Home › Compare › BI Report Testing Tools › QuerySurge vs Spectacles

QuerySurge vs Spectacles

Checked Nov 15, 2026How we score

Verdict: QuerySurge scores 8.5/10 against 8.4/10 for Spectacles on our data score for BI report testing tools.

Spectacles has a free plan; QuerySurge does not.

QuerySurge and Spectacles lead on 2 checks each; 4 are even, out of 8 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.

Choose QuerySurge for enterprise QA and data teams testing data warehouses, migrations and BI reports. Choose Spectacles for looker teams that want pull-request checks on LookML.

Scoreboard: 8 checks

CheckQuerySurgeSpectacles
Free planLeads
Free trialEvenEven
Smaller seat minimumLeads
Power BILeads
TableauLeads
Other BI tools (Qlik, Looker, Cognos, MicroStrategy...)EvenEven
Report regression testingEvenEven
CI/CD integrationEvenEven
Total22

At a glance

QuerySurgeSpectacles
Score8.5/10 (#4)8.4/10 (#5)
Best forEnterprise QA and data teams testing data warehouses, migrations and BI reportsLooker teams that want pull-request checks on LookML
Free planNoYes
Paid from (annual)$500.50/user/moSee vendor
Paid from (monthly)——
Free trial1-day hosted cloud trial (1 user), 15-day download trial (2 users), 45-day proof of concept14-day free trial of the hosted service (per terms of service)
Minimum seats21
PlatformsOn-premises, Private cloud (Azure, AWS, GCP and others), Azure and AWS marketplace (pay-as-you-go), Private cloud, Azure (pay-as-you-go), AWS (pay-as-you-go), Public cloud, AWS and Azure pay-as-you-goCloud (SaaS), CLI (Python)

Features

ToolScorePower BITableauOther BI tools (Qlik, Looker, Cognos, MicroStrategy...)Report regression testingCI/CD integration
QuerySurge8.5/10YesYesYesYesYes
Spectacles8.4/10NoNoYesYesYes

Pros and cons

QuerySurge

Pros
  • List prices are published on the vendor's site, including per-user and 5/10/25-user package prices
  • Connects to 200+ data stores, including Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, Excel, Parquet, JSON and XML files
  • BI Tester validates Power BI, Tableau, IBM Cognos, Strategy, Oracle BI and SAP BusinessObjects reports against source data
  • Several trial options: 1-day hosted cloud trial, 15-day download trial and 45-day proof of concept
Cons
  • Subscription per-user pricing starts at $6,006 per full user per year with a 2-user minimum
  • BI Tester, Full API and Query Import/Export are paid add-ons on the smaller packages
  • Customer-installed software (on-premises, private cloud, or pay-as-you-go Azure/AWS marketplace image) rather than a vendor-run SaaS
QuerySurge pricing →

Spectacles

Pros
  • Finds SQL errors in Explores by running queries in the database, which Looker's built-in validator does not
  • Content validator checks that LookML changes do not break saved dashboards and Looks
  • Integrates with GitHub, GitLab and Azure DevOps pull requests, plus an API and a dbt Cloud integration
  • Open-source CLI (MIT license) on GitHub, last released July 2026
Cons
  • Looker only; no Power BI or Tableau support
  • Hosted app pricing is not published
  • Checks report definitions and queries, not report values against a separate source system
Spectacles pricing →

Frequently asked questions

How do QuerySurge and Spectacles compare on features and price?

QuerySurge and Spectacles lead on 2 checks each; 4 are even, out of 8 checks (yes/no, price and seats) where we have data for both.

Is QuerySurge better than Spectacles?

QuerySurge scores 8.5/10 against 8.4/10 for Spectacles on our data score for BI report testing tools. QuerySurge is best for enterprise QA and data teams testing data warehouses, migrations and BI reports; Spectacles is best for looker teams that want pull-request checks on LookML.

Which is cheaper, QuerySurge or Spectacles?

Check each vendor's pricing page; one of them does not publish an entry price.

Do QuerySurge and Spectacles have free plans?

QuerySurge: no. Spectacles: yes.

See the full BI Report Testing Tools ranking for other options.

Sources