head to head · open source
Metabase vs puppetboard
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. puppetboard has 736 stars, 240 forks, 77 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Metabase leads on adoption by 6,600% (49,312 vs 736 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; puppetboard is written in Python under Apache-2.0. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, puppetboard 33%. Metabase was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (dashboard), 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 | puppetboard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 736 |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Clojure | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 240 |
| 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 puppetboard if
- You want the puppetboard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and puppetboard 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 puppetboard
Puppetboard is a web frontend for PuppetDB, the database component of the Puppet ecosystem. It is a Python project licensed under Apache 2.0, and it is intended to provide dashboard and reporting access to PuppetDB data for open source Puppet users.
read the full puppetboard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or puppetboard more popular?
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars and puppetboard has 736. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and puppetboard free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and puppetboard is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and puppetboard?
Metabase is written in Clojure and puppetboard in Python. 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 puppetboard?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose puppetboard if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.