head to head · open source
Metabase vs jfreechart
Metabase has 49,323 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jfreechart has 1,392 stars, 672 forks, 162 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 3,443% (49,323 vs 1,392 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; jfreechart is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, jfreechart 48%. 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 | jfreechart | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Custom / other | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Clojure | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 672 |
| 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 jfreechart if
- You want the jfreechart feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jfreechart 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 jfreechart
JFreeChart is a free, open source 2D chart library for the Java platform that works in JavaFX and Swing clients or on the server side, and it is built for Java developers who need to render and export charts without depending on a commercial charting product.
read the full jfreechart overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or jfreechart more popular?
Metabase has 49,323 GitHub stars and jfreechart has 1,392. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and jfreechart free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and jfreechart is licensed under LGPL-2.1. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and jfreechart?
Metabase is written in Clojure and jfreechart 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 jfreechart?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,323 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose jfreechart if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.