2020: legal entity and address, Metabase as controller for account and application data, exclusion of the customer databases, processing anywhere in the world, retention as long as necessaryOpen sourceWebsite sub-processor list with thirty recipients, each with purpose and location United StatesOpen sourceTrust portal with SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 1, SOC 1 Type 2, bridge letters 2025 to 2026, a certificate of insurance, a 2026 penetration test, several policies and a second sub-processor list without Amazon Web Services and AnthropicOpen sourceSecurity page: commitment never to look at or copy data when self-hosting, no retention of query results in the cloud unless caching is on, hosting options on four continents, audit firm Sensiba LLP, annual penetration tests, removal of instance data after unquantified inactivityOpen sourceRegion change in the customer account between Oregon and Frankfurt, usually with less than thirty minutes of downtimeOpen sourceAddresses per region in North Virginia, Frankfurt, Singapore, Sydney and São PauloOpen sourceWhat the AI assistant sends to the vendor and to model providers, collection of metadata to improve the AI integration, and transmission of the conversation when rating a responseOpen sourceWhen self-hosting, no vendor access to data and therefore no data processing agreement; in the cloud it is part of the terms of serviceOpen sourceUsage log only in Pro and Enterprise, 720 days of retention, no recording in the open-source edition and in StarterOpen sourceChanging the AI assistant's name and icon from ProOpen sourceReview of AI assistant conversations from Pro, MCP access not recordedOpen sourceSupported providers for the AI assistant's own key, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Azure, Mistral and OpenRouterOpen sourcePrices for Starter, Pro and Enterprise, price per additional person, usage prices for the AI service, data transforms and add-on storageOpen sourcePlan comparison: assignment of SAML, SCIM, row and column permissions, the usage log and the choice of region to the plans, support within three business days on Starter and Pro, within one business day on EnterpriseOpen sourceSupport on weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm Pacific time, response times per severityOpen sourceThe vendor's estimate of running costs when self-hosting (servers, load balancer, managed database, mail server, together from 112 to 132 US dollars a month) and the reasons to self-hostOpen sourceMoving from cloud to self-hosting via a snapshot of the application database on requestOpen sourcePost-mortem on the August 2026 incident with sequence of events, cause, scope according to the vendor and countermeasuresOpen sourceSecurity advisory on CVE-2026-72898, SQL injection via an endpoint without authentication, severity criticalOpen sourceReport on affected companies that disclosed data theft through the flawOpen sourceSeries B of 30 million US dollars led by Insight Partners with Expa and NEA, and the user count by the company's own accountOpen sourcePublic code repository with creation date, licence split, stars, releases and security advisoriesOpen sourceHex's pricing tiers on 25 September 2026 as the comparison benchmark for the AI-native classOpen source
Who it fits
Solo
suitable with caveats
The open-source edition costs nothing and has no user limit. It needs your own server, a Postgres database for the application and the willingness to install security updates within days. In 2026 the vendor had published eighteen security advisories by 25 September, seven of them critical. The managed Starter version starts at 100 US dollars a month (as of 25 September 2026) for up to five people, so 1,200 US dollars a year.
Mid-market
suitable
This is where the use case sits. Starter costs 100 US dollars a month with five people and 6 US dollars for each additional one, so thirty people come to 250 US dollars a month. The calculation tips at one point: SAML sign-in, SCIM provisioning, row and column permissions and the usage log arrive only with Pro. There the same thirty people cost 815 US dollars a month. Anyone starting on Starter who later has to answer a security questionnaire pays roughly three times as much from that day on.
Enterprise
suitable with caveats
Procurement checks three points. Support runs on weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm Pacific time, which means from late afternoon German time, and a response within one business day at every severity is committed in the plan comparison only for Enterprise, which starts at 20,000 US dollars a year; Starter and Pro are listed there with three business days. The cloud contract is governed by Californian law and caps liability at the payments of the last twelve months. The August 2026 incident belongs in every risk review. According to the vendor, fewer than three per cent of cloud customers were compromised. Anyone running the tool in their own data centre keeps location and logs in their own hands and carries the installation of every update in return.
