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Amazon QuickSight

Create interactive dashboards, visualizations, and reports for data analysis and business insights.

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  • Overview
  • Features
  • Pricing
  • Pros
  • Cons
  • Reviews

Amazon QuickSight Overview

  • Updated August 29, 2025

Amazon QuickSight is a AI powered cloud-based business intelligence and analytics tool that empowers organizations to visualize and analyze data effectively. It enables users to create interactive dashboards, generate insightful reports, and uncover trends through intuitive visualizations.

With seamless integration into AWS services, QuickSight supports data from various sources, offering scalable, secure, and user-friendly solutions for businesses to make data-driven decisions and gain actionable insights efficiently.

Key Features

Interactive Dashboards: QuickSight lets you create dynamic, real-time dashboards with charts, graphs, and tables. Users can filter data, drill down into metrics, and generate reports quickly, which makes it ideal for tracking performance and spotting trends.
Amazon Q (Natural Language Query): With Amazon Q, you can ask questions in plain English, like “What were sales last quarter?” QuickSight delivers instant visual answers, and this feature simplifies data exploration for non-technical users.
SPICE Engine: The Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine (SPICE) speeds up data processing by caching data in memory. It handles large datasets efficiently, and this ensures fast, responsive analysis even with millions of rows.
Machine Learning Insights: QuickSight uses built-in machine learning to detect anomalies, forecast trends, and summarize data. These tools provide predictive insights without requiring data science expertise, and they help uncover hidden patterns.
Embedded Analytics: You can embed dashboards and visualizations into applications or websites. This feature enhances user experiences, and it’s perfect for SaaS businesses or internal tools needing integrated analytics.
Broad Data Source Support: QuickSight connects to AWS services like S3, Redshift, and Athena, plus third-party sources like Salesforce, MySQL, and Excel. This flexibility lets you pull data from multiple places, and it streamlines analysis.
Serverless Auto-Scaling: As a serverless platform, QuickSight scales automatically to support thousands of users without manual setup. This eliminates infrastructure management, and it ensures smooth performance during peak usage.
Pixel-Perfect Reports: QuickSight supports detailed, multipage reports for operational needs. You can schedule and share these reports, and they’re customizable for precise, professional outputs.
Mobile App Support: The QuickSight mobile app for iOS and Android lets you access dashboards on the go. You can explore data, apply filters, and receive alerts, which keeps you connected anywhere.
Built-in Security and Compliance: QuickSight offers role-based access controls, encryption, and integration with AWS security tools. It meets standards like HIPAA and GDPR, and this ensures your data stays secure.
Pay-per-Session Pricing: QuickSight’s pricing model charges only for active usage, not per user. This approach saves costs, and it’s ideal for teams with occasional dashboard viewers.
Multi-Tenancy and Collaboration: QuickSight supports multi-tenant dashboards for secure sharing across user groups. It also enables team collaboration, and this fosters a data-driven culture with role-based permissions.
Extensive API Capabilities: QuickSight’s APIs allow programmatic management of users, datasets, and dashboards. This feature supports automation and integration into DevOps pipelines, and it simplifies large-scale deployments.

Price

  • Author Plan: $24/month ($18/month with annual commitment). Create/share dashboards, connect to data, use Amazon Q for queries. Best for freelancers.
  • Author Pro Plan: $50/month. All Author features plus generative BI, advanced analysis, Amazon Q Topics. Best for freelancers needing advanced AI.
  • Reader Plan: $3/month. Explore dashboards, receive reports, download data, use Amazon Q. Best for small teams.
  • Reader Pro Plan: $20/month. All Reader features plus generative BI, advanced analysis. Best for small teams needing AI insights.
  • Capacity Pricing (Reader Sessions): From $250 for 500 sessions/month. Bulk session purchases for readers. Best for middle-sized teams.
  • Capacity Pricing (Amazon Q Questions): From $250 for 500 questions/month. Bulk Amazon Q question capacity. Best for middle-sized teams.
  • Pixel-Perfect Reports (Monthly): $500/month, 500 report units. Create/share multipage reports, schedule exports. Best for large teams.
  • Pixel-Perfect Reports (Annual): $24,000/year ($2,000/month), 4,000 report units. Cost-effective for large-scale reporting. Best for large teams.
  • SPICE: $0.38/GB/month, 10 GB included per Author. In-memory data storage for fast queries. Best for all team sizes.
  • Alerts and Anomaly Detection: $0.05–$0.50 per 1,000 metrics evaluated. Threshold-based or ML-powered alerts. Best for large teams.

Check pricing detail: https://aws.amazon.com/quicksight/pricing/

Pros

Competitor

Pros of Amazon QuickSight
Tableau QuickSight integrates seamlessly with AWS services like S3, Redshift, and Athena, and this simplifies data connectivity for AWS-centric businesses. Its serverless architecture scales effortlessly without manual setup, which reduces IT overhead compared to Tableau’s complex infrastructure.

