8 Alternatives to Redash to Help Take Your Business Intelligence to the Next Level

While Redash is one of the most sought-after and popular open-source business intelligence tools, it’s undergone a major change. On 30th November 2021, Redash discontinued “Hosted Redash”, which means customers had to migrate to the self-hosted open-source version.

If you’re a Redash customer, you know it’s a great BI tool with intuitive dashboards, data visualisation, collaboration features, data discovery, and predictive analysis. But, there are certain limitations to the tool, especially since the shift from hosted to self-hosted. 

So, if you’re looking for a cloud solution to migrate from Redash or simply want to explore better self-hosted options, this article is for you. We'll talk about some great on-premise, open-source, and cloud-based Redash alternatives so you can pick the best tool for your data needs. 

8 Best Alternatives to Redash for 2023

Self-hosted and open source alternatives to Redash 

Cloud-hosted alternatives

Before we dive in, we've put together a quick comparison of what it means to host a tool yourself vs use the cloud version, as well as an overview of Redash itself. Feel free to jump right to the alternative tools, if that's the main thing you're looking for.

Cloud vs on-premise vs open-source Business Intelligence 

Your data mining solution heavily impacts how your organisation uses data, distributes it among employees, and the speed and ease with which you get answers to your data queries. 

There are three options for picking a business intelligence tool:

• Open-source: This is free software that’s distributed among the public. You can view and edit the source code to make changes to a product however you like.

• Cloud-based: These are hosted by the service provider, who manage everything from tool functionality and setup, to bug fixing and support.

• Self-hosted: As the name suggests, these tools are hosted within your organisation. You often need an engineering team to set up, solve problems, and maintain the tool.

The decision to invest in a cloud, on-premise, or open-source BI tool is not an easy one. But, here are some factors to compare where each of them stand:

Deployment and use

Cloud-based tools are the easiest to set up and start using because there’s no need to install anything. This means you can simply log in and get to work right away, which also cuts down on upfront costs. 

On-premise deployment can be time-consuming because it relies on what in-house resources are available. Even after you set the software, it'll take some time to tailor it to your needs before allowing employees to use it – which may create bottlenecks.

With open-source, the process is similar to on-premise – the advantage is that you can see the source code and debug any deployment issues but you’ll need in-house technical expertise.

Privacy and security

Open-source and on-premise business intelligence solutions are the most secure for safeguarding your data because all data exploration and analytics happen behind your firewall. For example, Trevor self-hosted performs read-only transactions on your data, so it’s not copied.

However, for cloud solutions, you operate on the service provider's server, which may make you uncomfortable, especially if you’re dealing with financial, medical, or sensitive corporate information. 

Mobility and accessibility

With on-premise and open-source, you deploy, set up, and manage the data and tool internally. While this may seem a lot of work, it also means more flexibility in features, customisations, bug fixing, and data access. Besides, you can also edit the source code to suit your requirements in open-source.

Cloud-based tools are maintained and updated by the service provider, so they handle all bugs or troubleshooting, not your internal team. However, if you want to scale up, you may have to upgrade to a higher-priced plan and incur some additional costs.

Pricing

If you’re a small startup with a tight budget and no IT team, cloud-based solutions will be affordable for you since they incur a fixed price every month. However, you may encounter hidden costs as you scale up and need more advanced features.

If you’re an enterprise dealing with large amounts of data and have an IT team, you can invest in on-premise and open-source tools. They’re slightly more expensive than cloud-based tools and also have additional costs for maintenance, debugging, and upgrades, but if you’re growing faster, they’ll be sustainable for you in the long run.

Redash

Redash is a business intelligence tool that helps you make sense of data without technical knowledge. You can input data queries, build dashboards to visualise and interpret data, and share them with your team using advanced collaboration features.

As of 30th November 2021, the cloud version of Redash is not available. However, you can host it in-house with the help of an engineering team.

Best for

Redash is a good option for large organisations that want to study small data sets and invest in an on-premise BI tool because of data security concerns. With Redash’s on-premise version, you can manage data access and governance over sensitive information.

