---
title: "Best AI dashboard builders in 2026 | Briks"
url: https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders
description: "A fair guide to ten AI dashboard builders in 2026: what the AI does, where the data comes from, sharing with clients and the starting price, with sources."
last_updated: 2026-11-05
---

# Best AI dashboard builders in 2026

Ten AI dashboard builders compared on price, what the AI builds, data sources, sharing and one limit each.

[Rohit Sethia](https://briks.dev/about) Founder of Briks

5 November 2026 11 minute read

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For agents: [this article as Markdown](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders.md)

There is no single best AI dashboard builder; it depends on where your data lives, who needs to see the dashboard and how much you will pay per person. The short answer:

- **A company on Microsoft 365 with an analyst:** Power BI.
- **Analysts who live in charts:** Tableau.
- **Free reports on Google Ads, Analytics and Sheets:** Data Studio, formerly Looker Studio.
- **A small business wanting dashboards made from a request, over spreadsheets and apps:** Zoho Analytics.
- **A startup with its own database and a technical person:** Metabase.
- **Internal tools on live company data, built by a developer:** Retool.
- **A client portal with dashboards over Airtable or Sheets:** Softr.
- **A team app built from a spreadsheet:** GlideOS.
- **A data team that writes analysis and publishes it as apps:** Hex.
- **A dashboard described in plain words, with its own database and hosting, for people who do not want to model data:** Briks.

Briks is our product, so read its section with that in mind. The tools are not ranked: Power BI comes first because it does the most, and Briks comes last because it is ours.

## How we checked

On 5 November 2026 we read each vendor's pricing page and documentation, listed under Sources, as a visitor in the United States sees them. Tableau's pricing page could not be read, so its price is left out. Two AI tools we looked at were dropped because their pricing pages could not be read either.

## The ten at a glance

Ten AI dashboard builders on 5 November 2026: the cheapest way in, at US prices.

| Tool | Starts at (US prices) | What the AI does | Data from |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Power BI | Free account; Pro $14 per user a month billed yearly | Builds report pages and answers questions | Your data models |
| Tableau | Price not read | Builds charts and summaries | Not read |
| Data Studio | Free; Pro $9 per user per project a month | Answers questions; more on Pro | Over 1,400 sources |
| Zoho Analytics | Free plan; Basic $24 a month billed yearly | Builds reports and dashboards from a request | Files, apps and databases |
| Metabase | Free to host yourself; Cloud from $90 a month billed yearly | Writes queries and summarises charts | Databases, plus spreadsheet uploads |
| Retool | Free for 5 users; Team from $10 per builder | Builds apps on live data | Your existing sources |
| Softr | Free plan; Basic $19 a month | Builds the app from a description | Airtable, Sheets and more |
| GlideOS | Free plan; Basic $25 a month | Builds an app from a sheet or a prompt | Sheets, Airtable and more |
| Hex | Free Community plan; $36 per editor a month | An agent for analysis | Not read |
| Briks | Free plan; Starter $16 a month | Builds the whole dashboard from a description | Its own database |

The analytics tools read data you already have; the app builders make the place where the data is kept. That split matters more than the price.

## Quick answers

### Can AI make a dashboard from a spreadsheet?

Yes. Zoho Analytics takes Excel and CSV files and its Visualization Agent builds dashboards from a request. GlideOS turns a Google Sheet into an app, Softr builds on Google Sheets and Airtable, and Data Studio reads Google Sheets directly.

### Which can I share with clients?

Data Studio shares with anyone or embeds in a page for free. Power BI's public embed needs Pro and an admin's say. Zoho Analytics, Retool, Softr and Metabase have client logins or embedding on higher plans. Briks gives a dashboard sign-in for its users when you ask.

### Which is best for a small team?

Free or low per-person prices matter most: Data Studio, Zoho Analytics, Retool's free plan for 5 users, and the flat prices of Softr, GlideOS and Briks.

### Is there a free AI dashboard builder?

Yes. Data Studio is free for creators and viewers, Metabase is free to host yourself with its AI included, and Zoho Analytics, Retool, Softr, GlideOS, Hex and Briks have free plans with limits on users, records or credits. Power BI's free account builds, but sharing needs Pro.

### Which AI tools build a whole dashboard from a prompt?

Zoho Analytics' Visualization Agent builds reports and dashboards from a request, Retool builds apps on your live data from a prompt, Softr and GlideOS build apps that hold dashboards, and Briks plans and builds every screen from a description. Power BI's Copilot creates report pages inside a report you have set up.