Buy, switch or build
Off-the-shelf
Power BI, the vendor inside the Microsoft contract
Power BI, Tableau and Looker answer the same question. Where a frame agreement with Microsoft, Salesforce or Google already exists, sign-in, permissions and logs can run on the existing directory service, and procurement does not have to vet a new supplier. A contractual argument comes on top: in an incident, the customer has a counterparty with its own legal department and a presence in Europe. Without such an agreement this advantage falls away, and for a software business on Postgres what counts most is which tool opens up the existing tables with the least effort.
AI-native
Hex, the notebook with a built-in analyst
Hex combines SQL, Python and an AI agent in one shared notebook and is aimed at people who analyse data. On 25 September 2026 prices count per editing person: 36 US dollars a month for Professional, 75 US dollars for Team, and a free tier with a trial of the agent. Readers cost less there than with Metabase, where every signed-in person counts. At Hex an EU environment exists only from Team and only by contract, sign-in through your own directory service only in Enterprise, and there is no self-hosting option. Metabase itself now offers its AI assistant on every plan, including the open-source edition with your own key.
Build it yourself
Dashboards on Supabase, built with Claude Code
For fixed reports, building it yourself is short work. Supabase from this catalogue holds the data in Postgres, a small web interface on Cloudflare Pages shows a dozen metrics, and n8n sends out the weekly report every Monday. With Claude Code that takes five to eight person-days (estimate), which at a 1,200 euro day rate means 6,000 to 9,600 euros once, plus a low two-figure amount a month to run it (estimate). Against that stand 250 US dollars a month for thirty people on Starter, or nothing for the open-source edition. The self-build reaches its limits once more people work with the figures. The first question nobody foresaw lands back with the developer, because there is no builder for non-technical people. Row permissions for customers or departments demand tenant separation that needs proper testing. And the definition of every metric sits in code that someone first has to read after a change of staff. For a dozen fixed metrics, building it yourself is enough. If colleagues are meant to ask their own questions, the open-source edition is the stronger case.
Our advice
- Solo: Run the open-source edition if updates get installed reliably.
- Mid-market: Buy or self-host, and budget for Pro before the first security questionnaire.
- Enterprise: Self-host under an Enterprise licence, renegotiate the cloud contract first.
Who is behind it
Staying power: Established
Eleven years in market: the public code repository has existed since February 2015 and the first version appeared in December 2015. The last publicly reported funding is a Series B of 30 million US dollars on 19 August 2021. Development continues visibly, with a release dated 16 September 2026 and a pre-release dated 24 September 2026. The contracts for cloud and self-hosting date from autumn 2025, and the cloud privacy policy carries the date 1 June 2020. From 2026 come the exploited zero-day of August and the rise in security advisories from three in 2025 to eighteen by 25 September 2026. The user figures are the company's own.
