Start with Metabase for free: open source or Metabase Cloud

Metabase offers a free, self-hosted open-source edition under the AGPL license that requires no account or credit card, supports unlimited users, dashboards, questions, and connections to more than 20 data sources, and includes visual querying, SQL editing, subscriptions, AI-assisted questions using a customer-provided API key, APIs, and guest embeds. It can be launched quickly with Docker or Java, although production deployments should use PostgreSQL for Metabase’s application database, secure credentials, and pin specific software versions rather than relying on a moving latest tag; database connections should also use dedicated read-only accounts where appropriate. Metabase Cloud Starter, priced at $100 monthly or $90 with annual billing as of October 2026, provides managed hosting, backups, upgrades, support, compliance features, regional hosting, and a preconfigured email service, while Pro, starting at $575 monthly, adds enterprise capabilities such as SAML, JWT, or OIDC single sign-on, row- and column-level security, serialization, usage analytics, white-labeling, and authenticated embedded analytics. Starter and Pro offer 14-day trials, and users can migrate between self-hosted, Cloud, and Pro deployments while retaining content, users, and settings, though embedded implementations may require URL updates after migration.

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