Business intelligence is the category with the most complete free tools, because the money is in hosting and sharing rather than the software: Looker Studio is free for creators and viewers, Metabase (AGPL) and Superset (Apache 2.0) have unlimited users self-hosted, Power BI Desktop is free until you share, Grafana Cloud gives three users and 50 GB of logs free. For charts rather than dashboards, Datawrapper and Flourish publish without limits with attribution, RAWGraphs runs in the browser under Apache 2.0, and Streamlit Community Cloud hosts Python apps free. Plotly Chart Studio closed in October 2025. Prices are USD and were checked on 24 October 2026. How we score · All Kurums Free lists
TL;DR — the free BI tool that fits
- Dashboards on Google Analytics, Sheets or BigQuery, shared with anyone: Looker Studio — no charge for creators and viewers; Pro is $9 a user a project.
- A real BI tool with unlimited users, on your server: Metabase open source (AGPL) for point-and-click, Apache Superset (Apache 2.0) for 40-plus chart types.
- Ops and infrastructure dashboards, hosted free: Grafana Cloud Free — 10,000 metrics, 50 GB logs, 3 users, 14-day retention.
- Publication-quality charts for a report or site: Datawrapper or Flourish — unlimited, embedded with attribution.
- A Python data app the team can open: Streamlit Community Cloud — free public apps with about 2.7 GB RAM.
Which data visualization & bi tools have a free plan in 2026?
Every tool below builds charts or dashboards at no licence cost indefinitely. The hosted free tiers cap users (Grafana 3, Zoho 2, Databox 1), rows (Zoho 10,000), sources (Databox 3), privacy (Tableau Public is public only; Observable embeds carry a watermark) or attribution (Datawrapper, Flourish). The open-source servers — Metabase, Superset, Redash, Evidence, Lightdash, Grafana, OpenSearch — cap nothing and vary by licence from MIT (Evidence) and BSD (Redash) through Apache 2.0 (Superset, OpenSearch, RAWGraphs) to AGPL (Metabase, Grafana). Power BI Desktop is unlimited and local.
This list overlaps the Free financial dashboards list deliberately and is scored for general operations data rather than finance. Google’s pages now call Looker Studio ‘Data Studio’ again in places; we use the name the product page uses. Plotly Chart Studio was shut down on 31 October 2025 and is excluded; Evidence and Lightdash have no free cloud and are scored as self-hosted tools; Kibana’s Basic tier is under the Elastic License, which is not open source.
The table shows the cap, licence and the Free Score. Open a row for sharing, embedding, the paid step and the page we checked.
| Company | Free as | Key limit | Card | Free Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L |
Free forever | No charge · creators & viewers · connectors | No | 90 | Scorecard ↓ |
| M |
Open source | Self-hosted · AGPL · unlimited users · 20+ sources | No | 88 | Scorecard ↓ |
| S |
Open source | Self-hosted · Apache 2.0 · 40+ chart types | No | 82 | Scorecard ↓ |
| P |
Free forever | Free download · sharing $14/user · Windows | No | 80 | Scorecard ↓ |
| G |
Free forever | Cloud Free: 3 users · 50 GB logs · 14 days · OSS AGPL | No | 78 | Scorecard ↓ |
| D |
Free forever | Unlimited · attribution · PNG · 30-day history | No | 76 | Scorecard ↓ |
| S |
Free forever | Public apps · ~2.7 GB RAM · GitHub sign-in | No | 72 | Scorecard ↓ |
| F |
Free forever | Unlimited projects · public with attribution | No | 70 | Scorecard ↓ |
| Z |
Free forever | 2 users · 10,000 rows · 5 workspaces | No | 68 | Scorecard ↓ |
| R |
Open source | Self-hosted · BSD-2 · SQL queries | No | 66 | Scorecard ↓ |
| O |
Free forever | 1 GB/mo attachments · watermarked embeds · no DB connections | No | 62 | Scorecard ↓ |
| R |
Open source | Browser-only · Apache 2.0 · no account | No | 60 | Scorecard ↓ |
| D |
Free forever | 3 sources · 1 user · 1 dashboard | No | 58 | Scorecard ↓ |
| O |
Open source | Self-hosted · Apache 2.0 · logs & search | No | 58 | Scorecard ↓ |
| E |
Open source | Self-hosted only · MIT / unnamed · cloud $2,500–3,000/mo | No | 56 | Scorecard ↓ |
| K |
Free forever | Basic tier · Elastic License · not OSI | No | 52 | Scorecard ↓ |
| T |
Free forever | Public only · limited refresh | No | 40 | Scorecard ↓ |
Free tiers verified 24 October 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page (third-party sources named in the Scorecard where the vendor page was silent). Order is by Free Score only; sponsorship never changes it.
