ThoughtSpot Reviews

My name is Peter Chemo, a Financial Analyst at Nesto.

One of the major challenges that ThoughtSpot solves is reducing the dependency on data teams for reports and insights. ThoughtSpot also integrates well with modern data cloud platforms like Snowflake. This platform enables the creation of dynamic, interactive dashboards and visualization which helps track KPIs and provide insights into business performance. We are able to make data-driven decisions, know how our business is doing, and understand where to put more effort and where our clients are very happy about our business. ThoughtSpot empowers non-technical users to perform ad hoc data analysis. Users can use a Google-like search interface to query data and generate insights in real-time without relying on the data team.

We are able to gather data insights from different data sources and make our own data-driven decisions easily without even involving the data team. ThoughtSpot delivers performance at scale, ensuring that even the largest organization can quickly analyze and visualize data without needing a data team. I love the ability to seamlessly share live dashboards, foster collaboration, and ensure everyone in the organization is working from the same data source and aligned in decision-making.

ThoughtSpot allows us to create live boards that process quickly when it comes to large datasets. We are able to do a live data connection that gives us scalability to find insights that ultimately guide us in the strategic management of our data, whether it is engineering, marketing, product, or any department. Our teams are able to make their own data-driven decisions easily. This serves a wide array of use cases when the strategy is focused on product.

We gather data from different departments through ThoughtSpot, which enables us to collaborate and make data-driven decisions together.

I have an experience of four years using ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot is very easy to use. Even non-technical users find it very easy to use and user-friendly.

Some of the best features ThoughtSpot offers are innovation, ease of use, and data analytics. Reporting development is also pretty easy, making complex formulas slightly easier. Additionally, dashboarding for non-technical people, easy search of data, ease of getting insights, AI-driven analytics, and the ability to easily build charts are highlights. ThoughtSpot also offers data connection with live data sources.

ThoughtSpot's scalability is impressive; it can handle large data easily, and performance has been powerful and reliable. The AI-driven analytics capabilities in ThoughtSpot help to predict future outcomes and are very helpful in tracking data, and performance is great.

The customizability of the visualization live boards should be improved. Additional support for more data warehouse systems is needed, as data does not always match sometimes. Sophisticated data modeling features like AFC should be included.

I have been working in my current field for five years.

ThoughtSpot is very stable.

ThoughtSpot's scalability is impressive; it can handle large data easily, and performance has been powerful and reliable.

The customer support for ThoughtSpot is very proactive and supportive, available 24/7.

It was very easy for my team to learn and adopt ThoughtSpot since it has a very user-friendly interface. The customer support is proactive 24/7, so they are able to support both technical and non-technical users.

Positive

We switched from Looker and Sisense before using ThoughtSpot.

I did not previously use a different solution before ThoughtSpot.

The integration process with our existing data sources and tools is very seamless.

The performance of ThoughtSpot has been very fast, reliable, and consistent, even when handling huge amounts of data. I have not seen any crashes.

This tool has really improved our decision-making by 70 to 80% because we are able to rely on insights from different data sources from different departments. We can make data-driven decisions easily. ThoughtSpot is a very good tool because it does not usually take much time from the data team. We make our own decisions without even involving the data team, allowing them to save time and focus on more strategic projects.

The pricing, setup cost, and licensing for ThoughtSpot are competitive, and it is a very user-friendly tool compared to its competitors. Setting it up was easy and straightforward.

Before choosing ThoughtSpot, I evaluated the Microsoft BI tool.

If others want to be reliant on themselves and not on the data team, they should consider using ThoughtSpot. ThoughtSpot gathers insights from different data sources and allows for making their own data-driven decisions.

It is easy to make data-driven decisions with ThoughtSpot. Consequently, we are able to gather insights from different data sources, improving data security. Tracking and progress reports are simple to generate, and the speed of execution is commendable.

ThoughtSpot is very easy to use, cost-effective, and a very secure tool. I would rate this product an 8 out of 10.

I am currently simultaneously working with Power BI, ThoughtSpot, Snowflake, and Postgres as the products and solutions. ThoughtSpot is deployed on AWS.

It was implemented as a POC model because we previously used Oracle-based business intelligence, such as OAC. Due to cost considerations, we moved to Power BI, which is working fine currently. Because of recent advancements, ThoughtSpot is excellent at processing huge amounts of data. Where Power BI lacks processing compute power, we conducted a POC to check the accuracy and design capabilities of the dashboards. We worked on ThoughtSpot, tried to replicate existing reports, reconcile them, and then implemented it for one project.

