Not Built for Devs & Querying
Briefer is optimized for business users and light workflows, not technical querying. It lacks the speed, precision, and power that developers expect from a modern SQL environment.
Ineffective AI Copilot
Briefer’s AI assistant is shallow and often outputs irrelevant or basic suggestions. It doesn’t understand schema context or query history, making it inefficient for real developer workflows.
Slow & Laggy
As a fully cloud-based notebook, Briefer often feels sluggish. Large datasets can cause freezing, and render times are slow, especially compared to Galaxy’s lightweight query-first experience.
Galaxy is the best platform for data-centric organizations.
Developer-first
Galaxy is purpose-built for developers—not just analysts or business users. Everything from keyboard shortcuts to query previews is optimized for speed and clarity.
Context aware AI
Galaxy’s AI doesn’t just autocomplete—it understands your schema, generates clean SQL, and helps you optimize queries based on past usage patterns and table relationships.
Share with devs and biz users
Galaxy bridges the gap between technical and non-technical users with a clean UI, version control, and permissioning—without slowing down the dev experience.
Desktop first
✅ Desktop app built for devs
❌ Cloud-only, optimized for business notebooks
AI Copilot
✅ Built in, context-aware AI copilot with query optimization
❌ Basic AI with limited context or optimization
Easy for Devs to Use
✅ Preferred by devs and empowers your biz users
❌ Clunky UX, feels more like a BI tool than a SQL IDE
Sharing and collaboration
✅ Real-time sharing & version control
✅ Some sharing, but lacks fine-grained control
Price
✅ Free plan + affordable tiers
❌ $900/year
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Galaxy, and what key features set it apart from Hex?
Galaxy is the developer-first replacement for Briefer—featuring a powerful SQL editor, AI-assisted queries, real-time collaboration, version control, and blazing fast performance, all designed with devs in mind.
Which product offers a better user experience for developers?
Briefer leans toward analysts and no-code workflows. Galaxy is built from the ground up for developers and data engineers who need fast iteration, full schema awareness, and clean SQL output.
What integrations and data sources does Galaxy support that Hex doesn't?
Galaxy supports modern and legacy systems alike: PostgreSQL, DuckDB, BigQuery, Snowflake, Pinecone, Slack, Notion, and more—while Briefer has limited connectors optimized for light BI use cases.
Does Galaxy offer a free trial or demo, and how can I get started?
Galaxy is totally free to use with incremental premium tiers for additional AI usage, sharing, and more :)
Can non technical users use Galaxy?
Yes. Galaxy’s interface is intuitive enough for non-technical teammates, while still powerful enough for developers. Our Telescope mode even allows business users to get AI help without touching code.
What community and support options does Galaxy have available?
We built Galaxy as our love letter to developers, data practitioners, and more who have been stuck years in the past with tools that are old, clunky, and have failed to evolve with the times. Galaxy has a strong community of users across multiple pockets of the internet. You can also get in touch with the founders directly by emailing us at hello@getgalaxy.io or grabbing time with us at the link in the top right of the page.
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