Metabase vs Amplitude for Nonprofits
Metabase and Amplitude both help organizations make data-driven decisions, but they serve fundamentally different needs. Metabase is a business intelligence tool for querying and visualizing data already stored in databases. It gives program staff, finance teams, and leadership access to dashboards built from CRM records, service delivery logs, and operational data. Amplitude is a product analytics platform for understanding how people behave on digital products: websites, apps, and online donation portals. Your choice comes down to one question: are you analyzing records about what your organization has done, or analyzing behavior data about how people interact with your digital presence?
Quick Verdict
Choose based on where your data lives and what questions you need answered:
Choose Metabase if:
- •Your data lives in a database, data warehouse, or CRM with export capabilities
- •You need dashboards for donor metrics, program outcomes, or operational reporting
- •Budget is tight and you can self-host the free Open Source version
- •Non-technical staff need to explore data without writing SQL
- •You want automated board reports that refresh from live operational data
Choose Amplitude if:
- •You run a digital product (donation portal, service app, or website) and want to understand user behavior
- •Tracking where donors drop off in online funnels is a strategic priority
- •You have developer resources to instrument events and maintain an event taxonomy
- •A/B testing digital experiences or analyzing session replays is part of your strategy
- •You already use a customer data platform like Segment that feeds into Amplitude
At-a-Glance Comparison
| Feature | Metabase | Amplitude |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Use Case | BI and dashboards from databases | Product analytics for digital apps and websites |
| Free Tier | Yes, Open Source with unlimited users (self-hosted) | Yes, up to 10,000 MTUs and 10M events/month |
| Paid Plans Start | $100/month (Starter Cloud) | $49/month (Plus, annual billing) |
| Nonprofit Discount | No formal program; free Open Source tier available | No nonprofit discount; Startup Scholarship available |
| Setup Complexity | Database connection required; server setup for self-hosting | Developer event instrumentation required in your app/website |
| Ease of Use | 3/5 - Visual query builder, but setup needs tech skills | 3/5 - Clean interface but steep event taxonomy learning curve |
| Data Type | Structured records (SQL databases, data warehouses) | Event-based behavioral data from apps and websites |
| Integrations | 15+ databases and data warehouses directly | 130+ SaaS tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, Segment, and more) |
| AI Features | Metabot (add-on, from $100/month) | Causal AI, predictive audiences, agentic AI (higher tiers) |
| Session Replay | No | Yes (all plans including free) |
| A/B Testing | No | Yes (Growth and Enterprise plans) |
| Open Source | Yes (AGPL license) | No |
| Best For | Operational reporting, donor dashboards, program analytics | Digital product teams, funnel optimization, user behavior analysis |
Two Tools, Two Completely Different Data Problems
Nonprofits today collect more data than ever before: donor giving histories, program enrollment counts, volunteer hours, service delivery records, grant reporting metrics, website visits, and online campaign engagement. The challenge is not a shortage of data but a shortage of tools that help the right people ask the right questions of that data in a way that actually influences decisions. Metabase and Amplitude both address this challenge, but they do so from opposite starting points and for different audiences within a nonprofit.
Metabase is a business intelligence platform. Its core function is to sit on top of a database and let users explore what is already there. If your donor management system stores contribution records in a database, or your program database tracks client enrollments and outcomes, or your finance system logs expenses and budget allocations, Metabase lets your team query that structured data through a visual interface, build dashboards that auto-refresh, and share reports without anyone needing to write SQL. The questions Metabase answers are operational: how many donors gave last quarter, which programs are oversubscribed, what is our average gift size by acquisition channel, or how do outcomes vary by program site.
Amplitude is a product analytics platform. Its core function is to track how people interact with a digital experience in real time. If your nonprofit runs an online donation page, a mobile app for service recipients, a volunteer portal, or an educational website, Amplitude lets you see exactly which steps people take, where they get stuck, how often they return, and what behaviors predict conversion or disengagement. The questions Amplitude answers are behavioral: at which step in the donation checkout do most people abandon, which content on our website keeps visitors engaged longest, do users who complete our onboarding tutorial donate at a higher rate, or what is the 30-day retention rate for our app users.
These are genuinely different tools addressing different data challenges. Understanding that distinction is the foundation for making the right choice. A nonprofit might need one, the other, or both, depending on its organizational complexity and digital maturity.
