Explo alternatives (2026): what to move to now that Explo is sunsetting

If you run Explo, you have a deadline you did not pick

Explo was acquired by Omni on October 22, 2025. Omni's FAQ says it intends to migrate the majority of Explo customers to Omni over the next 12 months, so the window closes around October 2026. Your existing contract pricing stays unchanged until your current agreement ends. After that you are negotiating new Omni terms, or you are on a different tool. Either way you need a plan, and this list of Explo alternatives for 2026 is meant to help you build one.

I have sat on a lot of calls with product and presales teams who bought an embedded analytics tool because a customer asked for "just a dashboard" and the engineering queue was already full. An engineering lead at Sardine put it this way: "the dashboard team is of seven engineers, 50 to 60% of the time goes to these customer requests." A product manager at Razorpay described customers who "have to wait, like, for two, three days to get this simple report." Explo fixed that for a lot of teams. Now the fix has an expiry date.

What you are actually replacing

Before comparing vendors, write down what Explo gave you, because the alternatives split along these lines:

• SQL databases and warehouses only (Postgres, Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks and the rest). No REST or API connector and no CSV upload in the docs.
• Row-level security through a Customer object: you added AND customer_id = {{ customer_id }} to dataset SQL, with a two-level Customer/User hierarchy and custom properties.
• White-label theming, a web component or iframe embed, and a hosted Customer Portal with magic-link login and 7-day access.
• A separate embeddable Report Builder with an AI mode (20 messages per session, cleared on refresh).
• End-user exports to CSV, PDF, PNG and XLSX, stored in Explo's S3 bucket and deleted after 7 days.
• No documented JSON or YAML export of dashboard definitions. Version history is linear, in-app, preview and revert only.

That last point matters most. You cannot take your dashboards with you as files. Whatever you pick, you are rebuilding, so pick the tool you would want to rebuild on. The step by step is in our guide on how to migrate from Explo.

Six Explo alternatives, with the trade-offs

Omni (the default path)

Omni is where Explo is pointing you, with "step-by-step migration guides" and "migration tools" per its FAQ at https://omni.co/explo. Two things change. Pricing: your Explo contract holds until it ends, then you negotiate Omni terms per customer, so there is no public number to plan against as of September 2026. Product: Omni ships an MCP server for Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor, which Explo never had, so your AI story improves. If you were going to re-evaluate anyway, treat Omni like any other new vendor and run it through the same checklist as the rest of this list rather than assuming it is Explo with a new logo.

Gigacatalyst

Gigacatalyst is what we build. Instead of connecting a warehouse, it builds customer-facing dashboards and a report builder on your product's own APIs and permissions. A customer sends a spreadsheet, asks for a dashboard, or you paste the call transcript, and you get a working dashboard or report that only calls your approved endpoints. It cannot show data or features that are not in your product. That is the answer to the objection a sales engineering lead at Wrike raised on our first call: "The danger is that you show the customer something that is not there." His own summary of how it works was "I think it mimics the UI, and then it uses the API."

This is a different shape from Explo. There is no warehouse hop, so it fits products where customer data lives behind APIs rather than in a database you want to expose. The customer keeps the dashboard when they go live because it is the real product, not a demo copy. Pricing is quoted per deployment with a pilot as of September 2026; start at /contact. Honest limits: it is not a self-hosted BI tool, we are a young company, and your security team will want to review the data path (what we do is on /trust). The report builder is described at /solutions/report-builder and dashboards at /dashboard-analytics-bi.

Luzmo

Luzmo is the closest like-for-like replacement for the Explo experience: cloud-hosted, drag-and-drop editor, tenant-scoped embed tokens, white-label included, plus Luzmo IQ for natural-language questions and a hosted MCP server published in June 2026. Pricing is one "All-in" plan starting at €1,995/month billed annually as of September 2026, metered on monthly active users and AI conversations, with unlimited internal users. It lists 19 database connectors plus "Luzmo plugins," lightweight REST connectors to query your own APIs, which Explo did not have. Capterra reviewers (4.6/5, 26 reviews) complain about daily-only refresh on some sources ("Fastest data refresh time we got was 24h"), a bug count "too elevated for a BI tool," and no copy paste between dashboards. Cloud only, no self-hosting. Our Metabase vs Luzmo page goes deeper.

