Embeddable vs Holistics: A Complete Technical Comparison for SaaS Teams

SaaS teams evaluating embedded analytics often compare tools that take very different approaches to data modeling, ownership, and product integration.

Holistics is an analytics platform built around analytics-as-code and governed metrics, with a strong focus on SQL-driven modeling, version control, and internal analytics workflows. It also supports embedding dashboards into external applications.

Embeddable is a developer-first analytics toolkit purpose built for customer-facing dashboards in SaaS products, focusing on native embedding, full UI control, and performance patterns that scale cleanly across many tenants.

This guide compares both tools across architecture, developer experience, customization, performance, security, multi-tenancy, pricing, and long-term maintainability to help product and engineering teams make an informed decision.

If you’re building customer-facing analytics inside a SaaS product, Embeddable is generally a better fit than Holistics because it’s designed for native embedding and product-level UX control. Holistics is better suited to internal analytics teams focused on SQL-based modeling and analytics-as-code workflows.

TLDR;

Holistics

• Analytics-as-code platform with strong SQL modeling.
• Excellent for internal analytics and governed metrics.
• Embedding relies on iframes and SDK abstractions.
• UI customization is limited and BI-centric.
• Better suited for internal or analyst-led use cases.
  

Embeddable

• Designed for customer-facing SaaS analytics.
• Native DOM embedding with no iframes.
• Full UI and interaction control.
• High performance through multi-tier caching.
• Multi-tenant RLS designed for SaaS scale.
• Flat, predictable pricing with unlimited users.

Quick Overview: Embeddable vs Holistics at a Glance

Embedding method

Embeddable

• Native DOM rendering via web components, React, and Vue.
• No iframes.
• Two-way interaction with application logic and UI state.
  

Holistics

• Embedding via iframes and JavaScript SDKs.
• Dashboards rendered inside a BI container.
• Interaction handled through SDK messaging.

Customization

Embeddable

• Fully customizable layouts and components.
• Matches your design system exactly.
• Supports custom charts and product-specific interactions.

Holistics

• Limited theming and layout customization.
• Dashboards retain Holistics’ visual structure.
• Difficult to achieve pixel-perfect product parity.

Performance

Embeddable

• Multi-tier caching including in-memory caching and pre-aggregations.
• Designed for high-concurrency customer-facing analytics.

Holistics

• Performance depends on SQL modeling and query execution.
• Embedded dashboards can feel heavy under concurrent load.

Multi-tenancy

Embeddable

• Server-issued security tokens.
• Row-level, column-level, and tenant isolation built in.
• No dashboard duplication per tenant.

Holistics

• Multi-tenancy handled through filters and access rules.
• Often requires careful configuration per customer.
• Operational complexity increases with scale.

Setup time

Embeddable

• Fast setup with minimal infrastructure.
• Designed for embedding from day one.

Holistics

• Requires upfront SQL modeling and project setup.
• Longer time to first embedded dashboard.

Integration depth

Embeddable

• Dashboards render directly inside your DOM.
• Tight integration with routing, UI logic, and application state.

Holistics

• Dashboards run inside iframes.
• Integration depends on SDK APIs and embed parameters.

Pricing

Embeddable

• Flat, predictable pricing.
• Unlimited users, viewers, and dashboards.

Holistics

• Pricing scales by usage and team size.
• Embedded analytics can increase costs over time.

Deployment options

Embeddable

• Cloud or self-hosted.

Holistics

• Cloud-hosted.

End-user experience

Embeddable

• Feels fully native to your application.

Holistics

• Feels like a BI layer embedded into the product.

What Is Holistics

Overview and core philosophy

Holistics is an analytics platform built around the idea of analytics-as-code. It emphasizes SQL-based data modeling, version control, and reproducibility, making it appealing to data teams that want strong governance and collaboration.

While Holistics supports embedding dashboards into external applications, its core design remains centered on internal analytics workflows rather than deeply integrated product experiences.

Strengths of Holistics

• Strong SQL-first modeling approach.
• Analytics-as-code with version control.
• Clear governance and metric consistency.
• Well suited for internal analytics teams.

Limitations for embedded SaaS use cases

• Embedding relies on iframes.
• UI customization is limited.
• Dashboards feel external to the product.
• Multi-tenant SaaS setups require additional configuration.
• Less flexible for product-specific UX patterns.

What Is Embeddable

Overview and philosophy

Embeddable is a developer-first analytics toolkit designed for SaaS teams that treat analytics as part of the product, not just reporting infrastructure.

By embedding native components directly inside the application, teams retain full control over UI, interactions, performance, and security while avoiding the burden of building analytics systems from scratch.

Key strengths of Embeddable

• Native DOM embedding with no iframe boundaries.
• Full UI and UX control.
• High performance through multi-tier caching.
• Powerful end-user self-serve dashboard builder.
• Secure, scalable multi-tenant RLS.
• Developer-friendly workflows with versioning and CI/CD.

Ideal use cases

• Customer-facing analytics inside SaaS products.
• Products where UX consistency matters.
• Multi-tenant environments with large user bases.
• Teams outgrowing iframe-based BI tools.

