# Kater vs Omni

> Omni puts a governed model under your dashboards. Kater puts it under everything your agent builds.

Omni and Kater both govern metrics in one shared model, and both promote a good field into it. Omni is built around the dashboard. Kater is AI-first. Your agent builds dashboards, apps and reports through the Kater MCP, and people ask in Slack, Claude or ChatGPT. You keep the governance, and you pay less.

URL: https://kater.ai/kater-vs-omni/
Reviewed October 2026.

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## The short version

### Select Kater if

- Dashboards are one way your team uses data, not the main one.
- Your own agent should build dashboards, apps and reports through an MCP.
- You want governance like Omni’s: a shared model, with promotion into it.
- You want every layer in git, and the model in SQL, not YAML.
- You want to pay less, and to help decide what ships next.
- Your warehouse is Snowflake or DuckDB.

### Stay with Omni if

- Dashboards are how most of your company reads data.
- Business users want to drag and drop their own analysis.
- You embed analytics in your own product.
- Your warehouse is BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift or Postgres.
- You are leaving Looker and want a familiar model with a modern UI.

## Why teams leave Omni

### 1. The dashboard is the center.

Omni is built around workbooks and dashboards. On many teams, people now ask a question first, and open a dashboard second.

**In Kater:** A dashboard is one answer. Your agent also builds apps, reports and decks, and people ask in Slack, Claude or ChatGPT. Every answer reads the same governed model.

### 2. The agent is Omni’s, not yours.

Omni’s MCP passes dashboard and model edits to Omni Agent, under a prompt you cannot see. AI runs on credits, and your own model key is an Enterprise feature.

**In Kater:** Kater runs no agent of its own. Claude Code, Codex or Cursor builds through the Kater MCP, and reads your instructions first.

### 3. Only the model is in git, and it is YAML.

Omni’s shared model syncs to git as YAML, with SQL inside each field. Workbooks and dashboards stay in Omni. An agent cannot search them, and nobody can review them as a diff.

**In Kater:** Every layer is a file: models, queries, charts, dashboards and apps. The model is your warehouse’s SQL with a few additions.

### 4. Topics take work to set up.

Omni asks the data team to curate Topics before people and AI get good answers. Small teams say this is hard to start.

> “I recently demo’d Omni and it seemed really painful to stand up.” ([r/BusinessIntelligence, February 2026](https://www.reddit.com/r/BusinessIntelligence/comments/1rc0arr/has_anyone_actually_rolled_out_talk_to_your_data/o6x0ho1/))

**In Kater:** Schema sync writes a file for each table. Your agent writes the first models from them, and you review the diff.

## Kater vs Omni at a glance

### Beyond the dashboard

| Feature | Kater | Omni |
| --- | --- | --- |
| More than dashboards | Yes. Built around questions. A dashboard is one answer, beside apps, reports and answers in Slack, Claude or ChatGPT. | In part. Built around workbooks and dashboards. Omni Agent and apps came later. |
| Answers in your own AI | Yes. People ask in Slack, Claude or ChatGPT. The agent sees only what that person can see. | Yes. Omni Agent in the app and in Slack, and an MCP server. |
| Apps and reports | Yes. HTML apps, reports and decks on live queries, built by your agent. Export to PDF, PowerPoint, Word or Excel. | Yes. AI-built apps since August 2026. Dashboards download as PDF, PNG, XLSX or CSV. |
| Build without code | Yes. Select fields, a chart and a place on the dashboard, all in the browser. | Yes. Drag-and-drop workbooks, with spreadsheet-style calculations. |

### Built for agents

| Feature | Kater | Omni |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Built by your agent | Yes. Claude Code, Codex or Cursor builds models, dashboards and apps through the Kater MCP, or in a local copy. | In part. An MCP server for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. Your agent writes apps. Omni Agent edits dashboards and the model. |
| Your context first | Yes. Kater runs no agent of its own. The Kater MCP sends your instructions.md before anything of Kater’s. | In part. You add AI context to the model. Omni Agent reads it after Omni’s own prompt. |
| Checks on changes | Yes. A write through the MCP compiles first and is refused on error. Every change has a diff, History and Undo. | In part. Branch mode and pull requests for the model. A new dashboard from Omni Agent publishes without review. |
| Source of truth | Yes. Files in git: models, queries, charts, dashboards and apps. Every save is a commit. | In part. The shared model is YAML in git. Workbooks and dashboards stay in Omni. |

### Governance

| Feature | Kater | Omni |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Semantic layer | Yes. Kater SQL: your warehouse’s SQL with DIMENSION, MEASURE and EVAL. Defined once, read everywhere. | Yes. YAML, with SQL inside each field. |
| Promotion to the shared model | Yes. A field moves from a query to its workspace, then to the shared model when the data team approves. Kater proves every number stays the same. | Yes. Changes in a workbook move to the shared model. A Modeler or Connection Admin promotes them. |
| Row-level security | Yes. Row-level security, access filters and grants, with access by folder and file. | Yes. Access filters and access grants, set from user attributes. |

