ThoughtSpot is a software that helps you get answers to data-related questions with a business-friendly analytics experience that delivers AI-powered insights at the speed of thought.
People like ThoughtSpot because it's made for modern teams with a focus on fast, actionable insights for all.
However, when you need a tool with a comparatively smaller learning curve and something affordable, ThoughtSpot falls short.
In this article, I will tell you why you should try an alternative to ThoughtSpot and discuss the best ones in the market.
There are three main reasons why users switch from ThoughtSpot to one of its competitors:
ThoughtSpot is less intuitive for users unfamiliar with business intelligence tools.
Oftentimes you'd need to configure many attributes in the backend to get things done or put the right fields in the right places.
Despite being AI-powered, ThoughtSpot requires some technical knowledge and analytical skills to harness its fullest potential.
For instance, building your query with words for more complicated questions can sometimes over-simplify or pull in the wrong parameters.
ThoughtSpot fails to deliver a top-notch user experience. Many reviews highlighted the challenges faced when working with data on the platform.
For instance, if you want to add a new column to a table, you have to edit the database connection completely rather than just the table.
Similarly, charts and visuals lack interactivity. You can’t zoom in and out of charts to get more or less granular insights.
ThoughtSpot doesn't give you free-hands for customizing specific visuals or the dashboard in its entirety. You'd find it challenging to customize legend values or overlay your brand colors over the dashboard, something that ThoughtSpot alternatives like Domo does perfectly.
Some of the best alternatives to ThoughtSpot are:
With Datapad, you can track all your essential business metrics with stunning dashboards.
The beauty of Datapad lies in its simplicity and ease of use. With this software, anyone from your team can start building reports in seconds with no technical knowledge needed.
It’s a go-to solution for agencies as Datapad makes onboarding new customers a piece of cake. It does so with the help of its 1-click templates and the feature of sharing performance reports with read-only links.
Datapad also makes it easy to collaborate as a team with the ability to drop comments on KPI cards.
The AI insights tool lets anyone detect anomalies in their data and provides actionable to-do items to increase performance.
Let’s face it; it’s tough to create reports for your business. You have a whole bunch of metrics to analyze and choose which of them will go into the report so as to design a perfect chart.
If you’re an agency and want to create the same reports for multiple clients, the process can soon become a nightmare for you.
But thanks to Datapad; it lets you do all this with just a few clicks.
With Datapad's template features, you can:
When you have a tsunami of KPIs to track, it’s not a one-person job anymore. However, not all KPI dashboard tools let you bring your team on board.
But Datapad lets you do so easily and quickly.
What’s more, assign individual team members tasks to handle, goals to achieve, and metrics to measure.
With Datapad's team collaboration feature, you can:
Wouldn't it be great if you could check your business KPIs first thing in the morning, straight from your inbox?
With our dashboard software, you can subscribe to any dashboard and receive daily email updates.
All you have to do is build a dashboard, click the subscribe button, and set your email preferences.
The best part is you can share reports with anyone, even emails outside of your organization or workspace.
With Datapad’s report and scorecard automation, you can:
Datapad has a free plan that lets you build 1 report with unlimited sources, unlimited users, and real-time data sync. But if you want to create more such reports, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans it offers:
✅ Let’s you import KPIs from unlimited data sources in the free plan.
✅ Lets you subscribe to dashboards to get daily highlights.
❌ Variety of charts and graphs selection can be widened.
Tableau is a visual analytics platform that combines AI-powered analytics with enterprise-grade controls. Its self-service analytics give users the tools for complete data exploration, from data preparation to consumption.
Tableau offers three paid plans to choose from:
✅ Accessible across all devices.
✅ Excellent at analyzing large datasets.
❌ Has a steep learning curve for new users.
Looker Studio is a cloud-based data visualization tool that transforms data into interactive dashboards and reports. Although not a direct alternative to ThoughtSpot, Google's Looker is great for visualizing data from spreadsheets and third-party data warehouses.
