Pentaho Business Analytics vs ThoughtSpot comparison

Pentaho Business Analytics

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 2025

Pentaho Business Analytics and ThoughtSpot both compete in the business intelligence and data analytics space. Pentaho seems to have the upper hand due to its strong ETL capabilities and cost-effective options, while ThoughtSpot is favored for its user-friendly data exploration.

Features: Pentaho is known for its powerful ETL capabilities with Pentaho Data Integration, scalable analytics platform, and intuitive data modeling features. It provides extensive support for data transformations and integrations across various data sources. ThoughtSpot stands out for its intuitive search-based analytics, fast dashboard performance, and ease of use for non-technical users, empowering them to perform ad-hoc queries independently.

Room for Improvement: Pentaho users have identified a need for better data visualization interfaces, more advanced task management options, and improved version control. ThoughtSpot could enhance visualization flexibility, provide direct database connectivity, and streamline data loading processes to better meet user needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Pentaho offers versatile deployment options, including on-premises and hybrid cloud environments, and benefits from a supportive community, although its technical support is considered fragmented. ThoughtSpot is primarily deployed on private and public clouds, receiving favorable customer service ratings, yet there is feedback regarding the availability of technical support.

Pricing and ROI: Pentaho is appreciated for its cost-effectiveness with a free Community Edition, but concerns exist over the higher cost of its Enterprise Edition. ThoughtSpot offers a competitive pricing model based on data volume rather than user count, potentially delivering quicker ROI due to its straightforward usability and flexible pricing.

To learn more, read our detailed Pentaho Business Analytics vs. ThoughtSpot Report (Updated: June 2025).

Pentaho Business Analytics vs. ThoughtSpot

June 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

ROI

Sentiment score

5.9

Pentaho Business Analytics enhanced efficiency and output but faced ROI calculation challenges compared to alternatives like QlikView and Tableau.

Sentiment score

7.2

ThoughtSpot enhances value with time savings, ease of use, and reduced costs, but user adoption affects ROI.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

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.

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

ThoughtSpot saves a significant amount of time compared to other tools and is very user-friendly.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Data Analyst at Wipro Limited

Customer Service

Sentiment score

6.8

Pentaho receives mixed feedback on support, with strong community engagement but varying customer service and documentation quality.

Sentiment score

6.8

ThoughtSpot's customer support is praised for responsiveness but critiqued for depth, with mixed ratings on problem resolution.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

ThoughtSpot provides a dedicated customer success person and the ability to submit tickets online, with a response time of no more than a day.

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

I stopped opening tickets due to insufficient and untimely responses.

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

I have escalated several questions to ThoughtSpot's technical support, which has helped resolve connection glitches and other issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Data Analyst at Wipro Limited

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score

7.2

Pentaho scales well and fits organizational needs but may require admin expertise for complex environments and large data.

Sentiment score

7.2

ThoughtSpot offers effective scalability and growth, but may require improvements in role management and advanced preparation tools.

No quotes available

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

Tableau, Power BI, or Looker have separate tools for preparation, customization, and storytelling.

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

The platform does not have technical problems with scaling data or connections.

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

As our data has grown, I have validated huge datasets and complex models without significant issues.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Data Analyst at Wipro Limited

Stability Issues

Sentiment score

6.6

Pentaho Business Analytics is generally stable but has occasional Java caching, RAM, and subprocess issues with large databases.

Sentiment score

7.1

ThoughtSpot is stable and fast for large datasets but faces occasional downtime, feature gaps, and integration challenges.

It can handle large datasets.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

This workaround consumed a lot of resources and led to reduced performance, with pinboards loading for approximately two minutes for each filter criterion.

reviewer2686410

Works

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.

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

The responsiveness of accessing live data is exceptional and faster than most other BI tools.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

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

Room For Improvement

Pentaho needs user interface, reporting, and visualization enhancements, along with better debugging, metadata management, and cost-effective licensing.

ThoughtSpot lacks visualization flexibility, geospatial options, customization, integration tools, and better organization, lagging behind Power BI and Tableau.

Pentaho Business Analytics is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical skills.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

Currently, it is not as customizable as the options available on Power BI or Tableau.

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

A crucial feature we needed is missing, which involves restricting views of certain KPIs when users select conflicting parameters.

reviewer2686410

Works

Handling governance when there are many models and dashboards is complex.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

Setup Cost

Pentaho's Community Edition is cost-free, while the Enterprise Edition, offering enhanced features, can cost up to $250,000 annually.

ThoughtSpot offers competitive, flexible pricing between Tableau and Power BI, with options suited to various organizational needs.

Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView and Tableau.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

ThoughtSpot's pricing is reasonable and in line with other BI tools.

