Metabase vs Tableau Pricing and Features for Teams of 5 to 100 Users
One is open source and priced per team, the other is priced per seat by role. Here is what each costs for the team you actually have, and the point where the cheaper one stops being cheaper.
10 people, a year
Metabase$1,405
Tableau$3,168
Tableau = Metabase Pro at
26 users
below it Tableau is cheaper
Ask the demo shop a question, or type your own:
Reading the schema, writing SQL… Writing SQL… Running (read‑only)… SQL AgentSQL wrote
▋
A real MySQL shop: customers, products, orders and signups over the last year. AgentSQL writes the SQL, runs it read-only, and answers.
Direct answer
Metabase is the cheaper, simpler tool: free to self-host, or $1,080 a year for 5 users on Metabase Cloud Starter plus $65 for each extra user. Tableau charges per seat by role, $75 a month per Creator, $42 per Explorer and $15 per Viewer on Standard, so a 10-person team with a normal seat mix pays about $3,168 a year. Tableau wins on visual depth, data prep and governance. Metabase wins on cost and on how fast non-technical people can answer their own questions. One catch: if you need Metabase Pro for SSO or row-level permissions, Tableau Standard is cheaper until about 26 users.
›_ metabase vs tableau, head to head
Seven things buyers weigh, and who takes each.
The tinted cell is the stronger tool on that line. Neither wins everything, which is why the right answer depends on your team.
| What you weigh | Metabase | Tableau |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest way in | Open Source, free to self-host with no user cap | No free plan, a 14-day trial |
| Hosted entry price | $1,080 a year for the first 5 users | $900 a year for one Creator, plus a seat for everyone else |
| Visual depth | Clean standard charts, maps and pivots | The deepest visual analysis on the market, LOD expressions, custom views |
| Non-SQL users asking questions | Point-and-click question builder plus a SQL editor | Drag and drop for Explorers, read-only for Viewers |
| Data prep | Models and metrics, transforms done elsewhere | Tableau Prep Builder included with Creator |
| Governance at scale | SSO, row and column permissions from Pro | Mature permissions, sites and projects in every edition |
| Embedding in your product | Unlimited embedded charts on Pro, AGPL open source | Embedded analytics sold by usage or seat, by quote |
Metabase prices read from metabase.com/pricing on 8 October 2026. Tableau role prices are published in the FAQ of tableau.com/pricing/cloud and were last read there in full on 10 September 2026; see Tableau pricing for the full list, including Enterprise at $115, $70 and $35.
›_ tableau vs metabase cost by team size
What five team sizes pay in a year.
List prices, billed annually. Tableau assumes a typical mix of 10 percent Creators (at least one), 20 percent Explorers and 70 percent Viewers. Change the mix and the Tableau column moves; the Metabase columns do not.
| Users | Tableau Standard | Metabase Starter | Metabase Pro | AgentSQL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5C / E / V 1 / 1 / 3 | $1,944 | $1,080 | $6,210 | $708 |
| 10C / E / V 1 / 2 / 7 | $3,168 | $1,405 | $6,210 | $708 |
| 25C / E / V 3 / 5 / 17 | $8,280 | $2,380 | $8,160 | $2,148 |
| 50C / E / V 5 / 10 / 35 | $15,840 | $4,005 | $11,410 | $2,148 |
| 100C / E / V 10 / 20 / 70 | $31,680 | $7,255 | $17,910 | $2,148 |
Starter beats Tableau at every size
At 10 people Metabase Starter is 44 percent of the Tableau bill; at 100 people it is 23 percent. Each extra Metabase user adds $65 a year, each extra Tableau Viewer $180.
Pro flips the answer under 26 users
Metabase Pro has a $6,210 floor for 10 users. Tableau averages about $317 a user with this mix, so the two meet near 26 people. Below that, a team that needs Pro features pays less on Tableau.
All-Creator Tableau is the trap
If everyone needs to build, every seat is $900 a year. Ten Creators cost $9,000, more than six times Metabase Starter for the same ten people.
›_ metabase or tableau
Count your builders before you count seats.
The decision usually comes down to who will make the charts. If two analysts build and forty people read, Tableau's role pricing works in your favor: two Creators and a stack of $15 Viewers. If twenty people each want to poke at the data themselves, every one of them needs at least an Explorer seat at $504 a year, and Metabase starts to look very cheap.
Then ask what your analysts actually do all week. Teams that live in level-of-detail calculations, heavy custom visuals and Tableau Prep flows will feel the ceiling in Metabase within a month. Teams whose week is KPI dashboards, funnel charts and "how many of X last quarter" questions rarely notice it.
Hosting is the last filter. Metabase Open Source runs on a single small server and costs nothing to license, which suits an engineering-led startup. If nobody wants to patch a server, Metabase Cloud or Tableau Cloud removes that chore, and the cost table above is the honest comparison.
›_ which one to buy
Three honest picks.
