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Business Intelligence · head to head

Fabi vs Rill Data

Fabi logo

Fabi

Business Intelligence

AI notebooks combining SQL, Python and no-code for small data teams

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Rill Data logo

Rill Data

Business Intelligence

Local-first BI on DuckDB and ClickHouse with dashboards defined as code

From
$20/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Fabi has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Fabi fabi is an early-stage company with a small team, so the durability risk is real and there is no obvious migration path for Smartbooks if it stops trading.; Rill Data the seat price of 20 dollars is misleading as a budget figure: Rill’s own calculator puts a small two-seat project at around 256 dollars a month, with compute making up the great majority.
  • They diverge on capability: Fabi covers Smartbooks, Rill Data covers Local development.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fabi and Rill Data actually diverge.

Attributes where Fabi and Rill Data differ
AttributeFabiRill Data
Starting priceFree$20/month
Pricing modelPer user per monthPer user per month plus metered compute
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWebWeb, Linux, macOS, Windows

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (Business Intelligence).

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 Fabi

  • Smartbooks
  • Smart Reports
  • AI analysis
  • Scheduled runs
  • Database connectors
  • Viewer seats

Only in Rill Data

  • Local development
  • Dashboards as code
  • Embedded DuckDB
  • Bring your own database
  • Alerts and scheduled reports
  • Embedded analytics

What people use each for

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

Fabi

  • A single analyst at a startup fielding ad hoc questions faster than dashboards can be built for themnot Rill Data
  • An operations team that needs Python for a one-off analysis but has to hand the result to non-technical colleaguesnot Rill Data
  • Replacing a set of scheduled Jupyter notebooks that nobody outside the data team can read or rerunnot Rill Data
  • Exploratory work against a warehouse where building a semantic model first would cost more than the answer is worthnot Rill Data

Rill Data

  • An analytics team that wants dashboard changes to go through code review rather than being edited in a web UInot Fabi
  • Interactive exploration of event-scale data where a warehouse round trip per filter click is too slownot Fabi
  • Embedding fast slice-and-dice dashboards into a product where the underlying store is already ClickHouse or Druidnot Fabi
  • A data engineer prototyping a metrics layer locally on a laptop before committing to any cloud spendnot Fabi

Where each one falls short

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

Fabi

  • Fabi is an early-stage company with a small team, so the durability risk is real and there is no obvious migration path for Smartbooks if it stops trading.
  • There is no meaningful governance layer: no data catalogue, no certified metric definitions and limited lineage, so it does not scale to an organisation that needs a single agreed number.
  • The free and Builder tiers cap AI requests, and the daily cap on Starter is reached quickly during genuine exploratory work.
  • Connector counts are limited by tier, so the Builder plan at 39 dollars connects to exactly one data source, which is rarely enough in practice.
  • It overlaps heavily with what Snowflake, Databricks and Hex now ship natively, so a company already paying for one of those is buying a fourth notebook interface.

Rill Data

  • The seat price of 20 dollars is misleading as a budget figure: Rill’s own calculator puts a small two-seat project at around 256 dollars a month, with compute making up the great majority.
  • Dashboards are defined in YAML and SQL, so business users cannot create or change one without a developer and a Git workflow, which stalls self-service adoption.
  • It is built for the explore-a-metric pattern and does not produce pixel-perfect financial or operational reports, so most organisations still need a second reporting tool.
  • AI tokens and API calls are quota-limited per seat, with API overage at a cent per call, so programmatic consumers can create an unbudgeted line item.
  • As a smaller vendor competing against Looker, Tableau and Power BI, the ecosystem of consultants, templates and trained analysts is thin, which raises the cost of hiring for it.

Pricing, plan by plan

Fabi

Free
  • StarterFree
    • One builder seat
    • Ten dashboard viewers
    • Five Smartbooks
  • Builder$39/month
    • Twenty-five Smart Report viewers
    • Ten Smartbooks with workflows
    • One data connector
  • Team$199/month
    • Four builder seats, extra seats at 39 USD
    • Fifty viewers
    • Premium connector
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Unlimited builder seats
    • Full connector access
    • Custom security review

Rill Data

$20/month
  • Starter$20/month
    • Per seat, up to twenty seats
    • Three projects
    • Compute at 0.15 USD per compute unit hour
  • Growth$30/month
    • Per seat, up to one hundred seats
    • Ten projects
    • Compute at 0.20 USD per compute unit hour
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Annual platform licence with negotiated capacity
    • Unlimited seats and projects
    • Dedicated infrastructure

Which should you pick?

Choose Fabi if

  • You need smartbooks.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You also want smart reports.
Fabi review

Choose Rill Data if

  • You need local development.
  • You work on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want dashboards as code.
Rill Data review

Questions people ask

Is Fabi or Rill Data better?
Neither clearly leads. Fabi starts at Free and Rill Data at $20/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fabi or Rill Data?
Fabi has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Fabi and $20/month for Rill Data.
Does Fabi or Rill Data run on more platforms?
Fabi runs on Web. Rill Data runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Fabi for free?
Yes. Fabi has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rill Data starts at $20/month.
What is Fabi best used for?
Fabi is most often used for a single analyst at a startup fielding ad hoc questions faster than dashboards can be built for them, an operations team that needs python for a one-off analysis but has to hand the result to non-technical colleagues, replacing a set of scheduled jupyter notebooks that nobody outside the data team can read or rerun, exploratory work against a warehouse where building a semantic model first would cost more than the answer is worth. Of those, a single analyst at a startup fielding ad hoc questions faster than dashboards can be built for them and an operations team that needs python for a one-off analysis but has to hand the result to non-technical colleagues are not what Rill Data is typically brought in for.
What can Fabi do that Rill Data cannot?
Fabi covers Smartbooks, Smart Reports, AI analysis, Scheduled runs. Rill Data covers Local development, Dashboards as code, Embedded DuckDB, Bring your own database.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Fabi: Is there a free plan?

Yes, a Starter tier with one builder, ten viewers, five Smartbooks and ten AI requests a day.

Rill Data: Is Rill open source?

The Rill developer binary is open source and free to run locally; Rill Cloud is the paid product.

Fabi: Do viewers cost money?

Viewers are bundled by tier rather than charged individually; builders are the priced seat.

Rill Data: How much does it actually cost?

Seats start at 20 USD per month, but hosted compute at 0.15 USD per compute unit hour typically dominates the bill. Bringing your own database removes the usage fee.

Fabi: Can I run arbitrary Python?

Yes, Smartbooks include Python cells alongside SQL and no-code steps.

Rill Data: Can business users build dashboards?

Not directly. Dashboards are YAML and SQL under version control.

Fabi: How many data connectors does the entry paid plan include?

One. Additional and premium connectors come with the Team tier.

Rill Data: Which databases can back a deployed project?

DuckDB, ClickHouse, Druid, Pinot, Snowflake and others.

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