What Is Metabase?
Metabase is an open-source business intelligence tool launched in 2014 that has grown into one of the most widely deployed self-service analytics platforms in the world. Its founding premise was that data analysis should not require a data analyst. Organizations with structured data sitting in a database should be able to explore it, build charts, and share dashboards without needing to know SQL or hire specialized data staff. That premise resonates strongly with nonprofits that have operational data locked in systems their program or development staff cannot easily access.
The platform's signature feature is its visual query builder, which allows non-technical users to filter, group, and summarize data through a point-and-click interface. Someone managing donor relations can build a chart showing monthly giving by donor segment without writing a single line of code. A program manager can create a dashboard tracking weekly service delivery counts across program sites. A finance director can build an expense tracking dashboard that refreshes automatically from the accounting database. Metabase handles the SQL translation behind the scenes.
For technical users, Metabase exposes a full SQL editor alongside the visual builder, making it flexible enough for analysts who need precise control while remaining accessible to everyone else. Dashboards can include a mix of charts built visually and queries written in SQL, displayed together in a single view. These dashboards can be shared via public links, embedded in external websites or intranets, or pushed to Slack and email on a schedule.
The open-source edition is free with no user limits and includes core analytics functionality. It runs on any cloud provider or local server. Metabase Cloud is the managed hosting option for organizations that prefer not to manage infrastructure. Paid plans (Starter and Pro) add white-labeling, advanced row-level permissions, and support. An AI add-on called Metabot enables natural language queries and SQL debugging, though it comes at additional cost on top of any existing plan.
Metabase Strengths
- Fully functional free Open Source edition with no user limits
- Visual query builder accessible to non-technical program and development staff
- Direct connections to 15+ databases and data warehouses
- Scheduled reports and threshold-based alerts for automated monitoring
- Embeddable dashboards for board portals or funder-facing reports
Metabase Limitations
- Requires a database connection, cannot analyze standalone spreadsheets
- Self-hosting requires technical infrastructure knowledge for initial setup
- No native SaaS integrations; requires ETL tools to connect Salesforce or Blackbaud
- Visual query builder has limits for complex multi-table analyses
- AI features (Metabot) are a paid add-on, not included in base plans
What Is Amplitude?
Amplitude is a product analytics platform founded in 2012 that became the industry standard for understanding user behavior in digital products. Used by thousands of companies including major consumer apps, e-commerce platforms, and digital services, Amplitude is purpose-built for one specific type of question: how do people interact with software? Every feature in Amplitude exists to answer some variation of that question, whether through funnel analysis, retention curves, user journey mapping, or behavioral cohort segmentation.
The core of Amplitude is its event model. Developers instrument your website or app with Amplitude's SDK, defining events (discrete user actions: page views, button clicks, form submissions, purchases, shares) and the properties associated with each event (user attributes, context, timestamps). Once events are flowing in, Amplitude provides a rich set of analysis tools to make sense of them. Product managers can define conversion funnels between any sequence of events and see exactly where users drop off. Retention charts show how frequently users return to a product over days or weeks. Pathfinder charts visualize the actual sequences users follow through an experience, revealing unexpected navigation patterns.
For nonprofits, Amplitude's most practical application is digital fundraising optimization. A nonprofit can track every step in its online donation flow, from the landing page through payment confirmation, and identify which steps cause the most abandonment. Session replay lets you watch recordings of real user sessions to understand where confusion or friction occurs. Feature flags and A/B testing capabilities let development teams test different versions of donation page copy, layouts, or ask amounts to see what drives higher conversion.
Amplitude's free Starter tier is generous: 10,000 monthly tracked users, 10 million events per month, session replay, unlimited feature flags, and core analytics features. Many small nonprofits will find this sufficient. The Plus plan at $49/month extends user volume to 300,000 MTUs and adds additional collaboration and governance features. Growth and Enterprise plans with advanced AI capabilities, predictive audiences, and deep warehouse integrations are priced for larger organizations and can reach $70,000 or more per year at scale.
