Tools/taleshape-com/shaper

shaper

Visualize and share your data. All in SQL. Powered by DuckDB.

1.3k ★+5/wkemergingGoMozilla Public License 2.0 →trending

View on GitHub →Compare in Data Visualization →Homepage →

Replaces:Power BI Tableau

See how it compares →

The Lens

By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.

Updated Oct 2026

Shaper turns SQL queries into dashboards. Write a query, tag columns with chart types like ::BARCHART_STACKED, and it draws the chart. It runs on DuckDB, so it can query Postgres, MySQL, S3 files, CSV, Parquet and Excel. Embedded analytics with row-level security, white-labeling, PDF and Excel exports and scheduled reports are all in the free MPL-2.0 version.

docker run --rm -it -p5454:5454 taleshape/shaper gets you running. Production means owning TLS, backups, upgrades and patching yourself. Dashboards live in Git, and agent skills let Claude Code or Cursor write them.

Taleshape sells managed hosting, still labeled beta: Standard $59/month, Pro $249/month (adds OIDC and proxy-header SSO, an MCP server and usage analytics), Enterprise $799/month (audit logging, HA, data engineering help). Yearly is just 12x monthly. Solo and small SQL teams: free. Teams that need Okta-style login: Pro, or build your own JWT login endpoint for free.

The catch: the UI has no view-only roles, so viewers come in through embeds or share links. That share path was the hole in an October advisory: a public-share token could deploy dashboards and run SQL on the server, fixed in 0.25.2. Patch first. Analysts who don't write SQL should look at Metabase.

Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid

open core

Free: The whole open source Shaper (MPL-2.0): SQL dashboards versioned in Git, embedded analytics with row-level security via JWT, full white-labeling, PDF/PNG/CSV/Excel exports, scheduled alerts and reports, password-protected share links, and JWT-based SSO where you write the login endpoint yourself.

Self-hosted: One Docker container (taleshape/shaper) with DuckDB inside, which can attach Postgres, MySQL and Iceberg or read files from S3 and HTTP. You own TLS, backups, upgrades and security patches, per Taleshape's own shared-responsibility table. OIDC and proxy-header SSO are only offered with paid plans.

Paid: Taleshape managed hosting (Cloud in beta, on Hetzner). Standard $59/month or $708/year, cloud only, unlimited users, custom domain, email support. Pro $249/month or $2,988/year, cloud or your infrastructure, adds an MCP server, OIDC/JWT/proxy-header SSO and usage analytics. Enterprise $799/month or $9,588/year, your infrastructure, adds compliance consultation, audit logging, HA deployment, fractional data engineering and Slack/Teams support. Annual billing is exactly 12x monthly, no discount. 30-day money-back guarantee.

Free covers everything most teams need, including embedding and PDF reports. Pay $249/month for Pro only if you need OIDC or proxy-header SSO without writing your own login endpoint.

What to do by team size

Solo: free; one docker run and you're writing dashboards
Small team: free self-hosted, or Standard at $59/month to skip patching
Medium team: Pro at $249/month if you need OIDC SSO against your identity provider
Large team: Enterprise at $799/month for audit logging, HA and compliance help

Self-hosting ops:moderate

Get tools like this every Wednesday

One featured tool, three on the radar. No fluff.