The best feature is usability from the customer and client perspective. Usually, we would need a dedicated developer for creating reports in Power BI. However, ThoughtSpot is really easy to work with. The connectivity is easy with other databases, and the amount of data it consumes and the generation power is impressive. In Power BI, refreshing the same amount of data takes almost half an hour, while in ThoughtSpot it takes approximately 10-15 seconds.

Once all the datasets and configurations are set up, the usability in ThoughtSpot is excellent. Users can utilize NLQ and get quality results. The entire dashboard functionality is superior compared to Power BI's Q&A and recently introduced Co-pilot, as ThoughtSpot understands the data better.

We have seen areas where improvements are needed for predictions with natural language search. While we can derive normal Gaussian curve predictions, there are additional aspects that could be enhanced.

AI-driven insights in ThoughtSpot have not been implemented yet as our organization has not approved releasing the data to AI. This process is still pending approval.

The prediction model needs improvement. While NLQ is working perfectly fine and the data understanding capabilities of ThoughtSpot are good, there is room for improvement. Compared to Oracle's DV or Microsoft Power BI, it is more advanced. However, when implementing it for finance, general ledger, profit and loss, and balance sheet applications, we faced some challenges as these areas require very accurate data.

I have been using ThoughtSpot for approximately six months.

There were no challenges with the initial setup of ThoughtSpot. It was straightforward.

We have not experienced any glitches or downtimes with ThoughtSpot. After delivery, we haven't received any negative feedback from our brokers.

We haven't attempted to scale it up because it's being used by a small group. Scaling might be necessary when we implement it for bigger projects.

We have not yet required technical support.

Neutral

The initial setup of ThoughtSpot was straightforward. It would be beneficial if ThoughtSpot had an integration tool for migration purposes. For example, when moving from Oracle-based analytics to ThoughtSpot or from Power BI to ThoughtSpot, a tool that could pull in all connections, understand the design in Power BI, and replicate it in ThoughtSpot would be valuable. This would eliminate most migration challenges, make the process smoother, and require less manpower.

The initial setup of ThoughtSpot was straightforward.

I handled the deployment myself and purchased ThoughtSpot from the vendor.

Compared to Power BI, ThoughtSpot is more expensive. This is why we haven't implemented it for most projects currently. Based on our implementation in one project, we are trying to raise more funding to expand its use.

The main difference is the heavy reliance on developers for visualization development and data modeling in other technologies compared to ThoughtSpot. Additionally, the in-memory computation power is significantly lower in competitor products. Oracle DV has recently gained attention due to its predictive model capability and flexible design options.

ThoughtSpot is quite intuitive. We haven't used it for workflows yet as most workflows and pipelines are developed in Snowflake using Snowpipe and PL/SQLs. The main benefit is the reduced dependency for generating reports.

Two major benefits are the reduced reliance on developers to get accurate data and the impressive data processing capabilities.

The organization-level setup is straightforward, and the integration with AD server is seamless. The SSO configurations work smoothly.

It would be beneficial to have more variety of visuals included in ThoughtSpot, though the current offerings perform adequately.

The in-memory computing and NLQ capabilities are significant advantages compared to other technologies in the market.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate ThoughtSpot an 8.

I had some experience with ThoughtSpot. It was a very limited use case, as I was just a part of a POC, so I cannot really comment.

Different BI tools have their strengths and weaknesses. If you take Tableau, it has very adjustability. You can make any kinds of dashboards in Tableau, and you can do many things. If you take Power BI, it has a good background of Microsoft helping it with its Microsoft services. So, different tools have different plus points. The point which I found to be a strength point for Domo was collaboration while building dashboards and pipelines, and the volume of data it used to handle. Domo has its own place in the market, but I would suggest the certification costs and the pricing for clients needs to be reduced a little. Otherwise, it's a good tool.

It's very consumer-friendly, and it adopted the GenAI features very quickly. I would measure Domo and ThoughtSpot on a similar scale, so there's a limited difference.

When researching new data, you need some machine which helps us scout through the entire data and give us basic insights. It takes very little time for us to gauge the kind of data it is, its nature, quality, and makes quality check and governance easy. Testing becomes easy, and if I have some questions for ad-hoc analysis, that becomes easy on ThoughtSpot, so that is very handy in those areas. It's not actually developed for developers; it is developed more for a middle to senior level, considering the conversational AI features.