- Legal entity and registered office: Metabase, Inc., 9740 Campo Rd. Suite 1029, Spring Valley, CA 91977, United States; the legal texts name no entity in a German-speaking countryCloud privacy policy dated 1 June 2020: legal entity and address, Metabase as controller for account and application data, exclusion of the customer databases, processing anywhere in the world, retention as long as necessaryOpen source · As of 2026-09-25
- Time in market: Public code repository since 2 February 2015, with 49,411 stars on 25 September 2026; source code under the AGPL, the part for paid features under the vendor's commercial licencePublic code repository with creation date, licence split, stars, releases and security advisoriesOpen source · As of 2026-09-25
- Last reported equity round: 30 million US dollars Series B led by Insight Partners, with Expa and NEA, announced on 19 August 2021, total capital raised 42.5 million US dollars; the figure of more than 30,000 organisations using it is the company's ownSeries B of 30 million US dollars led by Insight Partners with Expa and NEA, and the user count by the company's own accountOpen source · As of 2021-08-19
- Ongoing development: Release v0.63.18 of 16 September 2026, pre-release v0.64.0-beta of 24 September 2026github.com/metabase/metabase/releasesOpen source · As of 2026-09-25
- Documented incident and how it was handled: On 3 August 2026 a cloud customer reported an API key created outside working hours. The cause was SQL injection via the password reset endpoint without authentication, introduced by a refactor on 11 November 2025 and affecting all versions from 0.58 (CVE-2026-72898). According to the vendor, fewer than three per cent of cloud customers were compromised, along with some open-source and self-hosted installations reachable from the internet. Fixed versions appeared on 6 August 2026 and a post-mortem on 27 August 2026; an external forensics firm was engaged.Post-mortem on the August 2026 incident with sequence of events, cause, scope according to the vendor and countermeasuresOpen source · As of 2026-08-27
- Number of security advisories: Eighteen published security advisories from 1 January to 25 September 2026, seven of them critical; the whole of 2025 had threegithub.com/metabase/metabase/security/advisoriesOpen source · As of 2026-09-25
Cost of leaving: Moderate
The data itself stays with the customer, because Metabase queries inside the connected databases and does not retain results unless caching is switched on. That eases a switch. Between cloud and self-hosting the entire application database moves across; the vendor provides the snapshot on request. Questions, dashboards, models and metrics can be exported as YAML from Pro upwards. What the export leaves missing is the path into another tool: questions from the click builder exist in the in-house query language and have to be rebuilt in Power BI or Looker, and anyone who has embedded analyses in their own product via the developer kit replaces code at every embedding point.
Regulation and data
| Data processing agreementdocumented, no condition attached: Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag öffentlich abrufbar und ohne weitere Bedingung Bestandteil des Vertrags; oder er entfällt nachvollziehbar begründet, weil kein Anbieter Kundendaten verarbeitet.documented, tied to a condition: Vertrag existiert, ist aber an einen Tarif gebunden, nur nach Anfrage einsehbar oder allein in den Nutzungsbedingungen geregelt statt als eigenes Dokument.documented, but unfavourable: Kein Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag im üblichen Sinn: entweder weil der Anbieter für das Kerngeschäft eigenständig Verantwortlicher ist und stattdessen eine andere Konstruktion gilt, oder weil öffentlich offen bleibt, ob überhaupt einer angeboten wird.open on a point that decides usability: Weder ein Vertrag noch ein dokumentierter Weg zu einem Vertrag; der Einkauf hätte nichts, worauf er sich stützen kann. | documented, tied to a conditionpublic and part of the contract on sign-up, but covers only part of the dataCloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistantOpen sourceThe data processing agreement sits as Exhibit B in the cloud terms of service of 17 September 2025, readable without login and agreed on every plan at the moment of sign-up. The limitation lies in the definitions. Covered is personal data within the customer databases that Metabase queries, plus the inputs to the AI assistant. Not covered are the application data, which the contract expressly defines to include users' login credentials and the queries they submit, and the metadata describing the data sets. Those are addressed by the cloud privacy policy, in which Metabase acts as a controller in its own right. Anyone writing queries with names or email addresses in the filter is therefore working outside the data processing agreement. For self-hosting the agreement falls away according to the vendor, because it has no access to data there.As of 2025-09-17 |
