Metabase vs Luzmo for embedded analytics: pricing, RLS, AI and exports compared

Two tools, two philosophies

Metabase vs Luzmo is a comparison that comes up when a SaaS team has outgrown "we will just send them a CSV." One is an open-source BI tool that grew an embedding story. The other was built for embedding from the start and has never had a free self-hosted version. Both read from SQL databases. Both now have an MCP server. After that they disagree about almost everything, and the disagreement is mostly about who pays and where the software runs.

I run Gigacatalyst, which sits in the same conversation, so our view is in its own section at the end and the head to head is kept neutral. Every figure below is from the vendors' own pages or named third-party reviews as of September 2026.

Pricing model

Metabase publishes four plans. Open Source is free, self-hosted, unlimited users. Starter is $100/month ($90 annual) with 5 users and $6 per extra user. Pro is $575/month ($517.50 annual) with 10 users, $12 per extra user, and it is the plan that adds row and column permissions, SSO, multi-tenant embedding and white-label. Enterprise starts at $20,000/year with air-gap deployment and a 1-day SLA. All prices as of September 2026 at https://www.metabase.com/pricing/.

The unit is the user. Metabase's page says "Everyone who signs into your Metabase...is a user for purposes of billing." Embedded end users who authenticate through SSO need accounts and count. Guest embeds using signed JWTs do not. Luzmo's own blog worked the example: 500 authenticated embedded users on Pro is "$575 + $12 for each user above the first 10," about $6,455/month at list. Usage add-ons: AI at $3.75 per 1M tokens after the first 1M, transforms at $0.01 per run after 1,000, storage from $2 per 1M rows.

Luzmo publishes one plan, "All-in," starting at €1,995/month billed annually as of September 2026 (https://www.luzmo.com/pricing). The page's line is "You pay for adoption. Not for seats." The bill is a fixed platform fee plus a variable component metered on monthly active users, AI conversations, or both. Included: 500 governed AI conversations per month, up to 100 million data rows, unlimited internal users, white-label. There is a full-feature free trial. Enterprise is the same product with private infrastructure, custom SLAs and optional source-code escrow.

Net: Metabase has a far lower floor. Luzmo has a far more predictable ceiling once you have hundreds of authenticated viewers.

Deployment

Metabase runs anywhere: Docker or JAR on every plan, or Metabase Cloud. Custom domains need Cloud Pro or Enterprise. Luzmo is cloud only, hosted in EU and US regions, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, HIPAA-ready, with "private infrastructure" available for enterprise. There is no on-prem Luzmo. If your security team requires self-hosting, the comparison ends here in Metabase's favor.

Connectors

Both are database tools. Metabase lists official drivers for 18 databases (Athena, BigQuery, ClickHouse, Databricks, Druid, MongoDB, MariaDB, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Presto, Redshift, Snowflake, SparkSQL, SQL Server, SQLite, Starburst, Vertica) plus community drivers, and no REST or API source. Luzmo lists 19 database and warehouse connectors, two web services (Google Analytics, Google Drive), API push, CSV/XLS/JSON/GeoJSON upload, and "Luzmo plugins," described as "Lightweight REST connectors to query data via your own APIs or data stores." That plugin path is the one real difference: Luzmo can reach an API with some engineering, Metabase cannot.

Multi-tenant row-level security

Metabase Pro's row and column security (formerly sandboxing) filters a table by user attributes per group, or via a saved SQL question for custom rules. Limits from the docs: groups with native SQL access bypass it, it cannot be applied to SQL questions, MongoDB and Druid are row-level only, and public links bypass it entirely. For customer-facing use that means SSO embedding and careful group design.

Luzmo scopes access at token time. Your server mints an embed token with an access scope and either parameter_overrides (filter a shared dataset per tenant) or account_overrides (switch host, user and password to a per-tenant database). Token expiry defaults to 24 hours, maximum one year. Access levels of read, use, modify and own control what a viewer may edit. It is a simpler mental model, and because it is per token there is no equivalent of the SQL-group bypass.

AI: Metabot vs Luzmo IQ

Metabot creates charts from natural language, generates and fixes SQL, and can be embedded as an "AI chat" component. Docs note it cannot handle SQL variables or chart formatting. Billing is by token after the first 1M.

Luzmo IQ is a chatbot widget plus executive summaries, search integration and API workflows that turn questions into charts. The All-in plan includes 500 governed AI conversations a month and meters above that.

MCP

Both yes. Metabase has a built-in MCP server at https://{your-metabase}/api/metabase-mcp with OAuth 2.0 that respects user permissions and works with Claude, Cursor, VS Code and ChatGPT; results page at 200 rows, 2,000 total, and an admin enables it under Admin > AI > MCP. Luzmo published a hosted MCP server on June 30, 2026 that exposes Luzmo IQ answers and chart generation to agents (OpenAI Agents SDK, Claude Agent SDK, LangChain) or to end users through a proxied MCP.

Exports

Metabase end users download .csv, .xlsx, .json and .png (charts) from a button at the lower right of a question, dashboards export to .pdf, the default row cap is 1,048,575 (raise the CSV cap with MB_DOWNLOAD_ROW_LIMIT), and removing Metabase branding from exports needs Pro or Enterprise. Dashboard definitions serialize to YAML on Pro and Enterprise, excluding users, groups, permissions and connection strings.