You can get started with Looker for free, but you must then contact its support team to get a tailored plan that suits your business needs.
✅ A familiar ribbon-style toolbar makes it easy to create reports.
✅ Real-time preview and version history gives more control over report creation.
❌ Unlike ThoughtSpot, Google's Looker lacks AI integration.
Microsoft Power BI is an AI-powered business intelligence and data visualization tool offering a range of visualization options and data modeling capabilities. It's best suited for organizations that rely on Microsoft's ecosystem.
Power BI offers a free forever plan. Other than that, it has two paid subscriptions to choose from:
✅ Easily accessible from desktop, mobile, and web.
✅ Power BI's native integration with Microsoft apps makes it easy to develop and share reports across the organization,
❌ Out-dated system design leads to a poor user experience.
Domo is a cloud-based data integration, analytics, and BI platform. It's trusted by the likes of Cisco, Autodesk, Rakuten Marketing, and more brands for their data analysis needs.
Domo provides a generous 30-day trial with all premium features and unlimited users. Other than that, it offers three paid plans, Standard, Enterprise, and Business Critical, with custom pricing.
✅ An intuitive, drag-and-drop interface.
✅ Backend automatic scaling helps in dynamic scaling as your company grows.
❌ Users encounter performance issues with large datasets.
GoodData is a cloud-based BI and analytics platform offering tools for data integration, analysis, and visualization. It powers around 50% of Fortune 500 companies by providing crucial KPI-related actionable insights and meeting customer needs.
GoodData offers a generous 30-day free trial, extendable with three premium plans:
✅ Offers an intuitive interface with semantic layers for easy self-service analytics.
✅ Affordable pricing plans for small teams.
❌ Levy heavy platform fees ($1500).
Luzmo is an embedded analytics platform that helps SaaS companies quickly integrate interactive dashboards into their products.
Its API-first approach allows users to effortlessly connect data from various sources, leverage AI to create stunning visualizations, and securely embed them within their platform.
Luzmo provides a 10-day free trial and three premium subscription models:
✅ Integrates well with your existing tech stack.
✅ Multi-tenant architecture enhances data security.
❌ No free plan is available.
Qlik Sense is a modern, cloud-based analytics platform empowering teams to generate AI-powered insights and predictions from raw data.
Qlik Sense offers a generous free trial followed by three premium plans:
✅ Efficient in handling large data volumes.
✅ Highly customizable with open APIs and AutoML capabilities.
❌ Comes with a steep learning curve.
Sisense is a comprehensive BI and analytics platform that lets you embed AI-powered analytics into your product using pro-code, low-code, and no-code capabilities.
Sisense also doesn't reveal its pricing. You can request a free trial and talk to their sales team for pricing.
✅ Dynamic APIs and SDKs allow a greater level of UI control while embedding analytics.
✅ Has robust architecture and provides Rest APIs to access the platform externally.
❌ Variables and parameters cannot be used in the front end.
Holistics is a self-service BI platform and among the best alternatives to ThoughtSpot. Although it does not integrate AI natively, its comprehensive features allow it to work with and visualize data quite exceptionally.
Holistic offers a 14-day free trial. Plus, three paid plans:
✅ Exceptionally good customer service.
✅ User-friendly solution that allows power users to leverage their SQL skills to make the perfect reports.
❌ It is currently only limited to individual reports.
All the tools mentioned above are great alternatives to ThoughtSpot and successfully alleviate its drawbacks.
I get it; data analysis and visualization are among the most important processes for any growing business.
Unfortunately, ThoughtSpot has a learning curve, clunky UI/UX, and a significantly high monthly cost, which are the main reasons people opt for an alternative.
But how do you find out which ThoughtSpot alternative is right for you?
Well, there’s no better way than signing up for free trials and judging products for yourself.
If you or your team don’t have the time to try every product on our list, sign up for Datapad, import your KPIs, and create stunning dashboards for you and your team.
