Apache Superset

Apache Superset is a free, open-source business intelligence platform originally built at Airbnb. It lets you connect to almost any SQL database or data warehouse, explore data with a visual query builder or SQL, and build interactive dashboards with a wide range of chart types. It is designed to handle large datasets and to scale across many users in an organisation.

Key Features

• Free and open-source under the Apache licence
• Visual query builder plus full SQL support
• Wide range of interactive chart types
• Role-based access control and permissions
• Scheduled reports, alerts, and caching
• Semantic layer for reusable metrics

Pricing

Prices as listed in 2026 research. Always check the official site for the latest price — plans change. Free plan: Yes — it has a free plan.

How it works

Superset's strength is flexibility and cost: there are no licence fees, and because it is open source you can host it yourself, customise it, and extend it with plugins. It supports role-based access control, scheduled reports, alerts, and a semantic layer for defining reusable metrics. Many companies run it as their main BI tool, and managed hosting is available through vendors such as Preset.

Apache Superset is completely free as open-source software — you only pay for the server you run it on. It is a strong choice for technical teams that want a powerful BI tool without licence costs, though setup and maintenance need engineering effort, and the interface is less polished than commercial BI products.

Pros and Cons

Related Tools