Short answer: Metabase is a great place to start, and its guest embeds are free on the open-source edition. Teams look for an alternative when they need what customer-facing embedding really requires: no "Powered by Metabase" banner, sign-in embeds, row-level security, and per-tenant isolation. Those features start at Metabase Pro, which bills every signed-in viewer as a user — roughly $135,000–$149,000 a year at 1,000 customer users. If you need white-label, multi-tenant embedding at a flat price, Yurbi starts at $10,000 a year and tops out at $30,000 for unlimited users.
Metabase is usually the first embedded analytics tool a SaaS team tries, and for good reason. It's open source, it installs quickly, and a developer can have a chart inside your product the same afternoon. Many teams stay on it happily.
The question usually comes later, when the embedding moves from "a chart on a page" to "analytics our customers log into and rely on." That's when the plan details start to matter.
Why teams outgrow Metabase embedding
Metabase's own pricing and embedding docs (checked October 2026) lay out where the lines are. Here's what product teams typically run into.
- The banner. Guest embeds on the open-source edition and the Starter plan show a "Powered by Metabase" banner. Removing it, along with white-labeling, custom colors, fonts, and themes, requires Pro or Enterprise.
- Sign-in embedding is a paid feature. Guest embeds are free, but SSO embeds (JWT or SAML), full-app embedding, and the React SDK require Pro or Enterprise. So do the self-service pieces customers ask for inside an embed, like the query builder and drill-through.
- Multi-tenant security is a paid feature. Tenants, row- and column-level security, impersonation, and one database per tenant are Pro and Enterprise features.
- Every signed-in viewer is a billable user. Guest viewers don't count, but each person who signs in to an SSO or full-app embed counts as a user — the same as your own team. Pro is $575 a month including 10 users, plus $12 per user per month ($6,210 a year plus $130 per user on yearly billing).
- The license. The open-source edition is licensed under AGPL v3. If you modify Metabase and serve it to customers over a network, that license has obligations worth reviewing with your counsel.
None of this makes Metabase a bad product. It means the cost of customer-facing embedding scales with your customer count, and that's exactly when teams start comparing.
What the math looks like as you grow
Here's Metabase Pro on yearly billing for sign-in embedding, next to Yurbi's published plans. Metabase figures are from its pricing page; your actual quote may differ, especially on Enterprise.
| Customer users | Metabase Pro (yearly) | Yurbi (yearly) |
|---|---|---|
| 75 | About $14,700 | $10,000 (Starter) |
| 250 | About $37,400 | $18,000 (Growth) |
| 500 | About $69,900 | $24,000 (Scale) |
| 1,000 | About $134,900 | $30,000 (Unlimited) |
Metabase Enterprise starts at $20,000 a year with custom pricing, including per-tenant or flat-fee options, so it's worth getting a quote if you're heading that way.
What to look for in a replacement
If you're embedding analytics for your customers rather than your own team, these are the questions that matter most:
- Tenant isolation. Is it enforced in the query itself, or is it something your code has to get right every time?
- White-label on every plan. Can each customer see their own branding, with no vendor badge?
- A pricing model that doesn't punish growth. Per-viewer, per-capacity, and flat pricing behave very differently at 1,000 users.
- Self-service. Can customers build their own reports, or does every new question become a ticket for your developers?
- Where it runs. Do you need it in your own cloud account or data center for your customers' security reviews?
Metabase embedding alternatives compared
| Platform | Pricing model | White-label | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yurbi | Flat annual, $10K–$30K | Every plan, per tenant | Yes, every plan | ISVs embedding for many customers |
| Apache Superset | Free, open source | Custom work per tenant | Yes | Internal BI and technical teams |
| Power BI Embedded | Capacity, billed hourly | Yes | No, cloud only | Microsoft-centric products |
| Sisense | Quote only | Yes | Yes, Kubernetes | Larger budgets wanting AI features |
| Reveal BI | Quote only, flat rate | Yes | Yes | Teams that want an SDK-first build |
1. Yurbi — flat pricing built for multi-tenant embedding
Yurbi is a self-hosted embedded analytics platform built specifically for software companies embedding analytics for their customers. Tenant isolation is enforced at the query level: security policies are injected into the SQL itself, so it applies to every report, dashboard, scheduled email, and export. Every plan includes per-tenant white-label branding with no vendor badge, a no-code report builder customers use themselves, scheduling, exports, and a full REST API.
Pricing is published and flat: $10,000 a year for 75 users up to $30,000 a year for unlimited users, with every feature in every plan. Embedding is two API calls — a sign-in that returns a session token, then an iframe. Yurbi runs on your own Windows, Linux, or Docker servers, including your own AWS, Azure, or GCP account, so it adds no outside data processor to your customers' security reviews.
