Data Reporting and Visualization are essential in understanding business by transforming massive datasets into meaningful pictorial insights. There are various factors like functionalities, flexibility, and ease of operability that need to be considered while choosing the ideal Reporting Tool for your business.
This article will provide you with an in-depth analysis of some of the Best Reporting Tools available in the market. It also aims to provide you with knowledge about the features & use cases of these Reporting Tools to help you make the right choice for your business.
What are Reporting Tools primarily used for?
Reporting tools are largely used for reporting, decision-making, and business intelligence applications. These technologies assist users in visualizing operational data and bringing disparate data together in one location. Through data-rich presentations and interactive reports, reporting technologies can also assist you in gaining valuable business insights.
What is BI Tool?
BI Tools collect data from various sources and present it in a way that consumers can understand. BI tools can collect, organize, and analyze data to create useful reports that may be printed or disseminated.
This article provides a reporting tools list that can be helpful in the decision-making process for selecting the appropriate tool. Some of the Best Reporting Tools available in the market are as follows:
1) Best Reporting Tools: Tableau
Tableau is one of the leading Business Intelligence and Data visualization tools in the market. It has several in-built connectors to connect to various sources, thereby creating visual masterpieces with a perfect blend of symbolic elements like colours, tables, and charts that help businesses implement data-driven decisions. Some key features of Tableau are as follows:
- Tableau is a Reporting Tool with an intuitive dashboard with thousands of symbolic elements to create visuals.
- Tableau enables users to securely collaborate on the worksheets and dashboards with peers and leaders for design suggestions and review.
- Tableau offers excellent support for real-time data integration. It also encompasses robust In-memory Computation.
- Tableau has over 200+ connectors available in its library, which can connect to any Relational and Non-relational Database, CSV and Excel files, Hive, Snowflake, etc.
Tableau Pricing
Tableau offers a 14-day free trial following which the user has to choose one of the tiers which are as follows:
- For Individuals: Provides a single User License for Tableau Desktop and Tableau Prep Builder along with one Creator License for Tableau Server and Tableau Online.
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- For Teams and Organizations: Total amount is based on the number of users. The pricing for each user is as follows:
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Tableau works only on the Tableau Server for Teams and Organizations. The above pricing is offered when the Tableau Server can be deployed on the On-premise Hardware or Public Cloud offerings of the organization. If the Team or the Organization wishes to host the Server on Tableau Fully Hosted Online Solution, the pricing is as follows:
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- Embedded Analytics: It offers powerful analytics without the need to build them using a robust set of APIs manually. Pricing for this tier can be finalized after a discussion with the sales team based on business requirements.
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2) Best Reporting Tools: Looker
Looker is one of the best Reporting Tools that is also a part of Google Cloud that allows users to analyze live data with a built-in modeling language known as LookML, a variant of SQL. Looker has Git Integration to extend and enhance SQL-based analysis. Looker generates real-time snapshots with the data based on SQL queries and can be used when you want to perform complex analyses with big datasets to generate on-the-spot reports. Some key features of Looker are as follows:
- Looker allows around 12 different types of filters to analyze the data at the most granular level.
- Looker allows cross-filtering on live data with simple clicks on the dashboard points. This allows users to perform an in-depth analysis on-the-fly.
- Looker has cross integration with different apps that allow users to set actions and Webhooks for automated alerts and notifications.
Looker Pricing
Looker does not offer a transparent pricing model. Instead, it offers a customized approach in which the pricing is modelled based on business and user needs. Users can request a quote or demo from the Looker team on the official website.
3) Best Reporting Tools: SAP Crystal Reports
SAP Crystal Reports is a Windows-based On-premise Business Intelligence Tool built to perform data analysis and present in visual forms. It supports building reports without a programming language. Users can build reports from their Design Wizards and parameterize them to get a report of their choice. It leverages analytical functions such as sorting, ranking, formulas, grouping, and formatting to get the most data. The various features of SAP Crystal Reports are as follows:
- It uses the company’s LDAP directory to allow users for Single Sign-on and can be accessed across platforms and across devices.
- Its user interface supports over 20 languages, enabling international clients to view dashboards in their native languages.
SAP Crystal Reports Pricing
SAP Crystal Reports offers a 30-day free trial following which the user has to pay for each license.
