head to head · open source
Metabase vs kepler.gl
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars, 6,966 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kepler.gl has 12,077 stars, 1,963 forks, 452 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Metabase leads on adoption by 315% (50,096 vs 12,077 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; kepler.gl is written in TypeScript under MIT. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, kepler.gl 16%. kepler.gl 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Metabase | kepler.gl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 12K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.0K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 kepler.gl if
- You want the kepler.gl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and kepler.gl 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 kepler.gl
kepler.gl Website Demo App Docs [Kepler.gl][web] is a data agnostic, high performance web based application for visual exploration of large scale geolocation data sets. Built on top of MapLibre GL and deck.gl, kepler.gl can render millions of points representing thousands of trips and perform spatial aggregations on the fly. Kepler.gl is also a React component that uses Redux to manage its state and data flow. It can be embedded into other React Redux applications and is highly customizable. For information on how to embed kepler.gl in your app take a look at the documentation. Links [Website][web] [Demo][demo…
read the full kepler.gl overview →
More in Data & Analytics
Related comparisons
More Business Intelligence & Reporting projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Business Intelligence & Reporting field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or kepler.gl more popular?
Metabase has 50,096 GitHub stars and kepler.gl has 12,077. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and kepler.gl free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and kepler.gl is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and kepler.gl?
Metabase is written in Clojure and kepler.gl in TypeScript. 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 kepler.gl?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (50,096 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose kepler.gl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.