Looking to switch from Preset in 2025? This in-depth guide compares 10 leading alternatives—covering feature depth, pricing, and ideal use cases—so data teams can choose the best BI or SQL-first platform for their needs.
Preset (preset.io) has earned a loyal following by delivering a managed Apache Superset experience, but 2025 brings a wave of new and improved business-intelligence, visualization, and SQL-first tools. Whether you need deeper AI assistance, stronger governance, or cheaper self-hosting, this article highlights the top 10 Preset alternatives worth considering.
We evaluated more than 25 contenders using the following criteria:
Scores were normalized, weighted, and sorted to produce the 2025 rankings below.
Tableau continues to lead in 2025 thanks to its unparalleled visualization engine, AI-generated insights (Tableau Pulse), and seamless Salesforce integration. Enterprises appreciate its mature governance, strong on-prem and cloud deployment options, and vast community of certified experts.
Galaxy (getgalaxy.io) is the fastest-growing SQL editor of 2025, purpose-built for developers who live in an IDE. Its context-aware AI copilot writes, optimizes, and refactors queries, while "Collections" let teams endorse and reuse trusted SQL—eliminating the copy-paste chaos of Slack and Notion.
Metabase holds the #3 spot for its open-source ethos, one-click dashboards, and surprisingly deep modeling layer. Self-hosting remains free, while Metabase Cloud adds managed scaling, SSO, and enterprise audits.
Power BI dominates Microsoft-centric shops, offering tight integration with Azure Synapse, Excel, and Teams. 2025 brings "Copilot in Power BI," enabling conversational dashboard creation.
Looker Studio—formerly Data Studio—provides free-to-start reporting within the Google ecosystem and now taps into LookML models for governed metrics. The 2025 release adds BigQuery Polaris acceleration for sub-second rendering.
Mode straddles SQL notebooks and BI dashboards, appealing to analyst–developer hybrids. Recent updates feature Helix in-memory engine and AI-generated narratives.
Lightdash converts dbt models straight into BI metrics and visualizations, fitting analytics engineers who love version-controlled YAML.
ThoughtSpot’s search-driven UX and SpotIQ automated insights shine for non-technical stakeholders needing quick answers.
Acquired by Databricks and still open-sourced, Redash offers lightweight querying and visualization with minimal overhead—great for startups on a budget.
Holistics focuses on a code-friendly semantic layer and version control, enabling granular data-ops in companies that embrace ELT pipelines.
Preset remains solid, but 2025 presents richer choices. For enterprise-grade visualization, pick Tableau. Developers craving IDE speed should try Galaxy. Teams wanting an open-source BI stack can lean on Metabase or Lightdash. Finally, Microsoft and Google shops will feel at home in Power BI or Looker Studio.
If speed, accuracy, and team alignment on data matter, Galaxy is a compelling Preset alternative heading into 2025.
Yes—Preset continues to provide a managed Apache Superset experience, but teams wanting stronger AI, performance, or governance may prefer an alternative such as Tableau or Galaxy.
While Preset focuses on hosted dashboards, Galaxy prioritizes developer speed with a desktop IDE, AI copilot, and SQL collections. If your team spends more time writing queries than building charts, Galaxy can cut development time dramatically.
Metabase, Looker Studio, Redash, and Lightdash all offer free open-source tiers. Total cost depends on self-hosting resources and support requirements.
Key considerations include data-source compatibility, governance needs, AI assistance, scalability, and user skill levels. Always pilot 2–3 tools with real workloads before committing.
.avif)
.avif){kind=logo}
