Top Sisense Competitors for Embedded Analytics in 2025

When researching embedded analytics tools, Sisense is bound to show up as one of the top contenders for building interactive dashboards within products. It has powerful data analysis features, solid data visualizations, and it's relatively easy to embed in different environments.

At the same time, it has very secretive pricing, and once you get to your quote, it can go into six figures per year. It can also be pretty slow with large-scale data processing, and it doesn't have a huge selection of data visualizations.

Let's look at some common reasons why Sisense customers switch to other embedded business intelligence tools, and what those tools are.

Why do people look for Sisense competitors?

Sisense is a popular option for companies that want data analytics capabilities embedded in their website or app. It's a good alternative to traditional business intelligence tools such as Power BI or Tableau that are more geared towards on-premise use cases.

Sisense actually started out in that same fashion: as an internal BI tool. As time went by, they quickly realized that they can’t compete with the likes of giants such as Looker or Power BI, so they switched their focus to embedded analytics.

The consequences are tha, albeit being an embedded-first tool, Sisense has a lot of the remnants of the BI tool architecture, such as limited customization options.

High costs

Want to figure out Sisense pricing? There are no shortcuts, and you'll have to talk to their sales team to find out the details for your unique use case. We've done some research on how much this analytics platform costs, and the results are not great: it's anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 and up per year.

For startups looking to provide data insights to their end users, Sisense can simply be too expensive to justify. And once you factor in the added costs of embedding dashboards, data modeling and transforming raw data into something usable, Sisense might become prohibitively pricey.

Complexity of use for developers and end users

Whether you want to build dashboards for internal stakeholders or add embedded analytics functionality to your platform, getting off the ground can be difficult, even if you have previous BI experience. Here is how Sisense users describe their experience:

"Permissions can be difficult to navigate. Currently, there's only a single owner of any given Sisense object. Only the owner can publish any changes. Luckily Sisense is working on a feature for multi-owner functionality." - Source

"Blox, which gives the developer the ability to manipulate the functionality and look/feel completely is complex, and difficult to implement. It has the same difficulty as DAX: it's far more powerful than DAX, and can change to visuals of a widget/page, but lacks the documentation, however you rarely need to use it.

It can be hard to find support information, there isn't the online community you find with the largest tools, but this is getting better. Sisense should focus on creating better documentation and guides for specific use-cases." - Source

"What makes Sisense great is also what makes it occasionally frustrating. There are so many options for viewing data, including what feels like an unlimited number of dashboards, it's easy to drown yourself in data. Learning how to use filters well is crucial for getting the most from Sisense, especially if you're working with a large dataset." - Source

Performance issues with large data sets

If you work with large data sets or write custom queries, Sisense might take a while to load. While this may not be an issue for internal use cases, it can be a major problem for end-users just trying to monitor key metrics in a dashboard.

Here's how one user put it: "Too slow in fetching data from the database if you are writing customized queries. The same query runs in the database within a second but Sisense takes 10 to 20 minutes or sometimes hours in execution."

One way to go around this issue is to aggregate your data: "Data needs to be aggregated otherwise it leads to performance issues."

But at the end of the day, Sisense is simply slow for a BI tool, which is something to bear in mind before using it in an embedded analytics environment.

"For being a web tool, the performance sometimes can be an issue as well as debugging or finding the root cause for an error. Sometimes it's solved by just refreshing the page, other times I need to contact the support." - Source

Lack of data visualization options and chart types

To do proper data exploration and analysis, end users should be able to choose from a wide range of visualizations. In Sisense, business users have limited visualization types, especially compared to industry leaders such as Power BI and Tableau.

As one user said: "There are some limitations on variability in the charts you create. You cannot create as complex visuals as you can in some other data visualization tools, for example, map charts and auto-bucketing for histograms."

This is the result of an architectural flaw in most embedded analytics tools: that they decide the charts you can choose from, and how you might want to edit them. If you’re looking for unlimited flexibility in the charting options, you might want to opt for a headless embedded analytics tool like Embeddable.

Top Sisense competitors for embedded analytics in 2025

Whether you want to offer self-service analytics to your end users or need a reliable way to explore data in your team, Sisense just may not be enough. Below, we added some of the best Sisense competitors for embedded analytics to consider in 2025. On top of BI tools built for internal reporting (e.g., Tableau), we included a number of tools bult specifically for embedded analytics, such as Embeddable.

