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ThoughtSpot is a business intelligence and data visualization tool that has been around for more than a decade. With notable customers like Coca-Cola, T-Mobile, and CVS, it’s gotten a reputation for being an easy-to-use analytics tool for enterprise companies. Even more so once they launched their new AI-based features.
But what if you’re not happy with ThoughtSpot’s user experience, integrations, pricing or customer support? You may be looking into ThoughtSpot competitors and today, we’re rounding up the very best ones to help you make a good choice instead of a guess.
But first…
Maybe you’ve been using ThoughtSpot in 2025 and feel it no longer fits your needs. Or perhaps you’re looking for alternatives because you’re choosing your next analytics and business intelligence tool. Either way, it’s worth taking a closer look at some of the challenges users face with this self-service BI platform.
When it comes to ThoughtSpot analytics, the jump between pricing tiers is steep. For up to five million rows of cloud data, you’ll pay $95 per month - but the moment you cross that limit, the cost jumps to $1,250. In short, ThoughtSpot pricing can make it harder for smaller teams to get real value from your data.
If you want to create and share real-time dashboards for end-users, prepare for unpredictable billing. ThoughtSpot offers embedded analytics but charges per user query, meaning every interaction adds up. For growing teams or apps pulling data from multiple sources, this can result in massive invoices each month.
Although ThoughtSpot markets itself as an AI-powered analytics platform, its AI capabilities only handle basic use cases. It supports natural language queries, but complex analysis still requires technical help. For anything beyond standard searches, you’ll need someone comfortable with SQL interfaces or data management.
Compared to top BI tools such as Tableau Server, Tableau Cloud, or Sigma, ThoughtSpot lacks variety in its visualization types. It doesn’t give much flexibility in chart sizing or dashboard customization, especially for embedded use. That limits how non-technical users can explore data and find insights using AI.
While ThoughtSpot remains a strong analytics platform designed for associative data, there are plenty of competitors and alternatives to ThoughtSpot worth testing.
From Google’s data exploration tool to other AI and ML solutions, you’ll find many top ThoughtSpot alternatives that allow users to explore data from multiple sources and uncover richer insights.
Below, we’ll cover 8 alternatives to consider if you’re ready to get a better analytics experience.
We chose these tools based on user reviews, features, the range of integrations and data sources, embedded analytics capabilities and more.
Create interactive dashboards for your end-users and help them make confident decisions with real-time metrics. Luzmo remains easy to use, both for developers embedding analytics and for end-users exploring insights. From sign-up to embedding your first dashboard, it can take only a few hours.
You can now go beyond dashboards.
✔ Luzmo Flex lets you embed individual charts, metrics, or entire data experiences directly into your app’s UI.
✔ Luzmo IQ adds natural-language exploration since users can type a question and get instant visual answers.
✔ Luzmo Studio is where you design, preview, and manage all your analytics experiences in one place.
We love our APIs, Luzmo Agent APIs take that even further. They connect Luzmo’s analytics with your own AI assistants or automation workflows, helping you turn data into action automatically.
Connect Luzmo to almost any data source: Amazon Redshift, AWS Athena, Azure Synapse, BigQuery, ClickHouse, Databricks, and more. The API also works with the business tools you already use, from CRMs to communication platforms.
With true self-service analytics, end-users can drill down, explore, and create ad-hoc reports without writing a single line of SQL. Embedded directly into your app, fresh insights are always a few clicks away.
Pricing is transparent: no hidden surprises at the end of the month. The intuitive interface helps you design user-friendly dashboards that look and feel like a natural part of your product. Add data analytics automation and AI-generated visualizations with our one-click AI chart generator.
In short, Luzmo in 2025 is faster, smarter, and more flexible. You get natural-language data exploration, powerful visualization control, and a modular setup that fits every SaaS product.
Ready to build your next data experience? Start your free trial today.
Owned by Salesforce, Tableau’s been around the block and remains one of the more mature choices for on-premise and cloud-based dashboard reporting. You’ll get a very wide choice of visualisations, strong integrations with data warehouses and third-party apps, and quite a user-friendly experience when it comes to dashboard consumption.
What’s new in 2025:
- A major upgrade that brings agentic analytics and AI-driven insights via its “Tableau Next” architecture.
- More secure connectivity (private links to AWS, on-prem options) and stronger data integration capabilities.
- Enhancements like keyboard-accessible interactivity, new visualization controls and improved mobile/embedded metric discovery.
Still solid, but with some cons:
- While the consumer side (viewing dashboards) is smoother than ever, building dashboards, especially advanced ones, still takes time and skill. If your dev team isn’t experienced, there’s a learning curve.
- While embedding has improved, the experience isn’t always seamless - large data sets can still load slowly and fine-customisation remains tougher than simpler tools.
- Tableau works best when you’ve already built analytics maturity. If you’ll only use it for minimal sharing or have small, non-technical teams, the investment may feel heavy.