More information on SAP Crystal Reports can be found here.
4) Best Reporting Tools: Pentaho Business Intelligence
Pentaho Business Intelligence is a platform designed by Hitachi to create lightweight reports. It is a collection of Reporting Tools that generate pixel-perfect reports. It allows you to create HTML, Excel, PDF, RTF format reports for business users, and CSV and XML to feed the data into other systems. Some features of Pentaho Business Intelligence are as follows:
- It allows you to share reports across the organization.
- Reports can easily be viewed on Pentaho’s web-based viewer.
- Pentaho allows you to import data from virtually any data source to create appealing visualizations.
Pentaho Business Intelligence Pricing
Pentaho Business Intelligence offers a Free and Open-source Community Edition with basic functionalities and a 30-day free trial for its Enterprise Edition following which the user has to contact the Hitachi team for a pricing plan.
5) Best Reporting Tools: QlikView
QlikView is a classic Reporting Tool that provides analytical solutions and allows you to develop appealing visualization from the data. It is an Enterprise Tool that converts raw data into a meaningful format. Some features of QlikView are as follows:
- Unlike other dashboarding tools, QlikView stores the data in memory for super-fast analysis.
- It supports scalability and provides consistent reporting.
- It contains ample templates and supports various forms of data presentation.
- It provides Data Discovery and the utmost security to the data.
QlikView Pricing
Qlik offers two tiers based on business requirements. A comparison of both tiers is as follows:
6) Best Reporting Tools: Google Data Studio
Google Data Studio is Google’s free Data Visualization and one of the best Reporting Tools. It contains many connectors that quickly connect with data sources to import data and create appealing visualizations by transforming the data according to needs. Business users can analyze these reports to understand the performance, key metrics, market trends, etc. to make data-driven decisions. Some key features of Google Data Studio are as follows:
- Google Data Studio is easy to use and is available under the Google platform.
- It houses 250+ connectors that connect with various data sources to bring the data for analysis and reporting.
- It has a pre-built template that allows users to build a dashboard quickly.
Google Data Studio Pricing
Google Data Studio is currently available free of charge for all its users.
7) Best Reporting Tools: Amazon QuickSight
Amazon QuickSight is a Cloud-scale Business Intelligence (BI) Service and is available under the Amazon Web Services platform. It connects to various data sources in the Cloud and allows users to combine data from these sources. Amazon QuickSight can include AWS data, third-party data, B2B data, Excel data, and many more. Amazon QuickSight has a user-management tool by which you can scale the cluster to incorporate a huge volume of users without deploying or managing the infrastructure.
Amazon QuickSight Pricing
Amazon QuickSight offers a Standard and Enterprise Edition. The pricing for the Standard Edition is as follows:
The pricing for the Enterprise Edition is as follows:
An in-depth comparison of both the editions is as follows:
8) Best Reporting Tools: Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a SaaS-based Business Intelligence (BI) and one of the best Reporting tools that is best suited for non-tech-savvy people. It comes with an easy-to-use interface and powers the Reporting with Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and NLP for augmented analytics. Moreover, Zoho Analytics offers 500+ the box integration that allows companies to seamlessly integrate apps and p[platforms that businesses use daily.
Zoho Analytics Pricing
Zoho Analytics provides a 15-day trial to customers and charges from $22 to $445 on monthly basis depending on the number of users and amount of data.
9) Best Reporting Tools: Sisense
Sisense is an agile Business Analytics and Reporting tool that comes with MachineLearning and automation features to deliver Big Data Reporting solutions. It accelerates the data cleaning, report generation, and data ingestion process. Sisense offers an interactive GUI interface for ETL process, modeling and data relationships. Users can install Sisense in Cloud, on-premises, Windows, or Linux.
Sisense Pricing
Sisense didn’t disclose its pricing publicly as it is quote-based. The cost depends on the number of users and the amount of data you use.
10) Best Reporting Tools: Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is one of the widely used Reporting tools that allow non-technical business people to aggregate, analyze, visualize and share data. It comes with Hybrid Deployment, Artificial Intelligence, Quick Insights, Modeling View, multiple integrations, and much more. It can easily handle requests of small-size companies to enterprise-level Data Analytics.
