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Business Intelligence · head to head

Dundas BI vs Equals

Dundas BI logo

Dundas BI

Business Intelligence

Flexible business intelligence platform

From
$500/month
Rated
-
Equals logo

Equals

Spreadsheets

A real spreadsheet with SQL result sets landing in its cells, now sold only on annual contracts starting at 24,000 USD

From
$24000/year
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Dundas BI the published Embedded BI Package starts from about $4,738.70 USD per month billed annually for 8 core capacity; Equals the price list now starts at 24,000 USD a year with no monthly billing and no self-serve signup, having offered a free plan in 2023 and 39 USD per seat in 2024, so any team that evaluated it previously is looking at a different product commercially.
  • They diverge on capability: Dundas BI covers White-labeling, Equals covers Connected sheets.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Dundas BI and Equals actually diverge.

Attributes where Dundas BI and Equals differ
AttributeDundas BIEquals
Starting price$500/month$24000/year
Pricing modelsubscriptionPer year by connector count and refresh frequency
PlatformsWeb, Embedded, MobileWeb, API
CategoryBusiness IntelligenceSpreadsheets
Founded1992Unknown

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 Dundas BI

  • White-labeling
  • Embedded Analytics
  • Data Preparation
  • Custom Visualizations
  • API
  • SQL Server
  • Oracle
  • PostgreSQL

Only in Equals

  • Connected sheets
  • Real spreadsheet mechanics
  • Cell references into SQL
  • Equals Warehouse
  • Views
  • Writeback

What people use each for

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

Dundas BI

  • Embedding dashboards and analytics inside another applicationnot Equals
  • Self service business intelligence and ad hoc reportingnot Equals
  • Building custom data visualisations against open BI APIsnot Equals

Equals

  • A revenue operations team that wants software metrics computed in a spreadsheet rather than defined in a BI semantic layernot Dundas BI
  • Analysts who need a SQL result and manual assumptions in the same file, with the assumptions visible as cellsnot Dundas BI
  • Joining Stripe, Salesforce and a production database without building a warehouse and pipeline firstnot Dundas BI
  • Distributing a recurring numbers pack to Slack, email or a wall display without rebuilding it as a dashboardnot Dundas BI

Where each one falls short

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

Dundas BI

  • The published Embedded BI Package starts from about $4,738.70 USD per month billed annually for 8 core capacity
  • That figure reflects a limited time 35 percent promotional discount rather than list price
  • Licensing is by CPU core capacity rather than by user, so cost scales with server hardware
  • Dundas is now part of insightsoftware following acquisition
  • The page states that a pricing plan is worked out together with the vendor rather than published as a rate card

Equals

  • The price list now starts at 24,000 USD a year with no monthly billing and no self-serve signup, having offered a free plan in 2023 and 39 USD per seat in 2024, so any team that evaluated it previously is looking at a different product commercially.
  • Your data is copied out of your infrastructure by design, into a Snowflake warehouse that Equals operates, with Fivetran holding non-SQL source data in transit, and no self-hosted or bring-your-own-warehouse option is documented.
  • The financial function category contains only IRR, NPV and PMT, with no XIRR, XNPV, FV, PV, RATE or NPER, and there is no LAMBDA, LET, OFFSET or INDIRECT, so a substantial class of existing spreadsheet models cannot be ported without rework.
  • No documentation of importing or exporting Excel files exists anywhere in the docs index; the supported file sources are CSV and Google Sheets and the only documented export is dashboards as PDF, which is a notable gap for a product positioning itself as a successor to Excel.
  • Data freshness is a pricing lever rather than a setting, at six hours on Essential, one hour on Business and fifteen minutes on Enterprise, and the feature that removes row limits is itself gated above the entry tier, so the Essential row ceiling is neither published nor unlimited.

Pricing, plan by plan

Dundas BI

$500/month
  • Professional$500/month
    • Full Platform
    • Embedding
    • Support
  • EnterpriseFree
    • Unlimited Users
    • Multi-tenant
    • Premium Support

Equals

$24000/year
  • Essential$24000/year
    • Unlimited viewers and unlimited editors
    • 3 connectors
    • Data sync every 6 hours
  • Business$36000/year
    • Unlimited viewers and unlimited editors
    • 5 connectors or a warehouse connection
    • Data sync every hour
  • Enterprise$60000/year
    • Unlimited viewers and unlimited editors
    • Unlimited connectors or a warehouse connection
    • Data sync every 15 minutes
  • Connector add-ons$199/month
    • 199 USD per month for each additional database or import script connector
    • 699 USD per month for each additional connector of any other type
    • Available on Business and Enterprise

Which should you pick?

Choose Dundas BI if

  • You need white-labeling.
  • You work on Web, Embedded, Mobile.
  • You also want embedded analytics.

Choose Equals if

  • You need connected sheets.
  • You work on Web, API.
  • You also want real spreadsheet mechanics.

Questions people ask

Is Dundas BI or Equals better?
Neither clearly leads. Dundas BI starts at $500/month and Equals at $24000/year, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Dundas BI or Equals?
Dundas BI starts at $500/month and Equals at $24000/year.
Does Dundas BI or Equals run on more platforms?
Dundas BI runs on Web, Embedded, Mobile. Equals runs on Web, API.
What is Dundas BI best used for?
Dundas BI is most often used for embedding dashboards and analytics inside another application, self service business intelligence and ad hoc reporting, building custom data visualisations against open bi apis. Of those, embedding dashboards and analytics inside another application and self service business intelligence and ad hoc reporting are not what Equals is typically brought in for.
What can Dundas BI do that Equals cannot?
Dundas BI covers White-labeling, Embedded Analytics, Data Preparation, Custom Visualizations. Equals covers Connected sheets, Real spreadsheet mechanics, Cell references into SQL, Equals Warehouse.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Dundas BI: How much does Dundas BI cost?

Dundas BI does not publish specific pricing. The vendor emphasizes 'smarter licensing models to scale appropriately and achieve ROI rapidly' and offers 'custom plans that fit your needs' rather than standardized tiers. Customers must contact Dundas directly for pricing quotes tailored to their enterprise or embedded analytics use case.

Source
Equals: Is it a real spreadsheet or a modelling tool with a grid?

A real spreadsheet. A1 references, absolute reference locking, pivot tables and spilling array formulas all work, and SQL results land in ranges that ordinary cells reference.

Dundas BI: What licensing options does Dundas BI offer?

Dundas BI describes their approach as flexible licensing designed to scale based on deployment needs. Specific licensing models and per-seat or concurrent-user costs are determined through custom quotes.

Source
Equals: What does it actually cost?

24,000 USD a year for Essential, 36,000 for Business and 60,000 for Enterprise, billed annually. There is no monthly option and no self-serve signup; the trial is negotiated per customer.

Equals: Are seats charged?

No. Viewers and editors are unlimited on every plan. The meters are connector count, refresh frequency and AI spend, with additional connectors at 199 or 699 USD a month.

Equals: Does my data stay in my own warehouse?

No. Connecting more than one source syncs data into a Snowflake warehouse that Equals runs, and non-SQL sources pass through Fivetran. There is no documented self-hosted option.

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