Alternatives · BI suites
Sigma is a cloud analytics and business intelligence platform that works directly on a company's cloud data warehouse. It suits companies that already keep their data in a cloud warehouse such as Snowflake, Databricks or BigQuery. If the question on your desk is why a number moved, and your data arrives as exports, there is a lighter way to answer it.
Sigma is a cloud analytics and business intelligence platform that works directly on a company's cloud data warehouse. Users build workbooks, dashboards and data apps through a spreadsheet-style interface with familiar formulas, and Sigma turns that work into queries that run live in the warehouse. It also supports writeback, approvals and AI-assisted workflows on top of warehouse data.
None of these is a fault in Sigma. They are situations where a team needs something narrower, sooner or lighter than what it is built to do.
| The situation | How Covirage approaches it |
|---|---|
| It assumes a loaded cloud warehouse | Covirage reads the exports you already have; no warehouse is needed |
| Pricing combines licence tiers and usage credits, and heavy use draws on warehouse compute | Three tiers on one sheet, with set up included |
| The assistant needs an AI provider configured by an administrator | The assistant works as soon as your file is loaded |
| The assistant writes and runs SQL | Covirage's AI model chooses from measures our tools compute; it never writes a query or does the arithmetic |
| Sigma | Covirage | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | Companies that already keep their data in a cloud warehouse such as Snowflake, Databricks or BigQuery; Spreadsheet-literate business teams who want to analyse large tables without learning SQL | The person waiting for the answer: one desk, then the next |
| How it gets data | Sigma requires a connection to a supported data platform and queries it live: Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, Databricks, PostgreSQL, AlloyDB, MySQL, Azure SQL Database, Starburst, and SQL Server 2022 or Azure SQL Managed Instance. Sigma sends queries over that connection and works with the result sets returned, rather than holding its own copy of the data. | Files and sheets now; scheduled delivery by API, S3, Azure, SFTP or email on Business; connections built with your team on Enterprise |
| Needs before the first answer | A supported cloud data warehouse or database, already loaded with the data to analyse; A connection from Sigma to that warehouse, with permissions set up by an administrator; Published data models or curated sources for Sigma Assistant to choose from | The exports your systems already produce. No warehouse, no modelling language, no data team |
| Typical setup | Not published | Minutes on a file you already export; set up for you within a week |
| AI | Sigma Assistant answers natural-language questions by selecting a data source from the warehouse tables, published data models and curated sources the user can access, writing and running SQL, and returning charts, tables or written insights. Users can view the SQL and the steps it took, and open results in a workbook. Assistant, the formula assistant and 'Explain this chart' need an AI provider: a model hosted in the customer's data platform (such as Snowflake Cortex or Databricks) or an external provider such as OpenAI or Azure OpenAI. | The AI model chooses a measure and writes the explanation; our tools do the arithmetic and check every total |
| Published pricing | Sigma does not publish prices. A third-party guide from July 2026 describes four licence tiers (View, Act, Analyze and Build) plus usage credits for selected billable events, sold through sales quotes. A free trial is available. | Three tiers on one sheet, shared in a conversation |
| Getting data out | Workbook data can be downloaded or exported on demand or on a schedule as CSV, Excel, JSON, PDF or PNG, to email, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Slack, Teams or cloud storage. Most exports are limited to 1 million rows; exports to cloud storage are not. Because Sigma queries the customer's own warehouse, the underlying data already sits outside Sigma. | Export every table as a workbook or JSON at any time |
Many teams use both: Sigma for what it is built for, and Covirage for the recurring question a desk would otherwise hand to an analyst.
No. Sigma gives spreadsheet users the warehouse. Covirage replaces the spreadsheet work for a recurring question: the bridge, the variance and the list of owners are computed for you, and any table exports back to a workbook.
Sometimes, and often not. Sigma is built for companies that already keep their data in a cloud warehouse such as Snowflake, Databricks or BigQuery. Covirage answers one desk's questions from the files that desk already exports, set up for you in a week. Many teams keep Sigma for what it is built for and use Covirage for the question it would otherwise leave to an analyst.
It starts with the exports those systems already produce: files and sheets now, scheduled delivery by API, S3, Azure, SFTP or email on Business, and connections built with your team on Enterprise. We never hold credentials to your systems.
No. The AI model chooses which measure answers the question and writes the explanation. Our tools do the arithmetic, and every total is checked before it is shown. If a question needs a measure we do not have, the assistant says so.
Bring an export you already produce. The data map opens next, every column mapped once, and the first question is answered in minutes. Free, in your browser, no account. Or talk to us and we will set it up for you.
Facts about other products on this page were checked on 24 September 2026 from the pages below. Product names are trademarks of their owners, used here only to identify them. Covirage is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by any of them. If something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.