DashCoreHubBI Software Directory
40 tools analysts use, with the free option each one offers. Always confirm current plans on the official site.
Power BI
Microsoft's BI platform for connecting data, modeling it with DAX and publishing interactive reports and dashboards.
Free option: Power BI Desktop is a free download; sharing reports with other people generally requires a Pro or Premium Per User license or a Fabric capacity.
Best for: Companies that already use Excel and Microsoft 365.
Platforms: Windows (Desktop), Web, iOS, Android
Tableau
A visual analytics tool known for drag-and-drop charts and polished, highly customizable dashboards.
Free option: Tableau Desktop Public Edition is free (not for commercial use; publishes only to Tableau Public), and there is also a free Desktop edition for private data that cannot publish anywhere. Professional use needs a paid license.
Best for: Analysts who want flexible, design-heavy visualizations and a public portfolio.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Web
Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio)
Google's browser-based dashboard tool (renamed from Looker Studio in April 2026) with native connectors to Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Google Ads and BigQuery.
Free option: Data Studio is free for individual reports and dashboards; Data Studio Pro is a paid tier that adds team management, AI features and enterprise controls.
Best for: Small businesses and marketers working with Google data.
Platforms: Web
Qlik Sense
A BI platform built on an associative engine that lets you click any value and instantly see related and unrelated data.
Free option: No permanent free plan; Qlik Cloud Analytics offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best for: Organizations that want guided exploration across many data sources.
Platforms: Web (Qlik Cloud), Windows (client-managed)
Metabase
An easy open-source BI tool where non-technical users can ask questions with a visual query builder and analysts can write SQL.
Free option: The open-source edition is free to self-host; Metabase Cloud and paid tiers are available if you don't want to manage a server.
Best for: Startups and small teams that want free, self-hosted dashboards on top of a database.
Platforms: Web (self-hosted via Docker or Java, or cloud)
Apache Superset
An open-source data exploration and visualization platform from the Apache Software Foundation, with a SQL editor and a wide range of chart types.
Free option: Completely free and open source (Apache License 2.0); you host and maintain it yourself.
Best for: Technical teams comfortable with SQL and running their own servers.
Platforms: Web (self-hosted)
Zoho Analytics
A cloud BI and reporting tool with many ready-made connectors to business apps and an AI assistant for natural-language questions.
Free option: Permanent free plan for 2 users with limited data rows and connectors; paid plans unlock more users, data and live connections.
Best for: Small businesses, especially those already using Zoho apps.
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
Microsoft Excel
The world's most widely used spreadsheet, with PivotTables, Power Query, Power Pivot, dynamic arrays and charts for everyday analysis.
Free option: Excel for the web is free with a Microsoft account (fewer features than the desktop app); the full desktop version comes with a Microsoft 365 subscription.
Best for: Everyone: the first tool every analyst should master.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android
Google Sheets
Google's online spreadsheet with real-time collaboration, QUERY and FILTER functions, and easy connection to Data Studio.
Free option: Free with a personal Google account; Google Workspace business plans add admin controls and more storage.
Best for: Teams that share data online and small businesses on a budget.
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
LibreOffice Calc
The spreadsheet in the LibreOffice suite, with pivot tables (DataPilot), charts and good compatibility with Excel files.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Learners who need a free offline spreadsheet, including on Linux.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
PostgreSQL
A powerful open-source relational database with excellent SQL support, including window functions and CTEs.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Learning standard SQL and powering analytics for small and mid-size apps.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
MySQL
A popular open-source relational database behind many websites and web apps, including WordPress.
Free option: MySQL Community Edition is free and open source; Oracle sells paid enterprise editions.
Best for: Analyzing data from websites, e-commerce stores and web apps.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft's relational database, tightly integrated with Power BI, Excel and the rest of the Microsoft data stack.
Free option: The Developer edition is free for development and testing, and the Express edition is free for small production databases.
Best for: Analysts working in Microsoft-based companies.
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Docker
SQLite
A tiny database stored in a single file with no server to install; it is built into Python and countless apps.
Free option: Completely free (public domain).
Best for: Practicing SQL on your own laptop in minutes.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
DuckDB
An in-process analytical database that runs fast SQL directly on CSV and Parquet files, with no server required.
Free option: Completely free and open source (MIT License).
Best for: Analyzing large files on a laptop with SQL.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux; Python, R and command line
Snowflake
A cloud data warehouse that separates storage from compute, so teams can scale queries up or down on demand.
Free option: No permanent free plan; a 30-day free trial with usage credits is available, no credit card required.
Best for: Growing companies centralizing data from many sources.
Platforms: Web (cloud on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud)
Google BigQuery
Google's serverless data warehouse: you load data and run SQL without managing any servers, and it connects directly to Data Studio.
Free option: The BigQuery sandbox is free with no credit card: 10 GiB of storage and 1 TiB of queries per month, with tables expiring after 60 days.
Best for: Learning cloud SQL for free and analyzing Google Analytics and Ads data.
Platforms: Web (Google Cloud)
Databricks
A lakehouse platform that combines data engineering, SQL analytics and machine learning on top of Apache Spark.
Free option: Databricks Free Edition is a no-cost, quota-limited workspace for learning and experimenting.
Best for: Data teams that mix SQL, Python and machine learning at scale.
Platforms: Web (cloud on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud)
Microsoft Fabric
Microsoft's all-in-one analytics platform that brings data engineering, warehousing, real-time analytics and Power BI together on OneLake.
Free option: A free 60-day trial capacity is available (if your organization allows it), and there is a free Fabric user license; ongoing use needs a paid capacity.
Best for: Power BI teams that want to grow into a full data platform.
