An honest comparison

Why not just use a spreadsheet?

Fair question. Here's where every other option genuinely wins — and the one thing none of them do.

📗 A spreadsheet

What most people actually use. Free, familiar, already open.

Where it wins

  • It's free, and you already know it
  • Total control — any formula you want
  • Nothing to sign up for

Where it hurts

  • You have to open it, and remember to
  • The chart is only as fresh as the last time you touched it
  • Building the view takes an evening; maintaining it takes every evening

Be honest: if your spreadsheet is working, keep it. Glance is for when you've stopped opening it. We don't replace the file — we read it, and turn it into something that's still there tomorrow morning without you doing anything.

📒 Your accounting software

QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho. The books, done properly.

Where it wins

  • It's the source of truth for money
  • Tax, invoicing, payroll — Glance does none of that
  • Your accountant already lives there

Where it hurts

  • It only knows what it's been told — and only about money
  • Footfall, stock, bookings, ad spend, your own targets? Not in there
  • Reports are built for accountants, not for a Tuesday morning

Be honest: keep your accounting software. It answers "are the books right?" Glance answers "how is the business doing?" — across everything, not just the ledger.

📊 A BI tool

Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio, Databox, Geckoboard.

Where it wins

  • Enormously powerful — genuinely no ceiling
  • Hundreds of integrations, if your data lives in a system with an API
  • The right answer at 200 employees with a data team

Where it hurts

  • Every one of them assumes your data is already clean and connected
  • You build the dashboard. That's a project, not an afternoon
  • $64–$600 a month, and priced for a company, not for you

Be honest: if you have a data team, use Power BI — we're not going to out-feature it and we're not trying to. Glance is for the shop, the freelancer, the family that will never have a data team, and whose numbers are in a file, not a warehouse.

🤖 Just asking an AI chatbot

Drop the CSV into ChatGPT or Claude and ask.

Where it wins

  • Instant, free, and shockingly good at a one-off question
  • You can ask anything, in any words
  • No account, no import, no setup

Where it hurts

  • Tomorrow, you upload the file again. And the day after.
  • Nothing is watching your numbers when you're not asking
  • You get an answer, not a habit

Be honest: this is the closest thing to Glance, and we'd rather say so. The difference is persistence. An answer is not a habit. Iris builds the dashboard once, then it's still there every morning — same numbers, updated, without you asking again.

So what's actually different about Glance?

One thing, and it's the thing none of the above will do: we meet your numbers where they actually are. Every other dashboard on earth needs your data clean, connected, and living in a system with an API. Most businesses don't have that. They have a spreadsheet.

So: drop the file. Iris reads your actual columns, asks you a question if she's genuinely unsure what you meant, and builds the dashboard. You don't pick a chart type. You don't connect anything. There is nothing to integrate.

That's the whole pitch. If you already have clean, connected data and a team to model it, buy a BI tool — honestly. If you don't, nobody else is building for you.

Drop a spreadsheet, see what happens →

Free plan, no card. Delete your data permanently at any time, in one click.