Self-Hosting Guide: Deploy Metabase for Business Intelligence

Metabase is the most popular open source BI tool — it lets non-technical users explore data, build dashboards, and share insights without writing SQL. Self-hosting gives you unlimited users and dashboards for free.

Requirements

• VPS with 2 GB RAM minimum (4 GB recommended)
• Docker and Docker Compose
• Domain name (e.g., bi.yourdomain.com)
• 10+ GB disk
• A database to analyze (PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.)

Step 1: Create Docker Compose

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  metabase:
    image: metabase/metabase:latest
    container_name: metabase
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    environment:
      - MB_DB_TYPE=postgres
      - MB_DB_DBNAME=metabase
      - MB_DB_PORT=5432
      - MB_DB_USER=metabase
      - MB_DB_PASS=your-strong-password
      - MB_DB_HOST=db
      - MB_SITE_URL=https://bi.yourdomain.com
      - MB_ENCRYPTION_SECRET_KEY=your-random-32-char-key
    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    container_name: metabase-db
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_DB=metabase
      - POSTGRES_USER=metabase
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-strong-password

volumes:
  postgres_data:

Note: This PostgreSQL is for Metabase's own data (dashboards, users, settings). Your business data lives in separate databases that you'll connect in Step 6.

Step 2: Generate Encryption Key

openssl rand -hex 16

This encrypts database credentials stored in Metabase.

Step 3: Start Metabase

docker compose up -d

First boot takes 1-2 minutes to initialize.

Step 4: Reverse Proxy (Caddy)

# /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
bi.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

sudo systemctl restart caddy

Step 5: Initial Setup Wizard

1. Open https://bi.yourdomain.com
2. Select your language
3. Create admin account
4. Connect your first database (can skip and add later)
5. Choose usage tracking preference

Step 6: Connect Your Data Sources

Go to Admin → Databases → Add database:

Database	Connection String
PostgreSQL	host:5432/dbname
MySQL	host:3306/dbname
MongoDB	mongodb://host:27017/dbname
SQLite	/path/to/database.db
BigQuery	Service account JSON
Snowflake	Account + credentials
Redshift	host:5439/dbname

Tip: Create a read-only database user for Metabase:

CREATE USER metabase_reader WITH PASSWORD 'read-only-password';
GRANT CONNECT ON DATABASE myapp TO metabase_reader;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA public TO metabase_reader;
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TABLES IN SCHEMA public TO metabase_reader;
ALTER DEFAULT PRIVILEGES IN SCHEMA public GRANT SELECT ON TABLES TO metabase_reader;

Step 7: Build Your First Dashboard

Create a question (query):

1. Click New → Question
2. Pick your database and table
3. Use the visual query builder or write SQL
4. Save the question

Build a dashboard:

1. Click New → Dashboard
2. Add saved questions as cards
3. Add filters (date range, category, etc.)
4. Arrange and resize cards
5. Save and share

Common dashboard patterns:

Dashboard	Metrics
Revenue	MRR, churn rate, LTV, new subscriptions
Product	DAU/MAU, feature usage, retention cohorts
Support	Ticket volume, response time, CSAT scores
Marketing	Traffic, conversion rate, CAC, channel performance

Step 8: Configure SMTP for Alerts

Admin → Settings → Email:

Setting	Value
SMTP Host	smtp.resend.com
SMTP Port	587
SMTP Security	TLS
SMTP Username	resend
SMTP Password	re_your_api_key
From Address	bi@yourdomain.com

Enables:

• Scheduled dashboard emails (daily/weekly reports)
• Alert notifications (when metrics cross thresholds)
• User invitation emails

Step 9: Set Up Alerts

1. Open a question/chart
2. Click the bell icon → Create alert
3. Choose condition: "When results go above/below X"
4. Set recipients and frequency
5. Alerts fire automatically when conditions are met

Step 10: Embedding (Optional)

Embed Metabase dashboards in your app:

// Generate signed embed URL (server-side)
const jwt = require('jsonwebtoken');

const METABASE_SITE_URL = 'https://bi.yourdomain.com';
const METABASE_SECRET_KEY = 'your-embedding-secret-key';

const payload = {
  resource: { dashboard: 1 },
  params: {},
  exp: Math.round(Date.now() / 1000) + (10 * 60), // 10 min expiration
};

const token = jwt.sign(payload, METABASE_SECRET_KEY);
const embedUrl = `${METABASE_SITE_URL}/embed/dashboard/${token}`;

<iframe
  src="https://bi.yourdomain.com/embed/dashboard/TOKEN"
  width="100%"
  height="600"
  frameborder="0"
></iframe>

Enable embedding in Admin → Settings → Embedding.

Production Hardening

Environment tuning:

environment:
  - JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx2g  # Increase for large datasets
  - MB_JETTY_MAXTHREADS=100
  - MB_ASYNC_QUERY_THREAD_POOL_SIZE=10

Backups:

# Database backup (daily cron)
docker exec metabase-db pg_dump -U metabase metabase > /backups/metabase-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql

Updates:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Security:

• Use read-only database users
• Enable SSL for all database connections
• Restrict Admin access to specific users
• Set session timeout in Admin settings

Resource Usage

Users	RAM	CPU	Disk
1-10	2 GB	2 cores	10 GB
10-50	4 GB	4 cores	15 GB
50-200	8 GB	8 cores	30 GB

VPS Recommendations

Provider	Spec (20 users)	Price
Hetzner	4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM	€8/month
DigitalOcean	2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM	$24/month
Linode	2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM	$24/month

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