GrafanaFull-stack observability for the agentic era
vs
MetabaseOpen source AI analytics you can verify
Comparison · Business Intelligence · weekly run Nov 2
Grafana vs Metabase
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Metabase is the stronger AI pick in Business Intelligence: it has a visibility score of 21.7 versus 0 for Grafana.
Choose Grafana if…
- You want a lower entry price ($19 vs $100)
- You need FedRAMP or NATSEC100 or PCI DSS or ISO 27001 or CSA STAR coverage
- You prefer a larger, established vendor (1,001–5,000 employees)
- Usage-based pricing suits your budget better than per seat
Choose Metabase if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (21.7 vs 0)
- AI answers describe it more positively (63% vs 46% positive)
- You need SOC 1 or CCPA coverage
- Per seat pricing suits your budget better than usage-based
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 2
| Metric | Grafana | Metabase |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 0% | 21.7% |
| Change vs last week | New | New |
| Rank in Business Intelligence | #44 | #5 |
| Share of voice | 0% | 5.2% |
| Mentions this run | 0 | 27 |
| Positive in AI answers | 46% | 63% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Grafana 0pp · Metabase 0pp over 0 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Metabase leads on 3 of 3 engines
ChatGPT
AI Mode
Perplexity
GrafanaMetabase
Head to head in AI answers
0 engine answers name both brands
0Grafana ranked higher
0Metabase ranked higher
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Grafana | Metabase |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Usage-based | Per seat |
| Entry price | Free; paid from $19 / mo | Free; paid from $100 per seat / mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Fully managed Grafana Cloud on Public Cloud, Federal Cloud or Bring Your Own Cloud, plus self-managed Grafana Enterprise | Self-hosted or Metabase Cloud, with air-gapped deployment available on Enterprise |
| Integrations | — | 237+ |
| Compliance | FedRAMP, NATSEC100, PCI DSS, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, ISO 27001, CSA STAR | SOC 1, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA |
| Support | Community support (Free plan), 8x5 email support (Pro plan), Premium support (Enterprise plan) | Email, Support form, Slack, Microsoft Teams |
| Founded | 2014 | 2014 |
| Headquarters | New York, NY | — |
| Employees | 1,001–5,000 | 51–200 |
| Funding | Series E · $1100M raised | Series B · $43M raised |
| Best for | Teams that want open-standard observability without lock-in, from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises | Teams that want self-service analytics without relying on engineers, and software companies that need to embed analytics in their product |
Plans side by side
Metabase
Open Source$0free, self-hosted, unlimited users
Starter$100month (5 users included, +$6/user/month)
Pro$575month (10 users included, +$12/user/month)
EnterpriseCustomcustom pricing (starts at $20,000 / year)
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Grafana
- Permanent free tier
- Open, composable, flexible platform
- Strong open-source, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry support
- Cost-effective, good value
- Managed hosting
- Complex multi-dimensional usage-based billing
- Self-hosting demands significant engineering maintenance
- Capped free-tier limits
Metabase
- Free open-source edition for self-hosting
- Easy to deploy and user-friendly
- No-code visual builder and SQL for non-technical users
- Affordable, low-cost BI
- Best default starting point for startups and small teams
- Self-hosting means handling hosting, security, backups and updates yourself
- Extra token-based AI or custom usage fees on top of plans
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 100%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Grafana vs Metabase”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/grafana-vs-metabase, data of Nov 2, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.