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

HubSpot is expensive.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Software Engineer (Data specialist) at Salesforce

Valuable Features

Pentaho Business Analytics offers powerful ETL, user-friendly interface, customizable dashboards, and cost-saving, open-source analytics and reporting features.

ThoughtSpot's search-based functionality enables intuitive data exploration, empowering non-technical users to create reports and improve business efficiency.

It is a stable product, and it can handle large datasets.

For more quotes and insights, download the Pentaho Business Analytics report

DBA at Federal University of Uberlândia

When I upload a data dump, AI analytics suggest possible data visualizations and insights, which I can pin to dashboards or live boards for modification.

Data Analyst at Wipro Limited

Its compatibility with most databases, including the latest from FlexMovely and Redshift, allows users to create joins and worksheets easily.

For more quotes and insights, download the ThoughtSpot report

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

This alerting feature is very beneficial for our company at the moment, and we use it extensively.

reviewer2686410

Works

Categories and Ranking

Pentaho Business Analytics

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

20th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Operations Analytics (5th), Reporting (13th)

ThoughtSpot

Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

13th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Data Visualization (8th), Embedded BI (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of Pentaho Business Analytics is 0.5%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ThoughtSpot is 1.5%, up from 1.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Featured Reviews

Mir Gulzar Ahmed

IT Manager at Synergy Computers

Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems

Pentaho can help organizations by providing them an insight of their unstructured data using one platform(Pentaho Business Analytics). The features are almost identical to other BIS platforms but to me, customers can benefit as it has a community version with most of its Enterprise features. It also has a free limited-period trial version. The other feature that I would like to share here is, that users have access to a complete spectrum of data from different sources with the system’s adaptive big data layer, which takes the source of the data into account. The software is built on an open architecture and can be integrated with multiple systems. However, Pentaho Data Integration and Analytics has been acquired by HDS which offers an Enterprise edition for organizations that also need to meet product compliance.

Read full review

Creates user-friendly analysis environments for large datasets

Sr Data Analytics Consultant at Capgemini

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.

Read full review

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions are best for your needs.

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Comparison Review

it_user6978

Co-Founder at Helical IT Solution (Jaspersoft, Pentaho, Talend, Kettle, DWBI, ETL, Ctools, iReport, Jasper Report)

Jun 10, 2013

Jaspersoft vs. Pentaho – Which one to use & is there any need to purchase the commercial edition

Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Educational Organization

Real Estate/Law Firm

Financial Services Firm

22%

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows: 1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle - look for SAP...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business Analytics?

Pentaho Business Analytics is priced similarly to other competitors such as QlikView ( /products/qlikview-reviews ) and Tableau ( /products/tableau-reviews ). I usually use the community edition.

What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?

Pentaho Business Analytics ( /categories/bi-business-intelligence-tools ) is hard to learn and not suited for initial users as it requires knowledge of operating systems, Java, and other technical ...

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ThoughtSpot?

The pricing is on the higher end but reasonable for what ThoughtSpot offers.

What needs improvement with ThoughtSpot?

ThoughtSpot lacks an intermediate layer for data loading, unlike Qlik, which affects dashboard stability when the database has issues. The platform also has fewer formulas and functions compared to...

What is your primary use case for ThoughtSpot?

I am working for a telecommunication company where we use ThoughtSpot ( /products/thoughtspot-reviews ) to create monthly, weekly, and daily ad hoc reports for business needs. We work for both B2B ...

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Compared 19% of the time

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Compared 16% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Compared 8% of the time

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Product Reports

Pentaho Business Analytics

May 2025

Download Pentaho Business Analytics product report

Download ThoughtSpot product report

May 2025

Also Known As

Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics

No data available

Overview

Pentaho is an open source business intelligence company that provides a wide range of tools to help their customers better manage their businesses. These tools include data integration software, mining tools, dashboard applications, online analytical processing options, and more.

Pentaho has two product categories: There is the standard enterprise version. This is the product that comes directly from Pentaho itself with all of the benefits, features, and programs that come along with a paid application such us analysis services, dashboard design, and interactive reporting.

The alternative is an open source version, which the public is permitted to add to and tweak the product. This solution has its advantages, aside from the fact that it is free, in that there are many more people working on the project to improve its quality and breadth of functionality.

Hitachi Vantara

ThoughtSpot is a powerful business intelligence tool that allows easy searching and drilling into data. Its ad hoc exploration and query-based search features are highly valued, and it is easy to set up, stable, and scalable.

The solution is used for reporting purposes, self-service BI, and embedding into other applications for customers to do self-service analytics. It helps businesses with metrics, KPIs, and important insights by sourcing data from various sources into one golden source and visualizing it in an easy way for the business to consume. The pricing model is ideal, charging for data rather than the number of users.

Sample Customers

Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.

Primary Capital Mortgage, Sterling Backcheck, RichRelevance, Rambus, Batteries Plus Bulbs