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| Storage locationdocumented, no condition attached: EU-Speicherort ohne Zusatzkosten und ohne Tarifbindung, oder der Ort ist vollständig selbst bestimmbar, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: EU-Speicherort möglich, aber an einen Tarif, einen gesondert zu aktivierenden Zusatz oder einen Umzug in eine getrennte Umgebung gebunden; oder die EU-Region ist nicht die Voreinstellung.documented, but unfavourable: Kein EU-Speicherort, der Ort ist aber eindeutig benannt, sodass die Folgen bewertbar sind.open on a point that decides usability: Der Speicherort ist öffentlich nicht benannt oder vom Kunden nicht steuerbar, sodass sich die Verarbeitung nicht verorten lässt. | documented, tied to a conditionEU in Frankfurt selectable on every cloud plan, AI service and add-on storage with US processorsRegion change in the customer account between Oregon and Frankfurt, usually with less than thirty minutes of downtimeOpen sourceThe plan comparison lists the choice of continent for Starter, Pro and Enterprise at no extra charge, and the region can be switched self-service in the customer account, usually with less than thirty minutes of downtime. No page says which region is preset at sign-up. The documents contradict each other on the number of regions: the guide to switching names two, Oregon and Frankfurt, the list of addresses to allow names five, and the security page speaks of four continents. Frankfurt appears in all three. Two components run, regardless of the region chosen, with processors whose location the sub-processor list gives as the United States: the vendor's AI service via Anthropic and OpenAI, and the add-on storage for uploaded spreadsheets via ClickHouse. The AI service is avoided by storing your own key with a model provider. When self-hosting, the operator determines the location entirely.As of 2026-09-25 |
| Subprocessorsdocumented, no condition attached: Vollständige öffentliche Liste der Unterauftragnehmer mit Zweck und Land; oder es gibt keine, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Liste existiert und ist benannt, aber nur nach Anfrage oder nach Zugang zu einem Vertrauensportal einsehbar, oder sie nennt Zweck und Land nicht vollständig.documented, but unfavourable: Keine geführte Liste; namentlich stehen nur einzelne Dienste in der Datenschutzerklärung, überwiegend solche der eigenen Website.open on a point that decides usability: Weder eine Liste noch eine Nennung der Verarbeiter des Produkts, und kein dokumentierter Weg, sie zu erfahren. | documented, tied to a conditiontwo public lists that contradict each otherWebsite sub-processor list with thirty recipients, each with purpose and location United StatesOpen sourceThe data processing agreement refers to the list on the website. It names thirty recipients with purpose and country, every one of them located in the United States, Amazon Web Services included, even though the cloud can run in Frankfurt. It mixes the processors of the product with those of the website, sales and marketing, such as HotJar, VWO, Apollo.io and Mailchimp, without separating them. The vendor's trust portal carries a second list. It additionally names Klenty, which is absent from the website, and gives HotJar's location as EU. Amazon Web Services and Anthropic do not appear in it. Under clause 2.4 new sub-processors are announced by updating the website; an objection is possible within ten days and leads to a good-faith resolution, and the contract names no termination right for it.As of 2026-09-28 |
