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Metabase (https://www.metabase.com/ https://www.metabase.com/) is a similar tool. It supports less DBs but I had good experiences with it at a couple of startup

by iyn 5y ago

Metabase (https://www.metabase.com/ https://www.metabase.com/) is a similar tool. It supports less DBs but I had good experiences with it at a couple of startups, it's quite easy to build useful queries, even for not technical people. I'm yet to play with Superset, I've been meaning to use it for a while. Anybody who has experience with both can share their thoughts on pros/cons depending on use cases?

i_like_waiting 5y ago
Same, I brought metabase into our stack and it solves our great gap between Power BI and technical database GUI that you need to install. Yet to try superset, but it looks a bit too scary for completely non-technical users on first sight.
- neves 5y ago
  I also would like to know about the user experience of non-technical users.
- marcinzm 5y ago
  I'm technical and I found Superset really difficult to get started with. It didn't help that they apparently renamed a bunch of things and every online reference used the old name.
tomnipotent 5y ago
Second for Metbase. It's by and far the most user-friendly self-serve tool I've deployed for business end users. Metabase requires some training for users not familiar with Excel pivot tables, but it's incredibly approachable for non-technical users to create their own reports. Superset and Redash are great for analysts and technical users looking over more control of the output, with no expectation that the end user consuming the data will want to "drill down" further or satiate their own curiosity. But you can pull things off with these tools that Metabase isn't built for.
benjaminwootton 5y ago
We (https://timeflow.systems https://timeflow.systems) use all of Metabase, Superset and heavier alternatives such as Tableau to build fairly advanced dashboards for customers. Metabase is a great product. Simple to deploy and use, stable, easy for non techies and SQL analyst types. It tends to be my go-to. Superset is a great product and we are lucky to have this quality of BI tools for free. It does however have a few extra rough edges and quirks where your query doesn't render as you would expect, especially with niche databases such as Druid and Clickhouse (via a third party driver). I often find myself checking log files to see what actual SQL was issued from the front-end. It's also slightly more intimidating for end users too. Metabase is easier to deploy. I use a single binary vs (I think) a docker compose setup for Superset. Both have a cloud offering, Preset.io is the Superset one which we are just using now and having a productive time with. I would look at both Metabase and Superset before the heavier weight commercial options if the choice was purely down to product features. Tableau, Looker et al don't seem to be bring much to the table above these, and they are both quite difficult and expensive commercial organisations to deal with. With all of this said, building simple reports and dashboards over aggregated data is a fairly commodity task nowadays. Unless you are doing anything funky, all of these tools and tens of others will do the job.
- sails 5y ago
  > It does however have a few extra rough edges and quirks These extend to the user interface and ux. Unless you need the more sophisticated analytics features of Superset then I'd definitely start with Metabase.
smoe 5y ago
We heavily use Metabase for about 5 years now and are very happy with it. In my previous company the BI/data science team did an investigation to potentially replace metabase with a more powerful tool. They concluded, that while e.g. superset would be better for themselves, they decided to stick with Metabase because the lower barrier to entry for non-technical users. While Metabase is not the most sophisticated tool out there, we had great experience onboarding users that only knew Excel before. Which resulted in them answering the majority of basic questions about data themselves, reducing the load on the BI/data staff.
sireat 5y ago
Was going to ask why would someone choose Metabase or Superset over PowerBi. PowerBi pricing($10 per seat) is so nice compared to Tableau($85 per seat last I checked). Then I realized that Metabase and Superset both can be run on promises free of monthly costs. That can be huge when the number of users fluctuates greatly.
- iyn 5y ago
  I'm not familiar with PowerBi but one place I was at leaned towards Tableau (vs Metabase) due to its "storytelling" features. That is -- you could create a document with an intro and embed graphs/analytics within the document. My cynical take on that is that this was a better way for the data team to justify its position/size compared to the value contributed. Not saying there's no value to providing a story, context and explanation around the data (on the contrary), this was just one experience but I'm sure this kind of politics was (and can be) the factor in the decision to pick Tableau over Metabase long term.

by iyn 5y ago

i_like_waiting 5y ago

Same, I brought metabase into our stack and it solves our great gap between Power BI and technical database GUI that you need to install. Yet to try superset, but it looks a bit too scary for completely non-technical users on first sight.

neves 5y ago
I also would like to know about the user experience of non-technical users.
marcinzm 5y ago
I'm technical and I found Superset really difficult to get started with. It didn't help that they apparently renamed a bunch of things and every online reference used the old name.

tomnipotent 5y ago

Second for Metbase. It's by and far the most user-friendly self-serve tool I've deployed for business end users. Metabase requires some training for users not familiar with Excel pivot tables, but it's incredibly approachable for non-technical users to create their own reports. Superset and Redash are great for analysts and technical users looking over more control of the output, with no expectation that the end user consuming the data will want to "drill down" further or satiate their own curiosity. But you can pull things off with these tools that Metabase isn't built for.

benjaminwootton 5y ago

We (https://timeflow.systems https://timeflow.systems) use all of Metabase, Superset and heavier alternatives such as Tableau to build fairly advanced dashboards for customers. Metabase is a great product. Simple to deploy and use, stable, easy for non techies and SQL analyst types. It tends to be my go-to. Superset is a great product and we are lucky to have this quality of BI tools for free. It does however have a few extra rough edges and quirks where your query doesn't render as you would expect, especially with niche databases such as Druid and Clickhouse (via a third party driver). I often find myself checking log files to see what actual SQL was issued from the front-end. It's also slightly more intimidating for end users too. Metabase is easier to deploy. I use a single binary vs (I think) a docker compose setup for Superset. Both have a cloud offering, Preset.io is the Superset one which we are just using now and having a productive time with. I would look at both Metabase and Superset before the heavier weight commercial options if the choice was purely down to product features. Tableau, Looker et al don't seem to be bring much to the table above these, and they are both quite difficult and expensive commercial organisations to deal with. With all of this said, building simple reports and dashboards over aggregated data is a fairly commodity task nowadays. Unless you are doing anything funky, all of these tools and tens of others will do the job.

sails 5y ago
> It does however have a few extra rough edges and quirks These extend to the user interface and ux. Unless you need the more sophisticated analytics features of Superset then I'd definitely start with Metabase.

smoe 5y ago

We heavily use Metabase for about 5 years now and are very happy with it. In my previous company the BI/data science team did an investigation to potentially replace metabase with a more powerful tool. They concluded, that while e.g. superset would be better for themselves, they decided to stick with Metabase because the lower barrier to entry for non-technical users. While Metabase is not the most sophisticated tool out there, we had great experience onboarding users that only knew Excel before. Which resulted in them answering the majority of basic questions about data themselves, reducing the load on the BI/data staff.

sireat 5y ago

Was going to ask why would someone choose Metabase or Superset over PowerBi. PowerBi pricing($10 per seat) is so nice compared to Tableau($85 per seat last I checked). Then I realized that Metabase and Superset both can be run on promises free of monthly costs. That can be huge when the number of users fluctuates greatly.

iyn 5y ago
I'm not familiar with PowerBi but one place I was at leaned towards Tableau (vs Metabase) due to its "storytelling" features. That is -- you could create a document with an intro and embed graphs/analytics within the document. My cynical take on that is that this was a better way for the data team to justify its position/size compared to the value contributed. Not saying there's no value to providing a story, context and explanation around the data (on the contrary), this was just one experience but I'm sure this kind of politics was (and can be) the factor in the decision to pick Tableau over Metabase long term.