head to head · open source
Metabase vs faction
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. faction has 604 stars, 65 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 8,064% (49,312 vs 604 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; faction is written in Java under GPL-2.0. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, faction 11%. 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 | faction | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 604 |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Clojure | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 65 |
| 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 faction if
- You want the faction feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and faction 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 faction
FACTION is an open source penetration testing report generation and assessment collaboration framework from OWASP, built for security consultancies, red teams, and internal assessment groups that need to turn raw findings into tracked, peer reviewed client deliverables.
read the full faction overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or faction more popular?
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars and faction has 604. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and faction free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and faction is licensed under GPL-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and faction?
Metabase is written in Clojure and faction 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 faction?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose faction if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.