head to head · open source
Metabase vs sigma.js
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars, 6,824 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sigma.js has 12,167 stars, 1,620 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 305% (49,312 vs 12,167 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; sigma.js is written in TypeScript under MIT. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, sigma.js 13%. 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 | sigma.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 49K | ★ 12K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.8K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 sigma.js if
- You want the sigma.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and sigma.js 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 sigma.js
Sigma.js is an open source JavaScript and TypeScript library for rendering graphs of thousands of nodes and edges in the browser using WebGL, released under the MIT licence and built on top of graphology.
read the full sigma.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or sigma.js more popular?
Metabase has 49,312 GitHub stars and sigma.js has 12,167. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and sigma.js free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and sigma.js is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and sigma.js?
Metabase is written in Clojure and sigma.js 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 sigma.js?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (49,312 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sigma.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.