nlqdb

Solve · Analysts and PMs

How do I build an internal dashboard without per-seat pricing?

If you need an internal view over your data and per-seat tooling is out of budget, drop an `<nlq-data>` tag in any HTML page and ask for the report in English — no SQL, no schema setup, no per-viewer fee.

Operations and ops-adjacent teams that want one dashboard for a handful of business questions end up evaluating Retool, Metabase, or a bespoke React build. Per-seat licensing punishes occasional viewers; self-hosted OSS shifts the cost from money to ops burden — neither fits a five-person team that wants to read three numbers a day.

The snippet that solves it.

> today's orders aggregated by drink with revenue

What nlqdb does for this

  • One HTML element (`<nlq-data goal="...">`) renders the answer with the compiled SQL toggle-revealed underneath.
  • Anonymous mode (`SK-ANON-001`) provisions an ephemeral Postgres database in seconds — no signup before first answer.
  • Pricing is free forever for the free LLM chain; paid tiers add a flat sub with included requests, never per-viewer.

Drop into any HTML page

<nlq-data goal="today's orders aggregated by drink with revenue"></nlq-data>

The query a small team would otherwise write by hand (or pay per viewer to render) is the one nlqdb answers from a single English goal.

What this replaces

What nlqdb doesn't try to do here

  • No drag-and-drop chart builder — nlqdb returns tables and one-sentence summaries; charting is the consumer's choice.
  • No role-based row-level security on shared dashboards yet — per-DB API keys scope by database, not by row.

Questions buyers ask

How does this compare to Retool's per-user pricing?
Retool charges per seat across paid tiers; nlqdb's free chain is free forever and the paid tier is a flat sub with included requests + soft-meter overage. For a comparison page see nlqdb vs Supabase — Retool-specific is on the roadmap; in the meantime the persona overlap with Supabase is the closest published shape.
Can a non-engineer read the dashboard?
Yes — the page only needs an HTML host (or `/app/new` for the hosted chat). The query stays in English; the compiled SQL is collapsed under a `Show trace` toggle so curious viewers can audit it without it cluttering the answer.
Do I have to migrate my existing database?
No — you have two paths. nlqdb can provision a fresh Postgres for the dashboard (no migration), or you can connect a Postgres you already run with the signed-in BYO connect verb (`nlq db connect`; see /solve/query-existing-postgres-in-natural-language) and query it in place. Either way there's no ETL into a separate store.
What happens when the dashboard hits a paid LLM?
Free chain (Groq → Gemini) handles the free tier indefinitely; BYO-LLM at 0% markup lets you point any provider key at the same request shape. Hosted-premium adds a soft-meter overage — no surprise bills, no auto-upgrade (GLOBAL-013).

Where this pain shows up in public

Enduring discussion hubs where you can verify the theme without taking our word for it. We don't quote individual posts; we cite search-result and subreddit URLs that stay live as new threads land.

Try nlqdb in 30 seconds

No sign-in. The anonymous database lasts 72 hours; adopt it with one click if you keep it.

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Looking at this from a different angle? Browse all solve pages or browse competitor comparisons.