Census vs Metabase Pricing (2026)
How do these two stack up on price? Here's what each one costs, what you get, and where the value sits.
Free
- 500,000 monthly active rows (MAR) for connections
- 3,500 monthly active rows (MAR) for activations
- 5,000 monthly model runs (MMR) for transformations
Standard
Popular- Unlimited users
- 15-minute syncs
- 700+ fully managed connectors
- 200+ fully managed activation destinations
- Integration for dbt Core™
- Role-based access control
- Access to Fivetran REST API
- Access to SSH tunnels for encryption
Enterprise
- 1-minute syncs
- Fivetran Activations' Audience Hub
- Enterprise database connectors
- Custom roles
- VPN tunnels (annual contract only)
- SCIM/user provisioning
- Pick any cloud provider (GCP, AWS, Azure)
- Hybrid deployment option
Business Critical
- Customer-managed keys for encryption
- PCI DSS Level 1 certification
- Private networking options
Starter
- Ask questions with AI
- SQL generation
- 20+ supported data sources
- Unlimited questions & dashboards
- Write SQL or explore just by clicking
- 3-day support via email, support form, Slack, or Teams
Pro
- Row and column level permissions
- SSO
- Caching controls
- Usage analytics & auditing
- Multi-tenant embedded analytics
- Whitelabel ready
- AI usage auditing and controls
Enterprise
- Custom pricing aligned with your business model
- Our help with procurement
- Dedicated success engineer
- Air gap available
- 1-day support SLA
Census vs Metabase FAQ
- Which one is cheaper?
- One or both use custom pricing, so it depends on your specific needs.
- Can I use either one for free?
- Census has a free plan. Metabase doesn't — though they do offer a free trial.
- How do they charge?
- Different approach here. Census uses usage-based pricing, while Metabase goes with hybrid. That changes the math depending on your team size and usage.
- Which one is a better deal?
- Depends on what you need. Census: Opaque custom pricing across all paid tiers signals they're not trying to win on being the cheapest option — they're positioning against tools like Hightouch and Segment as a data activation layer for teams already invested in a modern data stack. The free tier and 14-day trial per connection are the low-friction entry points to get teams hooked before the sales motion kicks in. Metabase: Sitting in the mid-market sweet spot, Metabase undercuts Tableau and Looker significantly while positioning above scrappier open-source alternatives. They're going after technical-but-not-data-team companies — startups and mid-size SaaS businesses that want real analytics without the enterprise procurement circus.
Keep tabs on both.
We'll monitor pricing changes for Census and Metabase and let you know when something moves.