Evidence vs Metabase
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted web analytics options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Metabase
Open-source business intelligence and dashboards
| Feature | Evidence | Metabase |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 100 · Excellent |
| Category | Web Analytics | Web Analytics |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Clojure |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,958 | ★ 49,398 |
| First released | 2021 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Tableau, Looker | Tableau, Looker |
What are Evidence and Metabase?
Evidence
Evidence is a code-driven business intelligence framework where reports are written in Markdown with embedded SQL. It builds fast static analytics sites that can be self-hosted.
- Markdown plus SQL reports
- Static site output
- Version-controlled BI
- Fast builds
Metabase
Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool that lets teams ask questions of their data and build dashboards without SQL. It connects to many databases and supports scheduled reports.
- No-SQL question builder
- Interactive dashboards
- Many database connectors
- Scheduled reports
Evidence vs Metabase: key differences
Evidence is written in TypeScript, while Metabase is built with Clojure. Licensing differs — MIT for Evidence versus AGPL-3.0 for Metabase. Evidence is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for Metabase. Metabase is the more established project (first released 2015), while Evidence arrived in 2021. Metabase has the considerably larger community, at 49,398 GitHub stars versus 6,958.
Why pick each one
Choose Evidence if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 7k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Choose Metabase if…
- No-SQL question builder
- Wide database support
- Easy Docker deploy
Watch out for
- Advanced features paid
- JVM memory hungry
Frequently asked questions
Is Evidence or Metabase better?
Neither is universally better. Metabase has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Evidence and Metabase free and open-source?
Yes. Evidence is licensed under MIT and Metabase under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Evidence and Metabase with Docker?
Evidence: yes. Metabase: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Evidence or Metabase?
Evidence has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for Metabase. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.