Long regarded as a low-end option, open-source products have been steadily gaining ground in the business intelligence (BI) software market, according to a new report from Gartner Inc. The technology research firm expects open-source implementations to grow five-fold over the next three years.

Contracts for open-source BI installations average around $30,000 for a yearly subscription, though some can run as high as $500,000 for multiyear support, Gartner notes. Deployments tend to cluster in midsize companies, the public sector, healthcare and manufacturing.

The big BI firms are sitting up and taking notice; they’ve developing “counter-measures to address the challenges from the lower-cost competitors,” according to Gartner research VP Andreas Bitterer, quoted in this press release.