Metabase vs Qlik Sense
Metabase and Qlik Sense are both BI & dashboards tools. Metabase is aimed at small businesses and developers, while Qlik Sense is aimed at enterprise and small businesses. Metabase costs less, from $100/mo versus $300/mo for Qlik Sense. Only Metabase has a free plan.
Open-source BI anyone can use
Enterprise BI with an associative engine and AI answers on top
| Pricing | Open source · $100 | Paid · $300 |
| Starting price | $100/mo | $300/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | 14 days | 30 days |
| Built for | Small businesses, Developers | Enterprise, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web | web, windows, ios, android |
| Country | US · 2015 | US · 1993 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Metabase if
Startups and mid-size companies wanting quick, affordable BI; developers embedding analytics.
- Free open-source edition is genuinely usable
- Easy for non-analysts
- Wide database support
Look elsewhere if: Enterprises needing advanced modeling and governance (Looker, Power BI).
Choose Qlik Sense if
Mid-size and large companies with complex, multi-source data that want governed self-service analytics for many users.
- Associative exploration surfaces gaps that query-based BI tools hide
- Capacity pricing means adding viewers on Standard costs nothing extra
- Strong data integration heritage, including SAP and Talend connectors
Look elsewhere if: Small teams on a tight budget or Microsoft-centric companies that only need standard reports (Power BI, Looker Studio, Metabase).
Metabase vs Qlik Sense pricing
Metabase
- Open Source$0Self-hosted, unlimited users
- Starter$100/mo$90/mo billed annually; 5 users, +$6/user
- Pro$575/mo$517.50/mo billed annually; 10 users, +$12/user; SSO, embedding
- EnterpriseCustomFrom $20,000/yr; dedicated success engineer
Qlik Sense
- Starter$300/moBilled annually; 10 users, fixed 10 GB of data for analysis
- Standard$825/moBilled annually; 25 GB data, no charge for extra users
- Premium$2,750/moBilled annually; 50 GB data, AutoML predictions, public access
- EnterpriseCustomFrom 250 GB of data, multi-region tenants, quote only
Metabase · Key features
- Visual query builder plus native SQL editor
- Dashboards with filters, drill-through and subscriptions
- Alerts and scheduled email/Slack reports
- Models and metrics for governed self-serve
- Embedding (public, static, interactive SDK)
- Open source self-hosting or managed cloud
Cons
- Visualization options are basic
- Performance depends on your database
- Advanced permissions need Pro
Qlik Sense · Key features
- Associative engine that shows related and unrelated values on every selection
- Qlik Answers chat over dashboards, data models and unstructured documents
- Discovery Agent that monitors key measures and surfaces anomalies
- MCP server so third-party assistants can query governed Qlik data
- Qlik Predict AutoML for forecasting and what-if analysis
- Load script and data manager for joining SAP, cloud warehouses and files
Cons
- Entry price of $300 per month billed annually is high for small teams
- Load scripting and data modeling take real training to master
- Visual customization is less flexible than Tableau
Metabase vs Qlik Sense: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Metabase or Qlik Sense?
Metabase starts at $100/mo and Qlik Sense at $300/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Metabase and Qlik Sense have a free plan?
Metabase has a free plan. Qlik Sense has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.