Sisense Pricing: How Much Does Sisense Cost?

Sisense is one of the leading embedded analytics tools in the market, with one major problem: you don't know what you're going to pay. While most traditional BI tools (Power BI, Tableau etc.) have transparent pricing, Sisense doesn't want to reveal theirs.

In Vendr's data from 126 Sisense purchases, the median buyer pays about $57,000 per year, with a low end of about $18,000 and a high end of about $179,000. However, it's hard to explain how much this tool costs in just a few lines. Let's break it down in detail.

What does Sisense say about their pricing?

This business intelligence tool has a pricing page, where you are greeted with this form:

This is standard practice in the world of BI. Every embedded analytics project is different, and the pricing depends on your needs, the number of users, the volume of data, the number of data sources and other factors.

To sum up, Sisense software does not show their pricing publicly. If you don't want to fill out the form to get a quote, you can book a demo, or take Sisense for a test drive, which is a 7-day free trial.

Looking for a more affordable Sisense alternative? Try Embeddable today.

What public data says about Sisense pricing

The price for this analytics platform depends on whether you choose the self hosted or the cloud hosted version of the platform. Vendr reports that Sisense contracts often carry a minimum annual contract value of $30,000–$50,000 for cloud, and a higher one for embedded.

Embedded analytics (OEM / white-label) pricing

Sisense’s embedded analytics (now often called Sisense for Product Teams) is designed for OEM and white-label scenarios, where analytics are embedded into a software product for end users.

In these cases, pricing is typically quote-based and can depend on usage rather than just named users, since the end-user base might be large or unknown.

Named user vs usage-based

For embedded use with potentially unlimited external users, Sisense may not charge per named user. One user explained that Sisense Web Access Tokens (WATs) (for embedding without individual user accounts) aren’t priced per seat – instead, Sisense charges based on usage metrics like the number of rows in your ElastiCube (Sisense’s analytic database for things such as data modeling) or server CPU cores​.

In other words, an OEM license might be metered by data volume or compute power. This can get expensive for large deployments​ such as SaaS products where users have a large number of data questions, as high data volumes or concurrency drive up costs.

Pricing flexibility and discounts

Sisense’s pricing for OEM is highly negotiated and there is no real minimum or maximum price - just what you agree on with the sales team. One user noted the model is “flexible and fits your business model,” but also very opaque​.

It’s advisable to leverage competition (e.g. talk about a comparable business intelligence platform) to get Sisense to offer the product at a lower cost.

Infrastructure considerations

OEM customers often self-host Sisense for cost control, but Sisense now favors a Linux-based architecture. One long-term Sisense OEM user complained in 2024 that Sisense dropped Windows support, forcing a costly migration to Linux. They cited being charged about €50,000 just to transition to the Linux version with no free trial of the new version.

This suggests OEM customers on older setups might face upgrade costs. In general, hosting Sisense yourself is possible, but you’ll need to factor in infrastructure and possibly higher-tier support costs when embedding it into your product.

Sisense Cloud vs. self-hosted pricing

Sisense is available as a cloud-hosted SaaS (Sisense Cloud) or as self-hosted software (on your own servers or cloud). Deployment choice has a major impact on cost.

Usage-based elements

Even with cloud plans, Sisense’s pricing isn’t purely per-user; it has usage components. Sisense uses a concept of “ElastiCubes” (its analytic data stores) and computing capacity as a pricing factor. Large data volumes or high query concurrency can increase the cloud cost beyond the base quote​, especially in complex cases, e.g. with many data connectors.

In effect, Sisense Cloud has a usage-based pricing model layered on top of user license,– similar to how other modern BI tools charge for heavy usage.

Organizations with many dashboards, heavy data refreshes for predictive analytics, or many concurrent viewers might see higher quotes. For instance, a user noted that hosting costs “can get expensive if you have high concurrency or big ElastiCubes”​ – meaning a cloud-deployed Sisense could cost well be a smarter option if your usage is intensive.

