Metabase vs SAS Viya: A Comparative Analysis
Introduction
Choosing the right business intelligence tool is crucial for data-driven decision-making. Metabase and SAS Viya are two popular options, each with its distinct features and capabilities.
Metabase offers an open-source approach with a focus on ease of use, while SAS Viya provides a comprehensive analytics suite suitable for complex data environments.
In this comparison, we will delve into the specifics of each platform and discuss their strengths and limitations. Additionally, you'll discover how Sourcetable presents a streamlined alternative with its modernized, spreadsheet-like interface that seamlessly integrates with your data, offering another avenue for handling business intelligence tasks such as reporting and data analytics.
What is Metabase?
Metabase is an analytics tool designed with a user-friendly UX, making data analysis accessible to a broad audience. It supports direct connections to over 20 types of data sources, enabling real-time querying without the need for extracts. Metabase provides a range of deployment and pricing options, including a free open-source tier, a pay-as-you-go Pro plan, a fully hosted plan, and an Enterprise plan for more extensive needs.
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Metabase is an analytics tool designed with a user-friendly UX, making data analysis accessible to a broad audience. It supports direct connections to over 20 types of data sources, enabling real-time querying without the need for extracts. Metabase provides a range of deployment and pricing options, including a free open-source tier, a pay-as-you-go Pro plan, a fully hosted plan, and an Enterprise plan for more extensive needs.
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Key Features
- User-friendly interface for ease of use
- Connection to multiple data sources without extracts
- Free open-source version available
- Scalable Pro and Enterprise plans with advanced features
- Single sign-on, permissions, and auditing for security
- Embedded analytics for integration into other applications
- Compliance with GDPR for data protection
- Deployment flexibility, including Docker
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Adoption and Trust
Trusted by over 50,000 companies, Metabase has become a reliable solution for organizations seeking to democratize their data analytics.
What is SAS Viya?
SAS Viya is an AI platform designed as an end-to-end solution for data science and AI workflows. It provides a comprehensive environment for users to access, manage, and analyze data of any size and complexity. With intuitive interfaces, users can cleanse, transform, and establish robust data pipelines, ensuring data trustworthiness through lineage and transparency features.
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SAS Viya is an AI platform designed as an end-to-end solution for data science and AI workflows. It provides a comprehensive environment for users to access, manage, and analyze data of any size and complexity. With intuitive interfaces, users can cleanse, transform, and establish robust data pipelines, ensuring data trustworthiness through lineage and transparency features.
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Core Features
- Enables quick construction of performant models.
- Facilitates the deployment of decision flows.
- Offers automatic performance monitoring and model tuning.
- Provides automatic retraining of models.
- Delivers verifiable and trustworthy value from AI outcomes.
- Scales efficiently to meet AI demands.
- Enhances the value derived from data and AI investments.
- Boasts a performance that is 30 times faster than competing open source and commercial offerings.
- Automates machine learning processes uniquely.
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Target Audience
SAS Viya caters to data scientists and developers, offering a singular platform that automates and streamlines machine learning operations.
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Trustworthiness and Efficiency
As a trusted AI platform, SAS Viya ensures that results are not only fast but also reliable, providing a significant edge in both performance and trust over other tools in the market.
