Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

ThoughtSpot pros and cons

Vendor: ThoughtSpot

3.9 out of 5

11 reviews
90% willing to recommend

3,089 followers

Pros & Cons summary

ThoughtSpot is user-friendly for initial setup and excels in self-service orientation, allowing non-developers to intuitively create reports and conduct valuable ad hoc data explorations. Its scalability and well-liked search capabilities facilitate custom analytics without prior experience. However, its visualization features need enhancement compared to Power BI, and it lacks direct database connectivity, flexible pin resizing, and easy data pivoting. Support is poorly rated, with less proactive customer service.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Initial setup is straightforward and easy to manage.

Ad hoc data exploration capabilities are highly valuable.

Scalability features are commendable.

Search capabilities allow creation of custom analytics without advanced data analyst experience.

Self-service analytics capabilities are unmatched, allowing intuitive report and visualization creation.

CONS

ThoughtSpot lacks advanced visualization customization options compared to Power BI.

Users report limited flexibility in adding and resizing pins on dashboards.

Direct database connectivity is not available, which presents challenges.

The ability to pivot data from rows to columns is not easily achievable.

Customer support is not proactive, leading to dissatisfaction among some users.

ThoughtSpot Pros review quotes

Anthony Fiorino

SVP, Head of Enterprise Data Mgmt & Data Intelligence at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 14, 2022

The initial setup was very straightforward.

Read full review

reviewer2115834

Associate Managing Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Feb 28, 2023

It's easy to drill down or expand data to get more details right out of the box.

Read full review

Madhu Srinivasan

Principal Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Dec 9, 2022

I would say the return on investment is good. Whatever we invested, we got results. We have been finding it easy to use and onboard new use cases.

Read full review

Free Report: ThoughtSpot Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about ThoughtSpot. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.

842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Senior Consultant at Slalom

Jan 3, 2023

ThoughtSpot takes the modifying of existing reports out of our hands.

Read full review

reviewer2034792

Lead Analyst, Global Business Intelligence at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 24, 2022

The ability to do ad hoc explorations of data has been most valuable.

Read full review

reviewer2042916

Analytics Insights - Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Dec 5, 2022

The scalability is good.

Read full review

Kevin McAllister

Executive Manager at Hexagon AB

Jan 18, 2023

I like ThoughtSpot's search capabilities. You can also create custom analytics even if you aren't an experienced data analyst. We have users with no data analytics experience making some of the dashboards we've created, copying components, and customizing them to their specific use cases.

Read full review

Sr. Big Data Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 29, 2022

It is easy to set up the solution.

Read full review

JB

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Feb 21, 2025

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.

Read full review

Dominique Rozenberg

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

Feb 22, 2025

The main core of ThoughtSpot is to create models, connect data pipelines, and create business models and dashboards on top of them.

Read full review

Show 1 more reviews (out of 11)

ThoughtSpot Cons review quotes

Anthony Fiorino

SVP, Head of Enterprise Data Mgmt & Data Intelligence at a financial services firm with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 14, 2022

The one area of the solution that I do hear needs improvement is on the visualization front.

Read full review

reviewer2115834

Associate Managing Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Feb 28, 2023

In terms of features, I'd like to be able to pivot data - for example, going from rows to columns. It's not easy to do.

Read full review

Madhu Srinivasan

Principal Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Dec 9, 2022

I would like to see more flexibility in adding the pins. Currently, we have four different sizes in which I can add pins, but I would like to be able to resize my pins.

Read full review

Free Report: ThoughtSpot Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about ThoughtSpot. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.

842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Senior Consultant at Slalom

Jan 3, 2023

A customized visualization is lacking in this product.

Read full review

reviewer2034792

Lead Analyst, Global Business Intelligence at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

Nov 24, 2022

The dashboards could give you more ability to fine tune the appearance. You get a great deal more control over how something looks in Power BI than you do in ThoughtSpot.

Read full review

reviewer2042916

Analytics Insights - Manager at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Dec 5, 2022

The most difficult thing I found is that it only deals with the files and does not have direct connectivity to databases.

Read full review

Kevin McAllister

Executive Manager at Hexagon AB

Jan 18, 2023

ThoughtSpot is a fairly new product, so some usability aspects aren't as mature as we'd like them to be. One example is their organizational methodology, like how objects are organized in their dashboards inside the product. They're all on a flat list, which works if you've got five or 10 dashboards. However, it's insufficient when you're a large enterprise with multiple groups looking at the same dashboards. It isn't organized well.

Read full review

Sr. Big Data Consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 29, 2022

If I want to order columns, this feature is not there.

Read full review

JB

Business Intelligence & Reporting Manager at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees

Feb 21, 2025

Some areas for improvement include the pixel-perfect dashboards, which are not as refined as those in Tableau.

Read full review

Dominique Rozenberg

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

Feb 22, 2025

I encountered limitations mainly around UI and dashboard configuration.

Read full review

Show 1 more reviews (out of 11)

Product Categories

Product Categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Data Visualization

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs ThoughtSpot

Tableau vs ThoughtSpot

Amazon QuickSight vs ThoughtSpot

IBM Cognos vs ThoughtSpot

SAP Analytics Cloud vs ThoughtSpot

Oracle OBIEE vs ThoughtSpot

MicroStrategy vs ThoughtSpot

TIBCO Spotfire vs ThoughtSpot

AtScale Adaptive Analytics (A3) vs ThoughtSpot

Mode Analytics vs ThoughtSpot

Hex vs ThoughtSpot

Omni vs ThoughtSpot

See all alternatives

Product Categories

Product Categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Data Visualization

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs ThoughtSpot

Tableau vs ThoughtSpot

Amazon QuickSight vs ThoughtSpot

IBM Cognos vs ThoughtSpot

SAP Analytics Cloud vs ThoughtSpot

Oracle OBIEE vs ThoughtSpot

MicroStrategy vs ThoughtSpot

TIBCO Spotfire vs ThoughtSpot

AtScale Adaptive Analytics (A3) vs ThoughtSpot

Mode Analytics vs ThoughtSpot

Hex vs ThoughtSpot

Omni vs ThoughtSpot

See all alternatives

Related questions

285

When evaluating Business Intelligence Tools, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?

131

BI Tool Replacements, What Do You Recommend?

119

Which one is best for ETL - Pentaho or Jaspersoft?

7

Seeking advise on going with Birst, BOARD or Pentaho as an OEM platform solution where we could end up with 1,000's of users over time.

199

BI Tool Evaluation Criteria Rating Matrix -- anyone have one they've used in making a tool selection?

54

QlikView or Tableau - Which is better?

52

BI tools for tactical decision-making?

149

What is a good BI tool in the Oracle world?

24

I currently use Panorama Necto as a viewer on SQL Analysis services cube--what other solutions are out there?

22

BI Reports for business users - which BI solutions should we choose?