Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Liveplan VS Grapple

Compare Liveplan VS Grapple and see what are their differences

Liveplan logo Liveplan

LivePlan helps entrepreneurs and small-to-medium size business owners build dynamic business plans and track performance against their goals.

Grapple logo Grapple

Do-It-Yourself Data Analytics & Business Intelligence, Powered by AI
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  • Liveplan Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-28

LivePlan simplifies business planning, budgeting, forecasting, and performance tracking for small businesses and startups. Set business goals, compare performance to industry benchmarks, and see all your key numbers in an easy-to-use dashboard so you know exactly what's going on in your business. Less than $20/month.

  • Grapple features
    features //
    2025-06-26
  • Grapple consolidate your business data
    consolidate your business data //
    2025-06-26

Liveplan

$ Details
paid $10.0 / Monthly (2 Users, 1 Active Company, All Features)
Platforms
Browser Web Google Chrome Firefox Safari Internet Explorer Edge
Release Date
2010 April

Grapple

$ Details
freemium $99.0 / Monthly (Per Editor, Unlimited Viewers)
Platforms
Web Google Chrome Safari Firefox
Release Date
2025 May
Startup details
Country
United States
State
Nebraska
City
Omaha
Founder(s)
Jack Sellwood, Andrew Carlson
Employees
1 - 9

Liveplan features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    LivePlan provides an intuitive and easy-to-navigate interface that simplifies the process of creating business plans, even for beginners.
  • Step-by-Step Guidance
    The platform offers step-by-step instructions and examples at each stage of the business plan, making the planning process more manageable.
  • Financial Forecasting
    LivePlan includes powerful financial tools that allow users to create detailed financial forecasts, including profit and loss statements, cash flow forecasts, and balance sheets.
  • Collaboration Features
    The software supports collaboration, enabling multiple users to work on a business plan simultaneously, which is useful for teams.
  • Customizable Templates
    LivePlan offers a variety of customizable templates that cater to different industries and business types, making it easy to create a professional-looking business plan.
  • Integration with Accounting Software
    LivePlan integrates seamlessly with popular accounting software like QuickBooks and Xero, allowing for efficient data import and synchronization.
  • Educational Resources
    The platform provides an array of educational resources, including webinars, tutorials, and articles, to help users better understand business planning.

Possible disadvantages of Liveplan

  • Subscription Cost
    LivePlan requires a subscription, which may be considered costly for startups or small businesses with limited budgets.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly design, some users may find there is a learning curve, especially when utilizing advanced financial features.
  • Limited Design Customization
    While the templates are customizable, the design options are somewhat limited compared to other business planning software, which might be a drawback for users wanting a more unique presentation.
  • Internet Dependency
    Being a cloud-based service, LivePlan requires a reliable internet connection for use, which could be a limitation for users in areas with poor internet connectivity.
  • Potential Clutter
    Given the ample features and tools available, some users may feel overwhelmed or find the interface cluttered when accessing all functionalities.

Grapple features and specs

  • Automatic Data Refresh
    Hourly data refresh from your favorite apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, Stripe, and more!
  • Universal Data Library
    Automatic data modeling ensures your data is clean and queryable
  • Natural Language
    Filter, visualize, and calculate with just your wordsโ€”no SQL required.
  • Map Data
    Combine, merge, and map data from across disparate sources for a full picture of your business.
  • AI Data Scientist
    Create custom calculations and aggregations across multiple sources without writing any SQL or formulas
  • Unlimited Sharing
    Share with your team, view-only users are completely free
  • Dashboard Templates
    Build new dashboards from curated templates so you're never starting from scratch

Analysis of Liveplan

Overall verdict

  • Liveplan is generally well-regarded as an effective and user-friendly business planning tool. It is praised for its comprehensive templates, ease of use, and robust financial planning capabilities. Users appreciate the professional look it gives to business plans and the clarity it brings to financial forecasting.

Why this product is good

  • Liveplan is considered a strong tool for business planning and financial forecasting. It provides users with a structured approach to creating business plans, featuring a wide array of templates and step-by-step guides. It also offers advanced financial tools that allow for detailed financial projections, budgeting, and forecasting. The platform's collaborative features enable teams to work together effectively, and its integration with accounting software like QuickBooks adds value for financial tracking.

Recommended for

    Liveplan is recommended for entrepreneurs, small business owners, business consultants, and startups who need a reliable and structured tool for creating detailed business plans and financial forecasts. It's particularly useful for users who require collaborations, integrations with existing accounting systems, and step-by-step guidance in the planning process.

Analysis of Grapple

Overall verdict

  • Grapple (askgrapple.com) can be a solid choice for teams and individuals seeking an AI-powered tool to streamline their workflows, though its suitability depends on your specific needs and budget. As with any SaaS product, it's best to verify current features and pricing directly and take advantage of any free trial before committing.

