head to head · open source
Metabase vs Ghostwriter
Metabase has 49,338 GitHub stars, 6,832 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped today. Ghostwriter has 1,916 stars, 257 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 2,475% (49,338 vs 1,916 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; Ghostwriter is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Ghostwriter 13%. Metabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Metabase | Ghostwriter | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 1.9K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Clojure | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 257 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Metabase if
- You weight community size — 49K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Clojure
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghostwriter if
- You want the Ghostwriter feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Ghostwriter fits your workflow better
About Metabase
Metabase is an open source business intelligence and embedded analytics tool, written in Clojure, that lets everyone in a company ask questions of their data and build dashboards without needing to know SQL.
read the full Metabase overview →
About Ghostwriter
Ghostwriter is open source Python project management and reporting engine for offensive security work. It lives in information security, penetration testing, red team ecosystem. Category: Data & Analytics, Business Intelligence & Reporting. Stack: Python 3.13, Django 5.2. Topics: informationsecurity, penetration testing, red team, reporting.
read the full Ghostwriter overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or Ghostwriter more popular?
Metabase has 49,338 GitHub stars and Ghostwriter has 1,916. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and Ghostwriter free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and Ghostwriter is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and Ghostwriter?
Metabase is written in Clojure and Ghostwriter in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Metabase or Ghostwriter?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,338 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Ghostwriter if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.