Amplitude Strengths
- Industry-leading funnel, retention, and path analysis for digital experiences
- Session replay included on all plans for qualitative user understanding
- 130+ native SaaS integrations including Salesforce, HubSpot, and Segment
- A/B testing and feature flags for optimizing digital experiences
- Generous free tier supporting up to 10,000 monthly tracked users
Amplitude Limitations
- Requires developer investment to instrument events before any analysis is possible
- Cannot query operational databases or structured records directly
- Pricing scales aggressively with monthly tracked user volume
- No nonprofit discount program; advanced AI features require expensive tiers
- Not suitable for nonprofits without a digital product or dedicated tech team
Head-to-Head Feature Comparison
Data Access and Connection
How each tool connects to and accesses your organization's data
Metabase
Metabase connects directly to databases and data warehouses. Supported sources include PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, and more. The connection is live: queries run against your actual database in real time (with caching options for performance). This means Metabase dashboards always reflect your current data without any manual export step.
For nonprofits using CRM systems like Salesforce, Bloomerang, or DonorPerfect, Metabase does not connect to these platforms directly. You would need an ETL tool (Fivetran, Airbyte, or Stitch) to sync CRM data into a database first. This adds cost and complexity but enables powerful cross-system analysis once set up.
Amplitude
Amplitude collects data through event instrumentation. Developers add Amplitude's JavaScript, iOS, Android, or Python SDK to your application and define which user actions should be tracked. Events flow into Amplitude in real time, where they are stored and made available for analysis. Amplitude also supports a Warehouse-Native mode where analysis runs directly on data in Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift, rather than requiring data to live in Amplitude's own storage.
Amplitude's 130+ native integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Segment, Customer.io, and more) enable two-way data flows between your product analytics and your CRM or marketing platforms. This is particularly useful for syncing behavioral cohorts from Amplitude into email marketing tools for targeted outreach.
Winner: Context-dependent. Metabase wins for accessing existing structured databases. Amplitude wins for SaaS ecosystem integrations and event data collection.
Analytics Capabilities
The depth and type of analysis each platform enables
Metabase
Metabase excels at querying and aggregating structured tabular data. It supports filtering, grouping, counting, averaging, summing, and custom formulas. You can compare metrics across time periods, break down results by dimensions, build pivot tables, and create maps for geographic data. The visual query builder handles most common business questions without SQL. The SQL editor unlocks the full power of your database for complex joins, subqueries, and window functions.
Metabase is not designed for event-based behavioral analysis. It has no funnel charts, no retention curves, no session replay, and no path analysis. These concepts are foreign to the Metabase model because they require event-stream data rather than tabular records.
Amplitude
Amplitude is purpose-built for behavioral analytics. Its funnel analysis lets you define any sequence of events and measure conversion rates and time-to-convert between steps. Retention analysis shows N-day or bracket-based cohort return rates. Path analysis reveals the actual sequences users follow through an experience, including unexpected navigation paths. Behavioral cohorts let you segment users by combinations of past actions for targeted analysis.
Amplitude is not a general-purpose BI tool. It cannot answer questions like "what is our total revenue by fund?" or "how many clients did we serve by program type last quarter?" unless that data has been explicitly instrumented as events, which is not the natural use case for operational records.
Winner: Context-dependent. Metabase wins for operational reporting. Amplitude wins for behavioral and product analytics.
Nonprofit-Specific Use Cases
How each tool applies to common nonprofit data challenges
Metabase
- Donor retention dashboards showing multi-year giving patterns
- Program outcome tracking from case management databases
- Volunteer hours and engagement reports
- Grant compliance reporting from service delivery records
- Board-facing impact dashboards that auto-refresh monthly
- Budget vs. actuals tracking from accounting system exports
Amplitude
- Online donation funnel analysis to reduce cart abandonment
- Volunteer signup flow optimization to improve completion rates
- Content engagement analysis on advocacy or educational websites
- Mobile app user retention for service delivery platforms
- A/B testing donation page copy and ask amounts
- Session replay to identify UX friction in program enrollment flows
AI and Machine Learning Features
Intelligent features that go beyond standard reporting
Metabase
Metabase's AI offering is Metabot, a natural language interface that allows users to ask data questions in plain English and receive SQL queries and visualizations in response. Metabot can also explain what an existing SQL query does, suggest query improvements, and debug errors. It is available as a paid add-on starting at $100/month for 500 monthly requests, separate from any base plan costs.