What do the free BI tool plans actually include?
Open any row for the eight-field Scorecard. The “Why it ranks here” note under each row explains the score in plain terms.
1L
Looker StudioUS · available at no charge for creators and report viewers, with built-in and partner connectors, sharing and embedding; Pro is $9 a user a projectFree foreverNo charge · creators & viewers · connectorsNo card90⌄
- What’s free
- Available at no charge for creators and report viewers; built-in and partner connectors; share and embed
- Hard limits
- Not stated · naming in flux between Looker Studio and Data Studio
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Pro features — team workspaces, support
- Cheapest paid step
- Pro $9 per user per project a month
- Best free for
- Any team whose data is in Google Analytics, Ads, Sheets or BigQuery
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · cloud.google.com/looker-studio (lookerstudio.google.com redirects to a page using the name Data Studio)
2M
MetabaseUS · open source and free with unlimited users, 20-plus data sources, unlimited dashboards and AI questions, self-hosted; Starter cloud is $100 a monthOpen sourceSelf-hosted · AGPL · unlimited users · 20+ sourcesNo card88⌄
- What’s free
- Open Source: free with unlimited users, 20+ data sources, unlimited dashboards, AI questions, an MCP server
- Hard limits
- Self-host · no vendor support
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Hosting or support
- Cheapest paid step
- Starter cloud $100/month or $1,080/year (5 users, $6 per extra); 14-day trial
- Best free for
- A team with a database and one person to run a container, that wants non-analysts asking questions
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · metabase.com/pricing and metabase.com/license (AGPL)
Why it ranks here. The friendliest open-source BI and the one most small companies end up on; AGPL and self-hosting are the only conditions.
3S
Apache SupersetUS (ASF) · Apache-2.0 BI with SQL Lab, 40-plus visualisation types and any SQL database, self-hosted with no caps and no vendorOpen sourceSelf-hosted · Apache 2.0 · 40+ chart typesNo card82⌄
- What’s free
- Apache-2.0; SQL Lab; 40+ visualisation types; any SQL database
- Hard limits
- None · no vendor support
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- None
- Cheapest paid step
- None
- Best free for
- A technical team that wants enterprise-scale BI under a permissive licence
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · superset.apache.org and GitHub (Apache-2.0)
Why it ranks here. More chart types than Metabase and a lighter licence; heavier to set up and aimed at analysts rather than everyone.
4P
Power BI DesktopUS · the full authoring tool free to download, with a free Fabric account and no card; sharing reports needs Pro at $14 a userFree foreverFree download · sharing $14/user · WindowsNo card80⌄
- What’s free
- Desktop available as a free download; a free account through Fabric with no card
- Hard limits
- Upgrade to Pro or Premium to share reports · Windows only
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No. ‘No credit card required’ is stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Sharing
- Cheapest paid step
- Pro $14/user/month paid yearly
- Best free for
- One analyst building the company’s reports
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · microsoft.com/power-bi/pricing
Why it ranks here. The most capable free authoring tool and a one-person one; the dashboard reaches a second person at $14 a month.
5G
GrafanaUS · Grafana Cloud Free with 10,000 metrics series, 50 GB each of logs, traces and profiles, three users and 14-day retention; the OSS edition is AGPL-3.0 and unlimited self-hostedFree foreverCloud Free: 3 users · 50 GB logs · 14 days · OSS AGPLNo card78⌄
- What’s free
- Cloud Free: 10k metrics series, 50 GB logs, 50 GB traces, 50 GB profiles, 3 users, 500 k6 virtual-user hours, 14-day retention; OSS self-hosted under AGPL-3.0
- Hard limits
- 3 active users · 14-day retention
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Users or retention
- Cheapest paid step
- Pro from $19/month plus usage
- Best free for
- Ops dashboards over metrics and logs, hosted free for a small team
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · grafana.com/pricing and GitHub (AGPL-3.0)
Why it ranks here. The best hosted free tier for operational data; built for time series, not for business tables.
6D
DatawrapperGermany · create, publish, embed and export charts without limits in a team workspace, with ‘Created with Datawrapper’ attribution; a custom theme is $499 a monthFree foreverUnlimited · attribution · PNG · 30-day historyNo card76⌄
- What’s free
- Create, publish, embed and PNG-export without limits; a team workspace
- Hard limits
- ‘Created with Datawrapper’ attribution · PNG export only · 30-day edit history
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Removing attribution or PDF and SVG export
- Cheapest paid step
- Custom theme add-on $499/month ex VAT; Enterprise on request
- Best free for
- Charts for a report, a blog or a board deck that need to look like a newspaper’s
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · datawrapper.de/pricing
Why it ranks here. The newsroom standard, free without limits; a chart tool rather than BI, and the paid step is for publishers.
7S
Streamlit Community CloudUS · totally free hosting for public Streamlit apps with GitHub sign-in; about 2.7 GB of RAM, two cores and 50 GB storage per the docsFree foreverPublic apps · ~2.7 GB RAM · GitHub sign-inNo card72⌄
- What’s free
- Totally free; public apps; GitHub sign-in
- Hard limits
- Up to about 2.7 GB RAM, 2 cores and 50 GB storage · public only
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Private or production apps
- Cheapest paid step
- Not stated
- Best free for
- A data scientist who wants the team to open a chart with sliders
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · streamlit.io/cloud and docs.streamlit.io (limits as of February 2024)
Why it ranks here. Python apps hosted free is a different kind of BI; public-only is the limit.
8F
FlourishUK (Canva) · unlimited projects with full templates, published and embedded publicly with attribution; unpublished work stays private, and Presenter comes through Canva BusinessFree foreverUnlimited projects · public with attributionNo card70⌄
- What’s free
- Unlimited projects; public publishing and embedding with attribution; full templates
- Hard limits
- Attribution · unpublished projects are private
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Presenter mode via Canva Business
- Cheapest paid step
- No price shown
- Best free for
- Animated data stories and race charts
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · flourish.studio/pricing
Why it ranks here. Datawrapper with motion; the paid step is a Canva subscription whose price the page does not show.
9Z
Zoho AnalyticsIndia · hosted BI free for two users with 10,000 rows, five workspaces and unlimited reports and dashboards; check the vendor page for the Basic priceFree forever2 users · 10,000 rows · 5 workspacesNo card68⌄
- What’s free
- 2 users, 10,000 rows, 5 workspaces, unlimited reports; 15-day trial of paid
- Hard limits
- 10,000 rows · 2 users
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Rows
- Cheapest paid step
- Basic from 2 users and 0.5M rows — price not confirmed; yearly saves 20%
- Best free for
- A hosted dashboard for two people on a small dataset
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · zoho.com/analytics/pricing
Why it ranks here. The hosted business-table option, capped at 10,000 rows, which is a few months of anything.
10R
RedashIsrael · a BSD-2-Clause tool for writing, sharing and charting SQL queries, self-hosted; hosted status is not statedOpen sourceSelf-hosted · BSD-2 · SQL queriesNo card66⌄
- What’s free
- BSD-2-Clause; self-host with an on-premise guide
- Hard limits
- None · hosted status not stated
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- None
- Cheapest paid step
- None stated
- Best free for
- Analysts who live in SQL and want to share query results
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · github.com/getredash (BSD-2-Clause); redash.io states no licence or pricing
Why it ranks here. A query-sharing tool with the lightest licence here; less of a dashboard product than Metabase.