PICK METABASE IF
You have 5 to 50 people who want answers this month, few trained analysts, and a clean Postgres, MySQL, Snowflake or BigQuery database. Starter at $1,080 a year covers five people, and the question builder means most of them never wait on anyone. See Metabase pricing for every tier.
PICK TABLEAU IF
You have dedicated analysts who build sophisticated, presentation-grade views, you need data prep in the same tool, or you are rolling out to hundreds of people under strict permissions. You pay for depth, and with a builder-light seat mix the bill is reasonable. Compare Tableau alternatives before you sign.
PICK NEITHER IF
The real backlog is one-off questions, not dashboards. Both tools need someone to build the question first. AgentSQL takes the question in plain English, writes the SQL against your database, runs it read-only and shows the SQL with the answer. Team is $59 a month billed yearly for 10 seats.
›_ ai in metabase and tableau
Asking in plain English costs differently in each.
Metabase lists Metabase AI on its plans for writing questions and SQL from plain language. Most customers bring their own model key; Metabase's hosted AI service is $3.75 per million tokens after an included first million. That is cheap per question, but it is metered, so a busy team should watch it.
Tableau retired Ask Data, its free natural-language feature, in 2024. Its AI agent now ships in Tableau+ and other editions that Salesforce prices by quote, so the plain-English part of a Tableau rollout is a separate negotiation from the seats in the table above.
AgentSQL is built only for this job. It connects read-only to your database, answers in a chart, a table and one sentence, and shows the SQL so an analyst can check it. The model cost is inside the plan price, from $24 a month billed yearly. Many teams keep their BI tool for the standing dashboards and use us for the questions in between; self-service BI software covers that split in more detail.
›_ how to choose in a week
A four-step test before you sign either.
01
Write down your ten reports
The ten charts or tables people ask for most. This list decides more than any feature grid.
02
Split builders from readers
Put real names in the Creator, Explorer and Viewer columns and price Tableau from that, not from the mix above.
03
Check the Pro triggers
SSO, row-level permissions, embedding or white-label move you to Metabase Pro. If any is a must, compare Pro, not Starter.
04
Run both on your data
Metabase Open Source installs in an afternoon and Tableau has a 14-day trial. Build three of the ten reports in each.
›_ frequently asked
Metabase vs Tableau questions, answered.
Is Metabase better than Tableau?
Not across the board. Metabase is better when the goal is cheap, fast self-serve answers for a team that is not full of analysts: it is free to self-host and its question builder is easy for non-technical people. Tableau is better for deep visual analysis, data prep and governance across hundreds of users. Most teams under 50 people do fine on Metabase.
Is Metabase cheaper than Tableau?
On the hosted Starter plan, yes, at every team size. Ten people cost $1,405 a year on Metabase Starter against about $3,168 on Tableau Standard with a typical seat mix. The exception is Metabase Pro: if you need its SSO, row-level permissions or embedding, it costs $6,210 a year for 10 users and only drops below Tableau at about 26 users.
Can Metabase replace Tableau?
For dashboards of standard charts, KPIs and ad hoc questions over a clean database, yes, and plenty of teams have moved. It struggles to replace Tableau where analysts lean on level-of-detail calculations, heavy custom visuals, Tableau Prep flows or very large governed deployments. List the ten reports you build most and test those first.
Is Metabase free for commercial use?
Yes. Metabase Open Source is free to self-host for commercial use with no user limit, under the AGPL license. The AGPL matters if you modify Metabase and offer it to others over a network, which is the main reason companies that embed it in a product buy Pro. You still pay for the server and for someone to upgrade it.
Which is easier to learn, Metabase or Tableau?
Metabase. A business user can open the question builder, pick a table, filter and group, and get a chart in minutes without training. Tableau rewards training: its drag-and-drop canvas is powerful, but calculated fields, LOD expressions and data modeling take weeks to learn well. That gap is the main reason small teams choose Metabase.
Does Metabase or Tableau let you ask questions in plain English?
Both have AI, on different terms. Metabase AI generates questions and SQL from plain language, and its hosted AI service costs $3.75 per million tokens, though most customers bring their own model key. Tableau sells its AI agent in Tableau+ and other quote-only editions; Ask Data, the older free feature, was retired in 2024.
What is the difference between Metabase and Tableau?
Metabase is an open source BI tool built for speed and self-serve questions, priced per team. Tableau is a commercial visual analytics platform built for analysts, priced per seat by role: $75 a month per Creator, $42 per Explorer and $15 per Viewer on Standard. Metabase is cheaper and simpler; Tableau goes much deeper.
Is Metabase good for large companies?
It can be, on Pro or Enterprise. Pro adds SSO, row- and column-level permissions, auditing and embedding, and Enterprise starts around $20,000 a year with a support SLA. Very large companies with many analysts and strict governance tend to stay on Tableau or Power BI, while their smaller teams often run Metabase alongside.
›_ pricing and comparisons
›_ connect your database