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Business Intelligence · head to head

Amazon QuickSight vs Sigma Computing

Amazon QuickSight logo

Amazon QuickSight

Business Intelligence

Scalable, serverless BI by AWS

From
$3/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sigma Computing logo

Sigma Computing

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheet-style analytics that queries a cloud data warehouse directly with no extract layer

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Amazon QuickSight reader and Reader Pro roles charged separately at $3 and $20/month; Sigma Computing every user interaction is a live warehouse query, so compute costs rise with adoption and land on the warehouse invoice rather than the BI line item, which routinely surprises the team that approved the purchase.
  • They diverge on capability: Amazon QuickSight covers SPICE In-memory Engine, Sigma Computing covers Spreadsheet interface over SQL.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Amazon QuickSight and Sigma Computing actually diverge.

Attributes where Amazon QuickSight and Sigma Computing differ
AttributeAmazon QuickSightSigma Computing
Starting price$3/monthOn request
Pricing modelper-userquote
PlatformsAWSWeb
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceSpreadsheets
Founded2006Unknown

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Amazon QuickSight

  • SPICE In-memory Engine
  • ML Insights
  • Natural Language Queries
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Pay-per-session
  • Redshift
  • S3
  • Athena

Only in Sigma Computing

  • Spreadsheet interface over SQL
  • No extract layer
  • Input tables and write-back
  • Workbooks
  • Embedded analytics
  • Version control and dbt awareness

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Amazon QuickSight

  • Business intelligencenot Sigma Computing
  • Dashboard creationnot Sigma Computing
  • Data visualizationnot Sigma Computing

Sigma Computing

  • A finance or operations team that lives in spreadsheets and needs warehouse-scale data without exporting CSVsnot Amazon QuickSight
  • An organisation that has consolidated on Snowflake or Databricks and wants one governed access layer rather than several desktop toolsnot Amazon QuickSight
  • Planning and scenario work where users need to type assumptions back into governed tables rather than into a local filenot Amazon QuickSight
  • Embedding customer-facing analytics into a product where each tenant must only see their own rowsnot Amazon QuickSight

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Amazon QuickSight

  • Reader and Reader Pro roles charged separately at $3 and $20/month
  • Author and Author Pro roles charged at $24 and $40/month
  • $250/month infrastructure fee required if Pro users or Q&A enabled
  • SPICE storage charged at $0.38/GB monthly (10 GB included)
  • Pixel-perfect reports start at $500/month for 500 monthly units
  • Alerts charged at $0.05-$0.50 per 1,000 metrics evaluated

Sigma Computing

  • Every user interaction is a live warehouse query, so compute costs rise with adoption and land on the warehouse invoice rather than the BI line item, which routinely surprises the team that approved the purchase.
  • It cannot work without a supported cloud data warehouse, so an organisation running analytics on an on-premises database or a plain application database has nothing to connect to.
  • Pricing is not published and seats are differentiated by capability, so budgeting requires a sales cycle and a headcount forecast before you can compare it with a tool you could simply buy.
  • Performance is only as good as the warehouse behind it, which means slow or badly modelled tables surface as a slow interface and the fix is a data engineering project, not a Sigma setting.
  • Statistical and scientific visualisation is limited compared with dedicated tools, so anything beyond standard business charting has to be done elsewhere and brought back in.

Pricing, plan by plan

Amazon QuickSight

$3/month
  • Reader$3/month
    • Dashboard viewing only
  • Reader Pro$20/month
    • Enhanced reader capabilities
  • Author$24/month
    • Dashboard creation and editing
  • Author Pro$40/month
    • Advanced authoring features

Sigma Computing

On request
  • Sigma Computing$undefined/year
    • Quoted per organisation
    • Seat types are differentiated by whether a user views, explores or authors
    • Warehouse compute is billed separately by your cloud data warehouse vendor

Which should you pick?

Choose Amazon QuickSight if

  • You need spice in-memory engine.
  • You work on AWS.
  • You also want ml insights.
Amazon QuickSight review

Choose Sigma Computing if

  • You need spreadsheet interface over sql.
  • You also want no extract layer.
Sigma Computing review

Questions people ask

Is Amazon QuickSight or Sigma Computing better?
Neither clearly leads. Amazon QuickSight starts at $3/month and Sigma Computing at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Amazon QuickSight or Sigma Computing?
Amazon QuickSight starts at $3/month and Sigma Computing at On request.
Does Amazon QuickSight or Sigma Computing run on more platforms?
Amazon QuickSight runs on AWS. Sigma Computing runs on Web.
What is Amazon QuickSight best used for?
Amazon QuickSight is most often used for business intelligence, dashboard creation, data visualization. Of those, business intelligence and dashboard creation are not what Sigma Computing is typically brought in for.
What can Amazon QuickSight do that Sigma Computing cannot?
Amazon QuickSight covers SPICE In-memory Engine, ML Insights, Natural Language Queries, Embedded Analytics. Sigma Computing covers Spreadsheet interface over SQL, No extract layer, Input tables and write-back, Workbooks.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Amazon QuickSight: What does Amazon QuickSight cost per user?

QuickSight pricing varies by user role. Readers start at $3/month, Reader Pro at $20/month, Authors at $24/month, and Author Pro at $40/month. All prices are per user per month.

Source
Sigma Computing: Does Sigma store a copy of my data?

No. Queries are executed on your warehouse and results are returned for display, which is why there is no extract refresh to manage.

Amazon QuickSight: Does QuickSight charge an infrastructure fee?

Yes, QuickSight charges an infrastructure fee of $250/month per account if the account has at least one Pro user, has Q&A enabled via topics, or has dashboard Q&A enabled.

Source
Sigma Computing: What does it actually cost?

The vendor does not publish prices. Expect an annual contract priced by seat type, plus a warehouse compute increase you should model separately.

Amazon QuickSight: What are QuickSight's session capacity pricing options?

Session capacity pricing starts at $250/month for 500 sessions. Annual plans range from $20,000/year for 50,000 sessions to $258,000/year for 1,600,000 sessions, with volume discounts reducing unit costs from $0.50 to $0.16 per additional session.

Source
Sigma Computing: Can business users break the warehouse?

They can run expensive queries. Warehouse sizing, query limits and materialised tables are the controls, and they need configuring before a wide rollout.

Amazon QuickSight: How much does additional SPICE storage cost?

Additional SPICE storage beyond the included 10 GB costs $0.38 per GB per month. Authors receive 10 GB included, but Readers do not.

Source
Sigma Computing: Is it a replacement for a modelling layer like dbt?

No. Sigma works best on top of modelled tables and is usually deployed alongside dbt rather than instead of it.

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