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Apache Superset

by Apache Software Foundation · Application · also known as Superset

Apache-licensed BI web application with SQL Lab, a no-code chart builder, dashboards and connectors to any SQLAlchemy-compatible database

Apache-2.0 licenseOpen sourceFreeSelf-hostedCloudSelf-hostable
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

Apache Superset is an open-source business-intelligence web application maintained by the Apache Software Foundation under Apache 2.0; it originated at Airbnb. Superset connects to any database with a SQLAlchemy dialect (PostgreSQL, MySQL, ClickHouse, DuckDB, Trino, BigQuery, Snowflake and many more), offers SQL Lab for exploratory queries, a chart builder with dozens of visualization types, dashboards with native filters and cross-filtering, row-level security, alerts and reports, and a semantic layer of datasets with metrics and calculated columns. The back end is Python (Flask) with a React front end, and deployment is typically via Docker Compose, Helm or a Python installation with Celery workers and a cache for asynchronous queries.

Superset is the fully open-source alternative to commercial BI for teams willing to operate a multi-component web application; Preset provides a hosted version from the project's original author. Compared with Metabase it offers more chart types and finer-grained security but a steeper setup, and it relies on the connected database for query performance.

Capabilities

  • SQL Lab query editor with history and saved queries
  • Chart builder with dozens of visualization types
  • Dashboards with native filters and cross-filtering
  • Datasets, metrics and calculated columns as a semantic layer
  • Row-level security and role-based access
  • Alerts and scheduled reports

Typical workflows

  1. Analytics dashboards over ClickHouse or a warehouse
  2. Shared SQL exploration for analysts
  3. Embedded dashboards in internal tools

Strengths

  • Entirely Apache 2.0 with no paid edition
  • Wide database support through SQLAlchemy
  • Rich visualization catalog

Limitations

  • Several components to deploy (web, workers, cache, metadata DB)
  • Configuration and upgrades require Python ops skills
  • Query performance depends on the source database

Prerequisites

  • Python or Docker environment, metadata database and cache

Who it is for

  • Data teams wanting open-source BI
  • Platform teams embedding dashboards

Alternatives & comparison

  • Grafana

    Dashboarding and alerting platform that visualizes metrics, logs and traces from Prometheus, SQL databases and dozens of other data sources

    MixedOpen source
  • Metabase

    Self-hostable BI tool with a no-code question builder, SQL editor, dashboards and embedding; AGPL open-source edition plus commercial Pro and Enterprise

    MixedOpen source
  • Microsoft Power BI

    Microsoft's business-intelligence suite: free Windows Power BI Desktop for modeling and reports, and the Power BI service in Microsoft Fabric for sharing

    ProprietaryFreemium
  • Tableau

    Salesforce's visual analytics platform: Tableau Desktop authoring (now with a free edition), Tableau Cloud and Server for sharing, and Tableau Next for CRM analytics

    ProprietaryFreemium
Compare Apache Superset with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • License
    Superset LICENSE.txt (Apache 2.0)

    https://github.com/apache/superset/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

    Supports: license_spdx, source_model

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official documentation
    Superset documentation

    https://superset.apache.org/docs/intro

    Supports: capabilities, integrations

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    Apache Superset

    https://superset.apache.org/

    Supports: name, summary

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Repository
    apache/superset

    https://github.com/apache/superset

    Supports: repo_url

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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