### Do I need to know how to write queries?

Not for most of these. Power BI, Metabase, Data Studio and Zoho Analytics answer questions asked in plain words, and Softr, GlideOS and Briks never show you one. Retool and Hex suit people who can write them.

## Power BI

Power BI is Microsoft's business analytics suite. It suits organisations on Microsoft 365 with an analyst or admin who models the data.

![Microsoft Power BI page: “Visualize any data and use Copilot in Microsoft Fabric to quickly explore, explain, and take action”](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/power-bi-copilot.webp)

Microsoft's Power BI page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi)

- **What the AI does:** Copilot answers questions about your data, summarises a report, creates and edits report pages and writes queries.
- **Price:** a free account to build; sharing needs Pro at $14 per user a month, or Premium Per User at $24, both billed yearly.
- **Sharing:** Publish to web makes a public embed with no sign-in, from Pro, once an admin allows it. Microsoft warns that anyone online can then see it.
- **One limitation:** Copilot needs paid Fabric capacity (F2 or higher) or Premium capacity. A Pro or Premium Per User licence alone is not enough.

## Tableau

Tableau is Salesforce's visual analytics platform. It suits analyst teams and larger companies that build many dashboards.

- **What the AI does:** Tableau Agent creates charts, helps write calculations, filters and sorts, and writes overviews and summaries of a dashboard. Tableau Pulse sends people digests of the figures they follow.
- **Price:** we could not read Tableau's pricing page, so no figure is given here. A free trial includes the agent, with hourly limits.
- **One limitation:** on Tableau Cloud, the agent needs Tableau Cloud+ or Tableau+, and some Pulse features come only with Tableau+.

## Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio)

Google renamed Looker Studio to Data Studio. It is a free report and dashboard builder that suits anyone reporting on Google Ads, Analytics or Sheets.

![Google Data Studio page listing more than 1,400 data sources, interactive reports, sharing and BigQuery conversational agents](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/google-data-studio.webp)

Google's Data Studio page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [cloud.google.com/data-studio](https://cloud.google.com/data-studio)

- **What the AI does:** conversational analytics answers questions in plain language. Calculated fields from a description, analysis by code and exports to Slides need Pro. It does not build a whole dashboard from a request.
- **Data:** more than 1,400 sources, including Google Sheets, Google Ads, BigQuery and Google Analytics.
- **Price:** no charge for creators or viewers. Pro is $9 per user per project a month, varying with the length of the subscription.
- **Sharing:** share with people or with everyone, and embed reports in any page.
- **One limitation:** the free question answering works only with BigQuery data agents.

## Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a self-service analytics tool with connectors for more than 50 business apps. It suits small and mid-sized businesses, especially those already on Zoho.

![Zoho Analytics page: “Data to decisions in minutes”, an agentic analytics platform with built-in AI agents and a sign-up form](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/zoho-analytics-ai.webp)

Zoho Analytics' home page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [zoho.com/analytics](https://www.zoho.com/analytics/)

- **What the AI does:** from Basic, Ask Zia's agents build reports and dashboards from a request, write formulas and answer questions. Auto-generated dashboards and narrated insights come with Premium.
- **Data:** CSV, Excel and JSON files, cloud drives, local and cloud databases and 50+ business apps.
- **Price:** free for 2 users and 10,000 rows. Basic is $24 a month billed yearly, or $30 monthly, for 2 users and 500,000 rows. Premium is $115 a month billed yearly.
- **Sharing:** Make Public works with no login. Private links come with Premium; logins for outside viewers are an add-on from $80 a month billed yearly, for at least 25 viewers.
- **One limitation:** the dashboards made for you automatically need Premium.

## Metabase

Metabase is an open source analytics tool. It suits startups with their own database who want everyone to answer questions without waiting on a developer.

![Metabase home page: “Open source AI analytics you can verify”, above a dashboard with total accounts, accounts by source and a Metabot chat](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/metabase-ai-analytics.webp)

Metabase's home page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [metabase.com](https://www.metabase.com/)

- **What the AI does:** Metabot turns questions in plain language into queries, returns charts and tables, and summarises charts and dashboards. It is included on every plan, open source too.
- **Data:** more than 20 kinds of database and warehouse; spreadsheets can be uploaded, with a million stored rows free.
- **Price:** free to host yourself. Cloud Starter is $100 a month, or $1,080 a year, with 5 users, then $6 per user. Pro is $575 a month.
- **One limitation:** branded dashboards for clients, with each client seeing only their rows, need Pro.