The pay-per-session pricing is cost-effective for occasional users, and this contrasts with Tableau’s higher licensing fees, which can strain smaller budgets.

QuickSight’s ML Insights feature provides automated anomaly detection and forecasting, which is more accessible for non-technical users than Tableau’s advanced analytics, which often require expertise.
Microsoft Power BI QuickSight’s native AWS integration ensures smooth data flow for AWS users, and this offers an advantage over Power BI’s Microsoft ecosystem focus, which can limit flexibility. Its serverless model eliminates infrastructure management, which simplifies setup compared to Power BI’s occasionally complex configuration.

The pay-per-session pricing is predictable for sporadic users, and this contrasts with Power BI’s subscription-based costs. Amazon Q’s natural language queries simplify analysis for non-experts, and this makes it more approachable than Power BI’s steeper learning curve for advanced features.
Qlik Sense QuickSight’s cloud-native design and AWS integration make deployment and scaling straightforward, and this gives it an edge over Qlik Sense’s sometimes clunky interface and setup. Its ML Insights deliver automated analytics without deep technical skills, which contrasts with Qlik Sense’s less intuitive associative model.

The pay-per-session pricing is flexible for smaller teams, and this avoids Qlik Sense’s potentially confusing pricing structure. QuickSight’s robust mobile app ensures accessibility, which matches or exceeds Qlik Sense’s mobile offerings.
Looker QuickSight’s straightforward setup and lower costs make it accessible for smaller businesses, and this contrasts with Looker’s higher pricing and complex LookML language, which can challenge non-technical users. Its serverless architecture simplifies scaling, which eliminates Looker’s infrastructure hurdles.

Amazon Q enables intuitive natural language queries, and this broadens appeal compared to Looker’s technical focus. QuickSight’s seamless AWS integration benefits AWS-based organizations, and this outperforms Looker’s Google Cloud-centric approach.
Sisense QuickSight’s cost-effective setup and pay-per-session pricing suit smaller teams, and this contrasts with Sisense’s higher costs and complex implementation, which favor large enterprises. Its serverless design reduces IT management, which gives it an edge over Sisense’s resource-heavy setup.

ML Insights are user-friendly for non-experts, and this makes analytics more accessible than Sisense’s focus on embedded analytics. QuickSight’s AWS integration streamlines data connectivity, which provides a smoother experience than Sisense’s broader but less specialized integrations.

Cons

Competitor

Cons of Amazon QuickSight
Tableau QuickSight offers limited dashboard customization compared to Tableau’s robust, flexible visualization tools, which provide greater design and branding control. Its advanced analytics capabilities are less comprehensive, and this makes it less suitable for complex data modeling than Tableau’s sophisticated features.

The user interface can feel less intuitive, and this contrasts with Tableau’s polished, user-friendly design. Customer reviews highlight Tableau’s stronger community support and training resources, which outshine QuickSight’s more limited ecosystem.
Microsoft Power BI QuickSight’s customization is less flexible than Power BI’s, which offers dynamic dashboard and report designs, especially for Microsoft ecosystem users. Its analytics are less robust for non-AWS data sources, and this limits versatility compared to Power BI’s broad compatibility.

Some users find QuickSight’s interface less intuitive, and this contrasts with Power BI’s smoother experience. Reviews note Power BI’s integration with Excel and Teams provides a cohesive workflow for Microsoft-centric teams, which QuickSight lacks.
Qlik Sense QuickSight’s dashboard customization is less extensive than Qlik Sense’s, which offers dynamic, associative data exploration capabilities. Its advanced analytics are not as powerful, and this makes it less ideal for predictive analytics compared to Qlik Sense’s AI-driven insights.

The interface feels less modern, and this contrasts with Qlik Sense’s polished design, despite its occasional clunkiness. Qlik Sense’s broader data connectivity sometimes outperforms QuickSight’s AWS-focused integrations.
Looker QuickSight lacks Looker’s depth in real-time data exploration and modeling, which LookML powers and suits technical users. Its dashboard customization is less flexible, and this limits branding options compared to Looker’s highly customizable interface. QuickSight’s analytics are less advanced for complex use cases, and this makes it less competitive for enterprises needing deep insights.

Reviews highlight Looker’s superior support and governance features, which overshadow QuickSight’s offerings.
Sisense QuickSight’s customization and visualization options are less robust than Sisense’s, which excels in embedded analytics and dynamic dashboards for large datasets. Its advanced analytics are not as scalable, and this makes it less suitable for enterprise-grade needs compared to Sisense’s flexibility.

The interface can be less intuitive, and this contrasts with Sisense’s streamlined design for technical users. Sisense’s broader data source compatibility sometimes surpasses QuickSight’s AWS-centric focus.

Customers' Reviews From Reliable Websites

Reddit Review
Gartner Review
Software Advice Review
G2 Review