Cube vs MetricFlow
Cube
cube.devMetricFlow
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Cube | MetricFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $40/mo | $100/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 5 |
| Spec score · Semantic Layer Software | 9.3 (#1) | 9.1 (#3) |
| Documentation depth | The documentation covers administration, embedding, APIs, Cube Core, recipes, modeling, joins, measures, dimensions, pre-aggregations, integrations and MCP. | The developer documentation includes guides for joins, time spines, validations, semantic models, metrics, saved queries, advanced modeling, deployment, caching, exports, integrations, and APIs. |
| Founded | 2019 | 2016 |
| Integrations | Listed data sources include Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, ClickHouse, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, Trino, Presto and AWS Athena. | Official documentation lists downstream integrations including Tableau, Hex, Dot, Mode, and Google Sheets. |
| Security | Cube states that data is encrypted at rest, API access uses token-based security, and application traffic is encrypted over SSL/TLS 1.2. | dbt Labs reports ISO certifications, a SOC 2 Type II examination, and GDPR compliance for dbt. |
| Self-hosting | Cube Core is distributed as Docker images and can run on a customer's own infrastructure. | MetricFlow can run locally with self-hosted dbt using the mf command prefix. |
Plans
MetricFlow
- DeveloperFree
- MetricFlowFree
- Starter$100 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- Enterprise+Priced on request
In their own words
Cube
Cube is an analytics platform with a semantic layer that encodes governed business definitions for dashboards, embedded applications, and AI agents. Cube Cloud supports internal business intelligence and embedded analytics, while Cube Core is the open-source project alongside which the cloud platform is built. The Free plan includes a semantic layer IDE, workbooks, dashboard publishing, semantic model and workbook agents, and analytics chat. Listed data sources include PostgreSQL, Snowflake, ClickHouse, Databricks, BigQuery, MySQL, Oracle, Redshift, MongoDB, and Trino; integrations include dbt, Dagster, Prefect, Airflow, and Coalesce.io. Cube Core processes API requests using pre-aggregated data in Cube Store or raw data in connected databases. Cloud deployment options include a managed multi-tenant service on AWS or GCP, a VPC on AWS, GCP, or Azure, and a customer's cloud through BYOC. Cube lists a free plan, Starter at $40 a month per developer, and Premium at $80 a month per developer.
MetricFlow
MetricFlow is a free, open-source tool from dbt Labs for defining metric logic and generating SQL across data dimensions. Metrics and semantic models are written in YAML within a dbt project, using simple, conversion, cumulative, derived and ratio types. Entity types and parameters construct joins while avoiding fan-out and chasm joins. MetricFlow works with dbt 1.6 and higher and lists Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and Redshift, plus Postgres for dbt v1 only. A working dbt project and adapter are required. It is distributed under Apache 2.0 and installs from PyPI with `pip install dbt-metricflow`. The tool does not currently support dbt built-in functions or packages. Custom integrations can use JDBC, ADBC, GraphQL or the Python SDK. The dbt Semantic Layer, powered by MetricFlow, lists integrations including Power BI, Tableau, Google Sheets, Excel, Omni, Hex, Mode and Sigma. MetricFlow is self-hosted and costs nothing; hosted Semantic Layer Starter access is listed at $100 per user/month.