Embeddable

Embeddable is a developer-first embedded analytics platform built for lightning-fast, customer-facing dashboards. Launched in 2023 as the first headless BI tool, it gives full control over the UI/UX and performance. It’s positioned as a modern Sisense alternative that loads in milliseconds and feels native in your app.

Top features:

• Headless architecture enables you to embed any chart or visualization. Developers can extend the provided chart library or create custom ones via code. This means there are no limits on chart types or designs.
• Native embedding (no iframes): Embeddable uses a Web Component or React SDK to load analytics directly in the DOM (no iframe), allowing bi-directional interaction with your app. Dashboards truly blend into your product’s look and feel, and when someone wants to analyze data, it looks like they're still in your app.
• High performance: A multi-layer caching data service yields sub-second load times​. Embeddable connects directly to modern databases (e.g., ClickHouse, Druid) for real-time analytics.
• No-code editor: In addition to the code flexibility, it offers a no-code dashboard builder for non-technical users to create reports and iterate on them​.
• Scalability & security: Embeddable supports row-level security and multi-tenant setups out-of-the-box, with a semantic layer and configurable caching for efficient scaling​.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Unlimited customization: Because of its headless approach, Embeddable isn’t restricted to a fixed set of chart types or styles. On the other hand, Sisense allows only theme tweaks on predefined visuals​.
• Truly seamless integration: Embeddable avoids iframes entirely​, delivering a more native user experience than Sisense’s iframe embeds.
• Transparent, flat pricing: Embeddable offers flat-rate pricing with no per-user fees, so you can scale user counts freely. Sisense’s pricing is typically usage or user-based and often expensive for large audiences.
• Performance at scale: Users report Embeddable’s dashboards load extremely fast, thanks to aggressive caching, whereas Sisense dashboards can be slower under heavy data loads​. This means a snappier experience for your end-users.

Get access to Embeddable today.

Domo

Domo is a cloud-based BI platform that combines data integration, dashboards, and collaboration in one place. Known for its user-friendly, fully cloud architecture, Domo helps companies build interactive visuals quickly. It’s been around for over a decade, targeting businesses that want an all-in-one solution without managing on-prem infrastructure.

Top features:

• End-to-end platform: Domo offers built-in ETL (“Magic ETL”) and over 1,000+ pre-built data connectors for seamless integration with diverse sources​. This broad connectivity simplifies getting your product’s data into dashboards.
• Ease of use: A drag-and-drop dashboard builder and intuitive interface make it accessible for non-technical users. Stakeholders can create and share reports with minimal SQL knowledge.
• Robust cloud infrastructure: As a fully SaaS solution, Domo handles scaling and maintenance for you. It provides in-memory caching and optional pre-aggregations to improve dashboard load times​.
• Mobile and collaboration: Domo has strong mobile apps and built-in social features (buzz, chat, annotations), enabling teams to discuss insights. This is great for engaging users around the embedded analytics.
• Extensibility: Domo Everywhere (its embedded offering) lets you embed Domo visuals in external portals with JS controls for interactivity. It also supports custom apps through its APIs.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• All-in-one integration: Domo combines data pipelines, warehouses, and BI in one platform. This unified approach can reduce the engineering effort required to embed analytics.
• Quicker time to insight: With its vast library of connectors and easy builder, you can connect data and deploy dashboards faster.
• Cloud scalability: Domo’s SaaS model means no servers to manage – a boon for scalability and reliability.
• Flexible usage pricing: Domo uses tiered, usage-based pricing (credit model)​ that can start small, which may be more accessible than Sisense’s high upfront license costs.
• User engagement features: Domo’s built-in collaboration and alerts can drive higher user adoption of embedded analytics.

GoodData

GoodData is a veteran in the analytics space, known for powering the embedded analytics in many SaaS applications. It provides a full-stack BI platform with a strong semantic layer and multi-tenant support. GoodData allows companies to deliver both internal BI and customer-facing analytics from a single tool, making it a popular Sisense alternative for unified use cases.