Main features & benefits 

• Open-source platform so you can customise, add and edit features for your requirement without facing any restriction
• Intuitive and powerful SQL editor
• Wide range of data sources to extract answers to data queries
• Drag-and-drop and resize capabilities for visualisations
• Collaboration tools to share data with team members
• No restriction on the number of users

Main drawbacks

• No cloud version, so on-premise won’t guarantee much support from Redash in case of bugs and issues
• Time-consuming deployment
• Slow in analysing big data sets
• Lack of control over data flow, posing a potential data security concern

Pricing 

Redash offer three pricing packages:

• Starter: This plan costs $49/month and is limited to 3 data sources.

• Professional: This plan costs $99/month and is limited to 10 data sources

• Business: This plan costs $450/month and allows unlimited dashboards and data sources

They also offer a 30-day free trial where you get access to all features in the Business Plan.

Self-hosted and open source alternatives to Redash 

Redash is one of the leading BI tools, however it has its own set of drawbacks. The self-hosted version doesn’t offer much support, the deployment isn’t smooth and you don’t get enough control over the flow of data which may cause a security concern.

So, if you’re already using Redash but want to explore more feature-rich BI tools to meet your organisation’s data requirements and encourage self-serve analytics, here are some self-hosted and open-source alternatives:

1. Trevor.io Self-hosted

Trevor is a robust business intelligence tool that works with a range of SQL databases to give your team the most accurate answers to their data queries, irrespective of their level of technical knowledge. 

It offers quick and seamless deployment and connects with your company’s databases with a read-only transaction, so your data isn’t copied and is safe within your systems.

Best For 

Trevor is the best choice for medium to large organisations where data regulation is important and who want to interpret data with a comprehensive BI tool behind their own firewall. Its agile set-up, flexible pricing, and advanced functionality also make it a great fit for fast-growing startups who want to streamline data analysis for their teams.

Main features & benefits 

• Very quick and easy to deploy on-premise.
• Full support for set up from our dev-ops team.
• Simple but powerful no-code query builder, perfect for non-technical teams.
• Intuitive interface enables you to answer data queries no matter how simple or complex.
• Attractive and easy to understand data visualisations.
• Interactive and customisable dashboards with auto-update feature 
• Integration with commonly used tools like Excel, Google Sheets, and Slack to build automated workflows
• Highly responsive customer support team 

Pricing 

We offer a generous free tier (no credit card needed) for our cloud version and usage-based pricing once you exceed that, starting at $75 / month. Our self-hosted pricing starts at $500 / month, incuding full set-up support from our dev-ops team. It also includes features like SSO (Okta or Google), full user audit-logs, and more. You can see the full details on our pricing page.

2. Metabase

Metabase is an open-source BI tool and another great, self-hosted alternative to Redash for creating charts and dashboards through various databases and data sources. It allows your team members to ask data queries without any code and through a simple drag-and-drop interface. 

Best For 

Metabase is best suited for startups with non-technical teams, limited budget for a BI tool and who don’t need to run ad-hoc business queries or dig into granular data.

Main features & benefits 

• Simple drag-and-drop interface 
• Removes the SQL barrier so your non-techie team members can get answers to basic data queries quickly
• Comprehensive visualisations for data exploration and interactive dashboards for understanding 
• Powerful integrations to manage data report alerts and reminders
• Wide range of databases
• Excellent customer support

Main drawbacks 

• Basic query builder, so ad-hoc queries and granular data exploration are difficult
• Slightly time-consuming and complicated deployment and setup
• It doesn’t allow joining data from multiple SQL sources

Pricing 

Metabase offer three packages for the self-hosted version:

• Open source: This plan is free and offers unlimited charts, dashboards, connects with 20+ databases, offers 15+ visualisations and allows you to schedule updates via email and Slack with forum-based support.

• Pro: This plan costs $500/month for 10 users (then $10/user/month). It includes everything in the free version plus advanced embedding, row-level permissions, white-labelling and data access audit logs, along with 3-day email support.

• Enterprise: This plan gives a custom quote and offers everything the Pro plan provides, plus priority support and customisable features and users.