Microsoft Power BI Pricing
Micorost Power BI is free for small to mid-size companies until the defined constraints exceed. It comes with a $9.99 per month fee and $20 per month, also offers special packages that users can subscribe to by contacting Sales.
Here are some other popular tools beyond the top 10 reporting tools.
11) Best Reporting Tools: Chartio
Chartio is a Cloud-based Reporting tool that allows team members, officials, and departments to manage their daily business operations.
It features data exploration, customizable dashboards, and different types of charts. Chartio provides users connections from Amazon Redshift to CSV files helping them explore data. Users can also share dashboards and reports with members via E-Mail and track corporate metrics using the solution’s Snapshot feature.
Chartio Pricing
Chartio offers 3 packages to customers. The Starter pack costs $40 per user per month, the Professional package costs $60 per user monthly, and the Organization package offers bulk pricing option by contacting the Sales team.
12) Best Reporting Tools: ThoughtSpot
ThoughSpot is the Business Intelligence and Reporting tool that help companies explore, analyze and share real-time Data Analytics using charts, and other visualization tools. It focuses on giving non-technical users access to Data Analytics with its user-friendly and easy-to-learn user interface.
ThoughtSpot Pricing
ThoughtSpot hasn’t disclosed the pricing of the tool, and users can contact its Sales team to subscribe to it. It offers a 14-day trial period.
13) Best Reporting Tools: BiG EVAL
BiG EVAL is an extensive suite of software tools that focus on leveraging the value of enterprise data by monitoring and continuously validating quality. BiG EVAL automates testing tasks during analysis and report development and provides quality metrics in production.
Here are a few key features of BiG EVAL:
- This tool is embeddable into ticket systems, DevOps CD/CI flows, etc. It also provides clear alerting processes and dashboards.
- BiG EVAL ensures high-performance in-memory rules and scripting engines.
- It ensures assisted problem-solving and data quality measuring. It also offers autopilot testing for agile development of data marts, data warehouses, and analytical data models.
- BiG EVAL also offers abstractions of any kind of data (Flat files, APIs, RDBMS, Business Applications Cloud).
14) Best Reporting Tools: SolarWinds Compliance Reporting
SolarWinds Compliance Reporting is software that allows you to collect log data from any device with considerable ease. With this application, you can easily generate external and internal regulatory reports of compliance.
Here are a few key features of SolarWinds Compliance Reporting:
- SolarWinds offers over 300 compliance report templates to choose from. You can also filter through the different options to make customized reports tailored to your needs.
- With this tool, you can easily schedule reports to run automatically and identify suspicious behavior of devices.
- With this tool, you can also export reports in a wide variety of formats.
15) Best Reporting Tools: Answerrocket
Answerrocket is known as an analytical and reporting tool that can automate analysis to answer your questions in seconds flat. With Answerrocket, you can also stay informed about performance, business trends, and opportunities.
Here are a few key features of Answerrocket:
- Answerrocket was designed keeping business people in mind.
- Answerrocket offers its users a fast and proactive analysis and provides scalable and secure performance.
- Answerrocket allows everyone to self-analyze and reclaims more time to focus on solving high-value, complex problems.
16) Best Reporting Tools: Whatagraph
Whatagraph is known as a reporting tool that allows you to compare and monitor the performance of various campaigns. It also allows you to transfer custom data from API and Google Sheets.
Here are a few key features of Whatagraph:
- With Whatagraph, you can style reports the way you like.
- Whatagraph also offers ready-to-use templates.
- With Whatagraph, you can collaborate with your team with considerable ease.
- Whatagraph allows you to automatically deliver reports to the clients and customize the reports according to your needs.
17) Best Reporting Tools: Yellowfin
Yellowfin is well known as a Business Intelligence and Data Reporting platform that serves as a single integrated solution developed for companies across various industries. Yellowfin makes it very easy to monitor, access, and understand data.
Here are a few key features of Yellowfin:
- Yellowfin offers smarter, faster, and collective decision-making.
- By mapping mobile Business Intelligence features, Yellowfin helps its users to monitor and access business-related data.
- Yellowfin allows you to get effective insights through interactive data reports and data-rich presentations. It also supports the business decision-making process.
18) Best Reporting Tools: JReport
JReport is a tool that is primarily leveraged for its reporting ability that also offers dashboards, reports, and Data Analytics within the content of your software. JReport provides its users with the ability to construct reports on the go without the need to have expertise in databases.