Platforms: Web
Amazon Redshift
Amazon's cloud data warehouse for running SQL analytics on large datasets inside the AWS ecosystem.
Free option: New Redshift Serverless users get a one-time free trial credit to use within 90 days; it is separate from the AWS Free Tier.
Best for: Companies whose data already lives in AWS.
Platforms: Web (AWS cloud)
dbt
A transformation tool that lets analysts build tested, documented data models using SQL SELECT statements. dbt Labs merged with Fivetran in 2026.
Free option: dbt Core is free and open source; the hosted dbt platform has a free Developer plan for one user and paid team plans.
Best for: Analysts who want software-engineering practices for SQL.
Platforms: Command line (Windows, macOS, Linux), Web
Fivetran
A managed data-movement service with hundreds of prebuilt connectors that copy data from apps and databases into your warehouse automatically.
Free option: A Free plan covers low monthly data volumes (500,000 monthly active rows); larger volumes are paid.
Best for: Teams that want pipelines without writing or maintaining code.
Platforms: Web
Airbyte
An open-source data integration platform with a large catalog of connectors for moving data into warehouses and lakes.
Free option: Airbyte's open-source self-managed edition is free with unlimited volume (you run the servers); Airbyte Cloud is paid.
Best for: Technical teams that want free, customizable pipelines.
Platforms: Web (self-hosted or cloud)
Power Query
Microsoft's data-prep engine for importing, cleaning and reshaping data with recorded steps (M language) that refresh with one click.
Free option: Included at no extra cost in Excel and Power BI Desktop.
Best for: Excel and Power BI users who clean the same files every week.
Platforms: Windows, macOS (Excel), Web
Alteryx
A drag-and-drop analytics automation platform for blending, cleaning and analyzing data without code.
Free option: No free plan; a free trial of the Alteryx One platform, including Designer, is available.
Best for: Business analysts automating complex, repetitive data workflows.
Platforms: Windows (Designer), Web
Jupyter
Notebooks that mix live code, charts and notes in one document; JupyterLab is the main interface.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Exploring data step by step and sharing reproducible analysis.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux (runs in the browser)
Google Colab
Hosted Jupyter notebooks that run in your browser with Python and popular data libraries preinstalled, no setup required.
Free option: Free tier with a Google account (compute resources and session time are limited); paid plans add more resources.
Best for: Beginners who want to start Python without installing anything.
Platforms: Web
Visual Studio Code
Microsoft's code editor; with the Python and Jupyter extensions it runs notebooks, scripts and SQL in one place.
Free option: Completely free.
Best for: Analysts moving from notebooks to reusable scripts and projects.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, Web
pandas
The standard Python library for working with tables (DataFrames): reading files, filtering, grouping, merging and reshaping data.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Excel users taking their first steps in Python.
Platforms: Python (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Polars
A fast DataFrame library written in Rust, with lazy evaluation that handles large datasets efficiently.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Processing large files faster than pandas.
Platforms: Python, Rust (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Plotly
A Python charting library that creates interactive charts with hover, zoom and filters in just a few lines of code.
Free option: The Plotly Python library is free and open source; Plotly also sells commercial products for deploying apps.
Best for: Interactive charts in notebooks and web apps.
Platforms: Python (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Streamlit
A Python framework that turns data scripts into interactive web apps and dashboards without any front-end coding.
Free option: The Streamlit library is free and open source, and Streamlit Community Cloud lets you deploy public apps for free.
Best for: Sharing Python analysis as a simple web dashboard.
Platforms: Python (Windows, macOS, Linux), Web
scikit-learn
The go-to Python library for classic machine learning: regression, classification, clustering and model evaluation.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Analysts adding forecasting and prediction to their toolkit.
Platforms: Python (Windows, macOS, Linux)
Copilot in Power BI and Excel
Microsoft's AI assistant inside Excel and Power BI that can write formulas and DAX, suggest visuals, build report pages and summarize data.
Free option: No free option for Power BI: Copilot needs a paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher; trial capacities are not supported). In Excel, Copilot is included with Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions (with usage limits); business plans need a Copilot license.
Best for: Microsoft 365 users who want AI help right inside their files.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Web
ChatGPT
OpenAI's AI assistant that can explain formulas, write SQL and Python, and analyze uploaded files.
Free option: Free plan with usage limits; paid plans add higher limits and more advanced models.
Best for: Getting quick help with formulas, code and data questions.
Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant, strong at writing and reviewing code, explaining DAX and SQL, and analyzing documents and data files.
Free option: Free plan with usage limits; paid plans add higher limits and more features.
Best for: Reviewing long documents, code and analysis logic.
Platforms: Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android
Gemini
Google's AI assistant, integrated across Google products, that can help write formulas, summarize data and answer questions.
Free option: Free version with usage limits; paid Google AI plans and Google Workspace plans add more features, including Gemini inside Google Sheets.
Best for: People who work mainly in Google Sheets and Google Workspace.
Platforms: Web, iOS, Android
DAX Studio
A tool for writing, running and performance-tuning DAX queries against Power BI and Analysis Services models.
Free option: Completely free and open source.
Best for: Power BI users who need to debug slow measures.
Platforms: Windows
Tabular Editor
An editor for Power BI and Analysis Services data models that speeds up bulk changes to measures, columns and security roles.
Free option: Tabular Editor 2 is free and open source; Tabular Editor 3 is a paid commercial version with more features.
Best for: Power BI developers managing large models.
Platforms: Windows
DBeaver
A universal database client that connects to PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, SQLite, DuckDB and many others from one interface.
Free option: DBeaver Community is free and open source; paid editions add extra features and support.
Best for: Writing and running SQL against any database.
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux