BI tools rarely get cheaper. The bill grows with every new hire who needs to see a number, every AI feature, and every renewal.
The list prices show why. Definite summarizes Tableau’s: Tableau Cloud Standard lists a Creator seat at $75 per user per month, and Tableau Enterprise lists it at $115, “a 53% premium”. For five Creator seats on Enterprise, that is about $6,900 a year “in seat cost alone”, before hosting or the AI add-ons.
And the tiers create their own cost. As Definite puts it: “your two Creator seats can build, your twenty Viewer seats can only look. Anyone in between who wants to modify a dashboard either gets bumped up to Explorer/Creator pricing or queues up requests.”
Meanwhile, most of those licenses barely get logged into. So the question is not only “how much does it cost?” It is “what are we paying for?”
Where the money goes
A typical BI bill has four parts:
- Builder seats. The people who make dashboards. These are the most expensive seats.
- Viewer seats. Everyone who reads a dashboard. Cheaper each, but there are many more of them.
- AI add-ons. Chat and AI features often cost extra, or need a larger plan.
- Capacity and hosting. Servers, compute tiers or capacity units, depending on the tool.
Then there are the costs that never show up on the invoice:
- Data team time. Every question that a seat does not answer becomes a request.
- Consultants. When the person who built the dashboards leaves, changes need outside help.
- Lock-in. Dashboards live in the vendor’s database. Leaving means rebuilding them, so the renewal is hard to refuse.
How Kater prices
Kater’s plans differ in how you buy Kater, not in what Kater does.
| Free trial | Team | Enterprise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 for 30 days | Quoted for your team | Quoted for your company |
| Credit card | Not needed | Card or invoice | Invoice |
| Features | Every Kater feature | Every Kater feature | Every Kater feature |
Across the plans:
- No charge per viewer or per dashboard. There is no limit on viewers, and no limit on dashboards, apps and queries. Adding the whole company does not add viewer seats.
- AI is not an add-on. Kater ships no agent of its own. You bring Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Claude or ChatGPT, which many teams already pay for, and connect it through the Kater MCP. Business users can also ask the Kater Slackbot, which needs no Claude or ChatGPT seat.
- You get a price before the trial ends. We do not publish a price list. You get one before your 30-day trial ends.
See pricing for the full comparison.
Switching costs less than you think
The biggest cost of leaving a BI tool is usually rebuilding the dashboards. Kater takes most of that away.
- Migration is free. We do the migration with you, on your warehouse, and we do not charge for it.
- Minutes per dashboard. From Tableau,
kater migraterebuilds a.twbor.twbxworkbook as a private draft in minutes, compares its numbers with Tableau, and asks you only about what it cannot match. From another tool, ask your agent to migrate the dashboard. A whole switch can take a day. - Keep your current tool while you compare. Migrate one dashboard at a time. You publish when the numbers match.
- No lock-in afterwards. Your work in Kater is files in git, so it stays yours. You can take a full copy at any time.
Read more on switching to Kater.
Before your next renewal
A few questions to ask before you sign:
- How many seats were used last quarter, and by whom?
- How many data requests did the data team answer by hand in the same period?
- What would it cost to add everyone who needs to read a number?
- If you left, what would you have to rebuild?
If the answers make the renewal look expensive, try one dashboard in Kater first and compare the numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Why are BI tools so expensive?
Most BI tools charge per person, often at different prices for people who build, explore and view. AI features and capacity are often extra. As more people need data, the bill grows with headcount, even when most seats are rarely used.
How does Kater pricing work?
Kater has a 30-day free trial with every feature and no credit card. After that, Team is a monthly subscription and Enterprise is an annual agreement, both quoted for you. Kater does not charge per viewer or per dashboard, and there is no limit on dashboards, apps and queries.
Does Kater charge to migrate from our current BI tool?
No. We do the migration with you, on your warehouse, and we do not charge for it. You can migrate one dashboard at a time and keep your current tool while you compare the numbers.
Are we locked in if we move to Kater?
No. Your work is files in git, so it stays yours. You can take a full copy at any time.
Want a price for your team and a migrated dashboard to compare? Book a demo.