Top features:

• Multiple embedding options: GoodData is one of the few platforms that supports embedding via a Web Component (no iframe), as well as JavaScript SDK or iframes​.
• Semantic layer & metrics: It offers a robust semantic model to define reusable metrics and data relationships.
• Multi-tenant architecture: GoodData was built with multi-tenancy in mind – you can easily isolate data by client or workspace and apply row-level security for each tenant.
• No-code and code combo: Analysts can use a drag-and-drop interface to create visuals, while developers can leverage APIs to automate and extend analytics, e.g. for predictive analytics use cases.
• Enterprise features: From governance (SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA compliance​ to custom branding and theming, GoodData covers enterprise needs. You can deploy it as a cloud service or self-hosted for full control.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Native embedding experience: GoodData’s ability to embed via a web component (instead of only iframes) means the embedded charts behave like part of your app.
• Unified tool for internal & external BI: If you want one platform for both internal analytics and customer-facing reports, GoodData fits well.
• Developer-friendly and headless capabilities: GoodData embraces a headless BI philosophy (similar to Sisense’s “Fusion” API approach, but more evolved). This means easier integration into your development workflow and more flexibility to tailor the analytics.
• Avoids Sisense’s usage costs for large audiences: Sisense’s pricing tends to scale with the number of users or viewers, which can get expensive. GoodData offers more flexible licensing (often based on workspaces or data volume).
• Established multi-tenant security: GoodData handles complex security models (down to row-level) out of the box.

Tableau

Tableau is a leading BI platform famous for its powerful visualization and data exploration capabilities. As a Salesforce-owned product, it’s widely used by data teams for interactive dashboards. Tableau’s embedded analytics offering allows those same rich visuals to be integrated into external applications, making it a contender when you need top-tier analytics visuals in your product.

Bear in mind that Tableau is built for internal reporting and dashboards and embedding is not its primary use case. As a result, you can expect slower load times, complexities with the embedding process, issues with multi-tenancy and similar problems that don't appear (often) in dedicated embedded analytics tools.

Top Features:

• Best-in-class visual analytics: Tableau provides an extensive library of charts and the ability to create interactive, beautiful dashboards. Users can perform deep drill-downs, filters, and ad hoc analysis on the fly, offering a depth of data exploration other BI tools can’t easily match.
• Huge data connectivity: It connects to nearly any data source – from SQL databases, big data platforms, spreadsheets, to cloud services. This means you can embed dashboards that pull from multiple disparate sources.
• User community and extensions: Tableau has a massive community and marketplace. You gain access to countless resources, pre-built dashboard examples, and extensions. If a specific visualization or feature isn’t native, chances are someone built an extension for it.
• Interactive embedding API: Tableau supports embedded analytics via iframes or using their JavaScript API. The JS API allows programmatic control (filtering, events) of embedded visuals within your app.
• Enterprise readiness: It offers robust features like governance, data security, and the ability to self-host via Tableau Server. You can deploy Tableau Server on-prem or in a private cloud to keep data in-house while still embedding analytics externally.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Unmatched visualization depth: Tableau is often the go-to for complex, interactive visuals and advanced analytics.
• Wide adoption and talent pool: Many analysts and developers are already familiar with Tableau. This can translate to faster development and iteration compared to Sisense, which has a smaller talent pool.
• Broader data source support: Tableau’s connectivity to exotic or niche data sources out-of-the-box can save integration time. Sisense connects to many sources too, but Tableau’s list is exceptionally comprehensive​.
• Leverage existing investments: If your company already uses Tableau internally, adopting Tableau for embedded use means reusing existing dashboards and skillsets. Sisense would be a whole new implementation, whereas Tableau embedded lets you extend familiar tools to customers​.
• Scalability (with Server): Tableau Server is proven in large deployments worldwide. It has mature features for scaling user loads (caching, load balancing).

Note: Tableau has a higher learning curve and licensing cost (especially since embedded use requires viewer licenses at ~$420/user/year). It’s “the data team’s Swiss army knife,” so ensure your use case needs that level of power to justify it​.

Looker

Looker (part of Google Cloud) is an enterprise BI platform renowned for its modern, model-based approach to analytics. It uses LookML, a code-based modeling layer, to define data metrics and business logic centrally. Looker’s embedded analytics (Looker Embedded) lets you integrate these analytics into your product.

