head to head · open source
Metabase vs dash
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dash has 24,411 stars, 2,314 forks, 480 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Metabase leads on adoption by 102% (49,312 vs 24,411 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; dash is written in Python under MIT. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, dash 9%. 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 | dash | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 24K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 dash if
- You want the dash feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and dash 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 dash
Dash is an open source Python framework for building analytical web applications, data apps, and dashboards without writing JavaScript, aimed at data scientists, analysts, and machine learning engineers who want to turn Python code into interactive browser interfaces.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or dash more popular?
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars and dash has 24,411. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and dash free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and dash is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and dash?
Metabase is written in Clojure and dash 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 dash?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose dash if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.