head to head · open source
Metabase vs jxls
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars, 6,966 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jxls has 533 stars, 104 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 9,299% (50,096 vs 533 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; jxls is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, jxls 20%. 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 | jxls | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 533 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Clojure | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.0K | ⑂ 104 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Metabase if
- You weight community size — 50K 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 jxls if
- You want the jxls feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jxls fits your workflow better
About Metabase
Metabase Metabase is the easy, open source way for everyone in your company to ask questions and learn from data. Get started The easiest way to get started with Metabase is to sign up for a free trial of Metabase Cloud. You get expert support, backups, upgrades, an SMTP server, SSL certificate, SoC2 Type 2 security auditing, and more (plus your money goes toward improving a major open source project). Check out our quick overview of cloud vs self hosting. If you need to, you can always switch to self hosting Metabase at any time (or vice versa). Key Features Set up in five minutes (we're not kidding), or have…
read the full Metabase overview →
About jxls
Jxls Overview Jxls is a small and simple to use Java library for Excel report generation using Excel template files. Jxls abstracts Excel generation from underlying Java to Excel low level processing library. Jxls uses a special markup in Excel templates to define output formatting and data layout. How to use Maven Gradle See Getting started guide. Contributing See Contributing guide.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or jxls more popular?
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars and jxls has 533. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and jxls free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and jxls is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and jxls?
Metabase is written in Clojure and jxls 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 jxls?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (50,096 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose jxls if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.