head to head · open source
Metabase vs CBoard
Metabase has 49,323 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CBoard has 3,097 stars, 1,149 forks, 101 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 1,493% (49,323 vs 3,097 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; CBoard is written in JavaScript under Apache-2.0. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, CBoard 37%. Metabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (business-intelligence, dashboard, data-visualization, metabase), 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 | CBoard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 3.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Clojure | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-12-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 CBoard if
- You want the CBoard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and CBoard 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 CBoard
CBoard is an Apache 2.0, self service open business intelligence platform for interactive multi dimensional report design and dashboard building, aimed at analysts who want drag and drop reporting and at Java developers who need to connect data sources the platform does not support out of the box.
read the full CBoard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or CBoard more popular?
Metabase has 49,323 GitHub stars and CBoard has 3,097. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and CBoard free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and CBoard is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and CBoard?
Metabase is written in Clojure and CBoard 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 CBoard?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,323 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose CBoard if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.