Metabase Alternative: Open-Source Agentic Analytics

Metabase is great for internal dashboards. Stand it up, point it at a database, drag and drop. But if you're building analytics into a B2B product, you hit walls fast: no semantic layer, no native multi-tenancy, no AI agent support, and embedding requires an Enterprise license.

Bonnard takes a different approach. Instead of another dashboard tool, it's a governed analytics layer for B2B products. Define metrics in YAML, and ship them to your customers via MCP, embedded React charts, markdown dashboards, REST API, or the TypeScript SDK. Multi-tenancy and row-level security are built in from bon init.

Bonnard vs Metabase at a Glance

Feature	Metabase	Bonnard
Primary use case	Internal dashboards	Customer-facing analytics for B2B
Semantic layer	No	Yes (YAML cubes + views)
AI agent support	No	MCP server with publishable keys per tenant
Multi-tenancy	Manual (separate DBs or sandboxing)	Built-in (row-level security, token exchange)
Embedded analytics	Enterprise license ($500+/mo)	React SDK (BarChart, LineChart, BigValue)
Dashboards	Visual builder	Markdown dashboards, deployed via CLI
SDKs	REST only	React, TypeScript, REST, SQL
Pre-aggregation / caching	No	Yes (built-in cache)
Metric governance	No	Yes (YAML definitions, audit logging)
RBAC	Enterprise only	Built-in
Self-host pricing	Free (OSS) / $500+/mo (Pro)	Free (Apache 2.0, all features)
License	AGPL (Enterprise: proprietary)	Apache 2.0 (server), MIT (CLI)

Where Metabase Falls Short for B2B

No Semantic Layer

Metabase lets anyone write questions against raw tables. Two analysts can define "revenue" differently in two saved questions, and both live in the same collection. There's no central metric definition. No single source of truth.

With Bonnard, metrics are defined once in YAML as cubes and views. Every query, from every surface and every tenant, resolves to the same definition. Your customers get the same numbers your internal team sees. Read more about why semantic layers matter for AI agents.

Multi-Tenancy Is Bolted On

Metabase's "sandboxing" feature isolates data per group, but it requires the Enterprise license and significant configuration. The alternative is running separate Metabase instances per tenant, which doesn't scale.

Bonnard handles multi-tenancy at the semantic layer. Row-level security rules filter every query based on tenant context. Token exchange maps your existing auth into the security context. No extra instances, no enterprise-only features. It works from day one.

No AI Agent Integration

Metabase has no MCP support and no agent-ready APIs. You can hit the Metabase API, but you're querying saved questions, not governed metric definitions.

Bonnard deploys as an MCP server. Run bon mcp and get connection configs for Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, and CrewAI. For customer-facing use cases, generate publishable keys per tenant so your customers can connect their own AI tools to their own data, with row-level security enforced on every query.

Embedding Requires Enterprise License

Metabase's free tier can't embed dashboards. Static embedding is Pro ($500+/month). Interactive embedding is Enterprise (custom pricing). For B2B products where embedded analytics is the core feature, that cost adds up fast.

The @bonnard/react SDK ships BarChart, LineChart, BigValue, and useBonnardQuery as production-ready components. Embed governed, multi-tenant analytics directly in your product. No per-seat license conversation.

On top of that, markdown dashboards let you author and deploy dashboards alongside your schema with bon deploy. Every tenant gets their own view, access-controlled automatically.

How Bonnard Differs

One Schema, Every Surface

Define total_revenue in YAML. Query it from an AI agent via MCP, render it in a React BarChart, display it on a markdown dashboard, or fetch it from the TypeScript SDK. Same number everywhere. What is a semantic layer?

Customer-Facing from Day One

Publishable keys per tenant. MCP configs per customer. Row-level security on every query. Bonnard is built for shipping analytics to your customers, not just your internal team.

Embedded Analytics Without the License Fee

The React SDK gives you chart components that query the semantic layer directly. useBonnardQuery handles loading, caching, and access control. Build the analytics your customers actually want.

Full CLI Workflow

bon init scaffolds your project. bon deploy pushes schema and dashboards. bon mcp configures AI agent connections. bon query tests from the terminal. bon datasource add --from-dbt imports existing dbt models. Ship from the terminal, not a GUI.

Admin UI and Schema Catalog

Browse deployed models, views, and measures. Inspect field definitions and change history with diffs. Graph view of your schema relationships. See exactly what your customers will see before it goes live.

Self-Host or Cloud

Self-host for free with Apache 2.0, all features included. Or use Bonnard Cloud for managed infrastructure with automatic updates and zero ops. Enterprise plans add SSO, SCIM, data residency, and custom SLAs.

If your team needs help shipping, our forward deployed engineers can work alongside you to get analytics into production.

Who Should Stay with Metabase

Metabase is the right tool if:

• You need visual dashboards for non-technical users with drag-and-drop query building
• Internal-only analytics with no multi-tenancy or customer-facing requirements
• You're already deep in the Metabase ecosystem with hundreds of saved questions
• You don't need AI agent integration, a semantic layer, or embedded analytics in your product

FAQ

Is the Bonnard server free to self-host?

Yes. Apache 2.0. The self-hosted version includes every feature: MCP server, React SDK, markdown dashboards, multi-tenancy, pre-aggregation, RBAC, admin UI, CLI.

Can I self-host like Metabase?

Yes. docker compose up -d gets you running in minutes. The GitHub repo covers production deployment with TLS via Caddy.

Does Bonnard have a visual query builder?

Bonnard focuses on governed, multi-tenant analytics shipped via MCP, SDKs, and dashboards. The admin UI includes a schema catalog for exploring your semantic layer. For ad-hoc visual exploration, your AI agent becomes the query interface.

Can I migrate from Metabase?

Bonnard isn't a drop-in replacement. Metabase is a dashboarding tool; Bonnard is a semantic layer that ships governed analytics to AI agents and B2B products. If you're looking to add governed metrics, multi-tenancy, or AI agent support to your data stack, Bonnard complements or replaces the analytics layer.

What about Metabase's community?

Metabase has a large, established community. Bonnard is newer but growing. Join our Discord or open a GitHub issue.