Synopsis vs Mode
Built for the data team you'd rather not need.
Mode is an excellent workbench for analysts — SQL, Python and R notebooks, and BI in one collaborative place. But it's built for people who write queries, on top of a warehouse someone else stood up. Synopsis is for teams that want the answers without the analysts: ingestion, warehouse, modeling, and analytics as one platform, live in days.
What Mode is
Mode is an analytics platform that combines SQL, Python and R notebooks, and BI into a single collaborative workflow. It's genuinely strong for data teams: analysts can query the warehouse, drop into a notebook for deeper statistical work, and publish polished reports, all in one place. But Mode assumes both a modeled warehouse to query and skilled analysts to do the querying. It doesn't connect to and ingest your source systems, build the warehouse, or model and clean raw data for you. Getting to the point where Mode is useful still requires a warehouse, an ingestion tool, a transformation layer, and the analysts who live in it.
Mode + the stack beneath it
A powerful analyst workbench, on top of a warehouse and a team you supply.
- Mode — the analyst workbench: SQL and notebooks, for people who write queries
- A cloud warehouse — Snowflake, BigQuery, or Redshift for Mode to query
- An ingestion tool — Fivetran, Airbyte, or custom pipelines to load your systems
- Transformation work — dbt or SQL to model, clean, and join the raw data
- Analysts — to write the SQL and notebooks Mode is built around
- Maintenance — keeping queries, models, and reports accurate over time
- Timeline — a multi-month build, plus a team to run it
Synopsis
One platform: ingestion, warehouse, modeling, and analytics, live in days.
- The warehouse itself — open, queryable, and yours
- Ingestion built in — your systems connect, data lands clean, no pipelines to babysit
- Modeling done for you — raw events become clean, joined entities automatically
- Analytics included — dashboards from a single prompt, notebooks when you want them, data live in Excel and Sheets
- Built-in alerts — the platform watches your data for you
- No analysts required — we configure it with you
- AI-ready from day one — your AI tools query it over MCP
Side by side
Mode vs Synopsis, capability by capability.
| Capability | Mode | Synopsis |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud warehouse & fast SQL | ○ | ● |
| Connects to your business systems | ○ | ● |
| Data modeled, cleaned & joined for you | ○ | ● |
| Ask across every system in plain English | ◐ | ● |
| Dashboards & BI included | ● | ● |
| Alerting on your own data | ◐ | ● |
| Metrics defined once, governed everywhere | ◐ | ● |
| Live in days without a data team | ○ | ● |
| One vendor for the whole pipeline | ○ | ● |
| Query-ready for your AI tools (MCP) | ○ | ● |
| SQL + notebook analytics for data teams | ● | ◐ |
● Included ◐ Possible with effort or extra tools ○ Not available
An honest take
Where Mode is the stronger choice.
SQL and notebooks in one workflow
Mode blends SQL querying with Python and R notebooks and polished reporting in a single place. For analysts who want to move fluidly from a query to statistical analysis to a shareable report, that integrated workbench is a real strength.
Collaborative analyst workflows
Mode is built for data teams to share queries, fork each other's work, and collaborate on analysis. If you have analysts and want a purpose-built environment for their day-to-day exploration, Mode is designed exactly for that.
Deep, custom, code-driven analysis
When a question needs custom Python, a statistical model, or bespoke visualization beyond standard dashboards, Mode's notebook layer gives analysts the freedom to write whatever they need. That open-ended flexibility is where it shines.
The bottom line
Mode is an excellent workbench for data teams — the blend of SQL, notebooks, and BI is genuinely powerful for analysts who write queries all day. But that's exactly the assumption Synopsis removes: Mode needs a modeled warehouse and the analysts to work in it, while Synopsis builds the ingestion, warehouse, and modeling for you and delivers analytics on top. If you have a data team and want a flexible, code-driven environment for them, Mode is built for that. If you want the answers without standing up and staffing that stack, Synopsis delivers it as one platform, live in days.
Questions
Is Synopsis a Mode alternative?
They approach analytics from opposite ends. Mode is a workbench for analysts writing SQL and notebooks on a warehouse you provide; Synopsis includes the warehouse, ingestion, and modeling and delivers analytics without requiring analysts. If you're weighing 'Mode plus a warehouse and a team' against 'one platform,' then yes — Synopsis is a real alternative.
Can Synopsis replace Mode?
For most teams that want answers rather than an analyst workbench, yes — Synopsis replaces Mode and the stack beneath it, with dashboards, prompt-driven analysis, and notebooks when you want them. If your goal is specifically a collaborative SQL-and-notebook environment for a team of analysts, that deep, code-driven workflow is Mode's specialty.
Does Synopsis have notebooks like Mode?
Yes — Synopsis includes notebooks for deeper, code-driven analysis when you want them. The difference is that Mode is built around analysts writing SQL and notebooks as the primary way to get answers, while in Synopsis the modeling and everyday analytics are already done for you, and notebooks are there when you want to go further.
Do I need a data team to use Synopsis like I would with Mode?
No. Mode is explicitly built for data teams — it assumes analysts writing SQL and a warehouse already in place. Synopsis is designed so you don't need that team: it connects your systems, models the data for you, and delivers analytics on top, and we configure it with you.
See it on your own data.
Bring a question you've been trying to answer with Mode and the tools around it.
