Comparison · last updated 27 August 2026

Knowi vs Domo: same all-in-one shape, different meter.

Both platforms bundle connectors, transformation, dashboards, alerts and AI. The differences are how you are billed, where the data runs, who rebuilds the pipeline logic if you switch, and who owns the company you are signing with.

Every Domo figure on this page links to its source, checked 18 August 2026.

Choose Knowi if

You want the all-in-one shape on a flat annual platform fee, your data spans SQL, NoSQL and APIs you would rather query in place than load, you need on-premises or VPC deployment, and you want the Magic ETL and Beast Mode rebuild done by the vendor during onboarding.

Choose Domo if

You are staying: nothing has to be rebuilt, your pipelines, cards and workflows keep running. You rely on Domo App Studio or Domo Workflows, which have no import path into any other platform, or you are comfortable with credit-based consumption billing and the roadmap under Progress Software.

At a glance

Things to know before you decide

  • Domo charges by consumption, not by seat. Credits are drawn down by storing data, updating tables, running workflows and ML inference, and users are unlimited. Costs climb without anyone new logging in. 84% of Domo's ARR is on this model. Knowi is a flat annual platform fee scoped to your deployment, with no per-query or per-refresh meter.
  • Domo's median contract is about $50K a year. Vendr's benchmark across 91 Domo purchases ranges from $10,920 to $175,245. Buyers who benchmark an alternative before renewal save around 13% on average, whether they switch or stay. Knowi pricing is quoted per deployment rather than published, so treat any flat-fee comparison as directional until you have a number.
  • Domo is changing owner. On 22 July 2026 Domo agreed to sell substantially all of its assets to Progress Software for $400 million in cash, closing by 30 November 2026 subject to regulatory approval. Domo reported 2,400+ customers in its fiscal 2026 filing and gross retention above 88% on its Q4 FY26 call. The open question is the roadmap under a new owner, and your renewal terms after the close.
  • Nothing imports Magic ETL or Beast Modes. Both are proprietary. Magic ETL flows export as JSON; Beast Mode calculations are recreated as calculated fields. No vendor offers a conversion utility. On Knowi that rebuild is done by Knowi during onboarding for annual contracts, with Domo running in parallel until your team signs off.
  • Domo stores your data; Knowi queries it in place. Domo's credit model meters storing data and updating tables, so the architecture assumes data is loaded into Domo. Knowi connects natively to 70+ sources, including MongoDB, Elasticsearch, Cassandra, REST APIs and SQL, and joins across them at query time. Domo does publish MongoDB and Elasticsearch connectors; the difference is ingest-and-store versus query-in-place, not whether the connector exists.
  • Deployment. Domo is cloud SaaS. Knowi runs on its managed cloud, in your VPC, on-premises via Docker or Kubernetes, or air-gapped, with SOC 2 Type II attested controls, HIPAA-aligned controls with a BAA available, and Knowi AI as the default model so inference is not routed to a third-party LLM unless you enable one.
  • Where Knowi is not the answer. There is no like-for-like equivalent for Domo App Studio or Domo Workflows: Knowi Apps are operational apps built by Knowi on your governed data, so those workflows get rebuilt, not moved. Knowi is sales-led with no self-serve tier, and Domo's installed base is larger: 2,400+ customers reported in its fiscal 2026 filing.
Side by side

Knowi vs Domo, capability by capability

Capability
Domo
Knowi
What it is
All-in-one: connectors, Magic ETL, cards, alerts, App Studio, Workflows, AI
All-in-one: 70+ native connectors, transformation, semantic layer, dashboards, alerts, AI agents, Apps
How it charges
Credit-based consumption. Unlimited users. Storage, refreshes, workflows and ML inference all draw from the pool
Flat annual platform fee, scoped to your deployment. No per-query meter
Adding a viewer
Zero. Users unlimited
In the platform fee
Data architecture
Data loaded into Domo; storing and updating tables consumes credits
Queried where it lives, joined across sources at query time. Datasets can be direct or stored, your choice
NoSQL and APIs
Published connectors for MongoDB and Elasticsearch, among others, feeding Domo datasets
Native protocols: MongoDB aggregation, Elasticsearch DSL, nested JSON intact, REST APIs joined with SQL in one query
Pipeline logic
Magic ETL dataflows and Beast Modes, proprietary, exportable as JSON
Cloud9QL queries, transformations and calculated fields. Domo logic rebuilt by Knowi at onboarding
What AI needs
Credits from the same pool
Agents in the data layer, in the platform fee. Knowi AI by default, OpenAI or Claude optional per feature
Apps
App Studio and Workflows, built inside Domo
Knowi Apps: operational apps built by Knowi on your governed data, hosted on their own URL with their own sign-in. No import path in either direction
Deployment
Cloud SaaS
Managed cloud, your VPC, on-premises via Docker or Kubernetes, air-gapped
Compliance
Per Domo's published trust documentation
SOC 2 Type II attested controls, HIPAA-aligned controls with BAA, GDPR. Report on request
Ownership
Sale to Progress Software for $400M announced 22 July 2026, closing by 30 November 2026
Independent. Founded 2014, Oakland, California
Migration effort
None if you stay
Free assessment, rebuild included in onboarding for annual contracts, parallel run until sign-off

Domo figures: Domo's pricing page, Domo's fiscal 2026 annual filing and Q4 FY26 earnings call, the Progress Software announcement of 22 July 2026, and Vendr's marketplace benchmark. Sources are linked from the eight-platform Domo comparison.