| Third-country transferdocumented, no condition attached: Keine Übermittlung in ein Drittland, oder die Übermittlung findet statt und die Grundlage ist benannt und im Vertrag verankert, etwa Standardvertragsklauseln, Angemessenheitsbeschluss oder EU-US-Datenschutzrahmen.documented, tied to a condition: Übermittlung findet statt, eine Grundlage ist genannt, aber ohne Zuordnung, welcher Empfänger auf welcher Grundlage arbeitet.documented, but unfavourable: Übermittlung findet statt und die eigenen Unterlagen widersprechen sich, oder die genannte Grundlage bezieht sich erkennbar nur auf einen Randbereich wie die Marketing-Website.open on a point that decides usability: Übermittlung findet erkennbar statt und eine Grundlage wird nirgends genannt. | documented, tied to a conditionstandard contractual clauses Modules 2 and 3 in the contract, without assignment of onward transfersCloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistantOpen sourceClause 5 of the data processing agreement permits transfers from the European Economic Area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to the United States and incorporates the 2021 standard contractual clauses, Module 2 for customers as controllers and Module 3 for customers as processors, with Irish law for transfers from the Economic Area. Signing the main agreement counts as signing the clauses. Clause 2.2 allows sub-processors to engage further vendors of their own. The documents do not assign on which basis the roughly thirty US recipients on the list operate, and none of them mentions the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The privacy policy covering the vendor's own responsibility merely states that data may be processed anywhere in the world.As of 2025-09-17 |
| Training on customer datadocumented, no condition attached: Vertraglich oder in der Datenschutzerklärung ausdrücklich ausgeschlossen, mit Erstreckung auf die eingesetzten Modellanbieter; oder es gibt keine Datenübertragung an einen Anbieter.documented, tied to a condition: Ausschluss ab einem bestimmten Tarif, oder die Zusage steht nur auf einer Dokumentationsseite statt im Vertrag, oder die Frage stellt sich für das Werkzeug sachlich kaum und der Anbieter schweigt dazu.documented, but unfavourable: Nutzung ist die Voreinstellung und nur ein Widerspruch beendet sie; oder der Anbieter trainiert eigene Modelle auf bereinigten Kundendaten.open on a point that decides usability: Keine Aussage, obwohl das Werkzeug KI-Funktionen auf Kundeninhalten betreibt. | documented, but unfavourablethe cloud agreement grants a licence to queries and metadata for product development; the contract names no route to objectCloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistantOpen sourceFor the cloud, the security page says the vendor does not want to see the data and keeps no query results unless caching is switched on. It adds that processors must certify using customer data only to provide the services. Under clause 6.2 the cloud agreement grants Metabase a licence to use the application data, including the queries submitted, and the metadata to develop and improve its own products. The content of the customer databases is excluded. The contract names no route to object. The documentation on the AI assistant adds that Metabase collects part of the metadata to improve the AI integration and may receive the conversation, which can contain sensitive data, when a response is rated. For the model providers, Exhibit D limits sharing to operating the service; an express exclusion of training is not in it. The self-hosting licence of 3 November 2025 has no such clause: there, data and analyses belong to the customer alone, and the AI assistant runs on the customer's own key.As of 2026-09-28 |
| Retention and deletiondocumented, no condition attached: Löschfristen nach Vertragsende beziffert und die Löschung oder Rückgabe zugesagt; oder die Fristen bestimmt der Betreiber selbst, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Löschung ist zugesagt, die Fristen sind aber nur teilweise beziffert, oder Sicherungskopien sind ausdrücklich ausgenommen.documented, but unfavourable: Nur der Grundsatz der Erforderlichkeit ohne jede Frist nach Vertragsende, oder Fristen sind allein für Randbereiche wie Website-Protokolle genannt.open on a point that decides usability: Keine Aussage zu Aufbewahrung und Löschung. | documented, tied to a conditionthirty days to download, then deletion, backups under an unquantified scheduleCloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistantOpen sourceAfter the contract ends, users may download their data for thirty days under clause 5.5. Clause 7 of the data processing agreement commits to deleting all customer personal data at the end of the contract and excludes backup and archive copies, which are deleted under a retention schedule of its own. That schedule is not published. For uploaded spreadsheets in the add-on storage, Exhibit C permits retention of up to 180 days after the end of the contract. Inputs to the AI assistant and its responses are expressly excluded from the download period. The security page adds that instance data is removed automatically after a period of inactivity, without stating that period.As of 2025-09-17 |
