Your Sigma Alternative
for Modern BI

ThoughtSpot makes analytics accessible for everyone with AI-powered insights that drive results. Compare Sigma vs ThoughtSpot and see why data teams are making the switch.

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What makes ThoughtSpot
better than Sigma?

Feature

Sigma

Self-Service BI	Intuitive chat interface to ask questions, out-of-the-box drill anywhere to freely explore any dashboard or visual, and use your own agents to create new Liveboards in seconds.	Requires user knowledge of spreadsheets/Excel, which can be a barrier for broader user adoption to certain non-technical users.
Conversational Analytics	Conversational AI agent, Spotter, understands your business context and puts you in control by instantly showing the prompt, SQL, and results for real-time iteration and immediate validation. Get verifiable answers to business questions requiring complex underlying analyses and calculations, including "why" and "how" questions.	Conversational AI answers basic queries and requires user input on every step of analysis.
Visualization Platform	Best-in-industry data visualizations with endless customization options, powered by a native visualization engine. Start a conversation about your data from any chart.	Visualization options limited to preset chart types. No ability to ask questions on visuals.
Automated Insights	Automated discovery of KPI anomalies, change drivers, trends, and forecasting, with ability to ask questions without restrictions.	Lacks built-in AI-driven analytics; relies more on manual exploration and predefined reports.
Mobile App	Native support for embedding agentic AI, conversations, and automated insights directly into your apps and agents, producing engaging, scalabe data experiences for your users.	No mobile app.
Embedded Analytics	Native support for embedding agentic AI, conversations, and automated insights directly into your apps and agents, producing engaging, scalabe data experiences for your users.	Provides basic iframe embedding capabilities.
Developer Support and Experience	Offers comprehensive developer toolkit, including embedding SDK, mature REST API, and low-code Developer Playground.	No embedding SDK, limited REST API support, and basic developer playground.
Governance	Define, package, and deploy data models for your custom apps either in the UI or TML, the most powerful modeling language to manage your business data model.	Building, deploying, and maintaining complex dashboards is a laborious process. Speed and scale limitations result in multiple smaller datasets, creating more assets to manage.
Performance at Scale	Fast access to granular and live data without requiring data aggregation on large datasets.	Public customer reviews highlight struggles with large datasets, resulting in increased loading times and timeouts. Lacks publicly available enterprise-scale embedded analytics references, raising questions about scalability.
SQL Data Prep	Explore data, prep data models for AI, and unify data from multiple cloud data warehouses, Google Sheets, and third-party apps using the native SQL IDE with an AI-powered SQL writing assistant.	SQL editor for lightweight analysis and sharing results.
Data Science	Advanced tooling for ad hoc analysis and data science capabilities in native Python and R notebooks.	Python notebooks for scripting in interactive workbooks.
Live Query	Live query across real-time data sources and cloud data platforms, providing real-time insights. Manage your data and costs on your terms with extracts as an option.	Live-query and caching mechanisms available.
Integration and Setup	Integrated across the data stack and your favorite business tools; maximize your cloud investments with a unified, complete analytics workflow in one platform, no extra installs.	Offers extensive integrations but may require more setup and data modeling efforts.
Customer Support	Proactive, dedicated, and personalized customer support via live chat and in-product support, assisting all users throughout their journeys.	Offers assistance and resources via live chat for users.

Real Customers. Real Stories.

Nick Latocha

Senior Director

ThoughtSpot has become an important tool in our GenAI toolbox that is changing the way our teams do business, with self-service at the core.

meet our customers

ThoughtSpot is self-service
the way it was meant to be

Any data, any question

Only ThoughtSpot delivers trusted insights from even the messiest, most complex business data—right within the tools you use every day. Unlike legacy BI tools with limited AI agents, ThoughtSpot’s AI Analyst, Spotter, handles real-world business questions from every angle.

AI-native architectural advantage

Architected from day one around natural language querying and relational data search, ThoughtSpot has the core capabilities essential to ensuring your AI insights are grounded in your business data.

Embedded Analytics

With ThoughtSpot Embedded, you can embed analytics directly into your app experiences—fast, flexible, and developer-friendly.

AI insights you can trust

While legacy BI platforms make you choose between innovation and trust, ThoughtSpot delivers both. Spotter removes the “black box” by providing in-context coaching and human feedback, ensuring 100% reliable answers—something competitors can’t match. This transparency gives business users the confidence to make critical decisions with data they trust.

I have used a lot of business intelligence tools over my career, and ThoughtSpot by far is the easiest to use and get real answers from our data quicker than other platforms.