● Why Illuminated Intelligence
The advisor every other platform forgot to ship.
Tableau, Power BI, Domo, Sisense, HubSpot, and Salesforce all sell you a place to look at data. Pilot and QuickBooks Live record what happened last month. None of them tell a small-business owner what to do next, on Monday morning, in plain English. Illuminated Intelligence is the one that does — for $99/month, after a free first week.
● Cost
5×–67× cheaper than the platforms that pretend to compete.
| Platform | Realistic monthly (5 seats) | Annual all-in | Multiple of i² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illuminated Intelligence | $99/mo | $1,188 | 1× |
| Zoho Analytics | $145/mo | $1,740 | 1.5× |
| Power BI Pro | $70/mo + capacity | $2,400+ | 2.0× |
| Tableau | $375/mo | $4,500 | 3.8× |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub Pro | $890/mo + contacts | $10,680+ | 9× |
| ThoughtSpot Essentials | $1,250/mo | $15,000 | 12.6× |
| Sisense Cloud | $1,750/mo | $21,000 | 17.7× |
| Salesforce CRM Analytics + base | $2,200–$3,500/mo | $26K–$42K | 22–35× |
| Pilot.com (CFO tier) | $2,250+/mo | $27,000+ | 22× |
| Domo (mid-market) | $2,500–$6,667/mo | $30K–$80K | 25–67× |
Sources: vendor pricing pages and verified third-party reviews (Holistics, Toucan Toco, Embeddable, Oliv.ai, HubSpot blog).
● Head-to-head
The only platform built for the owner, not the analyst.
| Platform | Time to first insight | Proactive AI advisor | Industry-specific | Median latency | Plain-English output | Needs analyst | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illuminated Intelligence | 24–72 hours | Yes | Yes | <800 ms | Yes | No | 7 days, no card |
| Tableau | 3–6 months | No | No | 5–60 s on real data | No | Yes | 14 days |
| Microsoft Power BI | 2–4 months | No | No | 2–30 s | No | Yes | Free Pro |
| Domo | 6–9 months | Partial | No | 10–30 s | Partial | Yes | Demo only |
| Sisense | 2–4 months | No | No | 2–10 s | No | Yes | Demo only |
| ThoughtSpot | 1–2 months | Partial | No | 1–5 s | Partial | No | Free trial |
| HubSpot Marketing Hub | 30–60 days | Partial | No | 1–3 s | Partial | No | Free tier |
| Salesforce Einstein | 60–120 days | Partial | No | 1–3 s | Partial | Yes | Demo only |
| Pilot.com | 2–4 weeks | Partial | No | n/a | Partial | No | None |
| QuickBooks Live | 2–4 weeks | No | No | n/a | No | No | None |
● Where they lose
Each platform has one thing it does well — and one thing it forgets.
Tableau
$375/mo (5 Creators)Top Reddit complaint: "super complicated for my team". Requires a dedicated analyst.
Microsoft Power BI
$70/mo + capacity feesSteep DAX learning curve. No Mac/Linux desktop. Performance issues with large data.
Domo
$2,500–$6,667/moCredit-consumption model causes 2–3× overage bills. Built for the enterprise.
Sisense
$1,750+/mo$21K/yr floor. Designed for product teams embedding analytics, not for owners.
ThoughtSpot
$1,250+/mo (20 seats min)$1,250/mo minimum for 20 seats. Per-query metering on the analyst tier.
HubSpot Marketing Hub
$890+/moMarketing-only intelligence. Contact overages stack quickly ($750/mo for +5K).
Salesforce Einstein
$2,200–$3,500/mo (5 users)True cost $340–$470/user/mo with base licenses. Locked into Salesforce.
Pilot.com
$349 → $2,250+/moStrategic advisory gated to the $2,250+/mo CFO tier.
QuickBooks Live
$200–$400/moBookkeeping only — historical, never forward-looking. No advisor.