Support and extras

Sisense Cloud subscriptions may include certain support levels, scaling features, or cloud infrastructure costs. Conversely, self-hosted licenses might require purchasing add-ons (like premium support, training, etc.).

One source indicated Sisense’s pricing involves “no-surprise” bundles that actually include things like a customer success manager, training, version upgrades, etc., rolled into the quote.

This might partially explain the higher fees, but those services can likely be negotiated out for a cheaper “software-only” price if not needed.

Sisense for BI & analytics teams (internal BI usage)

Sisense markets a package specifically for internal analytics teams, called Sisense for BI & Analytics Teams. This is essentially the core Sisense BI platform geared toward analysts and business users inside an organization (as opposed to OEM embedding). Pricing for this offering is typically per named user (or per capacity) on an annual license.

Sisense started out as a BI tool, then pivoted to focus on embedded analytics, so it makes sense that it still has some of that initial legacy architecture and features with it.

“Team” pricing vs OEM

In internal BI scenarios, Sisense is usually priced by the number of analyst/designer seats and viewer seats. The starting investment is still in the tens of thousands annually, even for small teams.

In short, Sisense’s entry point for internal BI is much higher than many SMB-focused BI tools.

Mid-size deployments

As user counts grow, costs scale up.

Large enterprise deals

At the high end, Sisense can become very expensive. Data from Vendr shows the median Sisense annual cost is about $57,000 across 126 purchases, and deals have ranged from about $18,000 up to $179,000 annually for big enterprises​.

This reflects enterprise licenses with hundreds of users, possibly including OEM use or extensive support/training packages.

It’s clear that for large teams, Sisense’s price can rival that of top-tier BI platforms like Looker or Tableau. In fact, some analysts note Sisense can be as expensive as (or even more than) Looker for comparable setups​.

Negotiation and renewals

Sisense’s pricing model for BI teams is not only high but sometimes unpredictable. Users strongly recommend negotiating.

Also, support level can affect cost: standard support is included, but things like 24/7 phone support or a dedicated CSM might cost extra if you need them.

Always clarify what your quote includes (e.g., support, training, version upgrades) so you aren’t surprised by additional fees. Being willing to walk away (or show alternative BI tools’ quotes) seems to help in getting Sisense to a manageable price for BI & Analytics Teams.

A tool built specifically for embedded analytics

Sisense is just one of the many ways to give actionable insights to your end-users. The company is not only secretive about their pricing plans, but users report that the actual pricing is very high compared to most of the competition.

Furthermore, Sisense was originally built for internal business intelligence, meaning that it’s architecture is not built from the ground up for customer-facing analytics. For that, you need something that gives you sub-second loading, embeds natively in your application, and gives you the control to make it feel like it’s really part of your application.

If you're looking for a better way to provide actionable analytics to your customers, Embeddable provides a tool built specifically for product and engineering teams to give you a truly remarkable end user experience, with a quick time-to-market.

With Embeddable as your embedded analytics tool, you get:

• A developer-friendly experience with easy custom embedding
• An unlimited range of data visualization choices
• Integrate seamlessly with your favorite data sources
• Security and compliance by design
• Excellent performance thanks to a performant data service and configurable caching layer

Get started with Embeddable and find out how its unique approach can help you deliver a truly remarkable end-user experience in a fraction of the time vs. a custom build.

Frequently asked questions

Can you get Sisense for free?

There is a 7-day free trial but you cannot get Sisense with a free plan. There are very few (embedded) BI tools offering a free tier. One such example is Metabase, with its self-hosted version, though this comes with significant limitations.

How much does Sisense cost on average?

About $57,000 per year, the median of 126 Sisense purchases in Vendr's data. However, costs go up to and above $160,000 as the number of your seats increase. It's best to talk to their sales team to find out how much you would pay based on your requirements.

Is Sisense pricing transparent?

In our assessment, there is some level of predictability in the pricing plans. However, Sisense can also give you quotes that are very unpredictable, especially when it comes to renewing your plans after being subscribed for a year. If you plan to use Sisense as a long-term solution, it's best to investigate what your costs will be two, three or more years down the line.