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Metabase Key Features
Paid Plan Features for Organizational Scaling |
Metabase supports organizational growth with features exclusive to paid plans that enable scaling and the provision of self-service analytics, both internal and embedded. |
Advanced Authentication Options |
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Enhanced Permissions Control |
On paid plans, Metabase offers refined permissions management including data sandboxing for row and column-level access control, and additional permissions for various administrative functions. |
Group Managers |
Group managers can efficiently handle user roles and permissions within Metabase, enhancing team management and security protocols. |
Embedding and Customization |
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Dashboard Subscriptions and Alerts |
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Caching and Data Management |
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Content Moderation and Application Data Export |
Content moderation tools are available alongside functionalities for exporting application data, which is essential for maintaining data integrity across multiple instances. |
Key Features of SAS Viya
Data Integration |
SAS Viya supports importing data from a variety of sources including databases, Hadoop, Excel spreadsheets, and social media platforms. |
Report and Dashboard Creation |
Users can build reports and dashboards by dragging and dropping files such as Excel, CSV, or SAS data sets into the workspace. |
Data Quality and Management |
The platform offers data quality functions like changing case, converting, renaming, removing, and splitting columns, in addition to creating calculated columns and custom transformations. |
Visualization and Charting |
SAS Viya includes a wide range of graph objects like Bar, Pie, Donut, Line, Scatter, and Heat maps, and features autocharting to select the best graph type for the data. |
Enhanced Reporting Features |
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Distribution and Export Options |
Reports can be distributed securely as PDFs or via email and can be scheduled for recurring distribution. Additionally, reports can be exported to Excel. |
Geospatial and Advanced Analytics |
Support for geospatial data with Esri integration and advanced analytics including box plots, heat maps, animated bubble charts, and decision trees. |
Custom Visualizations and Forecasting |
Users can integrate custom visualizations and automatically generate forecasts with included confidence intervals. |
Benefits of Metabase Pro for Business Intelligence
Advanced Permissioning
Metabase Pro enhances data governance with advanced permissions, including row-level and column-level permissions, ensuring secure and relevant data access.
Embedded Analytics
With embedded analytics, Metabase Pro enables the integration of charts and dashboards within applications, providing actionable insights directly to users.
Customization and White-Labeling
Businesses can tailor the look and feel of Metabase Pro and white-label their analytics for a seamless brand experience.
Support Services
Usage Analytics and Alerts
Track usage analytics to monitor engagement and set up subscriptions and alerts to keep stakeholders informed.
Performance Optimization
Metabase Pro offers content caching to enhance performance and user experience, even with large datasets.
Configuration and Environment Management
Role-Based Access Control
Implement role-based permissions on databases with connection impersonation, aligning access rights with organizational roles.
Disadvantages of Using Metabase for Business Intelligence
Performance Issues
Metabase can exhibit slow performance, particularly when handling large data loads or when multiple users are accessing the system simultaneously. This can lead to significant delays and latency, affecting the efficiency of business operations.
Data Integration and Query Complexity
Linking data for complex queries is challenging with Metabase, limiting its effectiveness for in-depth data analysis. Furthermore, the inability to join different databases complicates data consolidation for comprehensive reporting.
Customization and Governance Limitations
Metabase provides limited options for customizing charts and data visualizations, which can restrict the ability to tailor reports to specific business needs. Additionally, its scope of data governance is narrow, potentially complicating compliance and data management.
Update and Maintenance Difficulties
Updating Metabase can be a cumbersome process, and the lack of code versioning support makes it difficult to maintain and manage changes over time.
Authentication and Security Features
The free edition of Metabase does not support Azure Single Sign-On (SSO), which could be a drawback for businesses requiring this feature for security and ease of access.
Frequently Asked Questions About Metabase
How do I filter data by date in Metabase?
You can filter data by date using the trend widget in Metabase.
I'm getting a 550 5.7.60 SMTP error, what should I do?
The 550 5.7.60 SMTP error can occur due to issues with the smtp setup in Metabase. You should review your SMTP settings and ensure they are correct.
Can Metabase be used to display comments on Postgres tables?
Yes, Metabase can be used to display comments on Postgres tables.
Does Metabase allow editing of data in Snowflake and Athena?
No, Metabase does not allow editing of data in Snowflake and Athena.
What type of license does Metabase use?
Metabase uses the AGPL license.
Use Cases for Metabase
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Bringing company-wide transparency to customer care
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Helping teams get insights from their data
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Transforming data analysis
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Embedding analytics in SaaS platforms
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Creating efficient business reporting systems
Advantages of Using SAS Viya for Business Intelligence
Cloud-Based Analytics Platform
SAS Viya offers a cloud-based environment that enhances business intelligence by providing instant access to advanced statistical analysis and reporting applications. Its cloud-based nature allows for easy deployment and scalability.
