Buyer’s guide Sourced and dated
Pick by where your data lives. If it's exports (Shopify, Stripe, HubSpot CSVs) or inherited .twbx workbooks, use xmetric: free, nothing to set up, files stay in the browser. If it's a production Postgres or MySQL database, use Metabase: it connects to SQL databases directly. If it's Google Ads, GA4 and Sheets, use Data Studio.
Our pick
xmetric
For a team that works from exports and spreadsheets, it's free, there's nothing to host, the files stay in your browser, and FIXED expressions answer cohort questions in one line. It also opens the .twbx workbooks other teams send.
Pick something else if
Your data is in a production SQL database that the whole team queries live (Metabase), or your reporting runs on live Google Ads, GA4 and Sheets data (Data Studio). Both connect live today; xmetric's database connections are still coming.
xmetric makes this page. Every vendor fact below links to the vendor’s own page and the date we checked it.
Here's a year of a small candle shop's orders, opened in xmetric on this page. Customers who first bought in Q1 are 29.2% of all customers, yet they bring 50.2% of December's revenue. The holiday newcomers bring 45%. That's the case for the Club, and you'd miss it on a revenue-by-month chart.
Computed by the xmetric engine
The data
A small candle maker selling on its web shop, Etsy and a weekend market. In January it launched the Wick & Ember Club, a monthly candle box.
order_id | order_date | customer_id | channel | product | revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W00001 | 2025-01-01 | K0030 | Market stall | Wick & Ember Club box | 32 |
| W00002 | 2025-01-02 | K0003 | Etsy | Wick & Ember Club box | 32 |
| W00003 | 2025-01-02 | K0006 | Web shop | Single candle | 24 |
| W00004 | 2025-01-02 | K0012 | Web shop | Wick & Ember Club box | 32 |
Step 1
December is the record month. The easy story is a holiday rush of new shoppers.
Tableau
SUM([revenue])
// MONTH([order_date]) on ColumnsSQL
SELECT month(order_date) AS month, SUM(revenue) AS revenue
FROM input
GROUP BY month
ORDER BY monthRows
| Month | Revenue |
|---|---|
| $1 | $1,056 |
| $2 | $2,162 |
| $3 | $2,538 |
| $4 | $2,778 |
| $5 | $2,876 |
| $6 | $2,388 |
| $7 | $2,304 |
| $8 | $2,326 |
| $9 | $2,338 |
| $10 | $2,936 |
| $11 | $4,294 |
| $12 | $6,364 |
Step 2
The FIXED expression gives every order its customer's first quarter, so it survives any filter on the view. The biggest group arrived in Q4, the holiday season.
Tableau
{ FIXED [customer_id] : MIN(DATETRUNC('quarter', [order_date])) }
// COUNTD([customer_id]) by itSQL
WITH f AS (
SELECT
customer_id,
'Q' || quarter(MIN(order_date)) AS first_quarter
FROM input
GROUP BY customer_id
)
SELECT
first_quarter,
COUNT(*) AS customers,
COUNT(*) / SUM(COUNT(*)) OVER () AS share_of_customers
FROM f
GROUP BY first_quarter
ORDER BY first_quarterRows
| First quarter | Customers | Share of customers |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 122 | 29.2% |
| Q2 | 66 | 15.8% |
| Q3 | 64 | 15.3% |
| Q4 | 166 | 39.7% |
Step 3
Customers who first bought in Q1, many of them Club members, bring half of December. The holiday shoppers bring less than you'd think. Slide back through the year to watch the Q1 share.
Tableau
SUM([revenue]) / TOTAL(SUM([revenue]))
// filter MONTH([order_date]) to the knob; Compute Using: first quarterSQL
WITH f AS (
SELECT
customer_id,
'Q' || quarter(MIN(order_date)) AS first_quarter
FROM input
GROUP BY customer_id
)
SELECT
first_quarter,
SUM(revenue) AS revenue,
SUM(revenue) / SUM(SUM(revenue)) OVER () AS share
FROM input JOIN f USING (customer_id)
WHERE month(order_date) = 12
GROUP BY first_quarter
ORDER BY first_quarterRows
| First quarter | Revenue | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 319200% | 50.2% |
| Q2 | 8800% | 1.4% |
| Q3 | 22000% | 3.5% |
| Q4 | 286400% | 45% |
In xmetric it's one FIXED expression for each customer's first quarter, then a percent of total, and it all runs in your browser.
Common mistake
A plain MIN respects the filter, so once you filter to December every customer looks like a Q4 newcomer and the Club disappears. A FIXED expression ignores dimension filters and finds the real first order.
Tableau
MIN(DATETRUNC('quarter', [order_date]))
// with MONTH = 12 filtered, every customer's first order is in DecemberSQL
SELECT
customer_id,
'Q' || quarter(MIN(order_date)) AS first_quarter
FROM input
WHERE month(order_date) = 12
GROUP BY customer_id
ORDER BY customer_idTableau
{ FIXED [customer_id] : MIN(DATETRUNC('quarter', [order_date])) }
// FIXED is computed before dimension filtersSQL
WITH f AS (
SELECT
customer_id,
'Q' || quarter(MIN(order_date)) AS first_quarter
FROM input
GROUP BY customer_id
)
SELECT DISTINCT i.customer_id, f.first_quarter
FROM input i JOIN f USING (customer_id)
WHERE month(i.order_date) = 12
ORDER BY i.customer_idDrop your own order export (one row per order, with a customer ID, a date and revenue) and the same steps run on it, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop a CSV anywhere on this page
Up to 10,000 rows. The sample, orders.csv, shows the shape.
If this is you
Shopify, Stripe or HubSpot exports, and questions that change every week
xmetric
No setup, no seats; drop the file and build on shelves.
If this is you
A production Postgres or MySQL database the team wants to query live
Metabase
Free if you host it yourself; Metabase Cloud Starter is $100/mo monthly or $90/mo billed yearly ($1,080/year); first 5 users included; +$6 per user/month ($65 per user/year).
If this is you
Marketing on Google Ads, GA4, Search Console and Sheets
Data Studio
Free, with Google's connectors (Analytics, Ads, Search Console) built in; Pro is $9 per user per project per month.
Yes, and many teams should. Keep Data Studio on your Google Ads reporting or Metabase on your live database, and use xmetric for exports, one-off questions and any .twbx a contractor sends you.
File connectors listed: Upload CSV files, Microsoft Excel and Extract data, alongside Google Sheets. Parquet is not listed. Tableau workbooks aren't among them. xmetric opens .twbx and .twb workbooks and imports CSV, Excel and Parquet.
Not yet; live database connections are coming. Today it works on files and workbooks.
In xmetric, it takes one FIXED expression for each customer's first quarter, then a percent of total; the demo on this page builds it step by step.