Open-source alternative
Replace Power BI with Metabase / Apache Superset
The best open-source alternative to Power BI is Metabase or Apache Superset, self-hosted on Railway. Dashboards you host. Metabase is AGPL (OSS edition); Apache Superset is Apache-2.0 — Tableau and Power BI without the seat.
Estimated save $8,400 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Power BI compares
| Power BI | Metabase / Apache Superset | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-user subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Pro $14/user/mo paid yearly; Premium Per User $24/user/mo paid yearly source | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Metabase
AGPL OSS business intelligence (enterprise/ is commercial)
- Apache Superset
Apache-2.0 SQL dashboards
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Metabase / Apache Superset licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Power BI seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Power BI?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Metabase / Apache Superset stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Power BI links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Metabase / Apache Superset stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Metabase (OSS JAR or Docker + Postgres) or Superset (web + Postgres + Redis + Celery). Point at the warehouse you already have. Product analytics stays on /stacks/swetrix-analytics.
- What does this replace?
- Tableau / Power BI. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $8,400 a year.
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