The Pricing Secret: What Embedded Analytics Vendors Won't Tell You

As more organizations decide to buy an already established embedded analytics solution rather than built it themselves, one of the most important things to consider when it comes to choosing a vendor to partner with is their pricing. 

However, you’ll be hard-pressed in the embedded analytics space to find clear, transparent, and publicly available pricing. Most embedded analytics vendors keep their pricing a secret and charge you unpredictable costs like usage and users.

Ever wondered why?

Embedded analytics vendors keep their pricing a secret, preferring to offer you ”customized” pricing, so they can maximize the price you pay while leaving ”no money on the table”. Typically, they do this by charging you on a per-user of usage-based model. 

Why this pricing structure is often a poor choice for you in the long term because when you experience user or usage growth, your costs will increase dramatically.

Another tactic that we’ve found is that, in some cases, embedded BI vendors will ask you for the price of your app and your company revenue streams before they’ll give you a price! In reality, this so-called customized pricing boils down to “how much do you get?” It’s a pricing strategy designed to maximize the price to the software vendor while maximizing profits for the embedded BI vendor.

Embedded Analytics Pricing: The User-Based Pricing Model

The user-based model works well when the user base is small but then becomes an issue as the company grows. With user-based models, companies need to understand the types of users they have. The users may be viewers, or they may be power users, which are very different both in user needs and in user quantity. Companies may receive overly high pricing quotes due to the number of thousands of viewers compared to the small number of power users that needed edit and creator capabilities. Ultimately, companies that are searching for a white label or OEM solution should avoid BI vendors that charge them per user because they will be penalized as they grow.

Embedded Analytics Pricing: The Usage-Based Pricing Model

This model charges derive from usage or essentially the number of times a dashboard or visualization is viewed. The usage model has many of the same drawbacks as the number-of-users model but with the added downside of increased complexity.  For example, Microsoft Power BI uses a complex pricing calculator that requires choosing from different node types, which differ based on the number of V-cores and RAM.

The usage model keeps the software vendor from achieving financial economies of scale. The benefits of increased usage and success of your app are transferred to the embedded BI vendor in the form of higher fees based on usage.

The unknown cost risk in both models is extremely high in both pricing models. Both models may also have additional costs depending on the type of and number of data sources from which your data is connected.

Comparing Embedded BI Pricing Models

So, while looking for embedded BI software to integrate into your apps, be cautious when you recognize these sketchy pricing models. Luckily, not all embedded analytics vendors are the same, and by knowing what you look for, you’ll be able to find the best solution.  

First and foremost, you want to know upfront how much the software is going to cost you. That means looking for a 100% transparent pricing model that won’t escalate as your app sales increase. Or in other words, to get fixed pricing that won’t come with any surprises, hidden fees, usage, or user tiers.  

Many Embedded BI vendors will initially attempt to dodge the cost question and require multiple meetings before revealing their cost structure. Yet this remains the central question for application providers trying to make a build-or-buy decision or even integrate BI.   The process can be so off-putting it’s a wonder that application providers work with embedded BI vendors at all.

Ask the vendor these questions:  

• What is the total cost of the solution? Including implementation, training, support, and other fees.  
• Are there any undisclosed costs? 
• Do you have cloud usage or per-user fees?  
• Can the solution be deployed for local or cloud-based hosting on Windows or Linux containers? 

Ultimately, software vendors shouldn’t have to put up with hidden and complex pricing that is not transparent and is often unpredictable.  Embedded BI vendors should be making the build vs. buy decision easy, not more complex.

Introducing Reveal – Simple, Transparent, Predictable Pricing 

Our goal with Reveal is to make the build vs. buy decision easy.  We believe we’ve done that with our simple pricing includes:

• No usage or user tiers. The price is one affordable, all-you-can-eat price.  This also makes Reveal pricing 100% predictable for now and in the future.
• We also don’t want to penalize you, requiring that you pay for an embedded solution based on your app’s continued growth and success. That’s why our pricing is capped and not tiered or based on data usage – there are zero additional embed costs to you for any additional customers that use your app
• Reveal also has no hidden fees. All data connectors, for example, come free of charge.

Our goal with every customer is to be a valued partner for the long haul. Every customer is different, so request a quote today to find the right price for your embedded analytics solution!