Sisense Pricing: How Much Sisense Costs In 2024?
Picking the right business intelligence tool can feel like a never-ending puzzle—especially with more options flooding the market every year. But if you’re focused on a platform that handles both traditional BI and embedded analytics for web and SaaS products, Sisense is a name you’ve probably come across.
Sisense stands out as a self-service, cloud-based analytics tool, emphasizing flexibility for embedding dashboards directly into applications. But like many enterprise-level BI tools, Sisense’s pricing isn’t easy to figure out. You’ll be stuck filling out forms, waiting for emails, hopping on sales calls, and then... waiting some more. It’s an awful lot of back-and-forth just to get a simple quote.
Ain't nobody has time for that!
So, how much does Sisense really cost? We dug through user reviews, forums, and various reports to break down everything you need to know about Sisense pricing.
But if you're in a hurry and want a short answer - Sisense ballpark figure is $21K per year.
Sisense Pricing In A Nutshell
Sisense isn’t upfront about its pricing plans on its website, which is a common tactic for enterprise BI tools like Tableau or Looker. To get a quote, you’ll need to contact their sales team, but we’ve pieced together general pricing information from various sources.
According to TrustRadius and Business Intelligence Market, self-hosted Sisense typically starts around $10,000 per year for five users, while cloud-hosted options bump that up to $21,000 per year for the same user count. For larger businesses with more complex needs, these prices can go higher—some reports show companies paying upwards of $60,000 per year depending on the user count and the hosting setup.
However, these calculations might be a bit too modest because according to AWS marketplace, Sisense pricing starts at $40,000 per year.
| Units | Description | 12 Months Cost | 24 Months Cost | 36 Months Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essential | Sisense Essentials package | $40,600 | $80,600 | $120,600 |
| Advanced | Sisense Advanced package | $69,600 | $138,600 | $207,600 |
| Pro | Sisense Pro package | $109,000 | $318,000 | $327,000 |
If you’re planning to scale, expect prices to increase based on the number of users and the type of usage (e.g., full users vs. viewers). Viewers (people who can only view dashboards) are cheaper than full users (people who can create reports). This flexibility can lead to some cost savings if your company has many casual users who don’t need full access.
Another key factor is Hosting. If you choose cloud hosting, you’re paying for convenience and scalability, but it comes with higher costs than an on-premise setup, which may be more budget-friendly for companies with their infrastructure.
Sisense Cost Breakdown: What Data Professionals Said
Now we don't want to bring you just information you can simply find on the internet - we look into all data communities' discussions, ask about Sisense pricing in all private circles that we're a part of, and here are some pretty amazing insights.
1. Sisense ballpark pricing starts from $35K/year
In a Reddit thread, users mentioned that Sisense pricing can start at around $35K per year, with costs varying based on the number of users and whether you choose cloud or self-hosted options:
- Self-hosted with 35-40 users: $35K per year
- Self-hosted with 15 full users and unlimited viewers: $60K per year
- Cloud hosting with 50 users: $50K per year
What’s interesting is that the organization with 15 full users paid more than the one with 35-40 users. This could be because the larger group likely had a mix of different user roles.
Keep in mind, that these reports are from six years ago, so the prices today are likely higher due to inflation.
2. Sisense is as expensive as Looker, if not more.
Looker has long been known for its steep upfront costs, often regarded as one of the priciest BI tools on the market. Surprisingly, Sisense can end up costing even more, depending on the setup and number of users.
Keep in mind that Looker pricing typically starts around $60K per year, so Sisense is likely in the same ballpark.
It’s no surprise we’re hearing yet again about how expensive and unclear Sisense’s pricing plans are.
Another Reddit user shared their frustration, calling it overpriced and mentioning how Sisense ditched Windows users, forcing them to switch to a more expensive Linux version—without even offering a demo.
3. Sisense's sales process can be challenging
Apart from the high price, another user has pointed out issues with Sisense's sales process. They mention that the documentation is lacking and the setup process can feel cumbersome and time-consuming.
They also noted that Sisense's documentation lacks sufficient detail, particularly when it comes to Data Connectors. While Sisense is highly customizable, you may still find yourself needing to purchase plugins for even basic customizations.
Sisense Pricing Isn’t Designed for Modern Data Teams
The issue with Sisense pricing is that it doesn’t really fit the needs of fast-moving data teams working in a modern environment.
Buying a BI tool can be a long and tedious process. It takes time and resources away from more impactful data work—time spent forming a buying committee, writing RFPs, and presenting options to decision-makers, which in turn, slows down essential business decisions.. You want this process to be as efficient as possible. And above all, you want predictable costs, because data teams already have enough on their plate without getting bogged down by unpredictable expenses. (Read: Dealing with being a cost center).
Unfortunately, Sisense, like many other enterprise Business Intelligence tools, keeps its pricing under wraps. You have to go through lengthy conversations with their sales team just to get an idea of the cost. And once you do, hidden fees start to appear.
While Sisense advertises itself as a customizable and user-friendly analytics platform, actually getting to that point isn’t cheap. You’ll spend weeks, maybe even months, learning the tool—and yes, you’ll be charged for onboarding. On top of that, there are extra costs for team training, software upgrades, and even customer support to help you make the most of the product.
Oh, and don’t expect a free trial. Sisense doesn’t offer one, so you’re left relying on sales demos to figure out if the drag-and-drop builder, predictive analytics, or machine learning features are worth the money.
It doesn't have to be this way.
Holistics Embedding - Sisense Alternative With Transparent Pricing
Holistics Embedding lets you easily add interactive dashboards to your product with just a few lines of code. You can start a free trial anytime to see how it works. Plus, the pricing is clear and predictable—no surprises.
Both plans give you access to the features our embedded customers love:
- Canvas Dashboard: Build custom dashboards using a mix of code and GUI, with full control over layout, design, and content.
- Custom Visualizations: Create advanced data visualizations with Vega-lite.
- Semantic Layer: Easily maintain and standardize analytics logic with our semantic model, so everything stays consistent and accurate.
- Git Version Control: Treat your dashboards with the same rigorous standards as software development, integrating with Git for version control.
-- and a lot more.
What makes Holistics different, compared to other embedded BI tools, is that it lets product engineers build a custom reporting experience, and integrate it without compromising development best practices.