Feature Comparison Deep Dive

1. Developer experience

Holistics

• SQL-centric workflow focused on analytics modeling.
• Embedding via SDKs layered on top of dashboards.
• Changes often require updates to models and configuration.

Embeddable

• Code-first approach with optional no-code tooling.
• Native SDKs for JavaScript, React, and Vue.
• Full control over events, variables, and interactions.
• Versioned environments aligned with modern engineering workflows.

What it implies
Holistics is optimized for data teams and analysts.
Embeddable is optimized for product and engineering teams.

2. Performance and scalability

Holistics

• Performance tied to query efficiency and warehouse performance.
• Embedded dashboards can slow under high concurrency.

Embeddable

• In-memory caching for hot queries.
• Pre-aggregations for large datasets.
• Caching API for tenant-aware refresh strategies.

What it implies
Holistics works well for controlled internal usage.
Embeddable is built for high-traffic SaaS environments.

3. UI customization and design fidelity

Holistics

• Limited control over layout and styling.
• Dashboards retain Holistics’ UI patterns.

Embeddable

• Complete control over styling and layout.
• Supports custom components and charts.
• Dashboards feel like a native product feature.

4. Security and multi-tenancy

Holistics

• Supports access control and row-level filtering.
• Multi-tenant setups require careful management.

Embeddable

• Tenant-aware security tokens define access.
• Row-, column-, and object-level policies.
• No dashboard duplication required.

5. Pricing and ROI

Holistics

• Pricing grows with usage and team size.
• Embedded analytics can increase long-term costs.

Embeddable

• Flat, predictable pricing.
• Unlimited dashboards and users.

When to Choose Holistics

Best for

• Internal analytics teams.
• Organizations prioritizing analytics-as-code.
• SQL-centric data modeling workflows.

Where it falls short

• iframe-based embedding UX.
• Limited design control.
• SaaS-scale multi-tenancy.
• Customer-facing product experiences.

When to Choose Embeddable

Best for

• SaaS products where analytics are a core feature.
• Teams that care about UX consistency and performance.
• Multi-tenant environments at scale.
• Developer-driven product organizations.

Added value

• Native rendering without iframe limitations.
• Predictable pricing as usage grows.
• High performance for interactive dashboards.
• Lower long-term engineering overhead.
• Strong end-user self-serve capabilities.

Closing perspective

Holistics is a strong choice for teams that prioritize analytics-as-code, SQL-driven modeling, and internal reporting workflows. It excels when analytics are primarily consumed by internal stakeholders and managed by data teams.

Embeddable is better suited for SaaS teams that treat analytics as part of the product experience. By focusing on native embedding, scalable performance, and full UI control, it enables teams to deliver customer-facing analytics that feel seamless, flexible, and maintainable as the product and customer base grow.

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This guide compares Embeddable and Luzmo across architecture, developer experience, customization, performance, security, multi tenancy, pricing and long term maintainability to help product and engineering teams make an informed decision.

FAQs

Is Holistics good for customer-facing analytics in SaaS products?

Holistics can work for customer-facing analytics when requirements are straightforward and teams are comfortable with SQL-centric workflows. However, its iframe-based embedding and analytics-as-code model are better suited to internal analytics rather than deeply integrated SaaS product dashboards.

Is Embeddable better suited for SaaS products than Holistics?

Embeddable is generally a better fit for SaaS products where analytics are a core feature, because it supports native embedding, granular UI control, and scalable multi-tenant performance. Holistics is better suited for internal data teams focused on governed SQL modeling and internal reporting.

What is the main difference between Embeddable and Holistics?

The core difference lies in their intended use and integration depth. Holistics focuses on analytics-as-code and SQL-driven modeling for internal analytics, while Embeddable enables native analytics embedding directly in the product UI with full control over UX and interactions.

How do Embeddable and Holistics compare on embedding approach?

Holistics embeds analytics using iframe-based dashboards, which limits how closely the visuals can integrate with the host application. Embeddable renders analytics natively in the DOM, allowing dashboards and components to behave like part of the product.

Which platform performs better at scale?

Embeddable is designed to handle high-concurrency, customer-facing SaaS workloads using multi-tier caching and pre-aggregations. Holistics performs well for internal analytics but may require additional performance tuning and infrastructure planning to support large scale embedded usage.

How do Embeddable and Holistics handle multi-tenancy?

Embeddable uses tenant-aware security tokens with row-level, column-level, and object-level access controls that scale cleanly across tenants. Holistics supports access controls via filters and roles, but multi-tenant customer use cases often require careful configuration and governance.

Which tool requires more engineering effort to get started?

Holistics generally requires initial SQL modeling and project setup, which can be efficient for data teams familiar with analytics-as-code. Embeddable requires more upfront integration work but provides greater flexibility and control over long-term product usage.

How do pricing models differ between Embeddable and Holistics?

Holistics typically uses usage-based or team-size pricing that scales with internal analytics needs. Embeddable offers flat, predictable pricing with unlimited dashboards and users, which can be more cost-effective for customer-facing SaaS products.

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