Metabase vs Looker (Google Cloud)(2026)
Metabase is better for teams that need free open source. Looker (Google Cloud) is the stronger choice if best semantic layer. Metabase is open-source (from $0) and Looker (Google Cloud) is paid (from $5,000/mo).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Metabase
Metabase is an open-source BI tool that lets anyone in your company — not just analysts — ask questions of your database and build dashboards with a no-SQL query builder.
Starting at $0
Visit MetabaseLooker (Google Cloud)
Looker is Google's enterprise BI platform featuring LookML — a semantic modeling layer that defines business metrics once and makes them consistent across all reports and dashboards.
Starting at $5,000/mo
Visit Looker (Google Cloud)How Do Metabase and Looker (Google Cloud) Compare on Features?
| Feature | Metabase | Looker (Google Cloud) |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | open-source | paid |
| Starting price | $0 | $5,000/mo |
| No-SQL question builder | ✓ | — |
| Dashboards | ✓ | — |
| Scheduled reports | ✓ | ✓ |
| Embedding | ✓ | — |
| SQL editor | ✓ | — |
| Caching | ✓ | — |
| Self-hosted or cloud | ✓ | — |
| LookML semantic model | — | ✓ |
| Embedded analytics | — | ✓ |
| Data actions | — | ✓ |
| API-first | — | ✓ |
| Git versioning of models | — | ✓ |
| Google Cloud integration | — | ✓ |
Metabase Pros and Cons vs Looker (Google Cloud)
Metabase
Looker (Google Cloud)
Should You Use Metabase or Looker (Google Cloud)?
Choose Metabase if…
- •Free open source
- •Non-technical user friendly
- •Easy embedding
Choose Looker (Google Cloud) if…
- •Best semantic layer
- •Enterprise governance
- •Embedding is best-in-class