Power BI Alternatives 2026: 5 Options, 4 Free
Power BI alternatives: Metabase, Apache Superset, Grafana, Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 22, 2026.
•3 min read•Analytics & BI
Verdict:Power BI is hard to beat on price if you live in Microsoft 365: Desktop is free and Pro is $14 per user per month billed yearly. People leave it for three reasons: they are not on Windows, they do not want per-viewer licenses once reports are shared widely, or they want to own their data stack. If you have a SQL database and someone comfortable with it, Metabase is the easiest way out. Its open source edition has no user limit, and non-technical colleagues can build charts without writing queries. Superset is the pick for engineering-led teams that need more chart types and are happy to maintain a deployment. Grafana fits better when the data is metrics or logs rather than finance or sales tables, and Data Studio is enough for simple shared reports with no spend at all. Tableau is the paid step sideways, not a saving. The trade-off to accept up front is modeling: Power BI's DAX measures and relationships have no equal among the free tools, so expect to push that logic into SQL views before you migrate. Run one real dashboard on Metabase or Superset for a week before moving the rest.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metabase | Free (Open source edition is free to self-host with unlimited users); paid from $90 per month, Starter cloud billed yearly, first 5 users included | Web, Self-hosted | Self-serve dashboards on a SQL database | Docs only |
| Apache Superset | Free (Free open source software; you pay for your own hosting) | Web, Self-hosted | Teams with engineers and a data warehouse | Docs only |
| Grafana | Free (10k metric series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 3 users, 14-day retention); paid from $19 per month platform fee plus usage (Cloud Pro) | Web, Self-hosted, Grafana Cloud | Monitoring and metrics dashboards | Docs only |
| Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) | Free (Base product is no-cost; Data Studio Pro is the paid tier) | Web | Lightweight shared reports at zero cost | Docs only |
| Tableau | Paid from $75 per user/month, billed annually (Creator, Standard edition on Tableau Cloud) | Web, Windows (Desktop), macOS (Desktop) | Analysts who prefer Tableau-style visuals | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You have a SQL database and want dashboards without per-user fees (Metabase is the pick)
- Your team writes SQL and wants a richer chart library (Apache Superset is the pick)
- Your data is metrics, logs or sensor readings (Grafana is the pick)
- You only need simple shared reports for a small team (Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Power BI features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Power BI today: Free (Free account and free Power BI Desktop for authoring; sharing reports needs Pro or Premium Per User); paid from $14 per user/month, billed yearly (Pro) (Power BI pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Power BI alternatives
Power BI's free account lets you build reports but not share them: the pricing page says to upgrade to Pro or Premium to share. Free accounts also get 8 data refreshes a day and a 1 GB model memory limit. Pro is $14 per user per month billed yearly and Premium Per User is $24, and publishing or sharing requires a Pro license. Readers need Pro too, unless the content sits on Premium P1 or Fabric F64 capacity or larger.
Metabase
Compared with Power BI: Open source edition is free to self-host with unlimited users and a point-and-click question builder. You lose DAX modeling and Excel and Microsoft 365 integration, but gain simple setup. Hosted Starter is $90 a month for five users.
Price: Free (Open source edition is free to self-host with unlimited users); paid from $90 per month, Starter cloud billed yearly, first 5 users included (Metabase pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL (core) with commercial enterprise directory (open source).
Project activity: 49.9k GitHub stars · latest release v0.64.3 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Self-serve dashboards on a SQL database.
Worth knowing: Starter cloud is $100 per month billed monthly; extra users $6 per month. Pro cloud starts at $517.50 per month billed yearly.
Apache Superset
Compared with Power BI: Apache-2.0 and SQL-first, with a large chart library and wide database support. Lacks Power BI's desktop authoring and DAX, and you run it yourself, but there are no per-user licenses at any size.
Price: Free (Free open source software; you pay for your own hosting) (Apache Superset pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 75.3k GitHub stars · latest release 6.1.0 (May 13, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Teams with engineers and a data warehouse.
Worth knowing: Queries any SQL database with a Python DB-API driver and SQLAlchemy dialect, including Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, ClickHouse and SQL Server.
Grafana
Compared with Power BI: Free self-hosted Grafana is built for time-series and operational dashboards rather than modeled business reports. You give up DAX and report-style layouts; you gain open source AGPL and strong metrics sources. Cloud's free tier allows 3 users.
Price: Free (10k metric series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 3 users, 14-day retention); paid from $19 per month platform fee plus usage (Cloud Pro) (Grafana pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted, Grafana Cloud. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 77.6k GitHub stars · latest release v13.3.0 (Oct 27, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Monitoring and metrics dashboards.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted Grafana is free; Cloud adds hosted Prometheus, Loki, Tempo and IRM (incident response and on-call) with 3 free IRM users.
Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio)
Compared with Power BI: No-cost web reporting tool with link sharing. There is no desktop authoring app or DAX-style modeling as in Power BI Desktop, but there is no license fee, and reports are quick to build and share.
Price: Free (Base product is no-cost; Data Studio Pro is the paid tier) (Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Lightweight shared reports at zero cost.
Tableau
Compared with Power BI: More flexible visual exploration than Power BI, but pricier: Creator is $75 per user per month on Standard, against $14 for Power BI Pro. Worth it only when analysts already know Tableau or need its chart range.
Price: Paid from $75 per user/month, billed annually (Creator, Standard edition on Tableau Cloud) (Tableau pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Windows (Desktop), macOS (Desktop). Proprietary.
Best for: Analysts who prefer Tableau-style visuals.
Which one to pick
- You have a SQL database and want dashboards without per-user fees: Metabase
- Your team writes SQL and wants a richer chart library: Apache Superset
- Your data is metrics, logs or sensor readings: Grafana
- You only need simple shared reports for a small team: Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio)
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Metabase, Apache Superset, Grafana, Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio), Tableau: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Power BI. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
Related guides
More in Analytics & BI
All Analytics & BI alternatives →Sources
Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked 2026-10-22: Power BI, Metabase, Apache Superset, Grafana, Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio), Tableau. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.