Apache Superset is an open-source data exploration and visualisation platform from the Apache Software Foundation. It sits on top of the databases you already run — PostgreSQL, MySQL, BigQuery, Snowflake, ClickHouse, Trino, Druid, Redshift and many more — and gives analysts three ways in: a no-code chart builder, a browser SQL IDE, and dashboards that can be shared across an organisation.

Key capabilities

• SQL Lab — a full browser SQL editor with a schema browser, saved queries, query history and result export. Any result can be turned into a chart or promoted into a virtual dataset.
• No-code visualisation — the project ships 40+ pre-installed chart types, from time series and pivot tables to geospatial maps, and a plug-in architecture for anything missing.
• Datasets and a semantic layer — physical (table or view) or virtual (SQL) datasets carry metrics, calculated columns and saved filters, so every dashboard uses the same definition of revenue or active user.
• Dashboards — drag-and-drop layout, cross-filtering, dashboard-level filters, scheduled delivery and alerts, and embedding into other applications.
• Access control — role-based permissions, row-level security filters applied inside the query, and SSO through OAuth, LDAP or SAML.
• Scriptable — a documented REST API and CLI mean dashboards and datasets can be exported, imported and version-controlled between environments.

How it runs

Superset is a Python and Flask application with a metadata database (PostgreSQL recommended) and Redis for caching. Docker Compose is the fastest way to try it; Helm charts and Kubernetes are the usual production route. It is not an ingestion layer: queries are pushed down to the source database, so the platform stays lightweight next to the warehouse it queries. The project is licensed Apache-2.0 and releases regular minor versions — 6.1.0 was the stable release in 2026, with 7.0 in release candidate.

Alternatives in the directory

• Metabase — question-first BI with a friendlier no-SQL path for non-technical users.
• Grafana — dashboards aimed at metrics and observability rather than business data.
• Redash — a lighter query-and-share workflow, without the semantic layer.

Dashboard screenshot from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.