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Business Intelligence · head to head

Lightdash vs Luzmo

Lightdash logo

Lightdash

Business Intelligence

Open-source BI for dbt users

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Luzmo logo

Luzmo

Business Intelligence

Embedded analytics for SaaS products, billed by monthly active dashboard users

From
€995/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lightdash has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Lightdash requires existing dbt infrastructure, not suitable for teams without data models; Luzmo billing by monthly active users means commercial success is punished: getting every one of your customers into the dashboard weekly is exactly the outcome that pushes you into the next tier.
  • They diverge on capability: Lightdash covers dbt Integration, Luzmo covers Multi-tenant row-level security.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Lightdash and Luzmo actually diverge.

Attributes where Lightdash and Luzmo differ
AttributeLightdashLuzmo
Starting priceFree€995/month
Pricing modelUnknownPer month by monthly active user count
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise)Web
Founded2021Unknown

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 Lightdash

  • dbt Integration
  • Metrics Layer
  • Dashboards
  • Scheduling
  • Version Control
  • dbt
  • BigQuery
  • Snowflake

Only in Luzmo

  • Multi-tenant row-level security
  • Embeddable editor
  • Theming and white labelling
  • SDKs and APIs
  • Luzmo IQ
  • Scheduled exports

What people use each for

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

Lightdash

  • Self-service analyticsnot Luzmo
  • Data explorationnot Luzmo
  • Ad-hoc reportingnot Luzmo
  • Collaborative analysisnot Luzmo
  • Embedded analyticsnot Luzmo

Luzmo

  • A B2B SaaS product that needs customer-facing dashboards without hiring a front-end data visualisation teamnot Lightdash
  • A vertical software vendor that wants to sell an analytics module as a paid add-onnot Lightdash
  • A product where each customer must only see their own rows and the security boundary has to be provable to an auditornot Lightdash
  • A team that wants end customers to build their own charts rather than filing feature requests for every new reportnot Lightdash

Where each one falls short

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

Lightdash

  • Requires existing dbt infrastructure, not suitable for teams without data models
  • Enterprise features and AI agents unavailable in open-source MIT-licensed core

Luzmo

  • Billing by monthly active users means commercial success is punished: getting every one of your customers into the dashboard weekly is exactly the outcome that pushes you into the next tier.
  • The entry price of EUR 995 per month billed annually rules it out for early-stage products, so the realistic buyer already has meaningful revenue.
  • It is built for embedding rather than internal analysis, so most customers still pay for a second BI tool for their own staff, doubling the analytics line item.
  • The semantic modelling layer is lighter than a dedicated one such as dbt or Cube, so complex metric definitions often have to be pre-computed in the warehouse before Luzmo sees them.
  • As a smaller European vendor it has less connector breadth and a smaller partner ecosystem than the US incumbents, and unusual data sources frequently need an intermediate warehouse hop.

Pricing, plan by plan

Lightdash

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT-licensed core
    • Self-hostable
    • dbt integration
  • Cloud Managed$undefined/mo
    • Managed hosting
    • Premium features
    • AI agent capabilities

Luzmo

€995/month
  • Starter$995/month
    • Embedded dashboards with white labelling
    • Custom charts
    • APIs and SDKs
  • Premium$2495/month
    • Everything in Starter
    • End-customer self-service dashboard building
    • Luzmo IQ conversational insights
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Dedicated VPC option
    • Flexible hosting region
    • OIDC single sign-on

Which should you pick?

Choose Lightdash if

  • You need dbt integration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise).
  • You also want metrics layer.
Lightdash review

Choose Luzmo if

  • You need multi-tenant row-level security.
  • You also want embeddable editor.
Luzmo review

Questions people ask

Is Lightdash or Luzmo better?
Neither clearly leads. Lightdash starts at Free and Luzmo at €995/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Lightdash or Luzmo?
Lightdash has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Lightdash and €995/month for Luzmo.
Does Lightdash or Luzmo run on more platforms?
Lightdash runs on Web, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise). Luzmo runs on Web.
Can I use Lightdash for free?
Yes. Lightdash has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Luzmo starts at €995/month.
What is Lightdash best used for?
Lightdash is most often used for self-service analytics, data exploration, ad-hoc reporting, collaborative analysis. Of those, self-service analytics and data exploration are not what Luzmo is typically brought in for.
What can Lightdash do that Luzmo cannot?
Lightdash covers dbt Integration, Metrics Layer, Dashboards, Scheduling. Luzmo covers Multi-tenant row-level security, Embeddable editor, Theming and white labelling, SDKs and APIs.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Lightdash: Is Lightdash free?

Yes. Lightdash is free and open source under the MIT license. Self-hosting is completely free. Managed cloud services and enterprise features require separate licensing.

Source
Luzmo: Is Luzmo the same as Cumul.io?

Yes. Cumul.io rebranded to Luzmo; it is the same company and product line.

Lightdash: How does Lightdash integrate with dbt?

Lightdash reads dbt models and metric definitions directly. A team defines metrics once in dbt and reuses them across dashboards, exploration, and AI agents without redefinition.

Source
Luzmo: How is it priced?

By monthly active users of your embedded dashboards, from EUR 995 per month on Starter billed annually.

Lightdash: Does Lightdash support SQL queries?

Yes. As a modern BI platform for analysts, Lightdash supports full SQL capabilities alongside dbt model exploration and visual query builders.

Source
Luzmo: Is there a free tier?

No, only a trial. There is no perpetual free plan.

Lightdash: What are Lightdash AI agents?

Lightdash AI agents, available on paid plans, allow natural language queries against your data, generating SQL and visualizations automatically from questions.

Source
Luzmo: Can our customers build their own dashboards?

Yes, but the embeddable editor for end-customer self-service sits on the Premium tier.

Lightdash: Can Lightdash be self-hosted?

Yes. Lightdash's MIT-licensed core is completely self-hostable and free. Enterprise features and AI agents ship under separate licensing.

Source
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