Evidence vs Apache Superset
Both are alternatives to Tableau. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Apache Superset vs Evidence — same comparison, one verdict.
Evidence
Dashboards as Markdown and SQL, versioned in Git.
Evidence takes a genuinely different position: a report is a Markdown file with SQL in it, built into a static site. That means dashboards live in your repository, get reviewed in pull requests, deploy through CI and cannot be silently edited by someone in a UI. MIT licensed. It is the wrong tool for exploratory analysis and the right one for recurring, trusted reporting that has to be identical every month. Included because the BI category assumes a GUI is a requirement and for a good number of engineering teams it is the opposite.
Apache Superset
Enterprise BI under Apache Software Foundation governance.
Superset is the most capable open BI platform: dozens of visualisation types, a SQL Lab for analysts, caching, row-level security and dashboards that hold up at enterprise scale. Apache-2.0 under Apache Software Foundation governance, around 74k stars, originally built at Airbnb and now used very widely. The distinction that matters against Metabase is governance — no company can relicense it — and against Tableau it is cost. The trade is operational: it is a Python application with a database and a cache, and it expects competence.
Side by side
| Evidence | Apache Superset | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 94 | 93 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Pricing | Free and open source. Evidence Cloud is an optional paid hosted tier. | Free and open source. Managed offerings available from Preset and others. |
Evidence edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Evidence
Strengths
- +Reports live in Git — reviewed, versioned, deployable through CI
- +MIT with no enterprise carve-out
- +Output is a static site: fast, cheap, nothing to keep running
- +Impossible to quietly alter a number without a commit
Trade-offs
- −No point-and-click building — you write SQL and Markdown
- −Not an exploration tool; it produces fixed reports
- −Non-technical staff cannot author
- −Small community
Apache Superset
Strengths
- +Apache Software Foundation governance — no vendor can change the terms
- +The widest range of visualisation types of anything open
- +Row-level security and caching built in
- +Proven at very large scale
Trade-offs
- −Heaviest to deploy and operate of the open options
- −Steeper learning curve for non-technical users than Metabase
- −Chart building is less forgiving than Tableau's
- −Upgrades need care
Related alternative guides
Facts verified 2026-08-04. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.