### Price and partnership

| Feature | Kater | Omni |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Yes. Costs less than Omni. One subscription for your team, with no charge per viewer or per dashboard. | In part. Not published. Vendr reports a median contract near $28,000 a year. |
| AI usage | Yes. No AI credits. Your team’s own agent does the AI work. | In part. AI runs on credits with overage billing. Your own model key is an Enterprise feature. |
| A say in the roadmap | Yes. A direct line to the founders. Your requests shape what ships next. | In part. Users praise Omni’s support. One roadmap serves every customer. |

### Platform

| Feature | Kater | Omni |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Warehouses | In part. Snowflake and DuckDB today. | Yes. Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres and more. |
| Embedding | No. No embedding (for now). It is in development. | Yes. Embedded analytics for your own product. |

## Where Omni is ahead, and why teams still select Kater

### Momentum and support

**Omni:** Omni ships quickly, and its users praise its support. Many teams that leave Looker go there.

**Why teams still select Kater:** At Kater, you work directly with the people who build it, and your requests shape what ships next. Kater ships every week.

### More warehouses

**Omni:** Omni connects to BigQuery, Databricks, Redshift, Postgres and more. Kater connects to Snowflake and DuckDB today.

**Why teams still select Kater:** Kater goes deep on each warehouse it supports. Queries run live, and the compiler checks each SQL dialect before a query runs. Have a warehouse we do not support? Request it. [Request a warehouse](https://kater.ai/request-integration/)

### Embedding

**Omni:** Omni embeds analytics in your own product today.

**Why teams still select Kater:** Kater has no embedding (for now). It is in development. Until it ships, apps export to PDF, PowerPoint, Word and Excel for readers outside Kater. [Ask about early access](https://kater.ai/request-demo/?intent=embedding-early-access)

## How pricing compares

**Omni:** Omni does not publish prices. Vendr reports a median contract near $28,000 a year. AI use runs on credits with overage billing.

**Kater:** Kater costs less than Omni, and sells no AI credits. A 30-day free trial with every feature, then a subscription quoted for your team. Kater does not charge per viewer or per dashboard. Kater runs no chat of its own, so answers run in the agent your team already uses.

## Moving from Omni

Omni’s model and Kater’s model describe the same things. Your agent reads the YAML and writes Kater SQL, and tests compare the numbers.

| In Omni | In Kater |
| --- | --- |
| Connection | Connection, on Snowflake or DuckDB |
| View, in YAML | Kater dataset, in Kater SQL |
| Topic | Semantic model |
| Relationships | RELATIONSHIP joins |
| Workbook tab | Query and chart files |
| Dashboard | dashboard.yaml |
| Promote to shared | Promote, from a query to its workspace, then to the shared model |
| Branch | A workspace copy, or a branch in your local copy |

Ask your agent to migrate one dashboard. Kater rebuilds it as a private draft on your warehouse, and you compare the numbers before you publish. [How a switch works](https://kater.ai/switch-to-kater/#how)

## Questions

### Is Kater an Omni alternative?

Yes, for teams that do not see dashboards as the main way people use data. Kater is AI-first. Your agent builds dashboards, apps and reports through the Kater MCP, and people ask in Slack, Claude or ChatGPT. Governance stays as strong as in Omni: one shared model, with promotion from a query into it. Kater also costs less, and your requests shape what ships next.

### Do we lose Omni’s governance?

No. Kater has one shared model, as Omni does. A field starts in one query, moves to its workspace, then moves to the shared model when the data team approves. Kater proves every number stays the same before it writes the change. Row-level security, access filters and grants apply in the browser and through every agent.

### Can our agent convert an Omni model?

Yes. Give your agent the model’s YAML files. It writes Kater datasets and semantic models, and Kater compiles each file as it saves it.

### Does Kater support BigQuery or Databricks?

Not today. Kater connects to Snowflake and DuckDB. If you run something else, tell us.

### Can we keep Omni and add Kater?

Yes, for as long as you want. Both read the same warehouse. Keep Omni for its dashboards, and add Kater to give your team’s agent one definition for each metric, your context and your access rules. When you want, rebuild one dashboard in Kater, compare the numbers with Omni, then move the next one.

## Compare another tool

- [Kater vs Tableau](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-tableau.md)
- [Kater vs Power BI](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-power-bi.md)
- [Kater vs Looker](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-looker.md)
- [Kater vs Sigma](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-sigma.md)
- [Kater vs Metabase](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-metabase.md)
- [Kater vs Hex](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-hex.md)
- [Kater vs Lightdash](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-lightdash.md)
- [Kater vs dbt Semantic Layer](https://kater.ai/kater-vs-dbt-semantic-layer.md)
- [All comparisons](https://kater.ai/switch-to-kater.md)