September 2026 Edition, published · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › GTM › GTM data and infrastructure › BI & dashboards › Small business · September 2026 Edition

Dashboards and data visualization for small business buyers

Asked as “business intelligence and dashboard tool”, and as “data visualization platform”, on behalf of a small B2B company. 56 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
36%
Contested · Looker Studio 32%
36Microsoft Power BI32Looker Studio27Zoho Analytics05others

36% of first choices, contested.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a small B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Microsoft Power BI36%6%62endorsed leader
02Looker Studio Lab in the set32%0%59endorsed leader
03Zoho Analytics27%0%44accepted challenger
04Metabase4%4%50accepted challenger
05Tableau2%60%50criticized challenger
Show the four products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
09Looker Lab in the set0%76%21criticized challenger
08Domo0%67%12criticized challenger
07Qlik Sense0%58%12criticized challenger
06ThoughtSpot0%42%12criticized challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Looker Studio is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice one time of 4; the other eleven models seventeen times of 44. Looker is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

Head to headHead-to-head pages are published for mid-market buyers, so these open on mid-market figures, not small business.
All twenty-one head-to-head pages: the top seven products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative50%
Key
01Microsoft Power BI36%
02Looker Studio32%
03Zoho Analytics27%
04Metabase4%
05Tableau2%
06ThoughtSpot0%
07Qlik Sense0%
08Domo0%
09Looker0%

What they warned about

Three of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Perplexity Sonar, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Tableau
60%
30 of 50 labels negative · 12 of 12 models · 10 hard negative
“Tableau: multiple sources say small businesses should skip it unless someone else is paying or you already have the infrastructure and staff to support it.” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
Looker
76%
16 of 21 labels negative · 11 of 12 models · 12 hard negative
“should avoid heavyweight enterprise platforms like Tableau and Looker unless they have a warehouse and someone to maintain it” Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt
Domo
67%
8 of 12 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Quote-based... make them unjustifiable without complex, multi-source data and high concurrency.” Grok 4.20, negative prompt
Sisense
89%
8 of 9 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 6 hard negative
“Sisense | Launch from $399/month; mid-market deployments $25K–$150K+/year | Custom builds require significant setup effort” GLM 4.7 FlashX, negative prompt

What they cite

Four of the twelve models returned a source list in this edition: four return the pages they cited.

Sites the answers cite

19 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 244 links across 120 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 8 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.

vendor site · Domo14 answers · 16 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Reddit9 answers · 15 citations · 2 models
vendor site · DashboardFox8 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
vendor site · OvalEdge7 answers · 8 citations · 3 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Ajelix5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Teamwork.com5 answers · 5 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Coefficient4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Klipfolio4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 1 model

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best business intelligence and dashboard tool”, “business intelligence and dashboard tool”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Microsoft parent site
Microsoft Power BI 36%
36%2402,240,000403,136
Google cloud.google.com
Looker Studio 32%
32%10840,5004527,405,347
Zoho parent site
Zoho Analytics 27%
27%882,90023
Metabase metabase.com4%11614,80033760,1511
Tableau tableau.com
Tableau 2%, Tableau Viewer 0%
2%200135,00015,6351,201,809$23853
Databox databox.com0%353,6006860,8614
Amazon parent site
Amazon QuickSight 0%
0%21151,000,0001,380,939
Coefficient coefficient.io0%5
Google parent site
Google Sheets + Explore 0%
0%
Apache Superset apache.org0%183,600931,144,0250