| Certificationsdocumented, no condition attached: Mehrere anerkannte Nachweise, benannt mit Norm, Fassung und Geltungsbereich, und bezogen auf den Anbieter selbst.documented, tied to a condition: Ein anerkannter Nachweis für den Anbieter belegt, der Bericht aber nur auf Anfrage, oder der Nachweis hängt an einem Tarif, oder der Geltungsbereich bleibt teilweise offen.documented, but unfavourable: Nur pauschale Nennung ohne Norm-Fassung und Geltungsbereich, oder bloße Selbstauskunft, oder die Nachweise gehören dem Infrastrukturanbieter statt dem Anbieter, oder der Prüfzeitraum ist erkennbar veraltet, oder die eigenen Angaben widersprechen sich.open on a point that decides usability: Kein Nachweis genannt und keine Sicherheits- oder Vertrauensseite vorhanden. | documented, tied to a conditionSOC 2 Type 2 and SOC 1 Type 2, reports via the trust portalSecurity page: commitment never to look at or copy data when self-hosting, no retention of query results in the cloud unless caching is on, hosting options on four continents, audit firm Sensiba LLP, annual penetration tests, removal of instance data after unquantified inactivityOpen sourceThe security page names a SOC 2 Type 2 report with no exceptions, issued by the audit firm Sensiba LLP, and a SOC 1 Type 2 report on controls over financial reporting. On 25 September 2026 the trust portal lists both reports, a SOC 2 Type 1 report in addition, bridge letters for 2025 to 2026, a certificate of insurance, a penetration test report from 2026 and several policies. The audit period and scope appear on no public page; the reports themselves sit in the portal. The vendor does not name ISO 27001 or ISO/IEC 42001. The plan comparison assigns SOC 2 to all cloud plans; for self-hosting the attestation naturally does not apply.As of 2026-09-28 |
| EU AI Act, Article 50documented, no condition attached: Der Anbieter macht eine belegte Aussage, die die eigene Pflicht trägt, etwa Modelldokumentation und Zertifizierung nach ISO/IEC 42001; oder das Werkzeug enthält nachvollziehbar begründet kein KI-System im Sinne der Verordnung.documented, tied to a condition: Der Anbieter äußert sich zur Verordnung oder ordnet die eigene Funktion ein, eine benannte Zusage zu den Transparenzpflichten aus Artikel 50 fehlt aber; oder das Werkzeug enthält kein KI-System, das gegenüber Menschen auftritt, und der Anbieter schweigt.documented, but unfavourable: Das Produkt enthält KI-Funktionen, der Anbieter schweigt dazu oder trägt ein Selbstetikett ohne Nachweis; die Kennzeichnung ist vom Betreiber aber selbst setzbar.open on a point that decides usability: KI spricht im Produkt unmittelbar mit Endkunden und der Anbieter sagt zu Artikel 50 nichts; die Kennzeichnung lässt sich ohne Zusage des Anbieters nicht sicher setzen. | documented, but unfavourableno statement on the regulation, although the AI assistant can also face end customersWhat the AI assistant sends to the vendor and to model providers, collection of metadata to improve the AI integration, and transmission of the conversation when rating a responseOpen sourceThe AI assistant Metabot answers questions in natural language, writes SQL and interprets charts, and from Pro upwards it can be embedded in your own product so that the operator's customers talk to it. On 25 September 2026 neither the contracts nor the AI documentation say anything about Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 or the transparency duties under Article 50 of the regulation. The operator can set the labelling themselves: from Pro, the assistant's name and icon can be changed and custom system prompts stored. Which side carries the labelling duty depends on the operator's role. Anyone shipping the embedded assistant to customers should check the labelling before the first customer conversation.As of 2026-09-28 |
