head to head · open source
Metabase vs c3
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars, 6,966 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. c3 has 9,352 stars, 1,357 forks, 771 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 436% (50,096 vs 9,352 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; c3 is written in JavaScript under MIT. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, c3 15%. Metabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (data-visualization), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | c3 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 9.4K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.0K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Metabase if
- You weight community size — 50K 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 c3 if
- You want the c3 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and c3 fits your workflow better
About Metabase
Metabase Metabase is the easy, open source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from data. Get started The easiest way to get started with Metabase is to sign up for a free trial of Metabase Cloud. You get expert support, backups, upgrades, an SMTP server, SSL certificate, SoC2 Type 2 security auditing, and more (plus your money goes toward improving a major open source project). Check out our quick overview of cloud vs self hosting. If you need to, you can always switch to self hosting Metabase at any time (or vice versa). Key Features Set up in five minutes (we're not kidding), or have…
read the full Metabase overview →
About c3
c3 c3 is a D3 based reusable chart library that enables deeper integration of charts into web applications. Follow the link for more information: Documentation + Getting Started + Examples + Full API Reference Additional samples can be found in this repository: + You can run these samples as: Google Group For general C3.js related discussion, please visit our Google Group at Gitter Using the issue queue The issue queue is to be used for reporting defects and problems with C3.js, in addition to feature requests and ideas. It is not a catch all support forum. For general support enquiries, please use the Google…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or c3 more popular?
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars and c3 has 9,352. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and c3 free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and c3 is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and c3?
Metabase is written in Clojure and c3 in JavaScript. 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 c3?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (50,096 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose c3 if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.