Top features:

• Powerful semantic model (LookML): Looker’s standout feature is its LookML layer. Developers define data relationships and metrics in code, which ensures every dashboard or report (internal or embedded) uses consistent definitions. This reduces errors and makes scaling analytics across many embedded views much easier.
• Google Cloud integration: Being part of Google, Looker integrates natively with BigQuery and the Google Cloud ecosystem, e.g. Google Analytics. It’s optimized for modern cloud data warehouses, allowing real-time queries on massive datasets. Authentication and security are integrated with Google’s identity management.
• Rich APIs and embedding options: Looker offers a comprehensive REST API and SDKs. You can embed Looker content via iframes or the more advanced Extension Framework. The APIs allow fine-grained control – for example, you can fetch query results to embed custom visualizations or utilize pre-built embedding with filters.
• Data experiences & workflows: Beyond dashboards, Looker enables data-driven workflows (e.g., send alerts, trigger actions) and has integrations for Slack, scheduling, and more. This means you can build an embedded experience that shows data and connects to other tools or triggers actions.
• Extensibility: Looker's platform is highly extensible, with features like custom Visualizations and the ability to build full applications on top of it. Many SaaS companies use Looker as their underlying analytics engine, skinning it to match their products.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Centralized metrics = consistency: Looker’s model-first approach ensures that the metrics your team uses internally are the same in your embedded analytics.
• Deep integration capabilities: Looker provides robust APIs and pre-built integrations​ If you want to tightly integrate analytics into your app’s workflows (for example, integrating with other microservices or custom UI controls), Looker’s API-centric design is a big plus over Sisense.
• Google reliability and scale: Running on Google Cloud, Looker is cloud-native and can leverage Google’s infrastructure for reliability, security, and performance.
• Customization via code: Where Sisense might require using its UI for many configurations, Looker empowers developers to customize analytics experiences with code. This means greater flexibility to tailor the embedded analytics exactly to your product’s needs.
• Strong support and community: Looker has a large, active user community and, according to G2, slightly higher rated support than Sisense​.

Keep in mind that Looker is generally an expensive solution (often six-figure contracts) and, like Sisense, uses iframe embedding which limits total UI control​. However, its strengths shine if consistency and deep integration are top priority.

Qlik

Qlik Sense is an enterprise-grade analytics platform with a long history. Qlik is known for its associative data engine, which allows users to explore data in any direction (making it easy to discover hidden relationships). For embedded analytics, Qlik offers the Qlik Analytics Platform and Qlik Sense APIs to embed its engine and visuals into applications.

Top Features:

• Associative engine: Qlik’s unique in-memory engine lets users instantly select any value and see associations in the data. This free-form exploration is great for interactive embedded dashboards where end-users might filter and pivot data non-linearly.
• Rich visualization library: Qlik Sense provides a wide array of interactive charts; you can extend it with custom visualizations. It also has an AI assistant (“Insight Advisor”) that suggests charts and insights to users, adding intelligence to the UI.
• Enterprise integration: Qlik can connect to a broad range of enterprise data sources (databases, big data, APIs) and even handle data integration (boosted by Qlik’s acquisition of Talend). Your embedded analytics can tap into virtually any data with robust ETL support.
• Embedding and APIs: You can embed Qlik visuals via iframes or use Qlik’s Capability APIs to integrate at a deeper level. The APIs allow you to integrate Qlik charts into your web app’s DOM, apply filters, or retrieve data for custom rendering.
• Scalability & security: Qlik is built for enterprise scale – offering multi-node deployments, caching, and governance features. It carries all major security certifications and supports SSO, token-based auth, etc., which is reassuring for embedding in production apps.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Exploratory analytics for end-users: Qlik’s associative exploration is a differentiator. If your embedded analytics needs to let users freely explore and discover insights (not just view static dashboards), Qlik provides a more interactive experience than Sisense’s more guided dashboards.
• Large-scale deployment friendly: Qlik’s licensing for embedding can be attractive – for instance, the Qlik Analytics Platform license includes up to 100k viewer accesses under a base fee.
• Complete data integration suite: Qlik’s expanded toolset (data integration, transformation) means you can handle complex data preparation within the Qlik ecosystem.
• Mature and feature-rich: Being one of the oldest players, Qlik has very mature features (e.g., advanced calculations, governance, offline mobile). There’s likely a solution in Qlik for any specific need.
• Hybrid hosting options: Qlik offers both cloud services and client-managed options (on-prem or private cloud).

