Counterscale vs Metabase

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureCounterscaleMetabase
CategoryWeb AnalyticsWeb Analytics
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptClojure
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentone-click, sourcedocker, bare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 2,113★ 48,597
First released20242015
ReplacesGoogle AnalyticsTableau, Looker

Why pick each one

Choose Counterscale if…

  • Almost free to run
  • Very easy deployment
Counterscale details

Choose Metabase if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 48.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in Clojure
Metabase details

Frequently asked questions

Is Counterscale or Metabase better?

Neither is universally better. Metabase has the larger community, while Counterscale is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Counterscale and Metabase free and open-source?

Yes. Counterscale is licensed under MIT and Metabase under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Counterscale and Metabase with Docker?

Counterscale: check the project docs for container support. Metabase: yes.

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