If you're an operator business shopping for help with your data, you have four realistic options — and we're only the right one for some of you. Here's the whole landscape, including when to pick someone else.
Real market pricing, based on our own competitive research across 20+ firms.
Deep benches, big-name clients, polished delivery. Built for companies with data teams to hand off to — and budgets to match.
Pick this if: you're $100M+ with an IT department. For a 30-person operator, you're paying for overhead you'll never use.
The closest category to what we do. Firms vary widely: some specialize by industry, some sell flexible analytics capacity, and others price by tier, source, or project.
Pick this if: you need a broader bench, a specialist platform for your industry, or flexible analytics capacity. Compare ownership, operating automation, support, and how the fee changes as your scope grows.
Cheap to start and sometimes great. But you get a deliverable, not a system: no version control, no maintenance, no automation, and when they move on, nobody can support what they built.
Pick this if: you need one report, once. Not if the numbers have to be right every Monday.
Your POS, AMS, PMS, or ERP ships with dashboards. They're fine — for that one system. The operator problem is that your revenue lives in one tool, costs in another, and customers in a third, and built-in reporting can't join them.
Pick this if: one system truly runs your whole business. Most operators we meet have three or more that don't talk.
| What matters to an operator | LightYear Data | Managed analytics firms | Enterprise BI | Freelancers | Built-in reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing published up front | ✓ | Some | ✗ | Varies | ✓ |
| Published tier allowances and overage rates | ✓ | Some | Varies | Varies | Included |
| You own the warehouse & code, no lock-in | ✓ | Sometimes | Negotiable | No system to own | ✗ Their platform |
| Joins data across all your systems | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | One-off | ✗ |
| Automation of operations, not just dashboards | ✓ First-class | Varies | Available | Varies | Platform-specific |
| Built for non-tech operator businesses | ✓ | Some | Varies | Varies | ✓ Your vertical |
| Priced for a $2M–$50M business | ✓ $1.5K–$2.5K/mo | Some | Often upmarket | ✓ | ✓ |
| Maintained & supported month after month | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Retainer | ✗ | Vendor support |
Based on published pricing and positioning of 20+ firms reviewed in our competitive research, July 2026. Categories are generalizations — individual firms vary.
If you search this space, these are the firms you'll run into. They're good at what they do — here's an honest read on when they're the better choice.
Published tiers at $3K, $5K, and $7K per month, with an AI analyst built on a governed semantic layer. Its site also emphasizes client ownership of source data, warehouse, BI accounts, semantic models, and dashboards. Official site ↗
Choose them if: a governed semantic layer and ongoing analytics request capacity are central to your needs. Choose us if: you want a lower published entry point tied to operator dashboards and recurring operational automations.
A construction-focused reporting and analytics service with a prebuilt dashboard suite. Its published pricing starts at $10K per year per data source and states a typical $10K–$50K annual investment, depending on source count. Official site ↗
Choose them if: you're a construction company that values construction ERP integrations and a prebuilt reporting suite. Choose us if: you're in another operator vertical or prefer bundled source allowances with published overage rates and operational automation.
An AI-native data and analytics consultancy serving C-suite, finance, growth, revenue, and data teams. Its work spans complex data infrastructure, governed reporting, marketing, forecasting, and revenue operations. Official site ↗
Choose them if: you need a larger consultancy for complex, cross-functional analytics work. Choose us if: you're an operator business looking for a published entry price, direct founder delivery, and a client-owned operating system.
A combined accounting, tax, fractional CFO, data analytics, automation, and AI consultancy. Its site serves technology, consumer-goods, and service businesses, typically from $1M–$20M in revenue. Official site ↗
Choose them if: you want one provider across accounting, tax, finance, data, and automation. Choose us if: you want a focused outsourced data department with published scoped tiers and a stack built in your name.
We're a small senior team, not a 50-person bench — you work directly with the people who build your system. We don't have a wall of Fortune 500 logos, and we won't invent one. If your situation genuinely fits one of the firms above better, we'll say so on the audit call — it's a 20-minute conversation, not a sales trap.
We'll build a tailored sample using information you choose to share, reliable public information where available, and clearly labeled illustrative data where actual figures are unavailable.
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