If you like how Metabase works, but want to explore other similar options before you make a decision, check out our guide on Metabase alternatives.

3. Tableau Server

Tableau Server is a Salesforce-owned self-hosted BI solution that allows users to organise, edit and share data visualisations, reports, and dashboards to understand and use data. This Redash alternative is known for its scalability, integrations, reliability, and ease of deployment.

Best For 

Tableau Server is ideal for medium to large organisations with a pre-existing IT structure because the tool needs some technical knowledge to deploy, govern, and analyse data.

Main features & benefits 

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface for creating dashboards
• Natural Language query builder which can also understand conversational language
• Interactive data visualisations that help drill down and study granular data
• In-memory data store instead of SQL
• Seamless integration into all stages of the workflow like data access, analysis, prep and governance
• Paid add-ons to enhance data prep, governance, and deploy predictive models

Main drawbacks 

• Data needs to be cleaned before using it
• Complex setup
• In-memory data store makes troubleshooting challenging

Pricing 

Tableau server offer a free 14-day trial and then three packages:

• Tableau Creator: This plan costs $70/user/month and every deployment requires at least one creator.

• Tableau Explorer: This costs $42/user/month and offers limited access to features.

• Tableau Viewer: This costs $15/user/month and offers very limited feature access.

If you like Tableau features but want to explore how it compares to other options, check out our comprehensive guide on Tableau alternatives. 

4. Looker (Customer Hosted)

Looker is a BI and data analytics tool, now part of Google Cloud and uses a decentralised, DSL modelling layer to customise data analytics for users and help them get simple answers to complex data queries. 

As one of the most modern BI tools in this list, Looker offer a unique link-based content sharing experience that allows users to share dashboards, reports and visualisations in a simple click for quick data analysis. 

Best For 

Looker is ideal for large enterprises with the resources, budget, and IT team to deploy and manage an advanced BI tool that also wants to leverage such functionalities to interpret and analyse granular data.

Main features & benefits 

• Real-time reports and data
• Fully customisable dashboards with filters
• Interactive and high-quality data visualisations
• Centralised DSL modelling layer to tailor data analytics to your needs
• Seamlessly joins with multiple data sources
• Offers API integrations with custom or third-party applications like Google Docs and Excel
• Multicloud flexibility and high-end support

Main drawbacks 

• Steep learning curve since Looker uses its own modelling language instead of SQL
• You’ll have to rely on an in-house IT team to deploy, and generate datasets, perform maintenance and troubleshoot issues
• Ideal for data experts, so non-tech users may find data exploration complicated

Pricing 

Looker (customer-hosted) offer custom pricing to businesses, depending on the number of users and deployment type.

If you like how Looker sounds but want to explore how it compares to other options, check out our comprehensive guide on Looker alternatives. 

Cloud-Hosted alternatives to Redash  

If you don’t have an IT team to deploy a self-hosted version, have a tight budget or are short on additional resources required to set up on-premise, a cloud version might be the best option for your business. Here, you won’t be responsible for deployment or maintenance as the service provider will manage it.

Now that Redash has renounced its cloud version, here are some excellent alternatives you can consider: 

5. Trevor.io

Apart from offering a self-hosted solution, Trevor also provides a cloud version of its business intelligence tool. It frees up bottlenecks in responding to data requests and empowers all employees to get answers to their queries through interactive visualisations, reports and dashboards. 

You can customise dashboards as per employee access, explore data through various sources, export live results to Google Sheets, and enjoy round-the-clock support from an incredible team.

Best For 

Trevor Cloud is an ideal choice for organisations that want to empower their non-tech team to enter complex, ad-hoc queries and drill down to understand and explore granular data. It’s also great for fast-growing SaaS companies who want a customisable tool to grow and scale their organisation with data.

