iDBQuery vs Hex: what's the difference?
Hex is a polished collaborative notebook for analysts and data scientists, blending SQL and Python with an AI helper and notebook-to-app publishing; iDBQuery is a plain-language chat for everyone that writes the SQL for you, cites each figure to its source row, and unifies files and documents alongside databases.
Hex is a modern data workspace. Analysts blend SQL and Python in reactive notebooks, use its Magic AI to draft queries and analysis, and publish notebooks as interactive data apps. If your users are technical and you want beautiful, reproducible notebooks connected to a warehouse, Hex is excellent.
iDBQuery targets a different audience and shape of work:
- Chat, not a notebook. You ask a plain-language question and get a cited answer, chart, table or live dashboard, with no cells to run or code to write.
- Answers you can audit. Each number links back to the exact source rows behind it.
- More than a warehouse. iDBQuery unifies SQL databases and warehouses with Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, PDFs, whole folders (with OCR) and REST APIs into one live model.
- Runs in your walls. Cloud, VPC, a Desktop app, or fully air-gapped.
The two can coexist: data scientists build deep, custom analyses in Hex, while the broader team asks iDBQuery for quick, cited answers without opening a notebook. Hex is a workbench for people who code; iDBQuery is a question-answering layer anyone can use and trust.
Updated 2026-06-22