Metabase — Open Source Business Intelligence & Analytics

What Metabase Does

• Visual Query Builder: Click-based interface to ask questions without SQL
• SQL Editor: Full SQL editor with autocomplete for advanced users
• Dashboards: Interactive dashboards with filters, drill-down, and auto-refresh
• Charts: 15+ visualization types (bar, line, pie, map, funnel, pivot table, etc.)
• Alerts: Automated alerts when metrics cross thresholds
• Embedding: Embed charts and dashboards into your own application
• Data Modeling: Define metrics, segments, and relationships in a metadata layer
• Permissions: Granular access control by group, database, table, and column
• Collections: Organize dashboards and questions into shareable collections

Architecture

┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐
│  Browser     │────▶│  Metabase    │────▶│  Your Data   │
│  (Dashboard) │     │  Server      │     │  PostgreSQL  │
└──────────────┘     │  (Java/Clj)  │     │  MySQL       │
                     └──────────────┘     │  BigQuery    │
                                          │  Snowflake   │
                                          │  Redshift    │
                                          │  MongoDB     │
                                          └──────────────┘

Self-Hosting

Docker Compose (Production)

services:
  metabase:
    image: metabase/metabase:latest
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      MB_DB_TYPE: postgres
      MB_DB_HOST: metabase-db
      MB_DB_PORT: 5432
      MB_DB_DBNAME: metabase
      MB_DB_USER: metabase
      MB_DB_PASS: metabase
    depends_on:
      - metabase-db

  metabase-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: metabase
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: metabase
      POSTGRES_DB: metabase
    volumes:
      - mb-db:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  mb-db:

Supported Data Sources

Key Features

Visual Query Builder

No SQL required:

Table: Orders
├── Filter: Created At is in the last 30 days
├── Summarize: Sum of Total, grouped by Product Category
├── Sort: Total descending
└── Visualization: Bar Chart

This generates SQL behind the scenes:

SELECT product_category, SUM(total)
FROM orders
WHERE created_at >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '30 days'
GROUP BY product_category
ORDER BY SUM(total) DESC

Dashboard Filters

Dashboard: Sales Overview
├── Date Filter: Last 30 days / This quarter / Custom range
├── Region Filter: Dropdown (North, South, East, West)
├── Product Filter: Search + multi-select
└── All charts update based on filter selections

Embedding

Embed Metabase in your own app:

// iframe embedding
const iframeUrl = "http://metabase:3000/embed/dashboard/eyJ..."

// JWT-signed embedding (secure)
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');
const METABASE_SECRET = "your-secret-key";

const payload = {
  resource: { dashboard: 1 },
  params: { customer_id: currentUser.id },
  exp: Math.round(Date.now() / 1000) + (10 * 60),
};
const token = jwt.sign(payload, METABASE_SECRET);
const embedUrl = `http://metabase:3000/embed/dashboard/${token}`;

Alerts & Subscriptions

Alert: When daily revenue drops below $10,000
  → Send Slack notification to #revenue channel
  → Email CFO

Subscription: Weekly sales report
  → Every Monday 8am
  → Email to sales-team@company.com
  → Include dashboard as PDF attachment

Metabase vs Alternatives

FAQ

Q: What team size is Metabase suitable for? A: Everything from individuals to organizations of several thousand. The open-source edition has no user limit. For large enterprises, Metabase Pro/Enterprise adds advanced features like caching, auditing, and SAML SSO.

Q: Will queries impact production database performance? A: Metabase recommends connecting to a read replica rather than hitting your primary database. You can also configure query timeouts and concurrency limits to protect the database.

Q: Can I connect multiple databases? A: Yes. A single Metabase instance can connect to multiple databases of different types and surface data from different sources in one dashboard.

Sources & Credits

• GitHub: metabase/metabase — 46.8K+ ⭐
• Website: metabase.com