Note that Qlik embeds via iframes and its default styling may need work to blend into your app (similar challenge as Sisense). But if deep analytical capability and large-scale pricing are your focus, Qlik is a strong contender.

Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a widely used BI platform that excels in ease of use and integration with the Microsoft ecosystem. Power BI Embedded, an Azure service, allows you to incorporate Power BI’s interactive reports into your applications. It’s particularly attractive for those already using Microsoft technologies and looking for a cost-effective, familiar BI tool to embed.

This tool is superb for creating internal reports and dashboards, but bear in mind that as a Sisense alternative, it's not one of the top choices out there. Simply put, it's not built with embedding in mind and despite its advantages in the traditional BI sense, it can be very complicated to embed and customize Power BI dashboards in an app.

Top features:

• User-friendly interface: Power BI’s drag-and-drop interface and Excel-like formula language (DAX) make it approachable. Many users find it easy to create visuals without coding, which means faster dashboard creation. It's about as easy to use as the best knowledge base software in the industry, and it doesn't require specialized knowledge to tackle the basic features in the tool.
• Out-of-the-box visuals and customization: It has a rich library of visuals and a marketplace for custom visuals. You can apply your branding (colors, logos) easily to make embedded reports consistent with your app’s style.
• Integration with Microsoft stack: Power BI connects naturally to Azure SQL, Excel, SharePoint, Dynamics 365, and more. If your product or data lives in the Microsoft world, embedding Power BI will feel seamless (e.g., Azure AD for authentication, Office 365 for sharing).
• Security and governance: Backed by Microsoft, Power BI meets high security standards and offers granular controls (row-level security, Azure security integrations). You can manage permissions for embedded content using Azure AD, simplifying single sign-on.
• Scalable cloud service: Power BI Embedded in Azure lets you scale capacity up or down based on usage, so performance can be adjusted as your user base grows. You only pay for the capacity when reports are being used (paused when not), optimizing cost for embedded scenarios.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Lower total cost: Power BI is known for its affordable licensing. For example, developer licenses are low-cost, and embedded capacity can be purchased on Azure on a per-hour basis. This transparent pricing often ends up far cheaper than Sisense’s large contracts for similar user counts​.
• Familiarity and ease: Many people (and developers) know Power BI or at least Excel. That familiarity shortens the learning curve.
• Microsoft ecosystem benefits: If your stack is .NET/Azure, Power BI will integrate with minimal friction – authentication, data refresh, and other workflows tie into existing Microsoft services​.
• Continuous innovation: Microsoft releases Power BI updates on a near-monthly cadence. Features like AI visuals, natural language Q&A, and new connectors appear frequently.
• Global support and community: With Power BI’s massive user base, community support is plentiful. Any issue in your embedded implementation likely has an existing solution or thread online.

Bear in mind, Power BI Embedded does have some limitations in customization – for example, you can’t fully control the layout of every component.

ThoughtSpot

ThoughtSpot is a next-gen analytics platform distinguished by its search-driven interface and AI capabilities. Instead of relying solely on preset dashboards, ThoughtSpot allows users to ask questions in natural language and instantly get answers and charts.

With ThoughtSpot Everywhere (its embedding solution), you can embed this search-powered analytics experience into your application, providing a modern, AI-driven data exploration approach.

Top features:

