🧠 Humans of Cyber | Sameer Al-Sakran and Allen Gilliland
Open source BI platform that lets teams query and visualize data from databases through a web interface without requiring advanced SQL skills.
Metabase is an open source business intelligence platform founded in November 2014 by Sameer Al-Sakran and Allen Gilliland, with early development incubated at Expa, the startup studio founded by Garrett Camp. It was created to reduce the friction between complex data warehouses and non-technical stakeholders by providing a web-based interface for querying and visualizing data.
The goal was to make data exploration as accessible as a spreadsheet while retaining the power of modern databases. Instead of centralizing analytics within data teams, Metabase enables product, finance, marketing, and security teams to explore structured data directly.
Metabase is built primarily in Clojure on the Java Virtual Machine, with a React and TypeScript frontend. Its Query Builder translates user actions into an intermediate query layer that compiles into native SQL, while advanced users can write direct SQL in the Native Query Editor. It connects directly to databases and cloud warehouses, leaving business data in source systems and storing only metadata in a separate application database.
A driver-based architecture enables support for multiple databases, and background sync and scan processes map schemas to power the no-code interface. Models and Metrics standardize definitions to reduce reporting inconsistencies, while dashboards and collections support collaboration.
The open source edition is licensed under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. Organizations can deploy it as a self-hosted application or through managed cloud options with regional hosting. As of 2026, Metabase remains an actively maintained analytics platform used across startups, enterprises, and regulated industries.
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