| Audit loggingdocumented, no condition attached: Nachvollziehbares Protokoll über Zugriffe und Änderungen in allen Tarifen enthalten, mit benannter Frist und Ausleitung in eigene Systeme; oder die Nachvollziehbarkeit liegt vollständig in eigener Hand, weil das Werkzeug im eigenen Betrieb läuft.documented, tied to a condition: Protokoll vorhanden, aber an einen höheren Tarif oder einen kostenpflichtigen Zusatz gebunden, oder die Ausleitung fehlt in den unteren Stufen; Reichweite und Frist sind benannt.documented, but unfavourable: Protokolle sind nur anbieterseitig beschrieben, oder Reichweite und Frist bleiben offen, sodass sich Nachweispflichten nicht planen lassen.open on a point that decides usability: Öffentlich nicht belegt, ob der Kunde überhaupt ein auswertbares Protokoll erhält. | documented, tied to a conditionusage log from Pro upwards, 720 days by defaultUsage log only in Pro and Enterprise, 720 days of retention, no recording in the open-source edition and in StarterOpen sourceWhat is recorded: views of dashboards and questions, executed queries, downloads, changed settings and invitations, each with person and timestamp. From Pro there is also a dedicated review of conversations with the AI assistant; access via the MCP interface expressly does not appear there. The log exists only in Pro and Enterprise; the open-source edition and Starter do not record views and activity at all, and after an upgrade recording starts only on the day of the upgrade. Retention is 720 days and can be changed through an environment variable. Export runs through the tool's normal routes, meaning export of individual analyses or, when self-hosting, directly from the application database. The vendor describes no continuous feed into a security analysis system.As of 2026-09-25 |
What it really costs
Entry price
The open-source edition costs nothing and has no user limit; operations then sit with the customer, and the vendor estimates a comparable setup with servers, load balancing, a managed database and a mail server at a minimum of 112 to 132 US dollars a month. In the cloud, Starter begins at 100 US dollars a month with five people and 6 US dollars for each additional one, Pro at 575 US dollars a month with ten people and 12 US dollars for each additional one. Annual billing saves ten per cent. As of 25 September 2026.Prices for Starter, Pro and Enterprise, price per additional person, usage prices for the AI service, data transforms and add-on storageOpen source
As of 2026-09-25
What gets expensive
The jump from Starter to Pro. SAML sign-in, SCIM provisioning, row and column permissions, the usage log and embedding without the vendor logo all sit in Pro, and for thirty people the bill therefore grows from 250 to 815 US dollars a month. The second point is response time: one business day at every severity appears in the plan comparison only with Enterprise from 20,000 US dollars a year. On top come usage items that only show up in operation: 3.75 US dollars per million tokens for the vendor's AI service after one free million, one to two cents per run for data transforms after 1,000 free runs, and add-on storage from 2 US dollars per million rows. The AI item is avoided by storing your own key.
What it displaces
- The spreadsheet into which someone copies figures from three systems by hand every month
- The request to engineering to quickly write a query for management
- The home-built customer area in which customers see their usage figures as a static list
Interfaces
- Connections to more than twenty officially supported databases, including Postgres, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift, Databricks and ClickHouse, plus community drivers when self-hosting
- Embedding as an iframe, through a React developer kit and as a full application, with row and column permissions and tenant separation from Pro
- Sign-in via Google on every plan, basic LDAP from the open-source edition, SAML, JWT, OIDC and SCIM provisioning from Pro
- AI assistant with your own key at providers such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Azure, Mistral or OpenRouter, plus an MCP server and a programming interface for agents
- Export of questions, dashboards and models as YAML from Pro, connection to a Git repository, moving the entire application database between cloud and self-hosting
Matching methods
- Churn Cohorting by TenureSeparating churn by customer cohort is a query over your own database, and this kind of recurring analysis is what such a tool is built for.
- Data Monetization: Improve, Wrap, SellEmbedded analytics are the shortest route from the first to the second step of this method, because the same figures that improve your own operations land with the customer as an add-on.
- Net Retention Audit (Cohort NRR)The cohort calculation behind a retention figure needs access to raw data across the same set of customers, and a reporting tool on your own database makes it verifiable.
- Regulatory Density TestThe density of evidence duties decides whether the permission model, the log and self-hosting are add-ons or conditions of purchase, and that is what the jump from Starter to Pro hangs on here.