• Search-driven analytics: ThoughtSpot’s hallmark is a simple search bar for analytics. Users type queries as if using Google (e.g., “Total sales by product in Europe this month”) and ThoughtSpot dynamically generates the relevant visualization or table​. This empowers even non-technical end-users to explore data on their own.
• AI-powered insights (SpotIQ): Built-in AI algorithms automatically analyze your data to surface trends, anomalies, and insights without being explicitly asked. An end-user can get AI-generated charts highlighting noteworthy patterns, which adds tremendous value beyond static reports.
• Live analytics on cloud data: ThoughtSpot can connect directly to cloud data warehouses (like Snowflake, BigQuery, etc.) and run live queries, or use its in-memory engine for speed. This means up-to-date data in your embedded insights, without requiring heavy data extracts.
• ThoughtSpot Everywhere SDK: For embedding, ThoughtSpot provides an SDK to integrate the search bar or specific ThoughtSpot visualizations (from “Liveboards”) into your app. You can embed entire interactive dashboards or just the search-driven interface, and customize the look via iframes or front-end config.
• Self-service and collaboration: Business users can create shareable Liveboards (dashboards) and pin answers they found via search. This encourages a collaborative analytics culture. In an embedded scenario, it means your application’s users can go from asking ad-hoc questions to building their own mini-report, all within the product.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Natural language querying: ThoughtSpot offers a Google-like experience for data​. This is a huge differentiator if you want your application’s users to explore data without training. Sisense has rich dashboards, but it doesn’t provide the same level of intuitive, ask-anything search analytics.
• Automated insights: The AI engine SpotIQ will find insights a user might not even think to ask for​. This proactive insight generation is something Sisense lacks – it can give you charts for metrics you define, but it won’t surprise you with trends or outliers automatically.
• User empowerment = less dev burden: With ThoughtSpot embedded, end-users can self-serve a lot of their analytical questions through search, reducing the need for your team to pre-build every possible report.
• Seamless big data handling: ThoughtSpot was designed to handle large-scale, cloud data. Suppose your app needs to analyze billions of records on the fly. In that case, ThoughtSpot’s architecture (and its integration with cloud warehouses) might handle those queries faster or more flexibly than Sisense’s in-chip or cached approach.
• Modern UI and UX: The look and feel of ThoughtSpot is clean and geared towards quick exploration, which can be a selling point for your product.

One consideration: ThoughtSpot’s visualization customization is improving, but historically has been less flexible than Sisense’s (focused more on simplicity than complex custom charts). Also, ThoughtSpot can be costly and may require training for users to fully leverage the search.

Luzmo

Luzmo (previously Cumul.io) is an embedded analytics platform for SaaS applications. It provides a lightweight, out-of-the-box solution for quickly adding dashboards to your product with minimal coding. Founded in Belgium, Luzmo focuses on simplicity and a smooth end-user experience, making it a strong alternative for teams that found Sisense too heavy or complex for their needs.

Top features

• Drag-and-drop dashboard designer: Luzmo offers an easy UI for building dashboards with charts, tables, etc. It’s designed to be intuitive and straightforward, even for non-technical users. This means faster dashboard creation and iteration, as well as doing things such as predictive analytics without previous experience.
• End-user self-service: A standout feature is Luzmo’s self-service BI interface for your end customers​. You can embed a dashboard editor in your app, allowing end-users to create or customize their own dashboards (within limits you define) – a capability usually only found in much larger BI tools.
• Multiple embedding options: Luzmo dashboards can be embedded via iframes or using their SDK. They also support embedding via a secured API endpoint for cases where data comes from a web service rather than direct database connections.
• Basic theming and white-labeling: You can apply your product’s colors and fonts easily, so the embedded components match your design. Full white-label (removing Luzmo branding) is available on higher plans (often used by SaaS OEM customers).
• Conversational analytics: Luzmo has recently introduced a chatbot interface that allows users to ask questions and get chart answers (bringing a bit of AI flavor). While not as advanced as ThoughtSpot’s search, it’s a forward-looking feature adding to user engagement.

Why it’s better than Sisense

• Speed of integration: Luzmo is purpose-built for quick embedding. Teams can get dashboards live in days, not months.
• Simplicity for developers and users: The platform’s simplicity is its strength – fewer features means less complexity to wade through. Luzmo’s straightforward approach yields a gentler learning curve for your developers and a cleaner interface for end-users.
• Self-service for end customers: Allowing your app’s users to build or tweak their own dashboards is a big win that Sisense doesn’t natively offer in the same way. Sisense has a developer SDK for customization, but Luzmo’s built-in end-user editor empowers customers without extra development on your side​.
• Cost-effective for mid-scale: Luzmo’s pricing is transparent and generally has a lower barrier (reports indicate ~$2k/month for full white-label capabilities).
• Focus on SaaS needs: Things like multi-tenant support, API-based data feeds, and a lightweight footprint make Luzmo very aligned with SaaS product requirements.

If your use case calls for basic but pretty dashboards embedded quickly and you don’t need the full analytical depth of Sisense, Luzmo can be a refreshing alternative.

Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a cloud BI platform known for its affordability and ease of use. Part of the Zoho suite of applications, it offers a robust set of BI features (reports, dashboards, data integration) with an emphasis on automation and AI. It’s often praised as a cost-effective alternative to bigger BI tools, making it a strong candidate for those who find Sisense’s cost or complexity to be a hurdle.

Top Features:

• AI-powered assistant (Zia): Zoho Analytics includes Zia, an AI assistant that enables users to ask questions in natural language and generates reports/charts from the data. Zia also provides automated insights, which adds an AI-driven layer to your embedded analytics without extra development.
• Broad data integration: It has 250+ data connectors (covering databases, cloud drives, SaaS apps like Salesforce, and of course Zoho’s own apps). This makes it easy to pull data from multiple data sources into a unified view for embedding.
• Drag-and-drop report builder: True to Zoho’s style, the interface is clean and business-friendly. Users can create charts, pivot tables, and dashboards via an intuitive editor, which means your team can spin up the needed visuals quickly.
• Embedded analytics & white label: Zoho Analytics offers a robust embedded BI solution where you can fully white-label the analytics (custom domain, your branding). It supports embedding via iframe or by using their JavaScript API for tighter integration (e.g., single sign-on, passing filters).
• Workflow and alerts: You can set up automated email reports and data-driven alerts and even integrate with Zoho’s workflow tools. For instance, your embedded dashboard can trigger a Zoho Flow or send notifications if certain KPIs hit a threshold, adding operational value directly into the product.

Why it’s better than Sisense:

• Fraction of the cost: Zoho Analytics is significantly cheaper and has transparent pricing plans​. There’s even a free tier for basic usage. Sisense’s pricing is opaque and often very expensive; Zoho gives you BI capabilities at a small-business-friendly price, which can be a game-changer if budget is a concern.
• No hidden fees: All features (including AI, integrations) come included in Zoho’s plans​. Sisense sometimes requires extra modules or servers at additional cost.
• Ease of use = Faster development: Zoho’s focus on usability means less training and faster report development. One customer noted that using Zoho Analytics cut their dashboard creation time by 50%, and reduced software expenses by 30%.
• Integrated AI insights: With Sisense, adding AI/NL querying often requires additional tools or plugins. Zoho has it built-in with Zia. If offering smart insights or natural language query capability to end-users is on your roadmap, Zoho provides it out-of-the-box​.
• Perfect for SMB and mid-market apps: If your product targets small to mid-sized businesses, using an embedded analytics tool that those end-users find approachable is key. Zoho’s UI is friendly and not over-engineered.

Additionally, Zoho Analytics blends well with other Zoho products (CRM, Projects, etc.), but even on its own, it’s a solid, budget-conscious Sisense alternative for embedding analytics.

Qrvey

Qrvey is an embedded analytics platform built specifically for SaaS teams that want to simplify data analysis and get access to actionable insights.

Deployed on AWS, Qrvey takes a no-limits approach, offering unlimited users and comprehensive tools for data collection, transformation, and analysis within a single platform. It’s a relatively new entrant focused on solving embedded analytics challenges (multi-tenancy, scale, customization) in a way that traditional BI platforms like Sisense sometimes struggle with.

Top features

• All-in-one data pipeline: Qrvey includes a native serverless data lake and ETL pipeline​. It can ingest data from anywhere (via APIs, databases, streams), transform it, and prepare it for analysis internally. This eliminates the need for an external data warehouse or ETL tool for your embedded analytics.
• Multi-tenant by design: Qrvey was built with multi-tenancy in mind. It maps permissions on the fly via a semantic layer​, making it easy to ensure each of your customers only sees their data. Its architecture naturally isolates each tenant’s data and analytics environment.
• API-first and extensible: Everything in Qrvey is accessible via APIs, allowing advanced use cases. You can programmatically create dashboards, embed individual widgets, or even integrate analytics outcomes into other workflows.
• Embedded automation: Qrvey goes beyond dashboards – it can handle forms, surveys, and even action workflows. For example, users could set up an alert or trigger (within the embedded analytics) that sends a notification or kicks off a process when a condition is met.
• Unlimited licensing model: Qrvey’s pricing is flat-rate with unlimited users, dashboards, etc. This means you aren’t penalized as your product’s user base grows, which is very appealing for SaaS providers who might have hundreds or thousands of end-users.

