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A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

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Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#21

Post by jorin »

antman wrote: post #17
jorin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hi, dev building shaper here. shaper allows you to visualize data and build dashboards just by writing sql. the sql runs in duckdb so you can use all duckdb features. its for when you are looking for a minimal tool that allows you to just work in code. you can use shaper to build dashboards that you share internally or also for customer-facing dashboards you want to embed into another application.

Will it expose a visual query builder as metabase?

shaper leans into doing everything as code. instead of using a custom UI you can use your own editor and AI agent to generate dashboards for you. shaper is for people happy to use code. it doesn't try to provide self-serve functionality.

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#23

Post by oogali »

written-beyond wrote: post #2

This is really nice, specially the pdf report generation. I feel very moronic making a dashboard for any products now. Enterprise customers prefer you integrate into their ERPs anyway. I think we lost the plot as an industry, I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations. This should've been the standard 10 years ago and it's case…

> I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations.

Roughly three decades ago, that *was* the norm. One of the more popular tools for achieving that was Crystal Reports[1].

In the late 90s, it was almost routine for software vendors to bundle Crystal Reports with their software (very similar to how the MSSQL installer gets invoked by products), then configure an ODBC data source which connected to the appropriate database.

In my opinion, the primary stumbling block of this approach was the lack of a shared SQL query repository. So if you weren’t intimately aware with the data model you wanted to work with, you’d lose hours trying to figure it out on your own or rely on your colleagues sharing it via sneakernet or email.

Crystal Reports has since been acquired by SAP, and I haven’t touched it since the early ‘00s so I don’t know what it looks or functions like today.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Reports

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#24

Post by maxldn »

pletnes wrote: post #10
robowo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use it daily and it never crashed. How long ago was this? I am a big fan of DuckDB. Plow through hundrets of GB of logs on a 5 year old linux laptop - no problem.

Same here. I have however seen a few out of memory cases in the past when given large input files.

Really? How large? I’ve only managed to crash it with hundreds/thousands of files so far, but haven’t so many huge files to deal with.

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#26

Post by AgharaShyam »

written-beyond wrote: post #2

This is really nice, specially the pdf report generation. I feel very moronic making a dashboard for any products now. Enterprise customers prefer you integrate into their ERPs anyway. I think we lost the plot as an industry, I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations. This should've been the standard 10 years ago and it's case…

100% agreed regarding shipping a read-replica, for any sufficiently complex enterprise app (ERP, CRM, accounting, etc.).

Customers need it to build custom reports, archive data into a warehouse, drive downstream systems (notifications, audits, compliance), and answer edge-case questions you didn’t anticipate.

Because of that, I generally prefer these patterns over a half-baked built-in analytics UI or an opinionated REST API:

Provide a read replica or CDC stream. Let sophisticated customers handle authz, modelling, and queries themselves. This gets harder with multi-tenant DBs.

Optionally offer a hosted Data API, using something like -- PostgREST / Hasura / Microsoft DAB. You handle permissions and safety, but stay largely un-opinionated about access patterns.

Any built-in metrics or analytics layer will always miss edge cases.

With AI agents becoming first-class consumers of enterprise data, direct read access is going to be non-negotiable.

Also, I predict the days of charging customers to access their own goddamn data, behind rate-limited + metered REST APIs are behind us.

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#27

Post by mrits »

written-beyond wrote: post #2

This is really nice, specially the pdf report generation. I feel very moronic making a dashboard for any products now. Enterprise customers prefer you integrate into their ERPs anyway. I think we lost the plot as an industry, I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations. This should've been the standard 10 years ago and it's case…

Customers don’t want to learn your schema or deal with your clever optimizations either. If you expose a DB make sure you abstract everything away in a view and treat it like a versioned API.

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#28

Post by mritchie712 »

piterrro wrote: post #8

In what extent this is a metabase alternative? I'm a heavy Metabase user and there's nothing to compare really in this product.

We've (https://www.definite.app/) replaced quite a few metabase accounts now and we have a built-in lakehouse using duckdb + ducklake, so I feel comfortable calling us a "duckdb-based metabase alternative".

When I see the title here, I think "BI with an embedded database", which is what we're building at Definite. A lot of people want dashboards / AI analysis without buying Snowflake, Fivetran, BI and stitching them all together.

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#29

Post by thanhnguyen2187 »

Thanks for the cool tool! I think it's worth mentioning SQLPage, which is another tool in similar vein, to generate UI from SQL. From my POV:

- SQLPage: more on UI building; doesn't use DuckDB

- Shaper: more on analytics/dashboard focused with PDF generation and stuff; uses DuckDB

https://github.com/sqlpage/SQLPage

Re: A DuckDB-based metabase alternative

#30

Post by skeeter2020 »

oogali wrote: post #23
written-beyond wrote: post #2

This is really nice, specially the pdf report generation. I feel very moronic making a dashboard for any products now. Enterprise customers prefer you integrate into their ERPs anyway. I think we lost the plot as an industry, I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations. This should've been the standard 10 years ago and it's case…

> I've always advocated for having a read only database connection to be available for your customers to make their own visualisations. Roughly three decades ago, that *was* the norm. One of the more popular tools for achieving that was Crystal Reports[1]. In the late 90s, it was almost routine for software vendors to bundle Crystal Reports with their software (very similar to how the MSSQL installer gets invoked by…

My best friend from early uni days did a co-op with Crystal Services, and he's been with them for their entire history through Seagate Software, Crystal Decisions, BusinessObjects (and relocating from Canada to France) and then SAP. I myself have had 2 temporary retirements, at least 4 different careers and countless jobs in that time, and it's wild to know someone who has the same internal drive but has satisfied it with a much more linear path (though you could definitely argue he's seen just as much change as me). From employee ~50 to ~100,050!
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