11O
ObservableUS · JavaScript data notebooks with 1 GB a month of attachments, watermarked embeds and a few agent tokens a day; database connections and private viewers are ProFree forever1 GB/mo attachments · watermarked embeds · no DB connectionsNo card62⌄
- What’s free
- Free: 1 GB a month of attachments, embeds with a watermark, a few agent tokens a day
- Hard limits
- Watermark · no database connections or private viewers
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- Private sharing or a database
- Cheapest paid step
- Pro $22/month ($25 monthly)
- Best free for
- A developer building bespoke D3 visualisations
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · observablehq.com/pricing
Why it ranks here. The best environment for custom charts and the least BI-like tool here.
12R
RAWGraphsItaly · an Apache-2.0 app that turns a pasted dataset into a bespoke chart in the browser, with data processed only locally and vector and raster exportOpen sourceBrowser-only · Apache 2.0 · no accountNo card60⌄
- What’s free
- Apache-2.0 app; data processed only by your browser; vector and raster export
- Hard limits
- None
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- None
- Cheapest paid step
- None
- Best free for
- One unusual chart — a sunburst, an alluvial — for a deck
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · github.com/rawgraphs (Apache-2.0)
Why it ranks here. Private by design and perfect for one-offs; no dashboards, no connections.
13D
DataboxUS · three data sources, one user and one dashboard free with daily sync; Analyst is $71 a month annualFree forever3 sources · 1 user · 1 dashboardNo card58⌄
- What’s free
- 3 data sources, 1 user, 1 dashboard
- Hard limits
- Daily maximum sync
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- Not stated.
- Upgrade trigger
- A fourth source
- Cheapest paid step
- Analyst $71/month billed annually
- Best free for
- One marketing KPI board with native connectors
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · databox.com/pricing (FAQ prices inconsistent)
Why it ranks here. Native connectors to SaaS tools, which the open-source servers lack, behind the tightest caps on the list.
14O
OpenSearch DashboardsUS · fully Apache 2.0 licensed from ingest to dashboard; the open fork of Kibana for log and search analyticsOpen sourceSelf-hosted · Apache 2.0 · logs & searchNo card58⌄
- What’s free
- Fully Apache 2.0 licensed from ingest to dashboard
- Hard limits
- None
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- None
- Cheapest paid step
- None
- Best free for
- Log and search analytics with an open licence
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · opensearch.org
Why it ranks here. For logs, not business data; listed as the open alternative to Kibana.
15E
Evidence & LightdashCanada / UK · Evidence (MIT) writes BI as SQL and markdown; Lightdash builds on dbt with unlimited seats self-hosted; neither has a free cloud, and their clouds start at $2,500 and $3,000 a monthOpen sourceSelf-hosted only · MIT / unnamed · cloud $2,500–3,000/moNo card56⌄
- What’s free
- Evidence: MIT, business intelligence as code; Lightdash: self-hosted open source with unlimited seats and community support
- Hard limits
- Self-host only · no free cloud · Lightdash’s licence not named on its site
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Cloud
- Cheapest paid step
- Evidence Team $2,500/month flat; Lightdash Cloud Pro $3,000/month
- Best free for
- Data teams that treat reports as code and run dbt
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · github.com/evidence-dev (MIT) and lightdash.com/pricing (licence not named)
Why it ranks here. Excellent for data engineers and irrelevant to an operations manager; the cloud prices are enterprise.
16K
Kibana (Elastic Basic)US · the free Basic tier of the Elastic stack under the Elastic License, with some components under SSPL or Apache 2.0; sub-feature privileges start at GoldFree foreverBasic tier · Elastic License · not OSINo card52⌄
- What’s free
- Free and open Basic tier
- Hard limits
- Kibana sub-feature privileges from Gold · Elastic License is not OSI open source
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Platinum features
- Cheapest paid step
- Not stated
- Best free for
- A company already on Elasticsearch
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · elastic.co/subscriptions
Why it ranks here. Free and source-available; OpenSearch is the same thing under Apache 2.0.