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 2 of them are among the sites the models cited here (domo.com, reddit.com). The first result for “best business intelligence and dashboard tool” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best business intelligence and dashboard tool for a small B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which data visualization platform would you recommend to a small business that sells to other businesses?”Comparative“What are the top business intelligence tools for a small team and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best business intelligence and dashboard tool for a small company with a tight budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 30 person company evaluating a business intelligence and dashboard tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which business intelligence tools should a small business avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Zoho Analytics
One alternativeMicrosoft Power BI
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Zoho AnalyticsChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Power BI
Zoho Analytics
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, ThoughtSpot
Looker Studio
Two alternativesMicrosoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
no first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniMicrosoft Power BI
One alternativeTableau
against: Looker
Microsoft Power BIHeld
Four alternativesLooker, Looker Studio, Metabase, Tableau
Metabase
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Microsoft Power BI
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase
against: Tableau
no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashMicrosoft Power BI
Three alternativesDatabox, Looker Studio, Metabase
against: Domo, Tableau
Microsoft Power BIHeld
Five alternativesDatabox, HubSpot, Looker Studio, Metabase, Salesforce
Looker Studio, Metabase
Three alternativesDatabox, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Looker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Metabase
Three alternativesLightdash, Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
against: Looker, Tableau
against: IBM Cognos, Looker, MicroStrategy, Oracle Analytics, Qlik Sense, SAP Analytics Cloud, Sigma, Sisense, Tableau
Perplexity SonarZoho Analytics
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI
Looker StudioChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Power BI
against: Tableau
Zoho Analytics
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI
against: Qlik Sense, Tableau
Looker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Power BI Desktop, Zoho Analytics
Microsoft Power BI
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Tableau
against: Crystal Reports, Looker, Tableau
Grok 4.20Microsoft Power BI
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Zoho Analytics
Microsoft Power BIHeld
One alternativeLooker Studio
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
Two alternativesMetabase, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Looker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
against: Apache Superset
Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase
against: Domo, Looker, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Sisense, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Mistral SmallMicrosoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Two alternativesCoefficient, Tableau
Microsoft Power BI, TableauChanged
One alternativeLooker Studio
Microsoft Power BI
Five alternativesAmazon QuickSight, Looker Studio, Metabase, ThoughtSpot, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Looker Studio
Two alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI
no first choice
Five alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Mode Analytics, Tableau
against: Domo, Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Oracle Analytics, Qlik Sense, Sisense, Tableau Creator, ThoughtSpot
DeepSeek V4 FlashMicrosoft Power BI
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Zoho Analytics
against: Looker, Sisense, Tableau
Looker Studio, Zoho AnalyticsChanged
Three alternativesDatabox, HubSpot's built-in dashboards, Klipfolio
against: Domo, Looker, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Qlik Sense, Tableau
Looker Studio, Metabase
Three alternativesApache Superset, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Zoho Analytics
Two alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Three alternativesCoefficient, Looker Studio, Metabase
against: Domo, Looker, Qlik Sense, Sisense, Tableau
against: Domo, Looker, Qlik Sense, Sisense, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Llama 4 MaverickZoho Analytics
Two alternativesLooker Studio, ThoughtSpot
Looker StudioChanged
One alternativeMicrosoft Power BI
against: Datawrapper, Flourish, Tableau
Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho AnalyticsZoho Analytics
Two alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI
no first choiceagainst: Looker, Tableau
Qwen 3.7 FlashZoho Analytics
Three alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BIChanged
One alternativeLooker Studio
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
Three alternativesFathom HQ, Metabase, Zoho Analytics
Looker Studio
Four alternativesFathom, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
One alternativeMetabase
against: Keboola, Snowflake, Tableau
against: Looker, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Kimi K2Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analyticsagainst: Looker, TableauMicrosoft Power BIChanged
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Tableau
Microsoft Power BI
Three alternativesMetabase, Tableau, Zoho Analytics
Looker Studio
Two alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI
Metabase, Microsoft Power BI
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Tableau
against: Crystal Reports, Domo, IBM Cognos, Looker, SAP BusinessObjects, SAS Viya, SSRS, Sisense, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
GLM 4.7 FlashXLooker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Zoho AnalyticsChanged
Three alternativesDataHub, Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
against: Klipfolio
no first choice
Seven alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase, Microsoft Power BI, Row Zero, Tableau, ThoughtSpot, Zoho Analytics
Looker Studio
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Zoho Analytics
no first choiceagainst: Domo, Looker, Qlik Sense, Sisense, Tableau
MiniMax M2.5Looker Studio, Zoho Analytics
Three alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI, Tableau
Microsoft Power BIChanged
Two alternativesLooker Studio, Metabase
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
Two alternativesMetabase, Zoho Analytics
against: Tableau
Looker Studio, Zoho Analytics
Two alternativesMetabase, Microsoft Power BI
Looker Studio, Microsoft Power BI
One alternativeMetabase
against: Looker, Tableau, ThoughtSpot
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency.
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:16yes77 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:26yes36 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 00:21yes1830 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:53yes205 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:15yes06 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 02:43yes09 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:34yes020 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 00:45yes02 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 04:41yes020 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:56yes023 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 04:27yes028 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:49yes011 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:31yes57 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:03no02 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:19yes922 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-14 23:51yes207 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:05yes04 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 00:47no03 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 04:58yes016 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 02:12yes02 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 02:10yes069 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 01:39yes018 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 03:24yes020 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 04:47no012 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 00:41yes97 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 03:57yes68 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:54yes1726 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 01:22yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 01:42yes06 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 03:29yes010 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:15yes022 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 22:58yes02 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:40yes049 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:30yes018 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-15 02:23yes051 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 01:40yes013 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:16yes88 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 02:57yes26 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 04:01yes1023 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 03:57yes205 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 02:31yes06 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-15 01:21yes08 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-15 00:35yes027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-14 23:33yes02 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-14 23:34yes029 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 03:04yes025 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:14yes043 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 00:56yes012 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-15 02:53no06 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-14 23:58no06 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-15 03:22no016 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 04:12yes208 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 00:01yes08 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 22:51no05 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-15 03:05yes023 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 04:44yes03 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:56yes025 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-15 04:11yes035 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:47no046 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-15 03:44yes026 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-14 23:14yes149 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-15 04:51no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-14 23:11yes1626 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-15 00:31yes206 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex (asked for grok-4.20-non-reasoning; the API answered as this version)2026-09-15 03:30yes07 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-14 23:52yes011 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-09-14 23:39yes042 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-15 03:41yes02 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-15 01:55yes038 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-14 23:16yes043 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-14 23:40yes038 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-14 23:23yes022 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Qlik read as Qlik Sense
Unresolved, counted raw
Excel/Sheets
Fathom HQ
Flourish
HubSpot's built-in dashboards
Row Zero
Salesforce
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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