Beyond Metabot, Metabase includes automated chart type suggestions, anomaly detection in dashboards, and X-ray features that auto-generate exploratory charts for any table or metric. These are included in all plans and provide a lightweight form of automated insight discovery.
Amplitude
Amplitude has significantly more advanced AI capabilities, particularly on paid tiers. Causal AI automatically identifies which user behaviors have a causal relationship with desired outcomes (like donation completion), rather than just showing correlations. Predictive Audiences uses machine learning to identify users likely to convert or churn, enabling proactive outreach. In early 2026, Amplitude introduced agentic AI that continuously monitors product usage and proactively surfaces recommendations without requiring users to ask questions.
These advanced AI features are reserved for Growth and Enterprise plans, which can cost $5,000 to $70,000+ per year. For nonprofits on the free Starter or Plus plans, AI features are limited to basic automated insights.
Winner: Amplitude for advanced AI on paid tiers. Metabase's Metabot adds AI at a separate cost. For most nonprofits, the AI gap matters less than the fundamental data type fit.
Setup Requirements and Ongoing Maintenance
Technical investment required to get value from each tool
Metabase
Getting Metabase running requires two things: a database to connect to, and someone to configure the connection. Using Metabase Cloud (paid) eliminates the server management burden entirely. Self-hosting the Open Source version requires deploying the application to a server, which typically takes a technically capable person several hours the first time. Once deployed, it runs reliably with minimal ongoing maintenance beyond occasional version updates.
After initial setup, Metabase is genuinely self-service for ongoing use. Program managers can build their own charts once someone explains the data structure. Dashboards auto-refresh from the database. New team members can start asking questions within an hour of first using the interface. The ongoing technical burden is low once the initial connection and permissions are configured.
Amplitude
Amplitude requires meaningful developer investment before any analysis is possible. A developer must add Amplitude's SDK to your website or app, define which user actions should be tracked as events, and specify the properties to capture with each event. This event taxonomy design is not trivial: poorly designed taxonomies result in data that is difficult to analyze. Organizations often spend days to weeks designing and implementing a comprehensive event schema.
Ongoing maintenance includes updating event instrumentation as your product evolves, managing the event schema as new features are added, and addressing data quality issues that inevitably arise in production tracking. A dedicated product manager or analyst typically owns Amplitude on an ongoing basis. Small nonprofits without a digital product team often struggle to maintain Amplitude consistently over time.
Winner: Metabase for lower ongoing maintenance burden. Amplitude's value decays without continuous event instrumentation maintenance.
Pricing Breakdown
Metabase Pricing
Open Source (Free)
Unlimited users, self-hosted, full core feature set. Server hosting costs $10-40/month on cloud providers. Best for nonprofits with technical capacity to self-host.
Starter: $100/month
Managed cloud hosting plus $6/user/month for additional users beyond 5 included. Adds support and managed infrastructure.
Pro: $575/month
Plus $12/user/month beyond 10 included. Adds white-labeling, advanced row-level permissions, and priority support.
Enterprise: Custom
Starts at approximately $20,000/year. Full enterprise controls, SSO, and dedicated support.
Add-ons (separate cost)
Metabot AI: from $100/month (500 requests). Storage: from $40/month. Advanced Transforms: from $250/month.
Amplitude Pricing
Starter (Free)
Up to 10,000 monthly tracked users and 10 million events. Includes core analytics, session replay, feature flags, and basic A/B testing. Best for small nonprofits with limited web traffic.
Plus: from $49/month
Annual billing. Up to 300,000 monthly tracked users. Adds collaboration features, custom dashboards, and advanced data governance.
Growth: Custom (contact sales)
Typically $5,000-$30,000+/year. Adds predictive audiences, causal AI, advanced experimentation, and warehouse-native mode.
Enterprise: Custom
$20,000-$70,000+/year. Full AI capabilities, agentic analytics, advanced security and compliance features.
Startup Scholarship
One year of Growth features free for organizations with under $10M funding and fewer than 20 employees. Some nonprofits may qualify.
Practical Cost Comparison for a Typical Small Nonprofit
A nonprofit with 5-10 staff needing basic data analysis can use Metabase Open Source for the cost of a $15-25/month server instance. That same nonprofit using Amplitude on the free Starter tier pays nothing, provided they have a developer who can instrument events. For paid tiers, Amplitude Plus at $49/month is less expensive than Metabase Starter at $100/month, but these serve entirely different use cases. The real cost comparison is not about the software price but about the total cost of ownership including setup time, developer hours for event instrumentation, and ETL tooling to connect data sources.