The bill

Most Domo alternatives do not remove the meter.

If unpredictable consumption billing is why you are reading this, price the whole stack, not the BI line.

Credits
Domo meters storing data, updating tables, running workflows and ML inference. Users are unlimited, so the bill tracks activity, not headcount.
Domo pricing page
~$50K
Vendr's median across 91 Domo purchases, from $10,920 to $175,245. Benchmarking an alternative before renewal saves about 13% on average.
Vendr
Flat
Knowi is one annual platform fee for the deployment. No per-refresh, per-query or per-inference meter. Quoted per deployment, so bring your Domo contract to the call.
Knowi
Where Knowi fits
  • All-in-one, so you are not assembling a warehouse, an ETL tool, a viz layer and alerting glue
  • Flat annual platform fee, no consumption meter
  • Magic ETL and Beast Modes rebuilt by Knowi during onboarding
  • Domo runs in parallel until your team signs off
  • On-premises, VPC or air-gapped when the security review requires it
Where Knowi is not the answer
  • No like-for-like equivalent for Domo App Studio or Domo Workflows; those get rebuilt as Knowi Apps, not migrated
  • Sales-led, with no self-serve tier
  • Domo's installed base is larger, 2,400+ customers on its own filing
  • If you are staying on Domo, there is no rebuild at all, and that is a real advantage
Evaluated Domo, chose Knowi

From a team that ran the trial

Electronics manufacturing · nine-way BI trial
"My team tested various data visualization tools like PowerBI, Domo, Sisense and Knowi emerged as the top choice for its speed in creating useful dashboards and ease of use for non-technical users. While we selected Knowi as a viz tool, I'm also happy we did so from a data engineering perspective. Knowi's architecture models data thoughtfully, which I'd credit for enabling a collection of elegant features."
Phil BryantVP Business Intelligence, MacroFab
Read the MacroFab story →
If you switch

What moves, piece by piece

Your raw data already lives in your own sources. What has to be recreated is the logic on top of it.

In Domo
In Knowi
How it moves
Magic ETL dataflows
Queries and transformations
Flows export as JSON. Knowi maps the logic into Cloud9QL during onboarding
Beast Modes
Calculated fields
Recreated, with edge cases flagged in the assessment
Cards and pages
Widgets and dashboards
Rebuilt to match. You review everything before cutover
Alerts and scheduled reports
Alerts and reports
Recreated with the same triggers and schedules
App Studio and Workflows
Knowi Apps
No import. You describe the workflow, Knowi builds the app on the governed dataset
Your data
Stays where it lives
Knowi connects directly to your sources. No forced warehouse project
FAQ

Questions Domo teams ask before the assessment

Why does our Domo bill go up when nobody new has logged in?

Because Domo meters credits, not seats. Storing data, updating tables, running workflows and ML inference all draw from a pre-purchased pool, so the bill follows activity. Adding refresh schedules or a new AI feature can raise it with the same headcount. Knowi's flat annual platform fee does not move with query volume or refresh frequency.

Can Knowi import our Magic ETL dataflows and Beast Modes?

Not automatically, and neither can anyone else: both are proprietary and no vendor offers a conversion utility. Magic ETL flows export as JSON definitions, and Beast Mode calculations are recreated as calculated fields. For annual contracts Knowi does that rebuild during onboarding, you validate the outputs against Domo, and Domo stays live until your team signs off.

Domo already has MongoDB and Elasticsearch connectors. What is different about Knowi's?

The direction of the data. Domo's connectors load data into Domo, where storing it and refreshing it consumes credits. Knowi queries MongoDB with aggregation pipelines and Elasticsearch with its query DSL where they sit, keeps nested JSON intact, and joins the results with SQL and REST API sources in one query. You can still choose to store a dataset in Knowi when that is the right call.

We use Domo App Studio. Is there an equivalent in Knowi?

Not a like-for-like one. Knowi Apps are operational apps that Knowi builds for you on your governed datasets, hosted on their own URL with their own sign-in, actions and memory. An App Studio app is not imported; you describe the workflow and Knowi rebuilds it. If App Studio or Domo Workflows are central to how you run, weigh that rebuild honestly.

Can we run Knowi on-premises, which Domo does not offer?

Yes. Knowi deploys on its managed cloud, in your VPC, on-premises via Docker, Kubernetes or a native install, or fully air-gapped. On-premises customers run the full platform, all agents and their own LLM, so data does not leave your environment. See deployment options.

Is Knowi cheaper than Domo?

We will not claim that without your numbers. Domo's median is about $50K a year on Vendr's 91-purchase benchmark, with a wide range, and Knowi is quoted per deployment rather than published. Bring your current Domo contract and usage to the assessment and we will be straight about the comparison, including where a flat fee is not the cheaper option.

Is this page biased?

We build a competing platform, so yes. Every Domo claim traces to Domo's own pages, its filings, the Progress announcement or Vendr's benchmark, and the page names what Domo does that Knowi does not replicate. If you want the wider field, read the Domo alternatives guide or the eight-platform comparison.

Bring your Domo contract to the call.

A free assessment of your Domo instance: what moves easily, what needs work, and what it costs. Useful whether you switch or stay.

Domo runs in parallel until your team signs off. No big-bang weekend.