Extensive Data Analysis and Reporting Tools
The platform supports a wide range of data extraction, formatting, and analysis programming, making it an ideal tool for comprehensive business intelligence tasks. SAS Viya's inclusion of a prebuilt library of procedures streamlines web-based programming, analysis, and reporting, improving programmer productivity.
Advanced Statistical Methods
With SAS Viya, businesses benefit from advanced and frequently updated statistical methods, including those for geolocation and the latest methodologies. This ensures data analytics are cutting-edge and relevant.
Data Visualization and Accessibility
SAS Viya's powerful data visualization capabilities, such as 3-D relationship graphs, and a wide variety of business maps, charts, and plots, provide insightful business intelligence representations. Web-based commands facilitate the execution of statistical procedures, enhancing accessibility and usability.
Integration and Collaboration
SAS Viya's compatibility with Microsoft Office products and its collaborative features make it an effective tool for enterprise-wide business intelligence tasks. The platform's ability to work with AWS further extends its integration capabilities.
Self-Service and AI Capabilities
Self-service capabilities empower users to manage tasks with less reliance on IT, while AI and machine learning capabilities enable smarter business decisions. The inclusion of a workbench for AI model development positions SAS Viya as a robust solution for business intelligence.
Disadvantages of SAS Viya for Business Intelligence
Limited Usage Across Business Sizes
SAS Viya is predominantly utilized by enterprises, which suggests it may not be suitable for small to medium-sized businesses. The complexities and potential cost implications could pose challenges for these organizations, making it less accessible or easy to use for their business intelligence needs.
Cost Considerations
The expense of SAS Visual Analytics can be prohibitive, particularly for businesses with limited budgets. The high cost is a considerable drawback for companies looking to leverage business intelligence without a significant financial investment.
User Experience and Support
Beginners may find SAS Viya challenging due to a lack of tutorials, contributing to a steep learning curve. The insufficient customer support further complicates the user experience, potentially impacting the efficiency and effectiveness of reporting and data analytics processes.
Technical Constraints
The large installation file could be a technical hurdle for some businesses, requiring substantial storage and processing capabilities. Additionally, SAS Viya's limited integration with popular open-source tools like Python, Julia, or R restricts its versatility and ability to leverage existing analytics ecosystems.
Functionality Limitations
While SAS Viya offers various features for business intelligence, its drill-down capabilities are noted to require improvement. This limitation could affect the depth of analysis and reporting granularity that businesses seek to achieve in their data analytics endeavors.
Frequently Asked Questions About SAS Viya
How is SAS Viya priced?
SAS Viya may be priced by users, core capacity, total revenue, transactions, and more. It also varies by whether it's SaaS, on-premises, cloud, among other factors.
What is the starting price for SAS Viya?
SAS Viya pricing starts at $1500 per user and $10,000 for core capacity for select offerings.
Can SAS Viya pricing reach a high scale?
Yes, SAS Viya pricing can go up to multiple millions for a full implementation.
How can I determine the best SAS licensing option for me?
A SAS account representative can help determine the best SAS licensing option suited to your needs.
Are there discounts available for educational purposes on SAS Viya?
Students, educators, and researchers may get academic discounts for training and certification exams. Additionally, SAS offers a variety of discounts for training and certification exams.
Use Cases for SAS Viya
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SAS Viya use cases include environments where SAS Visual Analytics customers benefit from SAS Grid Manager
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SAS Viya use cases include environments where SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya provide complementary services in different steps of a project
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SAS Viya use cases include environments where the use of SAS Grid Manager and SAS Viya together helps customers with business critical applications
Why Sourcetable is an Optimal Business Intelligence Solution
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Unified Data Management
Sourcetable offers a unified platform for managing data from various sources, streamlining the process of data consolidation which can be complex with tools like Metabase and SAS Viya.
