Apache Superset vs Metabase vs Redash: Which Open-Source BI Tool to Self-Host in 2026?

If you're picking an open-source BI tool in 2026, the shortlist is short: Apache Superset, Metabase, and Redash. Same SQL backend, same CSV upload, same "make a chart, share a dashboard" promise. The differences live in who owns the project, who the tool is actually built for, and what happens when you push past 50 dashboards.

Here is the honest comparison, with verdicts you can act on.

The 30-Second Version

• Apache Superset wins on power, scale, and visualization variety. Apache Software Foundation governance, latest stable 6.0 (with 6.1 in RC). The right pick if you have a data team and need extensibility.
• Metabase wins on time-to-value for non-technical users. Active development, latest stable 60.2 (April 22, 2026). The right pick if business teams will self-serve.
• Redash has been in maintenance mode since the Databricks acquisition. Latest open-source release is 26.3.0 from March 2024. Use it only if you already use it.

If you have not committed to a stack yet, the realistic choice is Superset or Metabase. Redash is a legacy answer to a 2019 question.

License and Governance

The big detail: Metabase is open core, not pure open source. The community edition (AGPL) covers what most small teams need, but features like Sandboxing (row-level permissions), advanced caching, and audit logs sit behind a paid tier. Superset is fully open under Apache 2.0, no commercial gating. Redash is BSD-2, fully open, but development is largely frozen.

Visualization and Data Sources

Superset has the deepest visualization library by a wide margin. Sankey diagrams, treemaps, geospatial choropleths via Mapbox, force-directed graphs, partition charts. If you need a chart type that exists in any major tool, Superset probably has it.

Metabase ships with about 25 chart types, all polished. The "X-ray" feature auto-generates dashboards from any table, which is a genuine time-saver for non-technical users exploring a new dataset. Custom visualizations require iframe embedding or the paid Metabase Cloud Pro tier.

Redash has the basics: bar, line, pie, table, pivot. No native map widgets without extensions. The chart engine has not seen significant work in two years.

For data sources, Superset connects to 40+ databases and warehouses (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Snowflake, BigQuery, Druid, ClickHouse, Trino, Presto, etc.) via SQLAlchemy. Metabase covers 25+ official sources with strong defaults for the popular ones. Redash technically supports 50+ but several connectors are stale.

Authentication and Access Control

Superset is the only one with built-in enterprise-grade auth: LDAP, OAuth, OIDC, SAML, plus custom auth backends. Row-level security and per-database role mapping are first-class, free.

Metabase supports Google OAuth and SAML in the open-source version. SSO for SAML/JWT and granular permissions (Sandboxing) require Pro ($500/month minimum) or Enterprise.

Redash has Google OAuth, SAML in the open version. No row-level security. If you need fine-grained data access, plan around it.

Performance at Scale

A 50-dashboard, 200-user workload behaves differently across the three:

• Superset handles it natively with async queries, Celery worker pools, and Redis result caching. Add SQL Lab for ad-hoc queries that don't block dashboards.
• Metabase scales fine to 50-100 dashboards on a single instance with proper caching. Past that, Pro/Enterprise becomes the path (clustered backend, query caching tiers).
• Redash can technically scale, but the worker model is showing its age and observability is thinner than the other two.

For raw query throughput against an analytical warehouse (ClickHouse, BigQuery, Snowflake), Superset has the cleanest async story.

Time-to-First-Dashboard

Honest reality:

• Metabase: 10 minutes from container start to a first usable dashboard. Non-SQL users can drag-and-drop. Question Builder is excellent.
• Superset: 30-60 minutes if you know what you're doing. The semantic layer (datasets, metrics) takes setup before non-technical users can self-serve. SQL Lab lets analysts move fast.
• Redash: 15 minutes for SQL-comfortable users. Non-SQL users will struggle.

If your audience is the marketing team, choose Metabase. If your audience is the data team building a curated layer for the marketing team, choose Superset.

Cost on Elestio

All three deploy on Elestio with one-click. Realistic VM sizing:

• Light (under 20 dashboards, single team): SMALL plan ~$10-15/month for any of the three
• Medium (50 dashboards, 50 users): MEDIUM plan ~$25-30/month
• Heavy (Superset specifically, with Celery + Redis): LARGE plan ~$55/month, plus Redis add-on

No per-user fees. No "$30/seat/month for read-only viewers" tax. That is the whole point of self-hosting BI.

The Verdict

• Pick Metabase if non-technical teammates will build their own questions and you do not need exotic chart types. The Question Builder is genuinely better than Superset's for casual users.
• Pick Superset if you have someone who can own the semantic layer, you need 30+ chart types, you want SAML/LDAP without a paid tier, or you plan to scale to hundreds of dashboards.
• Pick Redash only if you already run it and migration cost is real. For a new deployment, both alternatives are better-maintained and have stronger 2026 roadmaps.

The honest read: Superset and Metabase are converging on capability. Metabase is closing the gap on visualizations and governance, Superset is improving its onboarding. Within two years, the choice will be more about taste than feature parity.

For 2026, deploy Apache Superset on Elestio if you want power, Metabase if you want speed.

Thanks for reading ❤️