Install
Tools
BI & dashboard platforms
19 tools compared: how each is priced, where it runs, and what to consider instead.
| Tool | Pricing model | Free tier | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache Superset Open-source, SQL-centric dashboarding and visualization tool originated at Airbnb, now an Apache Software Foundation project. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| Domo Cloud-native BI platform aimed at business leaders, pairing dashboards and mobile access with a low-code app layer for building workflows on top of data. | Quote only | No | No |
| Hex Collaborative notebook for SQL and Python/R analysis that publishes the same logic as an interactive app or dashboard for business users. | Subscription | Yes | No |
| Holistics Cloud BI platform built on a governed semantic-modeling layer for defining metrics once and exploring them self-service across any warehouse. | Subscription | No | No |
| IBM Cognos Analytics Enterprise BI platform with AI-assisted report authoring, governed reporting, and dashboarding, typically deployed inside large IBM shops. | Subscription | No | No |
| Lightdash Open-source BI tool built on top of dbt, reading dbt models and metric definitions as its semantic layer for teams already using dbt. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| Looker Google Cloud's BI and embedded-analytics platform built on a governed LookML semantic layer with natural-language querying. | Quote only | No | No |
| Metabase Open-source business intelligence tool for self-service dashboards, SQL and no-code queries, and embedded analytics. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| Microsoft Power BI Microsoft's cloud and on-premises business intelligence platform for interactive reports, dashboards, and self-service analytics. | Free tier + paid | Yes | No |
| Mode SQL-first analytics workspace for analysts and data scientists, combining notebook-style SQL/Python with lightweight dashboards, now part of ThoughtSpot. | Quote only | No | No |
| Omni BI platform combining a governed semantic layer with ad hoc spreadsheet-style and SQL exploration in one tool. | Quote only | No | No |
| Preset Commercial, hosted version of Apache Superset from Superset's original creators, adding managed infrastructure, SSO, and governance. | Subscription | Yes | No |
| Qlik Sense Associative BI platform that lets analysts explore relationships across disconnected datasets, not just drill down a fixed hierarchy. | Subscription | No | No |
| Redash Open-source, SQL-first tool for querying multiple data sources and building lightweight, shareable dashboards; self-hosted only. | Open source + paid | Yes | Yes |
| Sigma Spreadsheet-style BI tool that queries the cloud data warehouse directly, letting analysts and business users write formulas against live tables. | Quote only | No | No |
| Sisense Embeddable analytics platform for putting branded dashboards and AI-driven insights inside a company's own product, historically popular with SaaS vendors. | Quote only | No | No |
| Tableau Salesforce-owned visual analytics platform for interactive dashboards, data exploration, and governed self-hosted or cloud BI. | Free tier + paid | Yes | No |
| ThoughtSpot Search-first analytics platform where users type a question in plain language and get a chart back, built on an in-memory search engine. | Subscription | Yes | No |
| Zoho Analytics Self-service BI and dashboarding tool inside the Zoho suite, priced per user/row for small and mid-size businesses already on Zoho apps. | Subscription | Yes | No |