If your team has a specialist or two, needs deep analytics, strong governance, and either on-premise or cloud deployment, Tableau remains a superb choice. If you’re looking for a very lightweight, fast-to-deploy tool for a non-technical audience, you might want to compare it with some newer, more agile alternatives.
Check this out: Tableau vs ThoughtSpot
Qlik takes a different approach to data analytics: instead of purely focusing on static dashboards, you can pull together “Stories”. As your data changes over time, Qlik captures snapshots and links them in a Story-flow, letting you tell a real narrative with your data.
In the latest 2025 updates, Qlik has added stronger support for AI-driven workflows, reusable scripting, automation and more seamless connectivity across data sources. For example, the July 2025 release adds new ML workflow support, reusable load-scripts, expanded SAP-report integration, and enhanced governance features.
What’s improved:
- The May 2025 release added custom tool-tips, improved straight/pivot tables, map-chart styling and a refreshed interface for editing and navigation.
- Qlik now supports modular scripts (includes/ reusable logic) in its Cloud offering, making it easier to manage complex load-logic across apps.
- The June 2025 updates introduced renamed components (e.g., Qlik Automate, Qlik Predict), enhanced machine-learning recommendations, automation limits enforcement and improved administration.
What still holds true (and where you’ll want to watch out):
- While the “story-telling” model and snapshot approach is novel and powerful, many users find Qlik still requires experienced users. If you’re hoping a business user can just jump right in, you may run into friction - despite the brand’s promise of ease, the platform often demands trained content creators or developers.
- Embedded dashboards and apps are improving, but compared to the core analytics features, embedding still tends to be more complex (especially when performance, styling or custom-UX are required).
- Pricing remains on the higher end for enterprise-grade capability. If you quoted an entry figure some time ago (e.g., ~$2,700/month for baseline features), you’ll want to confirm current licensing and usage model; large deployments can shift quickly.
If your organisation values a “story with data” mindset, works with complex data flows, needs strong governance, script-based data modelling and is ready to invest in power and flexibility, Qlik remains a compelling choice. If you’re after a ultra-simple drag-and-drop tool for non-technical staff and very fast time-to-value, it might still be worth comparing lighter alternatives.
Microsoft’s Power BI is one of the most technologically advanced data analytics solutions in the market today and for a good reason. It comes with a wide range of data integrations, such as databases like Azure SQL or SQL server. It also supports a variety of local file uploads like JSON, Excel, or XML files. It’s based on a proprietary language called DAX.
It’s incredibly powerful in the right set of hands, and that’s precisely the problem. You’ll need a Power BI expert to get the most out of this tool and unlock every functionality you need for your business users. Speaking of which, Power BI embedded analytics features are fairly slow and unintuitive.
If you’re already deep in the Microsoft ecosystem and you only need internal reporting, this is a solid choice.
Sisense is available both on-premise and as a cloud-based BI platform with a strong reputation for usability. You don’t need to know SQL or another programming language to start since the drag-and-drop builder makes it friendly for beginners and non-technical users.
It allows you to explore data from varied sources using the Elasticube engine and plug-in a variety of data sources.
What’s new in 2025:
- Sisense has launched Sisense Intelligence, a unified suite of AI-powered analytics features: natural-language queries, automatic narrative summaries, forecasting, trend detection and explanation of drivers.
- You get "connect data from multiple sources” kind of support: over 400 connectors and live-data options.
- The new approach to analytics emphasises an Analytics Platform as a Service (AnPaaS) mindset: embedding analytics, co-authoring dashboards, collaboration.
Where Sisense still has trade-offs:
- When it comes to embedded analytics, the experience still demands significant developer input. Embedding dashboards is possible, but users often report performance or design limitations.
- If you want to analyze data in real time scenarios, setup and data-model optimization are still important. If your use case is simple dashboards for casual users, you may face unnecessary complexity.
- While great for because it allows you to explore complex data models, the learning curve for self-service may be steeper than you think, especially if you expect zero training.
If your organisation needs a robust platform that supports advanced analytics features, connects data from many sources, and is ready for AI-powered exploration and modelling, Sisense is a strong contender. On the other hand, if your priority is quick set-up dashboards for non-technical users with minimal overhead, you might want to compare other best alternatives that prioritise speed over power.
Domo is a cloud-based BI platform that really aims to replace several tools at once: ETL, data-warehouse, data-visualization. You can streamline one chain instead of grabbing three different apps.
For real-time data analytics, Domo stands out. As of 2025 the platform offers an experience AI analytics layer, letting users ask questions about your data in plain English, build custom AI agents and connect data from hundreds of sources.
That being said:
- The breadth of features means Domo comes at a cost- both financially and in setup time. Many users find that the learning curve is steep and that onboarding takes effort.
- Even though it supports advanced analytics features, the smoothness of embedding for end-users or non-technical teams can still be harder to achieve compared to more lightweight tools.
- For organisations with strict data privacy or compliance requirements, Domo offers governance, security and monitoring features. But you’ll need to ensure your implementation still aligns with your policies.
