Softwr

Business Intelligence · head to head

Lightdash vs Rill Data

Lightdash logo

Lightdash

Business Intelligence

Open-source BI for dbt users

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 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; 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: Lightdash covers dbt Integration, Rill Data covers Local development.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Lightdash and Rill Data differ
AttributeLightdashRill Data
Starting priceFree$20/month
Pricing modelUnknownPer user per month plus metered compute
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise)Web, Linux, macOS, Windows
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 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.

Lightdash

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

Rill Data

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

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

Lightdash

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

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 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 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 Lightdash or Rill Data better?
Neither clearly leads. Lightdash 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, Lightdash or Rill Data?
Lightdash has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Lightdash and $20/month for Rill Data.
Does Lightdash or Rill Data run on more platforms?
Lightdash runs on Web, Cloud (managed), Self-hosted (on-premise). Rill Data runs on Web, Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Lightdash for free?
Yes. Lightdash has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Rill Data starts at $20/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 Rill Data is typically brought in for.
What can Lightdash do that Rill Data cannot?
Lightdash covers dbt Integration, Metrics Layer, Dashboards, Scheduling. Rill Data covers Local development, Dashboards as code, Embedded DuckDB, Bring your own database.

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
Rill Data: Is Rill open source?

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

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
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.

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
Rill Data: Can business users build dashboards?

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

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
Rill Data: Which databases can back a deployed project?

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

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
Share

Related pages

More on Lightdash

More on Rill Data

Keep looking

Other head to heads