Recruit CRM embeds Metabase to offer customers self-serve dashboards inside their app.

The Challenge: Recruit CRM’s customers needed more than basic reports-they wanted to explore their own data, build dashboards, and work with custom fields. But with only static reports available, users had to export data and wrestle with external tools like Power BI just to get answers.

The Solution: Instead of building a full analytics layer in-house, Recruit CRM embedded Metabase into their product. This gave users a secure, self-service analytics experience-right where they already work. With sandboxing, row-level security, and flexible data modeling, customers could finally build the reports they needed, without starting from scratch.

The Results: They launched a premium feature, reduced support load, improved trial conversions, and kept their data warehouse clean with flexible SQL models.

"By embedding Metabase, we are able to focus on improving our core product while simultaneously delivering an enterprise-grade analytics solution to our users. Developing a comparable platform in-house would have required a significant investment of time and resources. "

Sefali Shetty
Principal Data Analyst at Recruit CRM

Recruit CRM helps recruitment agencies manage candidates, clients, and jobs all in one place. With customers around the world and a product packed with customizable features, giving users access to flexible, self-service analytics became a key priority.

To solve this, Recruit CRM embedded Metabase directly into their product, launching a new “Advanced Analytics” section that empowers customers to explore their own data-without leaving the app.

Why Metabase

The team evaluated other tools-including Power BI, Tableau, and Amazon QuickSight, but found them either too expensive or too complex for their target users.

“With tools like Tableau or QuickSight, you really need a dedicated analyst to get value. That was not realistic for our users,” says Sefali.

Metabase stood out for its ease of use, fast implementation, and embedded support. The ability to sandbox data access by account, build native SQL models within Metabase, and generate shareable public links made it an ideal fit.

“We didn’t want to build complex charting infrastructure ourselves. That’s not our core focus. Embedding Metabase let us move fast and stay focused on improving our product,” says Sefali.

How Recruit CRM team uses Metabase

Recruit CRM uses two Metabase instances: one internal and one embedded. The internal instance supports the team’s analytics workflows, while the embedded instance powers customer-facing dashboards directly inside the app via Interactive Embedding. This lets users explore trends, analyze performance, and customize reports-all without leaving Recruit CRM.

To handle user authentication, the team uses SSO with JWT, ensuring secure access to embedded dashboards.

For advanced use cases, the analytics team builds reusable SQL-based models directly in Metabase, helping organize logic without cluttering their Amazon Redshift warehouse. To optimize performance, they deployed their Metabase instance in the same Ireland region as their Redshift cluster, minimizing latency. The RCRM application itself is hosted across three regions-Ireland, Mumbai, and Virginia-making this setup essential for performance-sensitive use cases.

To help trial users experience the full value of Advanced Analytics, the team also shares live dashboards via public links.

“No other tool we looked at gave us the ability to create models inside the analytics layer. With Metabase, we keep our data clean and give customers the flexibility they need,” says Sefali.

The results

Embedding Metabase helped Recruit CRM launch a premium analytics feature that customers could use without training or external tools. It reduced reporting requests to the analytics team, improved product stickiness, and became a valuable upsell lever. Trial users now get a preview of the feature through shared dashboards, helping drive conversions. Using SQL-based models also kept their data warehouse clean and agile.

“We use public links to share dashboards with customers during the trial phase. It helps them see what’s possible before they buy,” says Sefali.