Where did you get the information about the Enterprise Edition?
I’m not an open source expert, but I’d be surprised if there’s a term in the agreement that allows them to revoke existing rights.
Sounds pretty clear to me. New features that are more useful for large companies will be in a new edition, with the existing edition continuing to be free.
I’m happy with that provided they continue to update the free edition. For me what’s missing most is interactivity and quality visualisations.
Many open source projects do this. Jasper Reports was bought and there are now two editions - one free, one paid for. The paid for edition adds features very similar to those proposed by Metabase (management and row level security).
My main concern would be the $10-$20K per year - that sounds way too high for the current functionality even with unlimited users.
Other concern is the mid-market where I tend to work. They need some of the bigger features, but not all and don’t have the budget for the larger product. SAP do a good job targeting this with Crystal Server vs SAP BI. Microsoft too with PowerBI & SSRS. Jasper not at all (goes from free to £20k per annum).
Yeah, I’d argue it’s better to come in at a lower price point and be a market disruptor, than it is to go in at a competitive price point and compete with the established players.
Ultimately, I’d have to see the cost & full feature set before passing judgement on the value proposition, but if there’s not a lot between Metabase and PowerBI, PBI would crush it.
In case the email was ambiguous -
Metabase is and will remain free and open source.
You don’t need to buy anything from us to use Metabase.
We are offering an additional edition that contains features useful to large companies.
If you need those features, hopefully the addition of an option will make your life easier.
If you don’t need them, nothing changes.
Any opportunities for reselling Metabase Enterprise edition? I currently resell SAP BI (plus consultancy for MS and Qlik), but seeing more opportunities for more targeted products.
Thanks
Andrew