Main features & benefits 

• Powerful no-code query builder which also supports SQL
• Flexible and customisable features
• Intuitive interface to find answers to complex, ad-hoc queries
• Attractive and easy to understand data visualisations
• Beautiful dashboards with filters to segment your data
• Ability to build automated workflows with easy integration with major tools like Google Docs, Excel and Slack
• 24/7 customer support team assistance

Pricing 

We offer a generous free tier (no credit card needed), and usage-based pricing once you exceed that, starting at $75 / month. There is also an enterprise plan that starts at $500 / month that includes features like SSO, full user audit-logs, and more. You can see the full details on our pricing page.

6. Holistics

Holistics is a cloud-based self-service business intelligence solution that offers users flexible and customisable data analytics solutions. It’s a great Redash alternative that works with a data remodelling layer that defines and unifies business metrics to achieve them with data-informed decisions. 

Best For 

Holistics is an excellent choice for organisations that want to make their employees self-sufficient with data and eliminate dependency on overworked engineers. It’s also a popular option for companies who wish to prioritise advanced tech functionality like ELT capacities and data modelling over visual features.

Main features & benefits

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• Custom filters and query formats to slice and dive into data
• Unified data modelling layer that brings business metrics and data in one place
• Range of databases that join together to combine data and form one single source of truth for data queries
• Integration and automation features that allow data sharing over email, Slack and other significant applications

Main drawbacks 

• Basic data visualisations that don’t support custom graphs and charts
• Slow in processing and reporting heavy and complex queries
• Data modelling requires experienced engineers.

Pricing 

Holistics offer a free 14-day trial and four monthly and yearly billing plans.

In the yearly billing, you get two months off:

• Entry: This plan costs $100/month for ten users, 200 objects and 50 reports. It includes core self-serve analytics, dataset exploration, data drill/drill-through and SQL-free report building.

• Standard: This plan costs $250/month for 20 users, 600 objects and up to 150 reports. It offers everything in the Entry plan plus map visualisations, metrics sheets, API integrations, PDF report delivery and password-protected links and emails.

• Professional: This plan costs $500/month for 20 users, 800 objects and unlimited reports. It offers everything in the Standard plan plus records-based access control, user activity monitoring, IP access whitelisting, and SSO/SAML integrations.

• Enterprise: This plan is based on custom pricing. It offers everything in the Professional plan plus non-credit card payments and custom supplier/Infosecurity paperwork.

If you don’t want to get billed annually, you can also go for the monthly plans, which have a higher monthly fee than the annual ones:

7. Microsoft PowerBI

Power BI is Microsoft's business analytics solution that offers interactive data analytics to enterprise-level users in its proprietary language, DAX, rather than the complicated SQL. It allows you to ask ad-hoc data queries and assess the health of your business through interactive reports.

Best For 

Power BI is enterprise-level software that allows you to scale to thousands of users without any fuss, so it’s ideal for large organisations that are already using Microsoft operating systems like Azure and Office 365.

Main features & benefits 

• Easy drag-and-drop functionality
• Interactive data visualisations with the flexibility to customise them as per your branding
• Scalable and shareable dashboards
• Wide range of connectors to merge different data sources
• Reporting tools to embed data analytics into presentations
• Smooth integrations with Microsoft apps
• Collaboration tools like shared dashboards for organisational synergy for large companies

Main drawbacks 

• Data needs to be cleaned before use.
• Not available on Mac
• Power BI DAX language makes debugging complicated.

Pricing 

Power BI offer a free plan for Microsoft users with limited functionality and no direct support.

Beyond this, they offer two plans that vary with users and capacity:

• PowerBI Pro: This plan costs $9.99/user/month and allows users to visualise data with live dashboards and reports to share across the organisation. This plan is included in Microsoft 365 E5.

• PowerBI Premium (per user): This plan costs $20/user/month and includes all features offered by the Pro version plus advanced AI, self-service prep with big data, and simplified data management and access at scale. 

• PowerBI Premium (per capacity): This plan costs $4,995/capacity/month and accelerates your access to insights by offering everything in the Premium plan – without any restriction on the number of users.

If you’re not a Microsoft user but like PowerBI features, explore some PowerBI alternatives here.

8. Tableau Online

Tableau Online is the cloud version of this popular business intelligence tool and also a wonderful alternative to Redash with advanced capabilities. 

