When Your BI Tool Tells You Who It's For—And Who It's Not
Metabase has a comparison page about Superset. Here's what caught our attention: they're surprisingly candid about who Superset is for.
According to their own page, choose Superset when you want "some of your people querying" your data, you're a "very technically savvy team," or you need a "very broad range of visualization types."
They're not wrong. But their framing misses what happens when your analytics needs grow.
The Architecture That Actually Matters
The real difference isn't complexity—it's scalability.
Metabase is query-centric: Each chart has its own query. Need consistent metrics? Duplicate the logic. Want dashboard filters? Retrofit each query individually.
This works fine... until you hit 50 users and 100 dashboards. Then:
- Metric definitions drift because logic is duplicated across charts
- Your source of truth fragments across individual queries
- Dashboard filters become nightmares to maintain
- Schema changes break everything
Superset is dataset-centric: Charts are built from datasets containing comprehensive metrics and dimensions. Business logic lives in one place—your transformation layer (dbt, Airflow, whatever you use).
The benefits scale:
- Metrics stay consistent (defined once)
- Filters work seamlessly across charts
- Source of truth is clear (version-controlled code)
- Changes update every chart automatically
This isn't about Superset being "harder." It's about being architected for scale. Read more about dataset-centric architecture.
The Hidden Costs of "Simple"
Data fanout: Six months in, you have five ways to calculate "Monthly Active Users" and nobody knows which is right.
Lost source of truth: Business logic scattered across charts. Want to understand a metric? Hunt through dozens of dashboards.
Brittle dashboards: When your data model evolves, you either break dashboards or build workarounds. Both are painful.
These problems don't appear with 5 users and 10 dashboards. They become crippling at scale.
When Companies Outgrow Metabase
Perpetua started with Metabase. It worked initially. But as they scaled, they couldn't handle the growing visualizations, technical teams wanted direct data access, and they needed adoption across Customer Success, Marketing, Sales, and Product.
After switching to Preset, they saw far broader adoption than with Metabase.
"But We're Not That Technical"
Metabase positions Superset as only for "very technically savvy teams."
Here's what they don't mention: Superset has a no-code Explore view. Drag-and-drop charts. Pre-built visualizations. It's SQL-optional, not SQL-only.
The difference? Superset doesn't limit you when you're ready to grow. Start simple, unlock power as you scale.
Metabase themselves admit: Superset is better for "complex data analysis" and "detailed visualizations." That threshold comes faster than they let on.
The Real Question
Where are you going?
- Staying at 5 users? Maybe Metabase works.
- More teams need data access? You'll hit limits fast.
- Want true self-service? You need dataset architecture.
- Planning to embed dashboards? Preset's SDK is built for it.
- Need programmatic control? Superset's API is comprehensive.
What Preset Offers
- Dataset-centric architecture that scales
- No-code Explore view for business users
- Full SQL IDE for analysts
- 40+ chart types—3x Metabase's connectors
- Managed service—no infrastructure headaches
- Free for 5 users forever
Apache Superset: 70K+ GitHub stars, 2K+ contributors, Apache Software Foundation governance. Your investment is protected by open source, not locked to a vendor.
The Choice
If you're choosing a BI tool because it's "easy right now," you're optimizing for today at the expense of tomorrow.
If you're choosing one that's architected to scale, you're building foundations that support growth.
Metabase is honest about who Superset is for. We just think more teams fit that description than they're letting on.