## Retool

Retool is a low-code builder for internal tools. It suits technical teams building admin panels and dashboards on live company data.

![Retool home page: “Secure your vibe-coded apps”, with a prompt to build an order management tool on a Retool database](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/retool-ai-app-builder.webp)

Retool's home page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [retool.com](https://retool.com/)

- **What the AI does:** it builds full apps from a prompt on your live data, and you click a part of the app to ask for a change. Agents and workflows run beside them.
- **Price:** free for up to 5 users with 250 AI credits a month. Team is $10 per builder and $5 per internal user a month, billed yearly.
- **Sharing:** outside users and embedded apps start on Business, at $50 per builder a month billed yearly.
- **One limitation:** Free and Team cannot serve logins for clients or embeds.

## Softr

Softr is an AI and no-code builder for portals and business apps, dashboards and reports among them. It suits client portals over Airtable or Google Sheets.

![Softr AI app builder page: “The AI app builder for business apps”, above a partner portal with a users table being generated](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/softr-ai-app-builder.webp)

Softr's AI app builder page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [softr.io/ai-app-generator](https://www.softr.io/ai-app-generator)

- **What the AI does:** you describe the app and its AI co-builder makes it; you keep building without credits once they run out.
- **Data:** its own databases, or Airtable, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Notion, Salesforce and other databases.
- **Price:** free for 5 app users and 5,000 records. Basic is $19 a month, Pro $99 and Business $329, on the yearly prices the page shows first.
- **One limitation:** Basic allows 5 client logins; a real client portal starts at Pro.

## GlideOS

GlideOS is Glide's new AI platform, separate from the original Glide, for business apps built from a spreadsheet, a prompt or a file. It suits operations teams.

![Glide home page: “Stop chasing spreadsheets. Run your business from one place.”, with a prompt box and an upload spreadsheet option](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/glideos-ai-app-builder.webp)

Glide's home page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [glideapps.com](https://www.glideapps.com/)

- **What the AI does:** an agent builds the app from a prompt, a PDF or a picture, and SheetSense turns a spreadsheet into an app.
- **Data:** Google Sheets, Airtable, HubSpot and more than 1,000 services.
- **Price:** a free plan with limited credits. Basic is $25 a month with 100 credits; Plus is $50. Yearly plans are not offered yet.
- **One limitation:** public apps start on Plus; Basic publishes 2 apps for you and your team.

## Hex

Hex is a workspace where data teams write analysis in notebooks and publish it as apps and dashboards. It suits teams with an analyst who writes code.

![Hex home page: “The Analytics platform for humans and agents”, rethinking BI and conversational analytics, with customer logos](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-dashboard-builders/hex-ai-analytics.webp)

Hex's home page, as it looked on 5 November 2026. Source: [hex.tech](https://hex.tech/)

- **What the AI does:** the Hex agent helps with analysis, with credits by plan.
- **Price:** the Community plan is free, with a trial of the agent. Professional is $36 per editor a month and Team $75.
- **Sharing:** up to 5 published apps on Community and Professional; unlimited on Team. Embedding is an add-on.
- **One limitation:** agent credits are per seat and do not roll over.

## Briks

Briks is our product. It builds a dashboard from a description: the frame, every screen, the database behind it and its hosting, with no data model to set up.

![Briks Database settings: download every collection as JSON in a zip, or one collection as a spreadsheet, with 30 days of backups](https://briks.dev/marketing/studio/own-records-light-1576.webp)

A Briks project's database: every record downloads as JSON, or one collection as a spreadsheet, on paid plans. See [database](https://briks.dev/features/database).

