KNIME
KNIME makes free visual, no-code tools for building data pipelines and analytics workflows.
On the record
Checkpoint: Databricks or Snowflake shipping native agentic visual pipeline tools
The call
KNIME still makes money and keeps its users, but the reason people pick it, dragging boxes instead of writing code, is exactly what AI chatbots are learning to do for free.
KNIME sells software that lets people build data workflows by dragging and connecting boxes instead of writing code. The problem is that ChatGPT and similar AI can now write those workflows from plain English, which makes KNIME's main reason to exist less valuable, and huge companies like Databricks and Snowflake can easily copy what KNIME does and bundle it into their own platforms. The one thing that could save KNIME is if its audit and governance tools become essential enough for banks and hospitals that need to prove exactly what their data does, but so far that's still just a feature, not a must-have that stops other companies from competing.
Why
01
AI pressure: Frontier LLMs like Claude, Gemini, and Mistral writing agentic pipelines from text prompts. AI can now write the same data pipeline KNIME users drag and drop, cutting into why anyone needs its visual builder. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Databricks and Snowflake. Both are expected to ship native agentic visual pipeline tools inside their own clouds within 12 to 24 months. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Deep enterprise integrations, a huge free-user community, and early traction positioning its audit trails for regulated industries.
What would change this call
Databricks or Snowflake ships a native agentic visual-pipeline builder in their cloud console. Would directly copy KNIME's core feature and remove its main differentiator.
KNIME announces a new funding round or discloses ARR growth rate for 2026. Shows whether the 30-40% growth pace held or slowed after 2024 reinvestment.
PeerSpot or similar mindshare trackers show KNIME's category share stabilizing or continuing to halve. Indicates whether customer attention is stabilizing or still shifting to rivals.
KNIME announces a new funding round or discloses ARR growth rate for 2026. Shows whether the 30-40% growth pace held or slowed after 2024 reinvestment.
PeerSpot or similar mindshare trackers show KNIME's category share stabilizing or continuing to halve. Indicates whether customer attention is stabilizing or still shifting to rivals.
Key numbers
- ARR around 30 million euros, growing 30-40% yearly
- About 220 to 250 employees
- Nearly 400 enterprise customers including Novartis, ASML, Bayer
Named risks
- Category mindshare halved year-over-year (12% to 5.6%) per PeerSpot, May 2026.
- No structural barrier stops Databricks, Snowflake, or Alteryx from copying visual pipeline assembly.
- K-AI depends on third-party frontier models (Claude, Gemini, Mistral) rather than owned AI capability.
- Single institutional investor (Invus) since 2017, no new funding since August 2024.
- Conflicting third-party revenue estimates ($13M to $52.9M) undermine financial transparency.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Alteryx | contesting | Shipped GenAI Copilot Dec 2025, reports 380M automated workflows in 2025 |
| Dataiku | gaining on | Higher Gartner rating 4.7/871 reviews vs KNIME 4.6/187 as of Jul 2026; tied mindshare May 2026 |
| Databricks | gaining on | No structural barrier prevents native agentic visual pipeline tools within its cloud |
| Snowflake | gaining on | AI Data Cloud platform positioned to absorb visual pipeline workloads, per Aug 2024 sourcing |
Questions people ask
- Is KNIME profitable in 2026?
- KNIME said it was 'close to profitability' in 2024 with roughly €30M ARR, but chose to reinvest new Invus capital into growth instead, per its August 6, 2024 funding announcement. No profitability figures have been disclosed since, so current status is unconfirmed.
- Who owns KNIME?
- KNIME AG is privately held, headquartered in Zurich. Its sole disclosed institutional investor is Invus Group, which put in about $21.5M in March 2017 and another $30M in August 2024, for $50M total disclosed funding. No IPO or acquisition has occurred as of July 2026.
- Could AI replace KNIME?
- KNIME's core value, visual no-code pipeline building, is directly exposed to generative AI that writes pipelines from text prompts. Category mindshare reportedly fell from about 12% to 5.6% year-over-year by May 2026 per PeerSpot, while rivals like Alteryx shipped competing AI copilots in December 2025.
- Is KNIME's biggest competitor Alteryx or Databricks?
- Alteryx is KNIME's closest direct rival, shipping a GenAI Copilot in December 2025 and reporting 380 million automated workflows in 2025. Cloud giants Databricks and Snowflake pose a bigger structural threat since nothing stops them building native agentic visual pipelines.
- What is KNIME's revenue?
- KNIME reported (vendor-claimed) annual recurring revenue of roughly €30 million (about $32.6M) as of August 6, 2024, growing 30-40% year-over-year since 2017. Third-party estimators like RocketReach and Datanyze show conflicting figures ranging from $13M to $52.9M.
- Is KNIME losing market share to competitors?
- Yes. PeerSpot data from May 2026 shows KNIME Business Hub and Dataiku tied at 5.6% mindshare, both down from roughly 12% a year earlier, while Alteryx sits at 3.8%, indicating category-wide erosion likely to cloud-native AI platforms.
Timeline
- 2026-07-06KNIME v5.12 lets K-AI build interactive data apps from workflows, adds Mistral support
- 2026-03-10KNIME v5.11 adds granular permissioning for K-AI's autonomous actions
- 2025-12-11KNIME v5.9 ships visual audit trails for AI agent actions
- 2025-09-29KNIME Pro cloud SaaS tier launches with pay-as-you-go pricing
- 2025-08-17KNIME releases 'Agent Hubert' experimental agentic framework for Hub APIs
- 2025-06-25KNIME Analytics Platform 5.5 adds Claude, Gemini, watsonx.ai connectors, rebuilds K-AI as agentic
- 2024-08-06Invus invests further $30M; KNIME reports ~€30M ARR and launches K-AI
- 2017-03-15Invus Group leads ~€20M/$21.5M investment in KNIME
- 2006-07-28KNIME Analytics Platform v1.0 first public release
Revision history
21 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- 10 YEARS KNIME ANALYTICS PLATFORM
- KNIME (2026-04-03)
- KNIME, Funding, Investors & Team (2017-03-15)
- German computer scientists raise $30 million (2024-08-06)
- Open-source data science platform Knime raises $30M (2024-08-06)
- Open-source data platform KNIME bags $30M (2024-08-07)
- KNIME 5.5 release webinar (2025-07-29)
- KNIME Newsroom
- Careers
- LinkedIn (2026-03-04)
- Release notes (2025-09-29)
- What's New in KNIME Analytics Platform 5.5 (2025-06-25)