Why this product is good

  • Offers AI-driven automation that can help save time on repetitive tasks
  • Designed with an intuitive interface aimed at reducing the learning curve
  • Can integrate into existing workflows to boost overall productivity
  • Typically provides responsive customer support and onboarding resources
  • May offer flexible pricing tiers to suit different team sizes

Recommended for

  • Small to medium-sized businesses looking to automate routine processes
  • Teams seeking to improve collaboration and productivity
  • Individuals or startups exploring AI tools on a budget
  • Users who value ease of use and quick setup over complex configurations

Liveplan videos

Small Business Success with LivePlan

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Intro to the LivePlan Pitch Tab
  • Review - Getting Started in LivePlan
  • Review - LivePlan, Online Business Planning Software Overview
  • Review - LivePlan Training Session: Writing Your Business Plan
  • Review - 4:22 NOW PLAYING WATCH LATER ADD TO QUEUE 2 Minute Tech Tip Best Way to Create A Business Plan Write A Business Plan Success Using LivePlan

Grapple videos

Ask Grapple: DIY Data Platform

More videos:

  • Review - Watch this Before Buying a Grapple
  • Review - Don't Waste Your Money! Episode 1. Land Pride Grapple.
  • Review - Tractor Grapple Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Liveplan and Grapple)
Business Planning
100 100%
0% 0
Data Analytics
0 0%
100% 100
Business Plan
100 100%
0% 0
Business Intelligence
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Liveplan and Grapple.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

Grapple's answer:

Grapple is built for small to medium-sized companies who haven't successfully implemented traditional BI software like Looker, Power BI, Tableau, or other solutions like DataRails and Domo. Traditional BI software requires a lot of technical knowledge to setup, maintain, and they often make it really difficult for less technical users to customize. This means your dashboards either 1) don't work, or 2) aren't flexible and easy to use enough to let operators adjust them as they need during the course of businesses.

Grapple is designed from the beginning for non-technical operators across marketing, sales, and finance.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

Grapple's answer:

Grapple is great for data savvy operators who love working with data. We're particularly helpful for companies with 25 to 500 employees who serve other businesses (B2B) and are focused on improving their CRM analytics and SaaS metrics. If you're using apps like Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, Stripe, or Asana, Grapple is for you!

If you want to write data notebooks in python or SQL and want under-the-hood control of your data stack, Grapple is not for you. We recommend you try Omni or Hex.

What's the story behind your product?

Grapple's answer:

Jack, co-founder/CEO, had the idea for Grapple a couple years ago after spending almost a decade building in Tableau, Looker, Google Data Studio, Trevor.io, and the list goes on! Jack spent a lot of time collaborating with non-technical users in sales, marketing, bizops, finance on dashboards and after one particularly simple report that was still difficult to generate, he thought there must be a better way! Turns out, most data platforms require a ton of other tools and a ton of other people all of which are slow and expensiveโ€”delaying your time-to-insight. Jack had the idea to compress the data stack into a single tool, that maybe couldn't do everything, but would be the fastest, easiest way to pull the types of reports he pulled all the time over the last 10 years. Fast-forward to today, Andrew joined as co-founder/CTO and Grapple is now generally available and includes a suite of AI features to take Grapple's speed and ease of use even further. Let us know what you think!

What makes your product unique?

Grapple's answer:

Grapple is a fully vertically integrated data platform and does not require any additional tooling. Unlike competitors Looker and PowerBI, Grapple includes everything you need to get started. Frustrated by your slow data team? Get started with Grapple right away.

In nerd speak, Grapple seamlessly bundles the following tools, you won't even need to manage them: - An ETL and data warehouse for centralizing your data - Automatic data modeling so your data is queryable right away - Visualization and analytics UI

And on top of all that, Grapple provides modern functionality too: - Unlimited Viewers: share your dashboards with as many users as you want, just like a Google Docs - AI/Natural Language: customize your dashboard with natural language instead of SQL or spreadsheet formulas - Straightforward pricing: pay as you go with monthly per user pricing

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

Grapple's answer:

Grapple's application layer is written in React + Laravel and under the hood uses a mixture of PostgreSQL and No-SQL to deliver data warehousing and analytics capabilities.

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Liveplan and Grapple

Liveplan Reviews

The Top 7 Business Planning Software Tools for Startups
Business Plan Pro is a product of Palo Alto Software, the same company that makes LivePlan. This option is ideal for entrepreneurs who donโ€™t want a fully cloud-based product like LivePlan, or for customers who prefer a one-time charge to a monthly subscription:
Use these 5 best business planning software to launch your business ideas
LivePlan also syncs with QuickBooks, plus you need not hassle with formulas. It creates financial tables, charts and reports automatically, and you can export your final plan to Word or PDF, or export your pitch to PowerPoint for a beautiful slideshow presentation.
The Best Business Plan Software of 2018
For any but the simplest of proposals, it's an iterative process. So, you need to highlight the parts to come back to (after your accountant responds, for example). Or, the software should at least save data in some kind of draft status. However, across all of these apps, some forms insist you must enter something in a field before it will save everything on the page, which...
Source: au.pcmag.com

Grapple Reviews

We have no reviews of Grapple yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Liveplan seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Liveplan mentions (1)

Grapple mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Grapple yet. Tracking of Grapple recommendations started around Jun 2025.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Liveplan and Grapple, you can also consider the following products

Bizplan - Modern business planning for startups

Looker - Looker makes it easy for analysts to create and curate custom data experiencesโ€”so everyone in the business can explore the data that matters to them, in the context that makes it truly meaningful.

IdeaBuddy - Innovative business planning software

Tableau - Tableau can help anyone see and understand their data. Connect to almost any database, drag and drop to create visualizations, and share with a click.

Upmetrics - Plan, Launch, and Grow your Business

Microsoft Power BI - BI visualization and reporting for desktop, web or mobile