Metabase vs. Whaly

What is Metabase?

What is Whaly?

TL;DR

At a glance

Cautions for Metabase:

• Unable to adhere to data governance standards, which is a key issue:
  • The line between where data teams and business teams work within Metabase is blurry, which means there’s no clear governance. On Metabase, everything is done on the same interface, accessible to all. This makes the data more vulnerable and potentially breakable.
  • No support for version control, which is key to governance and compliance. As your team grows, you will need to be able to properly audit changes and evolutions of each model and metric. As the need to collaborate grows, this will become time-consuming and problematic.
• There is a newly released modeling layer, but it is very limited to standard SQL.
  • Not integrated with data connectors or dbt, which makes it difficult to easily combine data sources.
• There’s not as much focus on the “non-technical beginner” as they claim
  • It’s not as intuitive as it makes itself out to be. Some technical expertise and SQL knowledge is required to get started and to make the most out of the platform. Engineering resources are usually required at the start.
  • Without SQL skills, it’s difficult to create custom dashboards, queries, and filter views.
  • The visual editor is quite basic, without drag & drop.
  • Lack of tutorials and documentation for non-technical business users
• A decent starter solution, but is less robust
  • Lacks key features like ad hoc reports, benchmarking, and trend or problem indicators. Described by users as “quick self-service analytics,” which is fine if you’re starting out - but not robust enough to scale with you as you grow.
• While the basic open-source option is free, which is a big plus, the Enterprise plan is quite expensive. There’s no middle ground, which means it’s not tailored to businesses of all sizes as they grow.
• Slowness due to low computing power, which is problematic for scalability:
  • Data import from other tools takes a long time. For larger data sets, dashboards and filter views tend to load very slowly and lags
  • When multiple users from your organization are using Metabase simultaneously, it gets slow and buggy, which poses a problem for accessing data when you need it.
  • Doesn’t work or scale very well with no-SQL databases like MongoDB
  • Syncing data is also time-consuming
  • Queries sometimes fail without a clear reason
• Navigation can be confusing, which can leave you stuck without understanding why
• Lack of customer support

Whaly benefits

• Whaly is auditable with high governance standards:
  • Whaly has 2 bespoke tools within the platform - a Workbench for data analysts (a SQL version and a visual builder) to model the data, set the definitions, and have ownership over it. Separately, there’s the Exploration layer in which business users can play with the data in a safe way, and serve themselves the analytics they need, without breaking anything. The 2 tools communicate with each other effectively, but data teams and business teams have their own distinct “spaces” to do what they do best. This presents the clear line that ensures governance.
  • We offer version control
• Whaly has a robust modeling layer that allows you to combine as many sources as you want, with our integrated data connectors and a native dbt integration. Our modeling layer also has the Flow feature.
• Whaly was built to be business-first, and is highly accessible for non-technical users
  • Whaly does require a main “Builder” with SQL knowledge to be the one to set up and own the platform.
  • Our Modeling layer is accessible to anyone that’s data-savvy (intended for data teams), but does not require SQL knowledge. Data-savvy business users can also participate.
  • Our Exploration layer is fully drag & drop, for no technical expertise is required.
• Our platform has robust features like optimized queries, Flow, and selective sync, with our product evolving at a fast pace.
• Whaly is built on the latest technology, with the fastest speed/performance on the market
• While we don’t have an open-source or free version, we have flexible plans that are tailored to businesses of all sizes. Our viewer licenses are always free. With Metabase, while their starter plan seems cheaper, cost will add up quickly if you have more business users viewing the reporting. This means boosting data adoption across your company, which is undeniably a good thing, will become expensive.
• Highly reactive customer support that works in collaboration with you to troubleshoot and ensure you’re getting the most value out of Whaly