Limitations: Yurbi embeds with iframe and API — there's no JavaScript SDK yet. Native SAML/OIDC sign-in is in development. It's self-hosted only, so you run the server.
2. Apache Superset — powerful, free, and built for internal BI
Superset is a strong open-source BI platform, and recent releases (6.0 in December 2025) brought a new design system, theming, and embedded SDK improvements. For a technical team building internal analytics, it's excellent.
For customer-facing embedding, the gaps are architectural. Theming applies system-wide or per dashboard, not per tenant, and multi-tenant data isolation is a custom engineering project. It's free to license, but your team owns the build and the maintenance.
3. Power BI Embedded — strong if you're all-in on Microsoft
Power BI has excellent visuals and a large ecosystem. Embedded is billed by the hour for the capacity you provision (A and F SKUs) — roughly $740 a month for A1 at continuous use. Capacity doesn't autoscale, so as customer usage grows, reports slow down until you move to a larger tier, and each step up roughly doubles the cost. It's cloud-only.
4. Sisense — capable, with AI features, at enterprise prices
Sisense has genuine AI and machine-learning strengths and supports SaaS, dedicated cloud, or on-premise deployment through Kubernetes. It no longer publishes pricing — its Launch and Grow list prices were removed in June 2026 — and customer-reported embedded costs commonly land in the $60,000–$150,000+ per year range.
5. Reveal BI — SDK-first embedding
Reveal BI advertises a single flat rate with unlimited end users, available through a quote. It supports self-hosted deployment, including private cloud and air-gapped environments. The trade-off is the embedding model: Reveal is SDK-first, so your developers own a significant integration and ongoing maintenance effort.
When to stay on Metabase
Metabase is still the right answer for a lot of teams. Stay on it if:
- Your embeds are view-only and the "Powered by Metabase" banner is fine with you
- Guest embeds with locked parameters cover your needs, so viewers never sign in
- You have a modest number of signed-in customer users, and Pro pricing works at that size
- Your team is comfortable owning the setup and the AGPL considerations
If those stop being true, that's the moment to compare.
The option you might be weighing instead: building it yourself
Some teams leave Metabase and decide to build their own dashboards — especially now that AI coding tools make the first version fast. The first dashboard is the cheap part. Tenant isolation, self-service report building, scheduling, permissions, and years of upkeep are still yours to own. We wrote about that trade-off in Vibe-Coded Dashboards vs. Embedded Analytics, and the Build vs Buy calculator puts numbers on your own situation.
For a deeper side-by-side, see Yurbi vs Metabase. If you're an early-stage company, see how startups embed Yurbi — startup pricing is available, just ask.
Frequently asked questions
Is Metabase embedding free?
Guest embeds are free on Metabase's open-source edition and every paid plan, but on the open-source edition and Starter they show a "Powered by Metabase" banner. Sign-in (SSO) embeds, full-app embedding, the React SDK, white-labeling, and row-level security require Metabase Pro or Enterprise.
How much does Metabase cost for embedded analytics?
Metabase Pro is $575 a month including 10 users, plus $12 per user per month, or $6,210 a year plus $130 per user on yearly billing. Every person who signs in to an SSO or full-app embed counts as a user, so at 1,000 customer users Pro costs roughly $135,000–$149,000 a year. Enterprise starts at $20,000 a year with custom pricing.
Can I remove the "Powered by Metabase" banner?
Yes, on Metabase Pro or Enterprise. Guest embeds on the open-source edition and the Starter plan show the banner.
What is the best Metabase alternative for SaaS embedding?
It depends on your needs. For multi-tenant, white-labeled embedding at a flat price, Yurbi is built for that use case and costs $10,000 to $30,000 a year with unlimited users at the top tier. Apache Superset suits technical teams building internal BI, Power BI Embedded suits Microsoft-centric products, and Sisense and Reveal BI are quote-based options.
Is there a self-hosted alternative to Metabase for embedding?
Yes. Yurbi is self-hosted on every plan and runs on Windows, Linux, or Docker, including in your own AWS, Azure, or GCP account. Apache Superset, Reveal BI, and Sisense also support self-hosted deployment, while Power BI Embedded is cloud-only.
How hard is it to move from Metabase to Yurbi?
Yurbi connects directly to the same databases Metabase does, read-only, so there's no data migration. You build a semantic layer once, rebuild your reports and dashboards in Yurbi's no-code builder, and swap the embed to a session token and iframe. Most teams reach production in 4 to 8 weeks, and Yurbi's services team can do the work for you.