Grafana k6 vs Metabase

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureGrafana k6Metabase
CategoryMonitoring & StatusWeb Analytics
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageGoClojure
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal, binary
GitHub stars★ 31,211★ 48,597
First released20172015
ReplacesLoadRunner, BlazeMeterTableau, Looker

Why pick each one

Choose Grafana k6 if…

  • Developer-friendly scripting
  • Great CI integration
Grafana k6 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 Grafana k6 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 Grafana k6 and Metabase free and open-source?

Yes. Grafana k6 is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Metabase under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grafana k6 and Metabase with Docker?

Grafana k6: yes. Metabase: yes.

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