Alternatives
- PostHog
- Supabase
Sources
- 1.Cloud terms of service dated 17 September 2025: Exhibits A to D, licence to application data and metadata for product development in clause 6.2, thirty days to download after termination, Californian law, liability cap, data processing agreement with definitions, sub-processors, standard contractual clauses and deletion, retention of up to 180 days in the add-on storage, and terms for the AI assistant (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/license/hosting · As of 2026-09-28
- 2.Self-hosting licence dated 3 November 2025: data and analyses belong to the customer alone, the AI assistant runs on the customer's own key (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/license/commercial · As of 2025-11-03
- 3.Cloud privacy policy dated 1 June 2020: legal entity and address, Metabase as controller for account and application data, exclusion of the customer databases, processing anywhere in the world, retention as long as necessary (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/hosting/privacy_policy · As of 2026-09-25
- 4.Website sub-processor list with thirty recipients, each with purpose and location United States (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/hosting/subprocessors · As of 2026-09-28
- 5.Trust portal with SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 2 Type 1, SOC 1 Type 2, bridge letters 2025 to 2026, a certificate of insurance, a 2026 penetration test, several policies and a second sub-processor list without Amazon Web Services and Anthropic (opens in a new tab)trust.metabase.com · As of 2026-09-25
- 6.Security page: commitment never to look at or copy data when self-hosting, no retention of query results in the cloud unless caching is on, hosting options on four continents, audit firm Sensiba LLP, annual penetration tests, removal of instance data after unquantified inactivity (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/security · As of 2026-09-28
- 7.Region change in the customer account between Oregon and Frankfurt, usually with less than thirty minutes of downtime (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/cloud/change-region · As of 2026-09-25
- 8.Addresses per region in North Virginia, Frankfurt, Singapore, Sydney and São Paulo (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/cloud/ip-addresses-to-whitelist · As of 2026-09-25
- 9.What the AI assistant sends to the vendor and to model providers, collection of metadata to improve the AI integration, and transmission of the conversation when rating a response (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/ai/privacy · As of 2026-09-28
- 10.When self-hosting, no vendor access to data and therefore no data processing agreement; in the cloud it is part of the terms of service (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/installation-and-operation/privacy · As of 2026-09-25
- 11.Usage log only in Pro and Enterprise, 720 days of retention, no recording in the open-source edition and in Starter (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/…/usage-analytics · As of 2026-09-25
- 12.Changing the AI assistant's name and icon from Pro (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/ai/customization · As of 2026-09-25
- 13.Review of AI assistant conversations from Pro, MCP access not recorded (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/ai/usage-auditing · As of 2026-09-28
- 14.Supported providers for the AI assistant's own key, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Azure, Mistral and OpenRouter (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/ai/settings · As of 2026-09-28
- 15.Prices for Starter, Pro and Enterprise, price per additional person, usage prices for the AI service, data transforms and add-on storage (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/pricing · As of 2026-09-25
- 16.Plan comparison: assignment of SAML, SCIM, row and column permissions, the usage log and the choice of region to the plans, support within three business days on Starter and Pro, within one business day on Enterprise (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/pricing/compare-plans · As of 2026-09-28
- 17.Support on weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm Pacific time, response times per severity (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/enterprise/support · As of 2026-09-25
- 18.The vendor's estimate of running costs when self-hosting (servers, load balancer, managed database, mail server, together from 112 to 132 US dollars a month) and the reasons to self-host (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/cloud/cloud-vs-self-hosting · As of 2026-09-28
- 19.Moving from cloud to self-hosting via a snapshot of the application database on request (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/docs/latest/cloud/migrate/cloud-to-self-hosted · As of 2026-09-25
- 20.Post-mortem on the August 2026 incident with sequence of events, cause, scope according to the vendor and countermeasures (opens in a new tab)metabase.com/blog/vulnerability-what-happened · As of 2026-08-27
- 21.Security advisory on CVE-2026-72898, SQL injection via an endpoint without authentication, severity critical (opens in a new tab)github.com/…/GHSA-vwf4-m7j8-wcjf · As of 2026-08-06
- 22.Report on affected companies that disclosed data theft through the flaw (opens in a new tab)helpnetsecurity.com/… · As of 2026-08-10
- 23.Series B of 30 million US dollars led by Insight Partners with Expa and NEA, and the user count by the company's own account (opens in a new tab)prnewswire.com/… · As of 2021-08-19
- 24.Public code repository with creation date, licence split, stars, releases and security advisories (opens in a new tab)github.com/metabase/metabase · As of 2026-09-25
- 25.Hex's pricing tiers on 25 September 2026 as the comparison benchmark for the AI-native class (opens in a new tab)hex.tech/pricing · As of 2026-09-25
- 26.github.com/metabase/metabase/releases (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-09-25
- 27.github.com/metabase/metabase/security/advisories (opens in a new tab)As of 2026-09-25
Last reviewed: 2026-09-28 by Dr. Oliver Gausmann, Convios GmbH
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