Why Omni over Metabase?
Go beyond custom SQL and unlock self-service for business users, consistent results, and easier change management.
Self-service for everyone: Non-technical users can query with Omni’s point/click UI, Excel formulas, and AI, while technical users can query in SQL.
Consistent metrics: Leverage Omni’s shared data model to drive consistent metrics & joins while letting everyone freely explore data in workbooks.
Faster load times: Get insights quickly through Omni’s intelligent caching, without added costs.
White-glove support: Get hands-on support in real-time — without paying extra.
The transition from custom SQL in Metabase to a semantic layer in Omni was an opportunity to ‘slow down to speed up’. By migrating to Omni, we were able to consolidate the number of dashboards in our BI tool by 5x.— Jack Colsey, Analytics Manager, Incident.io
How Omni & Metabase compare
Omni provides self-serve analytics for everyone — without needing to know SQL.
In Metabase, users often can’t get the answers they need without knowing SQL. Omni meets users where they are, letting them query with a point/click interface, Excel formulas, SQL, or AI.
Anyone can explore, analyze, and visualize data. Users can query with a point/click UI, Excel formulas, SQL, and AI, regardless of their data proficiency.
Metabase requires deep SQL knowledge to be effective. This make it difficult for less technical users to get answers without help from the data team.
We’ve seen really good adoption across the company. Pretty much everyone is involved in Omni in one way or another.
– Omni customer that migrated off Metabase (read the case study)Without hands-on SQL experience this tool is very hard to handle.
– Metabase customerOmni helps you drive consistent metrics and enables easier governance without slowing you down.
Metabase tends to rely on custom SQL, which often leads to data chaos. Omni helps you drive consistent metrics and manage reporting effectively through a shared data model.
Omni’s built-in semantic layer helps ensure everyone uses consistent metrics while also being able to explore data and do ad-hoc analysis.
Metabase doesn’t have a central data model, resulting in inconsistent metrics and duplicative work across the company.
Push new metric definitions to dbt via a bi-directional integration to make them universally accessible and optimize performance.
Metabase creates a data silo. Metrics developed in Metabase can’t easily be pushed to dbt, making them inaccessible for other use cases and tools.
Safely test the impact of changes to underlying data sources. Use Omni’s dynamic schemas to switch between dev & prod environments and update your content in bulk with the content validator.
There’s no easy way to safely test schema changes. Any changes to underlying data sources need to be manually reflected in every single query in Metabase to prevent content from breaking.
One of Omni's best features is the ease of updating your schema whenever it changes. In other BI tools, this requires several steps in several places that are multiplied by the number of schema changes; with Omni you just click refresh.
– Omni customerWith Metabase, we used to run a dbt-to-Metabase script to keep the tools in sync. But this made me nervous because it was a third-party app. Omni’s dbt integration just worked. We set it up once, and it’s been working seamlessly since.
– Omni customer that migrated off Metabase (read the case study)Stay on top of model changes through Omni’s seamless git integration and intuitive version control interface.
You have to set up an entirely separate staging instance to use a git-based workflow in Metabase.
With Omni, you don’t have to compromise on speed or data freshness.
Metabase’s simple caching means data is often pulled directly from the database, resulting in long dashboard load times. Omni’s intelligent cache ensures you’re getting fresh data without the wait.
Omni’s intelligent caching combines the speed of extracts and the data freshness of direct queries without added costs.
Metabase often takes a long time to load because it queries raw database tables when users interact with a dashboard (e.g. change a filter).
It’s so nice that Omni’s caching doesn't have to execute a query every single time someone clicks something on a dashboard.
– Omni customer (read the case study)Metabase can be so slow sometimes... This can be so frustrating, because I occasionally need some data urgently and this really impacts my productivity.
– Metabase customerSlow load times are a recurring complaint about Metabase on independent review sites like G2 or Capterra.
Omni offers hands-on support in real-time — for free.
Omni's team is here to support you at every step of the way, all included in your contract without any extra costs. With Metabase, you’ll be waiting days for an email response.
White-glove Slack support is included for all customers. Get help solving problems in real-time, not days later.
Metabase only offers email support during business hours Mon - Fri for most customers, with an SLA of 3 business days.
The support we've received from the Omni team has been truly incredible. Their customer service alone is a reason to switch. Every time we've needed help (even if it's just folks new to SQL who need a hand) the team has responded in minutes. [...] If we need a feature, we often see them add it within hours or days — not weeks.
– Omni customerAs Metabase is an open source product, there is minimum to low support available. There are some known bugs existing for very long time that have not been solved yet.
– Metabase customerIf you like dbt, you’ll love Omni’s dbt integration
Omni’s dbt integration is robust and supports real analyst workflows: switching between dev & prod schemas, creating dbt models from logic in your BI platform, and more.
Metabase doesn’t have a built-in dbt integration. You can query dbt models from your database, but it doesn’t go deeper than that.