I have used that feature, and that was very handy, but in an actual case scenario, you would not use that too much because you don't know the kind of formulas which have been used in the background. There are chances that it might hallucinate or build some different formulas than what you are expecting as a developer. Although it's a very nice feature to have, I don't think that is something which can survive alone.

There should be a free version of it for people to learn easily so that they get adapted easily and get used to supporting the Domo community, which is something very important.

The certification costs and the pricing for clients needs to be reduced a little.

You need to have someone working on the back end.

I have been working in this field for close to four and a half years.

It is stable.

I'm not sure about its scalability; I have no real-time experience on that.

I did not actually reach out much to the Domo support, but a few seniors of mine who reached out found it satisfactory.

They had a good experience with Domo.

We can rate them 9 or 10 for their support, and we never had any complaints.

ThoughtSpot customer service is slightly slower than what I expected. I had reached out to them for some reason, and there was a slight delay. I got a response from them maybe two weeks later, but they resolved my issue the moment they got back to it.

Positive

This was just a POC, and I never sold or tried selling ThoughtSpot to anyone, although I tried selling Domo.

It's straightforward. I did my architect certification in ThoughtSpot, and it's straightforward to set up and work on it.

I have done my certification, so I know that there is an on-prem version of it. I did the cloud one, the cloud architect one, so it is pretty straightforward, and it's basically plug-and-play.

Different BI tools have their strengths and weaknesses. If you take Tableau, it has very adjustability. You can make any kinds of dashboards in Tableau, and you can do many things. If you take Power BI, it has a good background of Microsoft helping it with its Microsoft services. So, different tools have different plus points.

It's okay to use the company name GoodRx.

I recently moved into data engineering, but prior to this, I was a senior analyst at blend360.com.

I did not do a real-time case on predictive analysis on ThoughtSpot, so I cannot give you a right answer.

Domo features I have not really been exposed to, so I cannot comment on Domo. ThoughtSpot is good for scouting and learning, but that cannot be used as a base for production items. So, I cannot really compare on that scale.

It's not the best for ThoughtSpot.

I rate ThoughtSpot a six out of ten.

Clients use ThoughtSpot because of its search facility. It is easy for searching and does not require analysts to provide reports. There is no drill-down path on the data, so users can drill data anywhere and get answers. It has agentic AI built in with natural language processing.

It is very self-service and includes natural language search capability.

I think it is a game changer this year. They have implemented something called Spotter, which provides the end user with a Google-style analytics solution to deliver quick insights without extensive training or requiring an analyst for reports.

They work with Microsoft and AWS.

I do not think there is anything that needs improvement at the moment. It is being improved continuously. They are connecting to many AI-type tools. Their pricing has recently changed to be more price-conscious.

From the implementation perspective, it could possibly be a bit more streamlined.

Eight years.

It is absolutely stable.

ThoughtSpot is absolutely a scalable solution.

Technical support of ThoughtSpot rates at an eight. Because we manage our customers, we solve any problems that come to us in the first instance, and then we triage the calls. If anything needs to go to ThoughtSpot, then it goes over to them.

Positive

The initial setup is medium in complexity. As an implementer of ThoughtSpot, modeling capabilities are required to get ThoughtSpot operational. We build some live boards for the customer so they can get started with it. Then we hand it over to the customer to continue and administer the platform as they see fit.

The return on investment is demonstrated through time savings and speed to insights.

I have not personally encountered any issues as I do not perform the implementations, but there could be some. I speak from a customer and sales perspective.

On a scale of 1-10, this solution rates a 10.

I use ThoughtSpot as one of the visualization tools. I mainly create some live boards and provide access to the data sources and worksheets to users so they can create their own analyses and answers as required.

The tool is user-friendly for the end users. It is primarily a search-based tool. Users do not need a technical background to work directly on the dataset. 

Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily. ThoughtSpot is fast, even with one to ten terabytes of data.

The visualization customization needs improvement. Currently, it is not as customizable as the options available on Power BI or Tableau. It mainly offers basic chart options.

I have been using it for more than four years now.

The stability of the product is really good. I use it primarily for large datasets, and it performs faster than regular data visualization tools such as Power BI, which has limits on dataset size.

The tool is flexible but not as advanced as Tableau, Power BI, or Looker, which have separate tools for preparation, customization, and storytelling.

