head to head · open source
Metabase vs sigma.js
Metabase has 50,114 GitHub stars, 6,968 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sigma.js has 12,215 stars, 1,619 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 310% (50,114 vs 12,215 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Metabase | sigma.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 12K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.0K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 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 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 sigma.js
Website Documentation Storybook Mastodon [!NOTE] Sigma v4 is now available as an alpha release. See v4.sigmajs.org for the website, or the v4 branch for the source code. Sigma.js is an open source JavaScript library aimed at visualizing graphs of thousands of nodes and edges using WebGL, mainly developed by @jacomyal and @Yomguithereal, and built on top of graphology. How to use in your project To integrate sigma into your project, follow these simple steps: 1. Installation: Add sigma and graphology to your project by running the following command: 2. Usage: Import sigma into your JavaScript or TypeScript file…
read the full sigma.js 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 sigma.js more popular?
Metabase has 50,114 GitHub stars and sigma.js has 12,215. 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 (50,114 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose sigma.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.