Open-source alternative to Domo external and embedded analytics

Domo bills external accounts through consumption credits, so the bill grows with how many outside users sign in and how often they load content. Your Domo quote should state the credit rate per external account per day, any included allowance, and which activities consume credits. Self-hosted Metabase and Apache Superset have no per-viewer meter, so the recurring question becomes how much compute and storage your viewers consume.

• Daily active external accounts: Count partners and customers who open content each day, not only the accounts that exist. Ask Domo how inactive accounts are billed.
• Refresh and query activity: Confirm whether data refreshes, exports or scheduled deliveries draw from the same credit pool.
• Tenant growth: Each new tenant adds a meter line in Domo, while in a self-hosted stack it adds query load, cache use and database storage in your own environment.
• Dashboard design: Heavy dashboards cost more in warehouse compute under either model, so caching and aggregation choices matter.

Check whether your contract defines the credit rate and the base allowance in writing, and model your daily external account count against it.

Self-hosted embedded BI runs on application servers, a metadata database and, for Superset, optional caching and worker components. The Superset architecture documentation states that alerts and reports, async queries and dashboard thumbnails require the caching layer and worker components, and that most installations use Redis and Celery for them. Metabase runs as a JAR backed by an application database. The recurring hosting bill covers compute, storage, backups and the warehouse capacity that answers queries.

• Application nodes: Size them for concurrent embedded sessions and test with your own dashboards, since no supplied sizing figure applies.
• Metadata or application database: Superset supports PostgreSQL and MySQL for production, and Metabase recommends PostgreSQL for production.
• Cache and workers: Redis and Celery are recurring components when Superset features such as thumbnails and async queries are used.
• Warehouse compute: Often the largest recurring line. It applies under Domo as well if Domo reads the same warehouse, so compare it separately.
• Non-production environments: Staging and disaster recovery copies repeat many of these lines.

Ask for a bill of materials that lists every node, database, cache and worker, along with the environment each one serves.

Metabase's free Open Source edition has unlimited users and dashboards. According to the Metabase pricing page, SSO, row and column level permissions, multi-tenant data segregation and usage analytics and auditing are included only in Pro and Enterprise, and those are the features most embedded tenant designs depend on. The same page lists Starter at $100 per month or $90 per month billed yearly with 5 users included, and Pro at $575 per month or $517.50 per month billed yearly with 10 users included. Additional users cost $6 per month on Starter and $12 per month on Pro. Enterprise is priced by quote starting at $20,000 per year, and only Enterprise offers air-gapped deployment.

• Open Source: No license fee, but no row-level permissions or multi-tenant segregation.
• Starter: A monthly or yearly plan fee with 5 users included, without SSO or row-level permissions.
• Pro: A monthly or yearly plan fee with 10 users included, adding SSO and multi-tenant segregation.
• Enterprise: A quote starting at $20,000 per year, the only tier with air-gapped deployment.
• Apache Superset: Licensed under Apache-2.0 with no paid edition, so the license line is zero, and tenant isolation depends on your own roles and data design.

Ask the vendor in writing how embedded end users are counted under each plan, since user-based fees may not map to external accounts.

Integration build and isolation design are one-time costs. In an embedded model your application authenticates its own customers and passes identity to the BI tool, so the work includes tenant mapping, signed embedding, data filters and tests that prove one tenant cannot see another's data. The Metabase embedding introduction describes the embedding model you will design around. Superset maps OAuth or LDAP groups to roles with AUTH_ROLES_MAPPING, which shapes how identity reaches its permissions. The effort depends on tenant count, data models and dashboard volume, so the reader should ask for a written scope.

• Tenant isolation design: Decide whether separation uses separate datasets, row filters or separate databases. This design is done once and reviewed when the model changes.
• Identity bridge: Map your login system to BI roles, using SSO on Metabase Pro or Enterprise, or OAuth and AUTH_ROLES_MAPPING in Superset.
• Dashboard rebuild: Recreate cards and datasets in the new tool. This is the main one-time migration work when moving from Domo.
• Isolation testing: Test filters, exports, API calls and cached results so tenants cannot reach each other's data.
• Acceptance criteria: Agree deliverables and test results in writing before build work starts.

Ask for the isolation design and test cases as separate deliverables, priced apart from the build hours.

Recurring costs include hosting, upgrades, monitoring, backups and any paid plan fees. Metabase LTS versions are supported for 14 months, and non-LTS versions usually reach end of life after 2 months, so an upgrade cadence must be planned. The Metabase upgrading documentation recommends backing up the application database first and reducing a cluster to a single node for major upgrades because of a migration lock. Superset upgrades require backing up the metadata database, running superset db upgrade and superset init, testing in staging and reviewing UPDATING.md for breaking changes. Support is either internal staff time or a retainer.

• Upgrade effort: Each release needs staging tests, backups and a change window, repeated on the vendor's cadence.
• Backups and restore tests: The application or metadata database needs regular backups, and restores must be tested, not assumed.
• Monitoring: Track query latency, cache health and worker queues, since slow queries surface to embedded customers directly.
• Support model: Metabase paid plans include support, while Superset has no paid edition, so confirm which support you buy from a partner.
• Retainers: Ongoing support, upgrades and testing can be bought as a retainer from DeployOpen, priced from the written scope.

Ask for a support model in writing that names who patches, who upgrades and the response expectations.