The support team gets a six out of ten.They are not as proactive. The knowledge base for ThoughtSpot is less robust compared to others.

Neutral

The initial setup is easy. It supports compatibility with most databases, making it easy to bring data from any database, create joins, and develop worksheets.

It's a great tool for analyzing large datasets. For someone new to ThoughtSpot, it is efficient for analysis tasks that involve large amounts of data. 

Overall, I would give it a rating of eight out of ten.

Neutral

I use ThoughtSpot for our BI internal use cases at Zoomin software. I mainly developed models for go-to-market, HR, product teams, and customer success.

The main core of ThoughtSpot is to create models, connect data pipelines, and create business models and dashboards on top of them. I often use connections to external systems like syncing information with Salesforce or exporting data to spreadsheets. I started to review the AI capabilities of ThoughtSpot but terminated my work with it due to our company's acquisition by Salesforce.

I encountered limitations mainly around UI and dashboard configuration. The widgets are simple with limited flexibility or customization. I would like more customization options. 

Additionally, handling governance when there are many models and dashboards is complex. There is no way to organize assets by business unit, only a list with tags, which is not convenient.

I have used the solution for a little bit less than three years.

Stability is very important, and ThoughtSpot performs well. The upgrades are smooth with no downtime, which is super important.

I rate ThoughtSpot as eight out of ten in scalability. The platform does not have technical problems with scaling data or connections, but governance can become an issue with many dashboards or models.

The customer service and support are not good. I stopped opening tickets due to insufficient and untimely responses. The questions asked were often unrelated to the problem and not helpful.

Negative

Previously, I used Sisense and maintained both Sisense and ThoughtSpot. I did not switch, rather used them concurrently.

I was not part of the initial setup. My first time working with ThoughtSpot was complicated due to the TML feature and security rules, which were not intuitive.

We did not have a lot of users, so there was no significant revenue return. However, we saved time for some personnel due to the data warehouse setup.

ThoughtSpot is expensive. When compared with Tableau and Sisense, it is around seven or eight on the expense scale.

I was not involved in the decision-making process, however, two additional tools were evaluated before choosing ThoughtSpot.

My overall rating for ThoughtSpot is eight out of ten. 

I don't have specific advice or recommendations. It is one of many tools on the market.

I have been using ThoughtSpot for various purposes. In the past, I used it for contract management with a healthcare company and workforce management to ensure proper staffing for call centers based on product changes. 

Currently, I'm using it for business and sales, working with Salesforce data, and managing our clients. It's primarily for internal operations.

ThoughtSpot excels in being self-service oriented, allowing users who aren't developers to easily create their own reports and visualizations, making it very intuitive. The alerting system and security enablement for both internal and external customers are very good. The self-service analytics capabilities are unrivaled, making it a top-notch solution. It has greatly improved time savings and business sales by facilitating targeted marketing approaches.

Some areas for improvement include the pixel-perfect dashboards, which are not as refined as those in Tableau. Enhancing integration capabilities with other tools like DBT would also be beneficial as it would make our lives easier.

I have been working with ThoughtSpot for four years.

The responsiveness of accessing live data is exceptional and faster than most other BI tools. We haven't faced any stability issues except the need for enhanced integration between DBT and ThoughtSpot.

Scalability depends on your contract with them, whether it's consumption-based or row-based. By negotiating well, you can scale it as much as you want.

ThoughtSpot provides a dedicated customer success person and the ability to submit tickets online, with a response time of no more than a day. I would rate their support an eight out of ten, with room for improvement.

Positive

I have used other BI tools like SAS, which require a BI developer background to build something useful.

The initial setup was super easy. It was straightforward to align connectors with other tools, such as Snowflake and DBT. It also works with other databases like Fivetran.

Using ThoughtSpot has resulted in significant time savings and improved business sales by allowing us to identify sellers and buyers across regions, facilitating targeted marketing.

ThoughtSpot's pricing is reasonable and in line with other BI tools. Like all BI tools, it involves negotiation, but we settled on a reasonable price.

I would recommend ThoughtSpot to anyone who wants to have self-service capabilities for their customers, whether internal or external. 

Overall, I would rate ThoughtSpot as a nine out of ten.

Positive

The solution is used primarily for three things. One is for internal operations such as operational reporting, and business intelligence. The second is self-service BI, where people can create their own reports and do their own analytics. The third is we completely whitelist the product and serve it to our customers. We embed it into our other applications, so it looks like a Verisk application and we even have our customers doing self-service analytics, as well.