Metabase embedded

Metabase is open source and self-hostable. Its Pro plan ($575/month with 10 users included, $12 per extra user per month, as of September 2026) adds row and column security, SSO embedding, a React SDK and white-label. The catch for a customer-facing product: every SSO-authenticated end user counts as a billed user. Guest embeds with signed JWTs do not. Luzmo's math for 500 authenticated users on Pro came to about $6,455/month at list. In return you get a built-in MCP server and YAML serialization of dashboards on Pro, which is more portability than Explo ever offered. Read our Metabase alternatives page before choosing this route.

Embeddable

Embeddable is a developer toolkit. Your engineers define Cube data models and React components in your own repo, product people assemble dashboards in a hosted no-code builder, and it embeds as a web component, not an iframe. Row-level security filters fail closed. Pricing is a flat monthly subscription with unlimited users, views and dashboards, but no public rate as of September 2026; every deployment is quoted. Databases only, no API source, no self-hosting, and you need a frontend engineer and a data engineer before non-technical people can build. If you have those engineers and want pixel control with a predictable bill, it is a strong fit. Public review counts are not published, so you are relying on a proof of concept.

Sisense

Sisense is the enterprise option: Compose SDK for React, Vue and Angular, 200+ connectors, self-hosted or cloud, Simply Ask NLQ, and MCP connectivity. Prices are not published. Vendr's 126 recorded purchases show a median of $56,831 per year and a range of $18,139 to $178,681 (third-party, unverified, page dated February 2026). GetApp rates it 4.5/5 over 378 reviews, praising the dashboard builder as "probably the most user-friendly" while flagging costs that "escalate rapidly across multiple vectors (users, data cubes)" and "frequent bugs reported by some users." If you are a regulated vendor with a data team and a six-figure budget, look here. If you liked Explo for its size, this is probably not your move.

Side by side

As of September 2026	Omni	Gigacatalyst	Luzmo	Metabase Pro	Embeddable	Sisense
Public price	Negotiated per customer	Quoted per deployment	€1,995/month, annual	$575/month plus $12/user	Flat, quoted	Not published
Data source	Not published	Your product APIs	19 DBs plus REST plugins	18 official DB drivers	DBs only	200+ connectors
Self-host	Not published	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
MCP server	Yes	Not published	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Tenant security	Not published	Your product permissions	Token parameter overrides	Row and column security	Token filters, fail closed	Data security rules
Dashboard definitions	Migration tools	Runs in your product	JSON via Core API	YAML serialization	Git, Dashboards as Code	.dash JSON, not verified

How to choose in three questions

Where does the data live? If it is in a warehouse and you want the least change, Omni or Luzmo. If it lives behind your product APIs and you never wanted the warehouse hop, Gigacatalyst. Who builds? Engineers who want their own React components: Embeddable. An enterprise data team: Sisense. What is the budget shape? Guest embeds only and a low floor: Metabase. Thousands of authenticated end users: anything but per-user billing.

A technical leader at Confident LIMS told us he was "pretty happy with Metabase, honestly," then added "Metabase is limited to whatever we decide to give Metabase." That is the real question for every tool above. What are you willing to give it: a warehouse, a database connection, or your product APIs?

Our wider ranking is in the best embedded analytics platforms for 2026, and shortlists by job are in customer-facing dashboard tools for SaaS.

One next step

Start the inventory this week: list every Explo dashboard, every customer group, and every export your customers actually download. It takes an afternoon and every option above needs it. If you want to see what your own APIs look like as a customer dashboard, see it on your own APIs and we will run a pilot on one of your real customer requests.

Questions people ask

Is Explo shutting down? Explo was acquired by Omni on October 22, 2025, and Omni says it intends to migrate the majority of customers to Omni over the following 12 months. Existing contract pricing holds through the end of current agreements.

Can I export my Explo dashboards to another tool? No. Explo documents end-user exports (CSV, PDF, PNG, XLSX) and an Export Dashboard API for PDF or image screenshots, but no JSON or YAML export of dashboard definitions. You will rebuild on the new tool.

What is the closest replacement for Explo? Luzmo is the closest in shape: cloud-hosted, no-code editor, tenant-scoped embeds, white-label, starting at €1,995/month billed annually as of September 2026. Omni is the vendor-recommended path.

Which Explo alternative is cheapest? Metabase is free to self-host, but SSO-authenticated embedded users cost $12 each per month on Pro as of September 2026, so it is only cheap with guest embeds or small user counts.

Does Gigacatalyst need a database connection like Explo did? No. It runs on your product's approved APIs and permissions, so it shows only what your product already exposes. Pricing is quoted per deployment.

Do any of these have an MCP server? Omni, Luzmo, Metabase and Sisense say yes. Embeddable has no MCP page in its docs but offers Claude skills for building models and components.