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Intuitive Interface
The spreadsheet-like interface of Sourcetable simplifies data interaction, making it more approachable than the traditional BI interfaces of Metabase and SAS Viya.
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Efficient Reporting and Analytics
Sourcetable's seamless integration of data analytics into a familiar spreadsheet format accelerates reporting tasks, unlike the separate environments in Metabase and SAS Viya.
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Accessibility and Collaboration
With Sourcetable, teams can collaborate in real-time within a shared, accessible environment, a feature that may be less intuitive in Metabase and requires more setup in SAS Viya.
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Reduced Complexity
Sourcetable reduces the complexity of BI tasks by eliminating the need for separate tools for data syncing and analysis, which is often the case with Metabase and SAS Viya.
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Streamlined Setup
The quick setup of Sourcetable, without the need for extensive configuration or deployment, offers a more efficient start compared to the more involved setup processes of Metabase and SAS Viya.
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Comparing Metabase and SAS Viya
Business Intelligence Features
Both Metabase and SAS Viya are tools designed for business intelligence. They enable users to create dashboards, reports, and perform data exploration.
Data Connectivity
Metabase and SAS Viya can connect to a variety of data sources, including SQL databases and data warehouses, allowing for versatile data analytics across different platforms.
User Accessibility
Metabase and SAS Viya are accessible to a wide range of users, aiming to democratize data analysis by providing user-friendly interfaces and self-service analytics capabilities.
Security and Compliance
Both platforms offer enterprise-grade security features, with Metabase being SOC 2 Type II and GDPR compliant, ensuring that user data is handled securely and in compliance with regulations.
Embedding Capabilities
Metabase and SAS Viya allow for the embedding of analytical content into other applications, enabling integrated data visualization and analytics within customer-facing products.
Deployment Options
Metabase offers deployment options such as a cloud-hosted version and an open-source option, while SAS Viya provides cloud-based analytics solutions, accommodating different organizational needs and preferences.
Metabase vs. SAS Viya
Deployment and Accessibility
Metabase offers both a free open-source version and a hosted version known as Metabase Cloud, catering to a range of company needs and making it highly accessible. In contrast, SAS Viya is a cloud-enabled, in-memory analytics engine that typically requires a more involved setup and is often associated with larger enterprise installations.
User Interface and Ease of Use
Metabase is known for its user-friendly interface, allowing non-technical users to explore data and create dashboards without extensive training. SAS Viya also offers a modern interface but is generally considered more complex, catering to data scientists and statisticians with more advanced analytics needs.
Data Source Connectivity
Metabase can connect to over 20 different data sources without the need for data extracts, providing a flexible solution for companies with diverse data ecosystems. SAS Viya supports various data sources as well but is often used in conjunction with other SAS products and services, potentially leading to a more SAS-centric data environment.
Cost and Business Model
Metabase offers a free open-source tier along with a pay-as-you-go Pro plan, making it an attractive option for startups and smaller companies. SAS Viya, on the other hand, is typically associated with enterprise-grade pricing and may represent a more significant investment for companies looking for advanced analytics solutions.
Compliance and Security
Both Metabase and SAS Viya provide enterprise-grade security features. Metabase complies with SOC 2 Type II and GDPR, ensuring that it meets stringent security and privacy standards. SAS Viya also offers robust security features, aimed at meeting the needs of enterprise clients handling sensitive data.
Embedding and Customization
Metabase allows embedding of charts and dashboards in other applications with no coding required, supporting iframe or JWT-signed embedding. SAS Viya also enables embedding of analytics but is generally seen as more complex, often requiring more technical expertise to integrate analytics into existing applications.