It allows you to ask any data query with natural language, get the most accurate answer through various data sources and publish dashboards to the public with interactive visualizations and real-time data reports. 

Best For 

Tableau Online is for large enterprises with the technical resources to operate an advanced tool and extract valuable data insights.

Main features & benefits 

• Seamless onboarding within minutes
• Easy natural language query builder
• End-to-end web authoring capabilities that assist in adding additional data sources and creating interactive dashboards
• Quick integrations with cloud databases and third-party apps like Google Analytics and Salesforce
• Desktop and mobile version

Main drawbacks 

• The mobile experience isn’t very smooth.
• Difficult to build ad-hoc query reports.

Pricing 

Tableau Online offer three pricing plans:

• Tableau Creator: This plan costs $70/user/month, and every deployment requires at least one creator.

• Tableau Explorer: This plan costs $42/user/month and includes one explorer license for the tool.

• Tableau Viewer: This plan costs $15/user/month and includes one viewer license of the tool.

How to choose the right BI tool for your business 

With the wide number of BI tools available online, this decision isn’t easy because it defines your employees’ access to data and how you use it to achieve business objectives and, ultimately, organisational success. 

Here are some factors that can help you decide the best tool for your requirements:

• Presence of integrations: whichever business intelligence solution you bring to your organisation, it should blend in seamlessly within your existing workflows to save time and constant back and forth. This means integration with third-party apps like Google Sheets, Excel, Google Docs, Slack, and email. 

• Business objectives: the reason why you’re investing in a business intelligence solution and what you aim to achieve through it should guide your tool decision. Whether you just want to study basic data to make informed marketing decisions or dig deep into granular data and act on it to improve your product – your larger business objective should determine your ultimate choice.

• Ease of setup: do you need an IT team to set up and maintain your BI tool, or can you do it easily on your own, without much technical knowledge or learning? Each BI tool has a different learning curve and deployment capabilities, so consider your team’s tech quotient, analyse your available resources, and data needs to determine the kind of tool you can afford to set up internally or with a team.

• Budget: ultimately, your budget will also guide your decision to invest in a BI solution. If you’re an early-stage startup, you may not be able to afford a professional IT team and the hidden costs that come with on-premise tools. So, a cloud-based tool with a fixed monthly price would be better suited for your budget. Alternatively, if you’re a large enterprise, you may have a dedicated budget for such a tool. Hence, also consider your budget while deciding on a tool for your organisation.

RELATED POST: Your Ultimate Guide to On-Premise Business Intelligence Solutions

Which Redash alternative is best for your business? 

The ideal Redash alternative for your business depends on the kind of tool you choose:

• Self-hosted: If you’re looking for a self-hosted alternative to Redash with similar advanced data analytics capabilities, consider Trevor, Tableau Server or Looker Customer Hosted. 

• Cloud-based: If you don’t want to go through the trouble of setting up and maintaining the solution on your server and want a seamless cloud-based solution, go for Trevor or Tableau Online. If you use the Microsoft operating system, PowerBI is also a great option.

• Overall: If you don’t have a preference between self-hosted and cloud and want to go with the best solution for either, Trevor is the best choice to empower your employees to make fast data-driven decisions with interactive analytics.

Want to see if Trevor.io would work for your team? Try it free for 2 weeks!

Frequently asked questions about self-hosted Redash alternatives

1. What are some alternatives to Redash? 

Some on-premise and open-source alternatives to Redash are:

1. Trevor Self-Hosted
2. Metabase
3. Tableau Server
4. Looker

Some cloud-based alternatives to Redash are:

1. Trevor 
2. Holistics
3. Microsoft PowerBI
4. Tableau Online

2. Is Redash free?

Redash offer a free trial. The pricing starts from $29/user/month. But if you want a tool that’s easier to deploy on-premise, and that’s also available in the cloud, Trevor offer a free 14-day trial and 75% off our three pricing plans for the first three months.

3. Is Redash open source? 

Yes, Redash is an open-source and self-hosted business intelligence solution.