Note: Prices may be outdated or inaccurate.
Nonprofit Discounts and Special Pricing
Metabase for Nonprofits
Metabase does not publish a formal nonprofit discount program and has no TechSoup partnership. However, the economics for nonprofits are favorable in a different way: the Open Source edition is completely free, fully featured for core analytics, and supports unlimited users. The only cost is server hosting, typically $10-40 per month on AWS, DigitalOcean, or Google Cloud.
For nonprofits that prefer managed hosting without the technical overhead of self-hosting, Metabase Cloud's paid plans are the commercial option. Nonprofits can contact Metabase's sales team to inquire about pricing flexibility, as some vendors negotiate on a case-by-case basis for nonprofits. There is no guarantee of a discount, but it is worth asking for organizations interested in the paid managed service.
Bottom line for nonprofits:
The free Open Source tier effectively functions as an unlimited nonprofit tier for organizations willing to self-host.
Amplitude for Nonprofits
Amplitude does not offer a dedicated nonprofit discount program. There is no mention of nonprofit pricing on Amplitude's pricing page, no TechSoup listing, and no charity registration process. Nonprofits are treated the same as commercial customers on Amplitude's standard pricing.
The Startup Scholarship program offers one year of Growth plan features at no cost for organizations meeting specific criteria: fewer than 20 employees, under $10 million in cumulative external funding, and no prior Growth or Enterprise subscription. Small nonprofits that fit these parameters may qualify, making this worth investigating. After the scholarship year, standard pricing applies.
For nonprofits primarily concerned with cost, the free Starter tier covering 10,000 monthly tracked users is the most accessible entry point. Organizations with smaller digital audiences may find the free tier sufficient for their needs indefinitely.
Bottom line for nonprofits:
Check the Startup Scholarship eligibility. Otherwise, plan around the free tier or standard commercial pricing.
Ease of Use and Learning Curve
Both Metabase and Amplitude require meaningful technical investment before non-technical staff can use them independently. The nature of that investment is different, and so is the profile of who benefits most from each tool once it is set up.
Metabase Learning Curve
Rating: 3/5 - Moderate
Metabase's learning curve has two distinct phases. The first phase is setup, which requires someone who understands databases, server deployment (for self-hosting), and connection credentials. This is a one-time investment, but it is a real barrier. Many nonprofits get stuck here without a technical volunteer, contractor, or staff member to configure the initial connection.
The second phase, daily use, is genuinely accessible. The visual query builder presents filtering, grouping, and summarization as simple dropdown choices. Program staff who understand what their data contains can typically build basic charts within an hour of first use. Building more complex multi-metric dashboards takes more time, but there is a natural progression from simple to sophisticated.
- One-time setup complexity: medium-high
- Day-to-day use for non-technical staff: medium
- Time to first useful dashboard after setup: 1-4 hours
- Ongoing maintenance burden after setup: low
Amplitude Learning Curve
Rating: 3/5 - Moderate (higher for setup)
Amplitude's learning curve is concentrated at the beginning and stays present throughout. Before any analysis is possible, a developer must design an event taxonomy (deciding what to track and how to name events), instrument the SDK in your codebase, and validate that events are flowing correctly. This is a multi-day to multi-week project for most organizations.
Once events are flowing, Amplitude's interface is designed for product managers and marketers. The visual design is clean and modern. Building a funnel chart or retention analysis is intuitive for someone who understands the underlying concepts. However, understanding those concepts (MTUs, cohorts, event properties, conversion windows) is itself a learning investment. Amplitude provides good documentation, but it assumes familiarity with product analytics concepts.
- Initial event instrumentation: medium-high developer effort
- Day-to-day use for product managers: medium
- Time to first useful analysis after instrumentation: 2-8 hours
- Ongoing maintenance burden: medium (event schema evolves)
Integration and Compatibility
Metabase Integrations
Metabase's integration model is database-first. It connects directly to where your data already lives, rather than providing API integrations with SaaS applications. This is a fundamentally different model from tools like Amplitude or Power BI.
