Many teams need to work with big datasets, but Excel and Google Sheets weren't built for big data. So companies look for more powerful spreadsheets, like Row Zero, that are better for big data, connectivity, and security or explore replacing spreadsheets with BI tools.
In this guide we compare Row Zero vs Sigma Computing and show why Row Zero is the best spreadsheet for big data. Skip to a section below or continue reading for the full guide.
- What is Row Zero?
- What is Sigma Computing?
- Biggest difference between Row Zero and Sigma
- Sigma pricing vs Row Zero
- Feature comparison
- Other Sigma alternatives
- Conclusion
What is Row Zero?
Row Zero is next-gen spreadsheet built for big data. It's 1000x more powerful than traditional spreadsheets and faster than BI tools. Row Zero lets you connect directly to your data sources to build dynamic spreadsheets and offers enterprise-grade security and data governance. Row Zero works like Excel and Google Sheets so it is a good Excel alternative for enterprises and big data users. Row Zero is free to try.
What is Sigma Computing?
Sigma is a cloud-native BI tool that lets users analyze data using a spreadsheet-like interface. Sigma offers a no-code solution that auto-generates SQL to query your data warehouse so users don't need to know SQL or have coding skills in order to explore and visualize data warehouse data. Like Row Zero, Sigma connects directly to your data warehouse and lets both technical and non-technical users analyze datasets that are much larger than what traditional spreadsheets can handle.
Biggest differences between Row Zero and Sigma
Row Zero is a real spreadsheet and works like Excel and Google Sheets, but can handle much larger datasets and connects live to your data warehouse. You can open and edit many millions of rows on a free plan and billion row datasets on Enterprise plans. All the data is available in the spreadsheet and you can do whatever transformations you like - pivot tables, spreadsheet formula functions, filter, sort, graph, join, and more. You can work with immutable tables connected to your data source or you can explode the data to cells to add, edit, and delete any data. You can also upload a variety of file formats including CSV, parquet, .gz, JSONL, XLSX, etc. Row Zero is a replacement for Excel and Google Sheets for teams that need big data performance, data connectivity, and enterprise-grade security and governance.
Sigma is a BI tool with a "spreadsheet-like" interface on top of your data warehouse. Like other BI tools, the primary use case appears to be more about exploring and visualizing data than editing or changing data. Sigma does not store your data. The spreadsheet interface auto-generates SQL and uses it to query your data warehouse. As a result, Sigma pushes user actions (calculations, filters, sorts, etc.) to the data warehouse for execution. This lets users manipulate very large datasets, but may lead to slower responsiveness and may increase data warehouse costs as usage increases. Sigma is a replacement for Tableau and other BI tools. Sigma is not a full replacement for Excel, but allows users to easily export to Excel or Google Sheets for further analysis and data cleaning.
Sigma Computing Pricing vs Row Zero
Sigma Pricing
Sigma does not list pricing publicly on their website, but appears to be significantly more expensive than Row Zero. Vendr, which tracks pricing for software products, lists a median price for Sigma of $57,000 per year with a range from $16k to $165k at the time of this post. You'll need to contact Sigma for pricing for your use case, but users report paying a significant platform fee plus a per user license around $1,000/user per year for the explorer/developer role. Viewer licenses are free. It's also important to consider the total cost of ownership beyond the software costs. Sigma delegates compute to your data warehouse (filter, sorts, and calculations are pushed to the data warehouse), so increased usage may lead to increase data warehouse costs. Conversely, both Sigma and Row Zero can reduce data requests for data teams by providing a self-service analytics solution, which can increase data team efficiency.
Row Zero Pricing
Row Zero offers a free plan that lets you try out the core features before buying. The free plan supports millions of rows and allows you to connect to your cloud data warehouse. Pro plans start at $8 per user per month and allow for unlimited workbooks. Business plans start at $15 per user per month and support scheduled data refresh, shared data sources, and write-back to the data warehouse. Enterprise pricing starts at $25 per user per month and supports billion row datasets and security features like single sign-on (SSO) and advanced access controls (restrict data export, sharing, copy/paste, etc.). View Row Zero pricing. 
Feature Comparison
Both Row Zero and Sigma support many of the same features like handling big data sets, connecting to data sources, and advanced security features. However, there are some key differences in features.
Row Zero's unique features:
Works like Excel and Google Sheets: Row Zero is a standalone spreadsheet, so you can use the same formula functions and features you already know and love - pivot tables, charts, COUNTIFS, XLOOKUP, and hundreds more. Row Zero also supports the typical spreadsheet keyboard shortcuts.
Big data power and speed: Row Zero is the world's fastest spreadsheet and is specifically engineered for big data. The Free plan supports up to 5GB datasets and tens of millions of rows. Enterprise plans support billion row datasets and scale with your needs. That's 1000x bigger than the Excel row limit of 1,048,576.
Dynamic, connected spreadsheets: Row Zero lets you connect your spreadsheet directly to your database or data warehouse.