Comparison of Metabase, SAS Viya, and Sourcetable
Metabase
SAS Viya
Sourcetable
Metabase is recognized for its ease of use and rapid deployment, catering to non-technical users, while SAS Viya is acknowledged for its comprehensive analytics suite, catering to a more technical audience. Sourcetable offers a unique blend of spreadsheet flexibility with BI tool capabilities, targeting users who favor a spreadsheet approach to data analysis.
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Frequently Asked Questions About Sourcetable
What is Sourcetable and who typically uses it?
Sourcetable is a spreadsheet application that is typically used by growth teams and business operations people. It helps users centralize, analyze, and model data that updates over time without the need for coding.
How does Sourcetable integrate with third-party applications?
Sourcetable syncs data from over 100 applications and most databases, allowing users to access and query data from these sources directly within the spreadsheet.
How often does Sourcetable update data integrations?
Data integrations on Sourcetable update every 15 minutes on the regular plan and every 5 minutes on the pro plan.
What are the pricing plans for Sourcetable?
Sourcetable offers a starter plan at $50 per month and a pro plan at $250 per month. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
How quickly can I start creating reports with Sourcetable?
Users can start creating reports with Sourcetable within minutes of setting up their account.
Metabase Pricing Overview
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Starter Plan
Metabase offers a Starter plan at $85 per month, which includes 5 users. Additional users can be added for $5 per month each. Annual billing provides a 10% discount, bringing the yearly cost to $918, or $54 per user per year.
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Pro Plan
The Pro plan is priced at $500 per month and includes 10 users. Extra users are charged at $10 per month. Opting for annual billing yields a 10% discount, totaling $5400 per year or $108 per additional user per year.
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Enterprise Plan
Custom pricing for the Enterprise plan is tailored per user needs and starts at $15,000 per user per year. Details on the scope of customization and services are available upon request.
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Open Source Plan
Metabase additionally provides an Open Source plan free of charge, suitable for users seeking basic analytics capabilities without cost.
Cost of SAS Viya
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Azure Marketplace Availability
SAS Viya is available for purchase through the Azure Marketplace. This enables ease of access for users operating within the Azure cloud environment.
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Pay-As-You-Go Pricing Model
The platform adopts a pay-as-you-go pricing structure, allowing users to pay for only what they use. This flexible pricing model can help organizations manage costs effectively.
User Reviews of Metabase
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Overall Satisfaction
Metabase has attained an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5, with many users praising its ease of use, customer service, features, and value for money—all frequently rated at 5.0.
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Usability
Users highlight Metabase's user-friendly interface, which is especially advantageous for non-technical users. Reviewers consistently rate its ease of use at 5.0, affirming that it is easy to set up, deploy, and start.
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Functionality
Reviewers appreciate Metabase's capabilities in building dashboards, analyzing data, and tracking KPIs. Its integration with SQL and Google Analytics is also noted positively, as is its utility in data visualization exercises.
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Performance
However, some users experience performance issues, reporting that Metabase can be slow with many simultaneous users, crashes under larger loads, and exhibits significant delay and latency with more data.
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Limitations
- Metabase is not considered the most advanced analytics tool.
- It does not allow joins between different databases.
- Users find it challenging to contribute to the codebase due to it being written in CoffeeScript.
- Mention of Metabase getting buggy and slow in rendering data has been made.
- Reports of difficulties in loading or downloading reports exist.
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Cost and Accessibility
Metabase's open-source nature and free self-hosted version are recognized for their cost-effectiveness. However, some reviewers mention non-trivial configuration requirements when running in open source mode.
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Security and Support
Metabase is commended for its data security and integrity. Additionally, its customer service receives high marks, with a rating of 5.0 for support.
Conclusion
In summary, Metabase and SAS Viya serve different business intelligence needs and preferences. Metabase offers a user-friendly interface suitable for quick insights, while SAS Viya provides a robust analytics suite for complex data science tasks.
For businesses seeking a more streamlined solution, Sourcetable can be a viable alternative. It simplifies the process by syncing data in real-time across various services into an easy-to-use spreadsheet format.
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