Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Metabase VS Columns AI

Compare Metabase VS Columns AI and see what are their differences

Metabase logo Metabase

Metabase is the easy, open source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from...

Columns AI logo Columns AI

Columns Ai helps users quickly turn their data into beautiful and insightful stories to share.
  • Metabase Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-22
  • Columns AI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-04

It lets you connect your Spreadsheet, Uploaded CSV, Airtable, Notion Database, and SQL DB.

You then use natural language to query your data into visualization on a canvas, from where you can start to design it into beautiful content, such as using AI summary to create a layout and visual elements along with your main chart.

Columns specialize in time series data, you can easily forecast the future from there as well. Lastly, you can set up a schedule to keep it updated with your data without manually updating it.

Metabase

$ Details
freemium $85.0 / Monthly (5 users, 3-day email support, Custom domains.)
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Columns AI

Website
columns.ai
$ Details
freemium $15.0 / Monthly
Platforms
Browser Google Chrome Safari Firefox Edge
Release Date
2022 May

Metabase features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Metabase offers an intuitive and user-friendly interface, which makes it easy for non-technical users to generate and analyze reports without requiring SQL knowledge.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source, Metabase allows organizations to customize and extend the tool according to their needs, and it can be self-hosted to retain full control over data.
  • Quick Setup
    Deploying Metabase is straightforward and can be accomplished quickly, enabling teams to start analyzing data almost immediately.
  • Integrations
    Metabase integrates with a wide array of databases and data sources, making it versatile for organizations with diverse data environments.
  • Visualization Options
    It provides a variety of visualization options, from simple charts to complex dashboards, to help users better understand their data.
  • Community Support
    As an open-source project, Metabase has a strong community that contributes to its development and offers support through forums and documentation.
  • Embedded Analytics
    Metabase offers an embedded analytics feature which allows organizations to integrate dashboards and reports into their own applications.

Possible disadvantages of Metabase

  • Limited Advanced Analytics
    While great for basic reporting, Metabase lacks some of the advanced analytics capabilities offered by more specialized BI tools.
  • Scaling Issues
    Metabase might face performance issues as data volume and user base grow, making it less suitable for very large-scale deployments without significant optimization.
  • Customization Limitations
    Even though Metabase is open-source, some users find its customization options limited compared to other BI tools, especially regarding dashboard design.
  • Security Features
    The platform's security features are not as robust as those of some enterprise-level BI tools, potentially requiring additional measures for highly sensitive data.
  • Dependency on Third-Party Services
    For certain features, Metabase may rely on third-party services, which could introduce additional points of failure and dependency.
  • Limited Collaboration Tools
    Collaboration features are somewhat basic compared to those offered by more comprehensive BI platforms, possibly making teamwork less efficient.
  • No Mobile App
    Metabase does not offer a dedicated mobile app, which could be a limitation for users who need to access dashboards and reports on the go.

Columns AI features and specs

  • Connect all types of data: Google Spreadsheet, Notion, Airtable
    10
  • Nature language query your data to visualization
    10
  • Ai Design and styling for storytelling
    10
  • Easy sharing and comprehensive access control
    10
  • Schedule to keep stories in sync with your data
    10

Analysis of Metabase

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Metabase is a solid choice for businesses seeking an intuitive and powerful business intelligence tool. Its combination of ease of use, functionality, and cost-effectiveness makes it a popular option among small to medium-sized enterprises as well as larger organizations looking to empower their teams with data-driven insights.

Why this product is good

  • Metabase is considered good due to its user-friendly interface, which allows non-technical users to create and share dashboards and reports easily. It integrates seamlessly with various data sources and provides a flexible query builder for more advanced data analysis. Additionally, it offers an open-source version, which can be a cost-effective solution for organizations looking to implement business intelligence tools without incurring high expenses.

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized businesses looking for a budget-friendly BI tool
  • Teams with limited technical expertise who still need to access and analyze data
  • Organizations looking for open-source business intelligence solutions
  • Companies that require a tool that can quickly integrate with existing data sources

Metabase videos

What is Metabase?

More videos:

  • Demo - See Metabase in action in 5 mins
  • Review - Metabase vs Apache Superset: Which is best for your team?
  • Review - Metabase vs Tableau: Which is better for your team
  • Review - Metabase vs. Looker: Which is best for your team?

Columns AI videos

Talking about how AI works in Columns

More videos:

  • Tutorial - One example to show you set up your design preference on Columns

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Metabase and Columns AI)
Data Dashboard
93 93%
7% 7
Data Visualization
91 91%
9% 9
Business Intelligence
100 100%
0% 0
Spreadsheets
0 0%
100% 100

Questions and Answers

As answered by people managing Metabase and Columns AI.

What makes your product unique?

Columns AI's answer:

A super-fast data analytics engine (https://github.com/varchar-io/nebula) AI across all storytelling stages: Columns understands your data, Columns understands you, and Columns understands your story.

You can think of it as Canva for Data - a free canvas to craft all beautiful and insightful information on.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Columns AI's answer:

Easy to use. Super fast. Full intelligence. Flexible for design.

How would you describe your primary audience?

Columns AI's answer:

People who love data storytelling. People who are tired of heavy BI tools like Tableau or Power BI, seeking lightweight but much more efficient alternatives.

People want personalized product experiences, and are 100% flexible in making content.

What's the story behind your product?

Columns AI's answer:

Love to share if you're interested in the product, let's talk!

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Columns AI's answer:

Big data AI Visualization Free Canvas

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

Columns AI's answer:

Not disclose here.

User comments

Share your experience with using Metabase and Columns AI. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Metabase and Columns AI

Metabase Reviews

Explore 6 Metabase Alternatives for Data Visualization and Analysis
Draxlr is an intuitive Metabase alternative, blending a robust no-code query builder with AI-powered SQL generation for both non-technical and advanced users. It seamlessly integrates with various databases and provides real-time alerts through Slack, email, and more. With features like embeddable dashboards, granular team access, customizable visualizations, and live data...
Source: www.draxlr.com
5 best Looker alternatives
Metabase: Metabase is an open-source BI tool that offers a free self-hosted plan, but this can be challenging for non-technical users who may struggle with setup and maintenance. While the cloud-hosted option simplifies that, it comes at a higher cost, which might not be ideal for smaller teams or businesses.
Source: www.draxlr.com
10 Best Alternatives to Looker in 2024
Metabase: Metabase is a popular open-source alternative known for its cost-effectiveness and ease of setup. Its simplicity and straightforward deployment make it particularly appealing to smaller businesses and startups.
6 Best Looker alternatives
If you’re considering Metabase, take a look at our deepdive into Looker vs Metabase, as well as a breakdown of top Metabase alternatives.
Source: trevor.io
10 Best Looker Alternatives in 2024 | A Practitioner Review
While Metabase may not offer the same depth in modeling features or the proprietary semantic layer (LookML) that Looker does, it can integrate with Cube.dev to provide a viable, modern, open-source alternative. Additionally, Metabase's alert feature and its general adequacy for IT-related reporting present a valuable, lightweight solution for teams not requiring the full...

Columns AI Reviews

We have no reviews of Columns AI yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Metabase seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 17 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Metabase mentions (17)

  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (April 2025)
    Metabase | https://metabase.com/ | Remote (Global) | Full-time | Applied AI Engineers, Engineering Managers, Frontend and Backend Engineers Metabase is an open source (https://github.com/metabase/metabase) business intelligence software that lets anyone in your company rummage around in the databases you have. It connects to a number of databases / data warehouses (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, Postgres, MySQL,... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2024)
    Metabase | https://metabase.com | REMOTE | Full-time | Backend Engineers, Frontend Engineers, and Engineering Managers Metabase is open source analytics software that lets anyone in your company rummage around in the databases you have. It connects to a number of databases / data warehouses (BigQuery, Redshift, Snowflake, Postgres, MySQL, etc). People rather like the product (https://metabase.com/love). We're a... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Tools for Starting a Business or Testing an Idea: A Beginner's Guide
    Reporting - Metabase A free, open-source business intelligence tool that helps you create custom reports and dashboards to track your business metrics and make data-driven decisions. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Is Tableau Dead?
    I've never used Tableau, but heard a lot of hate about it. However, in my previous role, we were big fans of Metabase (https://metabase.com). You can also self-host it, which was a huge win for us. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Open-Source Self-Hosted No-Code Platforms?
    The solution really depends on what sort of problems you are trying to solve and who your customers are. There are a fair few low-code solutions out there for reporting and data visualisation that are great for finance and marketing teams for example. e.g. https://metabase.com/ , https://evidence.dev/ For enterprise processes I'd go with Camunda (solely based on recommendations and not first hand experience).... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

Columns AI mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Columns AI yet. Tracking of Columns AI recommendations started around Jan 2022.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Metabase and Columns AI, you can also consider the following products

Tableau - Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.

Microsoft Power BI - BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiences—so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

Manaflow - Automate repetitive office work in tables

Apache Superset - modern, enterprise-ready business intelligence web application

Pretzel - Keyboard shortcuts for the app you're currently using