What it now offers (2025 updates):
- Domo’s platform offers AI-powered search, natural-language queries, and a semantic layer so that you can monitor key business metrics, ask questions about your data, explore complex data, and share insights more broadly.
- It allows you to connect data from multiple sources: cloud data warehouses, on-prem databases, SaaS systems, delivering a more unified analytics experience.
What to watch out for:
- Even though you can explore data and build dashboards, the tool may feel like more of an enterprise “swiss-army-knife” instead of something super lightweight for small teams.
- The cost and complexity can make Domo a heavier choice if your priority is fast time-to-value rather than full scale. Many reviews highlight “steep learning curve” and “pricing unclear.”
- While embedding dashboards and analytics is possible, for many SaaS or product-embedded use cases the implementation effort might make other platforms more attractive.
If your organisation is dealing with complex data, wants a platform designed for analytics and data products (not just dashboards), and has the budget and team to support it, Domo remains a powerful contender. But if you’re mostly after a simple BI tool for non-technical users, with fast setup and minimal overhead, you might want to compare it against more nimble best alternatives.
GoodData is similar to ThoughtSpot in that it’s focused on AI-based features and advanced analytics. With this BI platform you can explore data using natural language processing and the platform offers plenty of built-in templates and dashboards - handy for beginners who want to ask questions about your data and make insights more accessible.
However: getting those AI features to work takes initial setup. You’ll need a seasoned team of developers or analysts before non-technical users can use plain English to explore real insight and start to get value from your data. In practice the steep learning curve remains.
On pricing: transparency remains weak and figuring out the costs of embedding analytics or using the full suite can be quite difficult. While there isn’t always a public “$1,500 platform fee + per user” tagline these days, many reports flag that the full feature set (especially embedding, advanced analytics features, or usage across multiple sources) drives considerable cost.
In 2025 GoodData emphasises its AI-native analytics platform built for scale and real-time deployment, with composable architecture, the ability to connect data from multiple sources (cloud data, on-premise), and support for organisations with strict data privacy and governance.
If you’re evaluating competitors and alternatives to ThoughtSpot, GoodData is definitely one of the top alternatives to consider. It allows users, once set up, to explore data, ask questions about your data in plain language, and supports embedded workflows for end users. But if you’re after ultra-lightweight self-service BI for non-technical users without heavy setup, you may still feel the “platform offers” more than you need.
Looker uses its proprietary LookML language for building dashboards and workflows. This BI tool has long been known for a rich feature set: data preparation, data modelling, predictive/advanced analytics, strong visualisations - essentially a platform designed for data and analytics.
It’s built on top of Google Cloud and offers row-level security (RLS), SSO authorisation, and a semantic layer that can serve as your source of truth. Business users often raise two recurring issues: LookML has a steep learning-curve, and embedding is more of an after-thought than a core feature.
What’s new in 2025? In 2025 Looker has stepped up. The platform now supports conversational analytics (natural-language queries) via the Gemini model and a new Conversational Analytics API. It also connects data from multiple sources including BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift and more, giving a more unified analytics experience. The Embed SDK has been revamped (version 2.0) to enhance embedding, though some users still find the embedding workflow less polished than the core product.
Strengths for organisations with strict data privacy/security needs:
- The data-and-analytics architecture supports multi-cloud/hybrid, meaning you can connect data from multiple sources and keep governance tight.
- With its semantic modelling layer, you get a trusted source of truth which makes value from your data more achievable.
- Named a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics & Business Intelligence Platforms, which signals the product’s maturity and enterprise credentials.
Caveats worth knowing:
- While the AI-powered search and natural language features are now part of the product, they are still early in terms of complexity — for very custom or complicated data-applications you’ll likely need data engineers.
- For embedding analytics (into your applications or for end customer portals) the experience has improved but may still lack the polish of some dedicated embedded analytics platforms.
- Pricing remains high for many businesses. While the exact figure will vary depending on deployment, license size and usage, average business implementations easily run into $50,000+ per year.
- For purely simple dashboards or smaller teams of non-technical users, the learning curve (especially around LookML) may make it harder to quickly achieve self-service BI.
If your organisation has strict data privacy, high governance demands, and you’re working with complex data from numerous sources, then Looker remains one of the best alternatives in the “top BI tools” category. That said, if you’re primarily looking for embedding analytics for non-technical users, or want a very lightweight tool with minimal setup, you might want to check other options.
Empowering your team or users for data-driven decision-making should be one of the key goals for every business in 2026. But the business intelligence platform you choose needs to have it all: ease of use, great data integration options, superb embedding capabilities, great security, transparency and predictability in pricing, AI and machine learning tools…
Which sounds like a lot when you put it all in one sentence. But the truth is, we have a platform that offers all that and fixes the issues ThoughtSpot may be causing for you and your end-users.
Get a free demo today and find out how we can help you!
Build your first embedded data product now. Talk to our product experts for a guided demo or get your hands dirty with a free 10-day trial.