See how Omni’s dbt integration compares to Metabase's
The transition from custom SQL in Metabase to a semantic layer in Omni was an opportunity to “slow down to speed up.” By migrating to Omni, we were able to consolidate the number of dashboards in our BI tool by 5x.— Jack Colsey, Analytics Manager, Incident.io
Customer love
"Omni Analytics is a sweet spot between Looker and Mode. It's easy for your team to use, like Looker, but also lets tech-savvy folks dig into data with SQL queries. Plus, the Omni team is super quick to support and brainstorm on new ideas."
Read full review"I am not a BI tool user nor a data engineer but am able to model data and create dashboards much easier than other tools we tried. The tool is fast and responsive. The team is helpful and supportive and if you want get under the hood it's very easy to do so"
Read full reviewA super powerful BI tool. Omni addresses many of the struggles in legacy BI tools with novel approaches. The team has built with the analyst in mind so well. With Omni, data engineering can end a step or two earlier and rest of the magic is taken care of by the Omni UI. I also love how quickly Omni iterates and launches new features. Customer support of the finest levels too."
Read full reviewFAQs
Omni is a relatively new tool. Does it have the same features as Metabase?
At first glance, Metabase offers an extensive set of features, including a robust library of visualizations, a wide range of integrations, permission controls, etc.
However, Metabase lacks a true central data model and runs primarily on custom SQL. Because users can define metrics and joins across many individual queries and models, it's difficult to ensure one consistent source of truth as your organization scales. And since models in Metabase are just saved SQL queries, if anything changes, you’ll need to manually update every single reference to prevent content from breaking.
Omni has the same core features as Metabase, and it’s also built around a central data model that ensures governance and metrics consistency, without slowing you down.
In addition to a shared data model, Omni’s intelligent caching leads to faster queries and dashboards than in Metabase. Omni’s bi-directional dbt integration also seamlessly integrates with your existing data engineering workflows, helping your data team move faster as well.
Why do I need a semantic layer in Omni if I’m using dbt? Business logic shouldn’t sit in the BI layer.
While in theory you could have all business logic confined to dbt, in practice this creates bottlenecks. Many companies plan to create a “perfect” dbt environment and then use Metabase as an analysis and visualization layer on top of it. However, they end up needing to iterate on those metrics and tables in Metabase after all.
With Omni, your team can easily query from and iterate on pre-built dbt models. And if any of these ad-hoc metrics should be made available to the broader organization, you can push them to Omni’s shared data model or dbt to close the loop. Omni even offers a “dbt SQL” mode, which lets you write and run dbt SQL (including refs()) directly in Omni.
We want to enable self-serve analytics for our business users. Which tool should I choose?
Both Omni and Metabase are designed to provide self-serve access to data and enable quick insights. However, in reality, self-service in Metabase is limited:
Metabase doesn’t have a spreadsheet or workbook interface, so non-technical users find it difficult to get the answers they need without help from the data team. While Metabase has a “visual query builder,” it’s difficult to navigate unless you’re already familiar with the data and know what you’re looking for.
Metabase doesn’t have a centralized data model, which will quickly lead to inconsistent metrics and erode trust in the data.
Omni enables self-service by meeting every user where they are. You can use the point/click UI, Excel formulas, SQL or AI. And with the shared data model, users work off the same metrics foundation, but they’re free to explore data independently and contribute to the model as they do analysis.
Many of our BI users don’t know how to write SQL. Which tool is a better fit for our situation?
Non-technical business users will find it difficult to get answers in Metabase, since Metabase is built for SQL users.
Omni meets users where they are, unlocking self-service for all. For example, you can query exclusively in the point/click interface. If you prefer, you can write raw SQL from there. Otherwise, you can continue querying with Excel calculations or AI.
We have a small data team with limited bandwidth. Which tool is a better fit for us?
Metabase makes it easy to get started (if you’re proficient in SQL), but it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain over time.
The lack of a central data model in Metabase means your data team has to field requests from business users who are confused by inconsistent metric definitions. In addition, business logic developed in Metabase cannot easily be pushed down to dbt or the data warehouse, making it inaccessible for other applications and creating duplicative work.
Change management in Metabase is also difficult, leading to more work for your data team. To set up a git-based development workflow, you’d need to create an entirely separate staging instance. And since Metabase doesn’t have a shared data model, any change to the underlying data requires manual updates to every reference across queries to prevent dashboards from breaking.
Omni, in contrast, is built to free up bandwidth for your data team. Omni’s shared data model helps ensure metrics consistency and governance, resulting in fewer questions about discrepancies from business users.
Omni’s architecture also streamlines your everyday workflows. You can: 1) push metrics developed in Omni to dbt to make them universally accessible and improve performance, 2) leverage Omni’s git integration to develop collaboratively and stay on top of model changes, and 3) update your schema and references in bulk with Omni’s content validator if something changes in the data sources.