17T
Tableau PublicUS · free to explore, create and publicly share with Tableau’s authoring, on infrastructure at no cost; everything is public and data refresh is limitedFree foreverPublic only · limited refreshNo card40⌄
- What’s free
- A free platform to explore, create and publicly share visualisations; infrastructure at no cost
- Hard limits
- Public only · data refresh limited · row and storage limits not stated
- Time limit
- None
- Card required
- No.
- Upgrade trigger
- Any private data
- Cheapest paid step
- Not stated
- Best free for
- A portfolio or a public data story, never company data
- Verified
- Oct 2026 · tableau.com/products/public
Why it ranks here. Listed because people search for it; scored at zero on the job because operational data cannot be public.
Which free BI tool has no credit-card requirement?
Power BI states no card for its free account; Looker Studio, Streamlit, RAWGraphs and the open-source servers need none. Grafana, Datawrapper, Flourish, Zoho, Observable and Databox do not state it. Nothing auto-converts.
The conditions are visibility and attribution: Tableau Public and Streamlit Community Cloud are public, Observable embeds are watermarked, Datawrapper and Flourish embed with attribution. For internal operations data, that leaves Looker Studio, Grafana, Zoho and Databox hosted, or Metabase and Superset on your server.
When does the free plan stop being enough?
Kurums Match: which free BI tool fits your situation?
Marketing data in Google tools
Looker Studio.
Operations data in a database, whole team
Metabase.
Analyst team, permissive licence
Apache Superset.
Infrastructure and logs
Grafana Cloud Free.
One analyst, Windows
Power BI Desktop.
Charts for a report
Datawrapper.
Python data app
Streamlit.
How we score free tiers
Duration (30): free forever scores 30, a 30-day-plus trial 15, a trial of 14 days or less 8, credit-based tiers 12. Capacity (30): whether the limits carry a team of three for twelve months. Core job (25): whether the free tier does the category’s main work — here, turning operational data into charts and dashboards the team can see, with the data source connected rather than pasted. Friction (15): no card 15; card but no auto-charge 8; auto-charge 0; self-hosting deducts for setup and maintenance.
Each free tier was checked on the vendor’s pricing page on 24 October 2026; where the vendor page was silent, the Scorecard names the third-party source used. Free tiers change, so this list is re-verified every quarter and a discontinued free plan stays listed for one month with a notice. Order is by Free Score only. Kurums Free sells no placement; sponsorship, affiliate links and vendor requests never change a score, a rank or a label. Vendors can submit corrections to the Kurums editorial team.
How did we verify these free tiers?
We opened each vendor’s pricing or product page and, for open-source projects, the repository or licence page, and recorded user, row and source caps, sharing and embedding rules, licence and the paid step. Google’s Looker Studio pages redirect to pages using the Data Studio name; Zoho Analytics’ Basic price could not be confirmed; Lightdash’s licence is not named on its site or repository page text. Plotly Chart Studio was excluded because Plotly’s page states it was shut down on 31 October 2025. Evidence and Lightdash are scored together as code-first tools without a free cloud.
Prices are USD except Datawrapper (ex VAT).
Frequently asked questions
Is Looker Studio still free?
Yes — Google’s product page states it is available at no charge for creators and report viewers. Pro adds team workspaces at $9 a user a project; some pages now call the product Data Studio.
Which open-source BI tool has unlimited users?
Metabase (AGPL) and Apache Superset (Apache 2.0), both self-hosted with no user cap. Grafana’s OSS edition (AGPL) likewise; its hosted free tier allows three users.
Is Power BI free?
Power BI Desktop is a free download and a free account needs no card, but sharing reports requires Pro at $14 a user a month paid yearly.
What happened to Plotly Chart Studio?
Plotly shut it down on 31 October 2025; Plotly says its successor, Plotly Studio, has a free tier. RAWGraphs, Datawrapper and Observable are free alternatives.
Which free chart tool has no limits?
Datawrapper — create, publish, embed and export PNG without limits, with attribution. Flourish is unlimited with attribution for public projects.
Is Tableau Public suitable for company dashboards?
No — everything published is public and data refresh is limited. Looker Studio and Grafana Cloud Free are private by default.
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