Everything you build on top of connected tables stays in sync and updates automatically, including dynamic pivot tables, charts, formulas, etc. You can easily build column level transformations and at any point, you can explode the data into full spreadsheet view to edit individual cells. You can also write-back to your data warehouse from your spreadsheet. Row Zero's built-in connectors include Postgres, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, and S3.Shared Data Sources: Data teams can share queries with teammates as dynamic data sources that can be refreshed or scheduled to update automatically. This is an easy way to give less technical users one-click access to live updating data and makes it easy to get teams using governed "source of truth" datasets.
Enteprise-grade security and governance: Row Zero brings enterprise-grade security and data governance to your spreadsheets. Companies can restrict export to CSV across their tech stack, prevent untraceable data leakage, and finally reign in ungoverned spreadsheets. Your data never leaves the cloud. Row Zero is SOC2 and HIPAA compliant.
Python in the spreadsheet: Row Zero speadsheets have a built-in Python development environment, which allows you to write custom Python functions that are referenced in the spreadsheet and import popular Python libraries.
Dynamic, large file import: Row Zero makes it easy to open and edit big CSV files, parquet, JSONL, .gz, TXT, XLSX, etc. You can also dynamically import updated files into an existing sheet so you can update your reports and workflows dynamically via file import as files are updated with new data.
Unique Sigma features:
Spreadsheet-like interface: Sigma's unique innovation is bringing a spreadsheet-like interface to a BI tool that supports spreadsheet features like pivot tables and spreadsheet formula functions.
Columns, not cells: Unlike traditional spreadsheets where you work in cells, in a Sigma table, you work in columns. Calculations made in a column are applied to every row and every cell in a column is defined by the same formula.
Connected to your cloud data warehouse: Like Row Zero, Sigma has built-in connectors to Postgres, Snowflake, Databricks, Redshift, and BigQuery and lets you write-back to your data warehouse. Sigma additionally supports AlloyDB and MySQL.
Export to Excel, Google Sheets, email, etc.: You can export entire workbooks and workbook elements to Excel, Google Sheets, and CSV so you can continue working with your data in a spreadsheet or other SaaS tool. You can also trigger these file exports to email and slack to support automated reporting and workflows.
Group columns in a table: Sigma lets you group columns in a table to compare rows of data based on shared values within a column and you can create aggregate calculations based on these groups.
AI features: Sigma AI features let you "Ask Sigma" to trigger AI agents to locate data, answer questions, and build an analysis. You can also call an AI model from your cloud data warehouse and run it on data columns.
When to choose Row Zero over Sigma
Your team needs a spreadsheet that is powerful, connected, and secure - If you need a faster and more powerful alternative to Excel and Google Sheets to work with your connected data, Row Zero is the best spreadsheet. Row Zero is specifically engineered to handle much larger datasets than Excel and Google Sheets.
Price - While your use case of spreadsheet vs BI tool may determine your choice, Row Zero is considerably less expensive than Sigma if both suit your needs.
When to choose Sigma over Row Zero
Your team wants a BI tool that feels more like a spreadsheet - If your team is looking for a replacement for BI tools like Tableau with a more user friendly interface, then Sigma could be a good solution. If your use case is primarily viewing and visualizing big data versus editing and working within big datasets then you may prefer a BI tool like Sigma over a spreadsheet.
Other Sigma Alternatives
There are a few categories of Sigma alternatives and Sigma competitors to consider:
BI Tool alternatives
There are several BI tools that are Sigma competitors including Tableau, Power BI, Looker, and Qlik. While there are some differences across these BI tools, they all share many similar features. Typically Power BI is the most affordable BI tool. Some are more expensive and some are cheaper than Sigma. Explore top BI tools to compare pricing and features.
Spreadsheet-like alternatives
In addition to spreadsheets like Row Zero, there are other spreadsheet-like alternatives to Sigma that you may consider:
- Gigasheet is a no-code platform designed for big data analysis through a spreadsheet-like interface. Read our Gigasheet review.
- Rows is a re-imagined spreadsheet experience built around collaboration, interactivity, and data connectors. Read our Rows review.
- Airtable is a "low-code" platform that lets you connect to data sources, build dashboards, and create business apps in a spreadsheet-like interface.
Excel and Google Sheets add-ons
If your main goal is connecting spreadsheets to your data source, then you may want to consider Excel or Google Sheets add-ons as an alternative to Sigma. Two popular add-ons are Coupler.io and Coefficient.io. Both have data connectors to dozens of SaaS tools and data warehouses. The biggest limitation of these add-ons is that they are still leveraging Excel and Google Sheets so they are constrained by the peformance limits of Excel and Google Sheets. Read our Coefficient review.
Conclusion
Both Row Zero and Sigma offer big data power, cloud data connectivity, and enterprise security features. Row Zero offers these features in a powerful spreadsheet that works like Excel and Google Sheets. Sigma offers these features in a cloud-native BI tool with a spreadsheet-like interface. If you're looking to replace your BI tool with a more user-friendly tool, then Sigma could be a good solution. If you're looking for a modern spreadsheet alternative to Excel and Google Sheets, then Row Zero is a good solution for you.