head to head · open source
Metabase vs plotly.js
Metabase has 50,114 GitHub stars, 6,968 forks, 4,346 open issues and last shipped yesterday. plotly.js has 18,378 stars, 2,074 forks, 769 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Metabase leads on adoption by 173% (50,114 vs 18,378 stars). Metabase is written in Clojure under a custom or non-standard licence; plotly.js is written in JavaScript under MIT. Metabase has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, plotly.js 11%. 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 | plotly.js | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 18K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Clojure | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 7.0K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| 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 plotly.js if
- You want the plotly.js feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and plotly.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 plotly.js
Plotly.js is a standalone JavaScript data visualization library, and it also powers the Python and R modules named plotly in those respective ecosystems (referred to as Plotly.py and Plotly.R). Plotly.js can be used to produce dozens of chart types and visualizations, including statistical charts, 3D graphs, scientific charts, SVG and tile maps, financial charts and more. Contact us for Plotly.js consulting, dashboard development, application integration, and feature additions. Table of contents Load as a node module Load via script tag Bundles Alternative ways to load and build plotly.js Documentation Bugs and…
read the full plotly.js overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase or plotly.js more popular?
Metabase has 50,114 GitHub stars and plotly.js has 18,378. Metabase has the larger community by that measure.
Are Metabase and plotly.js free?
Both are open source. Metabase has no licence declared in this registry, and plotly.js is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Metabase and plotly.js?
Metabase is written in Clojure and plotly.js in JavaScript. 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 plotly.js?
Choose Metabase if you want the larger community (50,114 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose plotly.js if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.