Metabase
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy it if someone on your team can host it, patch it fast, and write SQL . the free open-source core is genuinely capable BI.
Comparison
Metabase vs Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio)
Metabase lands on Depends, and Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) lands on Worth it.
Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio)
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you want free, shareable dashboards over Google data like GA4, Ads, Sheets, or BigQuery.
| Compare | Metabase | Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Worth it |
| Best for | Startups wanting free BI on existing databases | Marketing teams reporting GA4 and ad spend |
| Who it's not for | Teams with nobody to own hosting and patching | Teams wanting vendor SLAs or phone support . free tier won't provide them |
| Privacy | Active 2026 vulnerability stream . four critical CVEs including an unauthenticated SQL injection; prompt patching is non-optional.¹ | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | No support-quality evidence in sources | No support evidence found |
| Public sentiment | Users like the query builder and SQL access; recurring gripes are exports, dashboard customization, and slow queries on big datasets.⁸ | Directory review snippets are truncated in the sources; third-party guides praise free reporting but warn about setup caveats and Pro pricing quirks. |
| Biggest gotcha | Self-hosting means you own patching; 2026 fixes spanned 55.13, 56.3, 57.1 and later | Pro bills per monthly active user plus per project . model total cost before upgrading.16 |
Pick Metabase when
- Startups wanting free BI on existing databases
- Product teams embedding analytics in their app
- SQL-comfortable data teams
- Self-hosters with patching discipline
When Metabase is not a fit
- Teams with nobody to own hosting and patching
- Security-sensitive orgs handling regulated data
- Non-technical teams needing polished exports and dashboards
- Analysts on huge datasets where query speed matters
Pick Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) when
- Marketing teams reporting GA4 and ad spend
- Google Sheets and BigQuery shops
- Agencies sharing client dashboards
- Zero-budget teams needing shareable BI
When Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is not a fit
- Teams wanting vendor SLAs or phone support . free tier won't provide them
- Microsoft-stack shops . Google ecosystem lock-in is real
- Anyone whose 'dashboard' is 10 rows in a sheet . don't add BI for that
- Real-time operational alerting . it's reporting, not monitoring (Guess)
Sources
- Horizon3 . CVE-2026-72898 SQL injectionhorizon3.aisecurity
- OpenCVE . CVE-2026-50148app.opencve.iosecurity
- Tenable . CVE-2026-59826tenable.comsecurity
- SentinelOne . CVE-2026-33725 Enterprise RCEsentinelone.comsecurity
- GitHub . metabase/metabasegithub.comofficial
- Metabase product security pagemetabase.comofficial
- Metabase Discourse . free version CVE questiondiscourse.metabase.comofficial
- Product Hunt . Metabaseproducthunt.comreview
review
- Work-management.org . Metabase Review 2026work-management.orgreview
- Bouncewatch . Metabase funding and foundingbouncewatch.comnews
- Looker Studio Overview (official)lookerstudio.google.comofficial
- Data Studio Pro subscription overviewdocs.cloud.google.comofficial
- Connect to Google Analyticsdocs.cloud.google.comofficial
- Data Studio release notes (Gemini)docs.cloud.google.comofficial
news