The most valuable feature is probably the core functionality itself, which is the ability to search and drill down into any data right out of the box. Of course, there's data modeling needed, and things like that, but I can throw it at a set, and I can get up and running in a matter of hours. If a new group comes to me and says, "Hey, I've heard about ThoughtSpot. I have some data and I want to be able to do some analytics, do some profiling, do some BI against it." In a couple of hours, I connect to their source and I just do it. Now for a production product, we have to model and perform it over time, but at least I can get people up and running extremely fast with a tool that's intuitive and easy to use.

The one area of the solution that I do hear needs improvement is on the visualization front. In my mind, I'd rather just get to the data and get to the actual values or get to the thing that drives the business, but there is a certain segment of customers, particularly marketing and external facing where they want additional visualizations. They want the ability to do geospatial reporting, more maps and latitude, longitude, and things like that. 

From a marketing standpoint and look and feel and harmonization across your product, you want visualizations that look like your product.

I have been using the solution for four years.

The solution has been running very stable for a number of years and we rarely have to do anything on it other than upgrades. We spent most of the time learning early on what our usage would be and our loads and things like that, but the product itself was fine. 

There are two ways to do scale. One is scaling ThoughtSpot itself and the servers that it's on. We initially started there and that has other challenges. One is complexity and cost. We wound up using the ThoughtSpot Snowflake Partnership and all of our scaling is pretty much automatic, because of the combination of ThoughtSpot and Snowflake.

In all instances, their team was great. We gave them access from outside, they guided us through the deployment. They've always been very responsive and helpful.

The technical support team is responsive, knowledgeable, educated about the product, and very proactive.

Positive

Before using the solution we used Tableau. One of the reasons we migrated away from Tableau was their inflexibility and unwillingness to come to the table and negotiate. I think their size killed them over time.

The initial setup was very straightforward. I have to say one of the key differentiators for me with ThoughtSpot is their customer service. They sent a whole team of people and we didn't even pay for professional service. 

The implementation was completed in-house with the assistance of the ThoughtSpot team. We wanted to make sure that the proper security was in place and its performance-tuned and everything else. They definitely helped with that. Then the other piece of that, when we originally installed ThoughtSpot, and this is how far back our relationship goes with them, we had what was called an appliance. Rather than just installing a piece of software, we actually had their appliance put in our data center. They sent a whole team of people to help us and to guide us, and that's really what made them stand out.

We were early adopters of the solution so we got some really good deals. Right now we have enterprise, all-you-can-eat deal with whitelisting and everything else. I think it's competitive and it's certainly less than some of the competitors on Tableau. Obviously, it's more than Power BI, which Microsoft gives away relatively cheaply as part of Office 365, but the three main people in that space, I would say it's less than Tableau, more than Power BI, and about on par with let's say TIBCO Spotfire.

I think, being a smaller company, ThoughtSpot is a lot more flexible and that's where there's another advantage in their pricing model. I think they're willing to work with you a lot more than let's say a Tableau.

I give the pricing a six out of ten.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Four years ago we deployed the solution on-prem but now it is deployed in the cloud.

The deployment is normally easy but in our case, we had an additional whitelisting requirement. If you're familiar with whitelisting, it's basically removing the ThoughtSpot logo everywhere and replacing it with our own. That was the only piece that took us a little bit longer than a standard setup and because of that, I would give the setup a four out of ten.

We have about 200 people that use the solution actively where they're in there every day or several times a week. Then we have another 200 people that will play with it for a little bit or go in and out once a month when they need it.

I would say Tableau excels at the visualization piece. ThoughtSpot exceeds at pure self-service in English like Google querying. It also excels at developer efficiency. What may take a Tableau developer five hours to do, I can do or a developer can do in an hour and a half, two hours on ThoughtSpot just because it's more intuitive, it's simpler, and has fewer bells and whistles and they can just turn things out faster. If your aim is to simply get out analytics, if you need operational numbers or need some financial figures and just need the figures and don't need the absolute picture-perfect view of it, then ThoughtSpot is perfect and fast.

I would suggest before using the solution make sure that your data is modeled well. Right from the start for consistency, for good performance out of the box, for data quality reasons. Make sure that you don't skip the upfront data modeling work. It's not that ThoughtSpot couldn't handle a dirtier set of data, it's just that your results are going to be better and faster from the beginning than having to go back later on and work on that technical debt.