Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

MicroStrategy VS Metabase

Compare MicroStrategy VS Metabase and see what are their differences

MicroStrategy logo MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is a cloud-based platform providing business intelligence, mobile intelligence and network applications.

Metabase logo Metabase

Metabase is the easy, open source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from...
  • MicroStrategy Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-07
  • Metabase Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-22

MicroStrategy features and specs

  • Robust Analytics
    MicroStrategy provides powerful analytics and business intelligence capabilities, allowing users to create complex reports and dashboards with a wide variety of data sources.
  • Scalability
    MicroStrategy is designed to handle large volumes of data, making it suitable for large enterprises that require high-performance analytics.
  • Data Connectivity
    The platform supports a vast array of data connectors, making it easy to integrate with various databases, cloud services, and other data sources.
  • Mobile Capabilities
    MicroStrategy offers robust mobile analytics applications, enabling users to access reports and dashboards from their mobile devices with ease.
  • Security Features
    The platform provides strong security features, including role-based access control, data encryption, and rigorous authentication processes.

Possible disadvantages of MicroStrategy

  • Complexity
    MicroStrategy can be complex to implement and requires significant technical expertise to fully leverage its capabilities, which may necessitate specialized training.
  • Cost
    The platform can be expensive, particularly for small to mid-sized organizations, as it involves licensing fees and costs associated with training and implementation.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might experience a steep learning curve due to the comprehensive and advanced features offered by the platform.
  • Customization Limitations
    While MicroStrategy is highly configurable, there can be limitations when it comes to customizing certain aspects to meet unique organizational needs or preferences.
  • Performance Issues
    Some users report performance issues, particularly when dealing with extremely large datasets or during peak load times, which can impact the user experience.

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.

Analysis of MicroStrategy

Overall verdict

  • MicroStrategy is a solid choice for organizations that require a high-performance, scalable business intelligence solution. Its extensive features and strong security make it suitable for large enterprises with complex data needs.

Why this product is good

  • MicroStrategy is a well-established business intelligence platform known for its robust analytics capabilities, scalability, and comprehensive reporting features. It offers powerful data visualization tools, a wide range of data connectors, and supports mobile intelligence for users on the go. The platform is also recognized for its strong security features and the ability to handle large datasets efficiently, making it a solid choice for enterprises seeking in-depth data insights.

Recommended for

  • Large enterprises needing robust data analytics and reporting
  • Organizations with significant data security requirements
  • Companies looking for high scalability and performance
  • Businesses seeking a comprehensive platform that supports dynamic dashboards and mobile intelligence solutions

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

MicroStrategy videos

Overview of MicroStrategy Desktop 10.10

More videos:

  • Review - Introducing MicroStrategy 2019

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?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to MicroStrategy and Metabase)
Data Dashboard
34 34%
66% 66
Business Intelligence
36 36%
64% 64
Data Visualization
27 27%
73% 73
Data Analytics
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

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

MicroStrategy Reviews

10 Best Alternatives to Looker in 2024
MicroStrategy: MicroStrategy delivers a comprehensive enterprise analytics platform that supports advanced data analysis and mobile applications, offering powerful insights into a wide array of business metrics.

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...

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.

MicroStrategy mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of MicroStrategy yet. Tracking of MicroStrategy recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 / 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 / over 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
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What are some alternatives?

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

Domo - Domo: business intelligence, data visualization, dashboards and reporting all together. Simplify your big data and improve your business with Domo's agile and mobile-ready platform.

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.

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.

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

Sisense - The BI & Dashboard Software to handle multiple, large data sets.

Qlik - Qlik offers an Active Intelligence platform, delivering end-to-end, real-time data integration and analytics cloud solutions to close the gaps between data, insights, and action.