- **Who it suits:** a small business that wants a sales pipeline, stock levels or a bookings board, and has no analyst.
- **What the AI does:** it plans every screen from your words, with three to five key figures, charts with units and tables with search, filters and sorting. You can show it a dashboard whose layout you like. Changes are asked for in plain words, and each is a version you can undo.
- **Data:** the dashboard keeps its records in its own database. The first version fills it with sample records that agree with each other, using the products, prices and people you name; you then edit the records in the Database tab and the screens follow.
- **Sharing:** it is published to its own address, kept out of search. Ask for accounts and its users sign in with email and password, or Google and seven more providers on your own keys.
- **Price:** Free, with no card, gives 50 credits at sign-up, then 5 a day that build up to 25, for 1 project. Starter is $16 a month, or $160 a year, with 175 credits a month and your own domain.
- **Where others do better:** a Briks dashboard reads its own database, not your spreadsheet, ad account or company database live; Zoho Analytics, Data Studio and Metabase do. Power BI and Tableau go much deeper for analysts.

## How to choose

1. **Where the data lives.** In a database or ad accounts: Data Studio, Metabase, Power BI or Zoho Analytics. In spreadsheets: Zoho Analytics, GlideOS or Softr. Nowhere yet: an app builder such as Retool, Softr or Briks keeps it for you.
2. **Who builds it.** An analyst: Power BI, Tableau, Hex or Metabase. A developer: Retool. Nobody technical: Zoho Analytics, Softr, GlideOS or Briks.
3. **Who sees it.** Count the people who only look. Per-user pricing grows quickly; some tools charge viewers less, or nothing.
4. **Which plan has the AI.** Power BI's Copilot, Tableau's agent, Data Studio's extras and Zoho's automatic dashboards each sit on a higher tier.
5. **Clients.** If customers will sign in, check which plan allows outside logins and how many.

## Where to start

Most of these have a free plan, so build the same small dashboard in two of them. To try Briks, see the [AI dashboard builder](https://briks.dev/ai-dashboard-builder), read [web apps and dashboards](https://briks.dev/docs/web-apps-and-dashboards), or [start free](https://app.briks.dev/signup) with no card. For apps rather than dashboards, see [Best AI app builders in 2026](https://briks.dev/blog/best-ai-app-builders).

## Sources

Prices and plans change, so check each vendor's page before you decide.

- Power BI: [pricing](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/products/power-bi/pricing), [Copilot](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/create-reports/copilot-introduction) and [publish to web](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/collaborate-share/service-publish-to-web), checked 5 November 2026
- Tableau: [Tableau Agent](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/web_author_einstein_faq.htm), [Pulse](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/pulse_capabilities.htm) and [Tableau+](https://help.tableau.com/current/online/en-us/to_tab_plus_features.htm), checked 5 November 2026
- Data Studio: [overview and pricing](https://cloud.google.com/data-studio), [Gemini](https://docs.cloud.google.com/data-studio/gemini-overview) and [conversational analytics](https://docs.cloud.google.com/data-studio/conversational-analytics-overview), checked 5 November 2026
- Zoho Analytics: [pricing](https://www.zoho.com/analytics/pricing.html), checked 5 November 2026
- Metabase: [pricing](https://www.metabase.com/pricing/) and [Metabot](https://www.metabase.com/features/metabot-ai), checked 5 November 2026
- Retool: [pricing](https://retool.com/pricing) and [AI](https://retool.com/ai), checked 5 November 2026
- Softr: [pricing](https://www.softr.io/pricing), checked 5 November 2026
- GlideOS: [pricing](https://www.glideapps.com/pricing) and [integrations](https://www.glideapps.com/integrations), checked 5 November 2026
- Hex: [pricing](https://hex.tech/pricing/), checked 5 November 2026
- Briks: [pricing](https://briks.dev/pricing), [AI dashboard builder](https://briks.dev/ai-dashboard-builder) and [web apps and dashboards](https://briks.dev/docs/web-apps-and-dashboards), checked 5 November 2026

Describe your business, add a site you like if you have one, and see what Briks builds. You start with 50 free credits, and no card is needed.

## More from Briks

- [**How much does a website cost in 2026?** A small business website in 2026, priced three ways: an AI builder, a freelancer or an agency, with the extras.](https://briks.dev/blog/how-much-does-a-website-cost)
- [**How to build a business website with AI** Nine steps from a blank page to a live business site built with AI, with what to check at each one.](https://briks.dev/blog/how-to-build-a-business-website-with-ai)
- [**Can AI build an app with login and payments?** What AI builders add for sign-in and payments in 2026, what is left to you and what to test first.](https://briks.dev/blog/can-ai-build-an-app-with-login-and-payments)
- [**Latest release: Subscriptions on your site** 21 October 2026. Every release is on the changelog, newest first.](https://briks.dev/changelog#subscriptions)