Supported Databases and Warehouses
PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQL Server, Oracle, SQLite, Snowflake, BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, Databricks, ClickHouse, MongoDB, and more
Notifications
Email reports and Slack alerts for scheduled dashboards and metric thresholds
Embedding
iFrame embedding for internal portals, donor-facing reports, or public websites
Indirect SaaS Connection
Fivetran, Airbyte, or Stitch can sync Salesforce, Blackbaud, DonorPerfect, and other SaaS platforms into a database for Metabase analysis
Amplitude Integrations
Amplitude has a comprehensive SaaS integration ecosystem with over 130 native connectors. Unlike Metabase, Amplitude is designed to push and pull data between marketing, CRM, and communication platforms.
CRM and Marketing
Salesforce, HubSpot, Intercom, Customer.io, SendGrid, Iterable, Airship
Data Infrastructure
Segment, RudderStack, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks for warehouse-native analysis
Experimentation
Optimizely and LaunchDarkly for connecting feature flags and A/B tests to analytics
Communication
Slack for automated alerts; Zapier for connecting to tools without native integrations
Which Tool Should You Choose?
The choice between Metabase and Amplitude is not a competition between two tools vying for the same role. They are designed for different problems. The decision framework comes down to understanding what kind of data you have, what questions you need to answer, and what technical capacity your organization can bring to the implementation.
Choose Metabase When
- Your data is operational records. Donor histories, program enrollment, service delivery logs, grant reporting data, and financial records all fit the Metabase model. These live in databases, not behavioral event streams.
- Your primary audience is internal staff. Metabase dashboards help program managers, development directors, and finance staff access data they could not access before without a data analyst intermediary.
- Budget constraints are real. The free Open Source tier with a $15-25/month server instance is a compelling option for resource-constrained nonprofits with some technical capacity.
- You want to eliminate manual reporting. Replacing monthly spreadsheet exports with auto-refreshing Metabase dashboards is one of the clearest return-on-investment cases for the platform.
- Board and funder reporting is a recurring pain point. Embeddable, auto-refreshing dashboards can transform how nonprofits communicate impact to governance and funders.
Choose Amplitude When
- You have a digital product with meaningful traffic. A donation portal processing hundreds of transactions monthly, a volunteer management app with regular users, or an educational website with consistent visitors all justify Amplitude's setup investment.
- Conversion optimization is a strategic priority. If improving online donation conversion by even one percentage point would meaningfully impact revenue, Amplitude's funnel analysis justifies the investment in instrumentation.
- You have a dedicated digital team. The setup and ongoing maintenance of Amplitude's event schema requires developer involvement. Organizations with even a part-time developer can make this work.
- You need behavioral segmentation for outreach. Amplitude's ability to create cohorts based on behavioral patterns (users who viewed a donation page but did not donate) and sync those cohorts to email marketing tools is a powerful capability for targeted engagement.
- Your digital experiences are actively evolving. Organizations that regularly test and iterate on their digital products extract more value from Amplitude's experimentation capabilities.
Consider Using Both
Many nonprofits benefit from both tools serving complementary roles
These tools address genuinely different questions, and a mature nonprofit data strategy might include both. Metabase handles the "what happened" questions from operational systems: how many donors gave, which programs hit their enrollment targets, what was our expense ratio this quarter. Amplitude handles the "why did users behave this way" questions from digital experiences: why did 60% of visitors to our donation page not complete the form, which onboarding step in our volunteer app has the worst completion rate.
For organizations early in their data journey, it is better to do one thing well than two things poorly. Start with the tool that addresses your most pressing unmet need. Metabase is the more common starting point for nonprofits because operational reporting gaps are nearly universal, while sophisticated digital product analytics requires a specific combination of digital product maturity and technical capacity that fewer organizations have. See also our comparison of Google Looker Studio vs Metabase and Polymer Search vs Power BI for more data analytics options.
Getting Started with Your Choice
Getting Started with Metabase
- 1Inventory your data. Identify what databases or data exports you have: donor management exports, program databases, accounting system outputs, or spreadsheets that could be imported into a database.
- 2Choose your deployment method. Metabase Cloud for managed hosting (paid), or self-hosted Open Source on AWS, DigitalOcean, or Google Cloud for free software cost. Sign up at metabase.com.
- 3Connect your first database. Provide connection credentials for your primary data source. Metabase's setup wizard guides you through the process step by step.
