Rows alternatives: 7 tools compared (October 2026)

Data analysts use this tool to process multi-sheet Excel and CSV files, generate charts, and trace results back to their source cells.

Key functions

• Analyzes Excel and CSV workbooks
• Works across multiple sheets and separate tables
• Creates bar, line, area, pie, and heatmap charts

Compared with Rows

• Strong in the same markets as Rows: Germany.

Tellius is an AI analytics platform for large companies that answers business questions in plain language across connected data. Its finance solution helps FP&A teams explain budget variances, monitor cost centers and draft P&L commentary for management and board reporting.

Key functions

• Kaiya answers natural language questions across all connected data
• Breaks revenue and cost variances into price, volume, mix and timing drivers
• Agents monitor cost centers and flag variances before quarterly reviews

Compared with Rows

• Strongest elsewhere: United States.

Check before buying: Tellius publishes no prices, and single sign-on, APIs, automated machine learning and customer cloud or on-premises deployment are reserved for Enterprise. The privacy policy says data may be processed in the United States or other countries, so ask where your data will be stored and request a data processing agreement if EU personal data is involved. Budget time for the semantic layer over ERP and planning data, since answers depend on clean definitions.

ThoughtSpot is an analytics platform where business users ask questions about company data in plain language. Its AI analyst Spotter breaks questions down, checks results and builds dashboards, grounded in a governed semantic layer.

Key functions

• Spotter answers questions with multi-step analysis and traceable queries on a semantic layer
• SpotterViz creates dashboards from data
• SpotterModel automates semantic modeling

Compared with Rows

• Names 2 security certificates, Rows 0.
• Starts higher: from $25 per user/month, Rows from $6 per user/month.
• Single sign-on in all plans; at Rows only in higher plans.

Check before buying: Check the Spotter query limits in your plan and the row limits of Essentials and Pro. The trust center does not name hosting regions publicly, so ask where data and prompts are processed and which language model provider is used.

Genie is the AI experience on the Databricks data platform. Business users ask questions in plain language and get answers from company data governed in Unity Catalog, while data teams define which datasets and metrics Genie may use.

Key functions

• Genie One answers data questions in natural language grounded in your own data
• Genie Agents: data teams define trusted datasets and metrics
• Genie Code is an AI coding assistant in the workspace

Compared with Rows

• Different pricing model: usage-based instead of freemium.
• Strongest elsewhere: United States.

Check before buying: Genie requires data on Databricks, so it fits companies that already use the platform or plan to. Budget for usage by service principals and for Genie Code beyond the free allowance, and track the end of the free period in January 2027. Ask which model providers process prompts and in which region.

Power BI is Microsoft's tool for building reports and dashboards from company data. Copilot in Power BI lets business users ask questions about reports and helps report authors build pages, summaries and DAX queries.

Key functions

• The report Copilot pane answers questions about the data and summarizes reports
• Copilot creates and edits report pages and summary visuals
• Copilot writes DAX queries and descriptions for measures in the semantic model

Compared with Rows

• Starts higher: from $14 per user/month, Rows from $6 per user/month.
• Strongest elsewhere: United States.

Check before buying: Budget for a paid Fabric capacity of at least F2 if you want Copilot, and check that your capacity region supports it. If your tenant is outside the US or EU data boundary, Copilot stays off unless an admin allows processing outside the region. Prepare semantic models before rollout, since Copilot answers depend on them.

Wren AI is an open-source text-to-SQL engine that answers questions about company databases in plain language. A semantic layer describes tables and metrics so that the generated SQL follows business definitions. It suits data teams that want to run the engine themselves.

Key functions

• Turns natural language questions into SQL through a semantic layer
• LLM-agnostic, you can connect your own models
• MCP server and CLI for AI agents

Compared with Rows

• Strongest elsewhere: United States.

Check before buying: Running the open-source edition means your team handles hosting, updates and model costs. Decide which language model receives table names and questions, since schema information leaves the database. The license file notes that future modules may use AGPL-3.0, so check the license of each component you deploy.

Web tool that answers questions about Excel and CSV workbooks in plain English, draws charts and shows the source rows behind each number.

Key functions

• Finds tables in multi-sheet workbooks, including several tables on one sheet
• Answers questions about the data in chat with text and a chart
• Shows the sheets read, calculation steps and rows behind each chart