head to head · open source
Metabase vs dataease
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dataease has 24,442 stars, 4,236 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Metabase leads on adoption by 102% (49,312 vs 24,442 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; dataease is written in Java under GPL-3.0. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, dataease 17%. Metabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (business-intelligence, data-analysis, 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 | dataease | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 24K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Clojure | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 4.2K |
| 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 dataease if
- You want the dataease feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and dataease 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 dataease
DataEase is an open source business intelligence and data visualization tool, written in Java and licensed under GPL 3.0, built for analysts and business teams who want to explore data and build charts by clicking and dragging rather than by writing code.
read the full dataease overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or dataease more popular?
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars and dataease has 24,442. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and dataease free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and dataease is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and dataease?
Metabase is written in Clojure and dataease in Java. 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 dataease?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose dataease if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.