- 4Build your first question. Use the visual query builder to filter and summarize a table. Try "total donations by month for the last 12 months" as a starting question if you have donor data.
- 5Assemble a dashboard. Combine 3-5 related charts into a dashboard. Add filters so viewers can explore the data themselves. Share via public link or email.
Getting Started with Amplitude
- 1Define your tracking plan. Before writing any code, decide which user actions matter most. For a donation platform: page view, form start, amount selected, payment info entered, donation submitted, donation error.
- 2Create an Amplitude account. Sign up at amplitude.com with the free Starter plan. No credit card required. Create your first project for your website or app.
- 3Instrument your first events. Add Amplitude's JavaScript SDK to your website. Start with 5-10 critical events. Track user properties (anonymous vs. logged in, donor status) alongside events.
- 4Validate your data. Use Amplitude's event stream view to confirm events are flowing correctly before building any analysis. Data quality issues are much harder to fix retroactively.
- 5Build your first funnel. Create a funnel chart for your donation flow. This single analysis often reveals the most valuable initial insight for improving online fundraising performance.
Not Sure Which Analytics Tool Fits Your Nonprofit?
Choosing the right data infrastructure depends on your specific data sources, team capacity, and strategic priorities. We help nonprofits evaluate their analytics needs and build data systems that support decision-making without creating maintenance burdens.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better for nonprofits: Metabase or Amplitude?
It depends on your data type and team capacity. Metabase is better if you have operational data in a database (CRM exports, program records, donor data) and need dashboards and reports for internal decision-making. Amplitude is better if you run a digital product or website and need to understand how users behave, track conversion funnels, or run A/B tests on online experiences. Many nonprofits could reasonably use both tools for different purposes.
Is Metabase really free for nonprofits?
Metabase's Open Source edition is free with no user limits and no software licensing cost. The main cost for nonprofits is hosting: running a small cloud server (AWS, DigitalOcean, or Google Cloud) typically costs $10 to $40 per month. The Open Source version covers core BI features including dashboards, visual query builder, scheduled reports, and alerts. Paid plans add managed hosting, white-labeling, and enterprise permissions.
Does Amplitude have a nonprofit discount?
Amplitude does not offer a dedicated nonprofit discount program. There is no TechSoup listing or nonprofit pricing page. Amplitude does offer a Startup Scholarship (one year of Growth plan features free) for organizations with fewer than 20 employees and under $10 million in funding, which some small nonprofits may qualify for.
Can I use Metabase without a database?
Metabase requires a database or data warehouse connection to function. It cannot analyze standalone spreadsheets directly without a database backend. However, nonprofits can import CSV or Excel data into a free PostgreSQL or SQLite database and then connect Metabase. If spreadsheets are your primary data source, consider Google Looker Studio or Polymer Search instead.
What does Amplitude's free tier include?
Amplitude's free Starter tier includes tracking up to 10,000 monthly tracked users and 10 million events, unlimited event types, core analytics (funnels, retention, user journeys), session replay, unlimited feature flags, and basic A/B testing. This is a genuinely generous free tier for small nonprofits running websites or apps with under 10,000 active monthly users.
Can Metabase connect to Salesforce or Blackbaud?
Metabase cannot connect directly to SaaS platforms like Salesforce or Blackbaud via native connectors. It connects to databases and data warehouses. To analyze Salesforce or Blackbaud data in Metabase, you need an ETL tool (Fivetran, Stitch, or Airbyte) to sync that data into a supported database first. This is a common approach for larger nonprofits with existing data infrastructure.
Is Amplitude good for tracking online donation funnels?
Yes. Amplitude's funnel analysis works well for donation flow optimization. Nonprofits can track events like page view, donation form opened, amount selected, payment info entered, and donation submitted, then see exactly where users drop off. This conversion funnel analysis can directly inform improvements to online donation experiences, though it requires a developer to instrument the events first.
Which tool handles nonprofit impact reporting better?
Metabase is better suited for nonprofit impact reporting. Impact reports typically draw on operational data: program enrollment, service delivery counts, outcomes tracking, demographic breakdowns, and year-over-year comparisons. This data lives in databases and CRM exports, which is exactly what Metabase is designed to query. Amplitude focuses on digital behavior data, which is narrower for traditional nonprofit impact reporting.