New Visualization Tool Implementation (Open Source Alternative to Power BI)

🎯 **Goal**
Evaluate and select an open-source data visualization tool to replace Power BI for internal reporting and dashboards, with emphasis on support for multi-series graphs, ease of use, and maintainability.

📌 **Context**
We are currently using Power BI for reporting. However, due to licensing costs, vendor lock-in, and deployment limitations, we are exploring open-source alternatives.

> **Key requirements:**
> - Support for graphs with multiple data series
> - Ability to handle non-time-based data (category x-axis)
> - Friendly UI for both technical and non-technical users
> - Self-hosted deployment

🔍 **Comparison Summary**
| Tool | Time-Series Support | Category X-Axis | Multi-Series Ease | Notes |
|------------|---------------------|------------------|--------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| **Grafana** | ✅ Excellent | ⚠️ Tricky | ⚠️ Technical setup | Best for real-time monitoring; not ideal for category charts |
| **Redash** | ✅ Good | ✅ Good | ✅ SQL required | Flexible for analysts; SQL is a must |
| **Metabase**| ✅ Good | ✅ Excellent | ✅ Very easy | Best UX for business users; supports both GUI and SQL |

✅ **Conclusion & Recommendation**

Given our use case — primarily non-time-series data with updates occurring on a weekly basis — Grafana is likely overkill. It excels at real-time monitoring, which is unnecessary for our reporting needs. Its reliance on time-based axes also adds complexity for the kind of dashboards we build.

**_Between the remaining options:_**

- **Metabase** stands out as the most user-friendly and intuitive solution, especially for non-technical users.
- **Redash** is a solid option if we want more control via SQL and are okay with a more technical interface.