Luzmo exports dashboards to PNG or PDF from a Share modal, charts to PNG image or CSV/XLSX data, XLSX-raw for pivots. Tables under 700k cells download instantly; larger ones arrive as an emailed link valid 7 days. Embedded viewers can schedule recurring PDF/PNG emails. Dashboards are JSON objects readable and writable through the Core API, though there is no one-click migration export to another vendor.

What reviewers complain about

Metabase on GetApp: 4.5/5 over 62 reviews, customer support the lowest category at 3.9/5, "Dashboard and model management can become unwieldy over time," and one reviewer's "Absolutely terrible for everything else, ESPECIALLY dashboard creation." The React SDK is one dashboard per page, no server-side rendering, tabs need workarounds.

Luzmo on Capterra: 4.6/5 over 26 reviews. "Fastest data refresh time we got was 24h (daily)," "Number of bugs is too elevated for a BI tool," "Missing functionality like nested formulas, some filters," "Mobile view still needs to be improved," and no copy paste between dashboards. GetApp flags the €1,995 floor as a challenge for smaller organizations, and one reviewer rated customizable branding 2.0/5. Reviewers do praise it as "Very easy to embed in your own product. No hassles."

Side by side

As of September 2026	Metabase	Luzmo
Entry price	Free, self-hosted	€1,995/month, billed annually
Embedding plan	Pro $575/month, 10 users, $12/user extra	Included in All-in
Billing unit	Authenticated user	Monthly active users plus AI conversations
Self-host	Yes	No
Connectors	18 official DB drivers, no API	19 DBs, REST plugins, file upload
Tenant security	Row and column security by group	Embed token overrides
AI	Metabot, tokens metered after 1M	Luzmo IQ, 500 conversations included
MCP server	Built in, OAuth 2.0	Hosted, since June 2026
Dashboard definitions	YAML serialization, Pro only	JSON via Core API
Review score	GetApp 4.5/5, 62 reviews	Capterra 4.6/5, 26 reviews

Verdict by situation

Choose Metabase if you must self-host, your team writes SQL, your embedded viewers are mostly anonymous or guest, and you want the option of free. It is also the better internal BI tool, which matters if the same instance will serve your own analysts.

Choose Luzmo if you are shipping white-label analytics to hundreds or thousands of authenticated customers, you want a no-code editor your product managers can use, you are fine with cloud-only, and €1,995/month is inside budget. Its tenant model and REST plugins are built for the embedded case.

Either way, do the user math first. A team with 50 customer logins pays very differently from a team with 5,000 on Metabase, and roughly the same on Luzmo. For more options, Metabase alternatives for embedded analytics widens the list, and Explo customers should read Explo alternatives since Luzmo is the closest like-for-like there.

Where Gigacatalyst fits

Both tools above start from a database. Gigacatalyst starts from your product. It turns a customer request (a spreadsheet, a dashboard ask, a call transcript) into a working dashboard or report that runs on your product's own APIs and permissions. It only calls approved endpoints, so it cannot show data that is not there, and the customer keeps the result at go-live because it is inside the real product. A product manager at HomeLane described the gap it targets: the current path was to "go to the Metabase or like just create a SQL Query report, but that's not good enough that it takes some time also," and "it always become a bottleneck for the tech team."

It is not a self-hosted BI tool and it is not the right pick if your customer data only exists in a warehouse. Pricing is quoted per deployment with a pilot as of September 2026. If your customer numbers are behind your APIs rather than in Postgres, see it on your own APIs, or read the deeper Metabase embedded analytics review and the shortlist of customer-facing dashboard tools for SaaS first.

Questions people ask

Is Luzmo more expensive than Metabase? At the entry level, yes: Luzmo starts at €1,995/month billed annually while Metabase is free to self-host and Pro is $575/month as of September 2026. With hundreds of authenticated embedded users, Metabase's $12 per user can exceed Luzmo's MAU-based bill.

Can Luzmo be self-hosted? No. Luzmo is cloud only in EU and US regions, with private infrastructure available on enterprise terms. Metabase can be self-hosted on every plan.

Do Metabase and Luzmo both have MCP servers? Yes. Metabase has a built-in MCP server with OAuth 2.0 that respects user permissions. Luzmo published a hosted MCP server in June 2026 that exposes Luzmo IQ to agents.

Which handles multi-tenant data better? Metabase Pro filters rows by user attributes per group, with bypasses for SQL-access groups and public links. Luzmo scopes each embed token with parameter or account overrides. Luzmo's model is simpler for customer-facing embeds; Metabase's is more flexible for mixed internal and external use.

Can I connect an API instead of a database? Luzmo offers plugins described as lightweight REST connectors to your own APIs. Metabase has no API source. Gigacatalyst runs directly on your product's APIs.

What do reviewers dislike about each? Metabase reviewers cite support (3.9/5 on GetApp) and unwieldy dashboard management. Luzmo reviewers cite daily-only refresh on some sources, bug count, and missing features like nested formulas.