Why it’s better than Sisense

• Built for SaaS scale: Multi-tenancy isn’t an afterthought – it’s baked in. This makes user-specific data isolation and security straightforward, whereas Sisense often needs more configuration to achieve multi-tenant setups (and some Sisense users find it challenging​.
• No per-user costs: Qrvey’s unlimited user licensing removes the cost uncertainty when scaling​. Sisense typically charges per viewer or per resource, which can make scaling to large numbers of end-users expensive.
• Developer empowerment: If you have a tech-savvy team, Qrvey will feel like a toolkit that you can mold. Its extensive APIs and customization options mean you can tailor the analytics experience more deeply than with Sisense, which has more fixed UI components.
• Reduced stack complexity: Because Qrvey can handle data intake, processing, and visualization internally, you might not need a separate data warehouse or complex ETL processes for your embedded analytics.
• Cost-effective at large scale: For large deployments (many users or lots of data), Qrvey’s serverless AWS architecture can be more cost-efficient. You’re leveraging AWS’s pay-for-use model.

Yellowfin

Yellowfin BI is a longtime business intelligence platform from Australia, distinguished by its focus on data storytelling and collaboration. In addition to standard BI functionality, Yellowfin offers unique features to craft narratives around data (think slideshows or infographics driven by data) and to automatically surface insights.

For embedded use, Yellowfin provides a rich set of features to integrate interactive reports into applications, especially useful if your product’s users benefit from annotated or narrative-driven analytics.

Top features:

• Data storytelling: Yellowfin’s Stories feature lets you create presentations or articles that combine charts, text, and images, enabling a narrative context for your data​. This is great for embedded scenarios where you want to guide the user through insights (like an in-app report with commentary).
• Automated insights (Signals): Yellowfin has an add-on that uses AI to continuously monitor data and notify users of important changes or outliers. This means your embedded analytics can proactively alert users to trends without manual analysis.
• Customization of visuals: It supports strong chart-level customization – you can tweak chart behaviors, tooltips, and formatting extensively. This can help in matching the look of your product or meeting specific reporting requirements.
• Collaboration features: Yellowfin includes discussion threads, annotations, and a timeline of user activities on dashboards. If your embedded analytics would benefit from users collaborating or leaving notes for each other (e.g., analyst to business user communication within the tool), Yellowfin shines here.
• Flexible embedding & OEM support: Yellowfin is designed with OEM partners in mind. It offers JavaScript APIs for embedding and customization and can rebrand the UI. You can deploy Yellowfin on your servers and embed via iFrames or direct HTML5 integration, with support for single sign-on.

Why it’s better than Sisense

• Storytelling and context: If your use case requires not just charts but also providing context around those charts, Yellowfin is unparalleled. Sisense can show data, but Yellowfin lets you narrate and annotate the data story within the analytics.
• Automated insight generation: Similar to ThoughtSpot’s SpotIQ, Yellowfin’s Signals will automatically point out interesting changes in data.
• Better end-user collaboration: With Sisense, collaboration is more external (export and share dashboards, etc.). Yellowfin’s built-in social features (comments, annotations) allow your users to discuss insights directly within the embedded analytics.
• OEM-friendly pricing and deployment: Yellowfin has been known to offer flexible licensing (including server-based or even revenue-sharing models) for OEM partners.
• Ease of use for operational reporting: Yellowfin is often praised for operational reporting use cases – things like day-to-day KPI tracking with lots of small updates and annotations. If your application needs to deliver this kind of continuous reporting with commentary, Yellowfin is built for it.

One caveat: Yellowfin’s embedding uses iframes on a subdomain by default, which might require some work to make it feel 100% native in-app.

Conclusion

Sisense is an extremely capable business intelligence app that can give data insights capabilities to your end users. However, it misses a few key points to excel in an embedded setting: real time data access with great performance, high customizability, low costs and an exceptional user experience, even for those with no technical expertise.

Why settle for less when you can get better self service analytics for a lower, more predictable cost? With Embeddable, you can create beautiful, fully customizable, fast and affordable dashboards for your end users.

Get access to Embeddable today.

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