The cheapest honest answer in BI
Metabase is the rare tool where the free version is the right answer for a lot of companies. Self-host it and you get questions, dashboards and a SQL editor for unlimited users, at the cost of running a server and doing upgrades.
When Cloud is worth it
Starter at $100 a month covers five users and removes the operational work. Extra users are $6 a month, so a ten-person team lands around $130. That is less than most tools charge for one seat.
Pro at $575 is a big step, and you should only take it for a specific feature: embedding dashboards in your own product, single sign-on, or row-level permissions so customers see only their own data. If you do not need one of those three, stay on Starter.
The cost that is not on the invoice
Metabase has no governed metric layer. Definitions live inside individual questions, so the same number drifts between dashboards as the team grows. That costs analyst hours rather than dollars, and it is the reason teams eventually add dbt underneath rather than replacing Metabase.
What it costs by team size
| Team | Plan that fits | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo or small team, technical | Open source, self-hosted | Free plus a server | Free plus a server |
| Team of 5 | Cloud Starter | $100 ($90 annual) | $1,080 annual |
| Team of 10 | Cloud Starter + 5 users | About $130 | About $1,560 |
| Embedding or SSO needed | Cloud Pro | $575 ($517.50 annual) | $6,210 annual |
List prices from Metabase's pricing page. Per-user rates are $6/mo on Starter and $12/mo on Pro.