Here are the key features of JReport:
- With JReport, you can easily leverage a robust security model.
- JReport allows you to build any responsive layout or design with its drag and drop feature.
- With JReport, you can visualize operational data by filtering and sorting it and then exporting it back to Excel, PDF, and more.
- JReport allows you to handle large output volumes and high concurrency.
19) Best Reporting Tools: HubSpot Marketing Analytics
With sophisticated built-in Analytics, Reports, and Dashboards, you can track the performance of your whole marketing funnel in one location. HubSpot Marketing Analytics has everything you’ll need to become a more informed marketer. With integrated analytics, you can make faster and more informed decisions.
Blogging, landing pages, email, marketing automation, lead management, analytics, CMS, social media, SEO, and advertising are just a few of the services available.
20) Best Reporting Tools: Juicebox
Juicebox is the simplest and most elegant method to make dynamic data visualizations and presentations that are visually engaging. Juicebox separates out from other visualization tools by focusing on data storytelling and usability. Individuals can use the service for free, while teams can use it for a reasonable price.
Characteristics:
- A novel way to data storytelling.
- Editing that is simple to learn
- Data visualizations that are interactive and simple to configure.
- A professional design is ensured by simple style options.
- Drill-down data exploration is made possible by automatically connecting visualizations.
- Connect to numerous data sources by uploading data or connecting to a database.
- For mobile browsing, use a responsive layout.
- User administration with public or private publishing options.
Juicebox Pricing: Free Plan for up to 3 users with unlimited usage. Team Plan is $49/month for 5 editors, 15 viewers.
21) Best Reporting Tools: Query.me
Query.me is a data analysis and reporting platform that promises to change people’s perceptions of data by delivering powerful SQL Notebooks that deliver actual insights instead of boring dashboards.
By leveraging versatile tools to collect, analyze, and visualize data, you can get your entire team on the same page with Query.me. Users can plan automated report distribution with a lot of customizing options.
Features:
- Support for complete self-service
- SQL notebooks that can be customized
- Reporting on a regular basis
22) Best Reporting Tools: Datadog
Datadog is software that monitors and analyses data. It has features including Application Performance Management, Log Management, Dashboards, and Alarms. It comes with full API access.
Features:
- Datadog has over 250 built-in integrations for a variety of different features like messaging, notifications, orchestration, and issue tracking.
- It also integrates with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure.
- Visibility into your application’s performance.
- Logs from all of your services, apps, and platforms should be collected.
- Graphs can be created in real-time.
Pricing: There is a free plan for infrastructure. Aside from that, there are two plans available: Pro ($15 per month per host) and Enterprise ($23 per month per host). Log management is available for $1.27 per month. Application performance management costs $31 per month, to begin with.
23) Best Reporting Tools: GoodData
GoodData is a web-based service. The tool can help you track sales, marketing, social media, and customer service activities. You may deliver completely managed insights with this tool.
Features:
- It provides you with information based on a collection of data points.
- It allows you to use Amazon, AWS, and Rackspace to create a private or public cloud.
- This solution can be seamlessly integrated with your current setup.
- It allows you to customize your Metrics to match your brand.
Pricing Plans: For pricing information, please contact the firm. A free 30-day trial is also available.
24) Best Reporting Tools: ClicData
ClicData is a completely cloud-based business reporting platform that comes with a data warehouse. Best for SMEs and large enterprises looking for speed and agility, ClicData allows users to:
- quickly pull data from disparate sources into their personal data warehouse,
- clean and process it through a proprietary ETL system,
- and generate reports and dashboards leveraging its simple drag-and-drop interface.
ClicData is highly user-friendly, easy to embed, and easily accessed from any device from anywhere. As it offers both Android and iOS mobile integration, you can check reports while out on the field. Reports can also be quickly dispersed via email or pushed to the web and social media platforms. However, users are known to complain about customer service and tech support.
ClicData Pricing: starts at $71 per month, and a 14-day free trial is available.
25) Best Reporting Tools: Mode Analytics
For business-minded analysts and data scientists, Mode Analytics is a full-featured data analytics and reporting solution. Interactive visualizations, a SQL editor, shareable live Reports and Dashboards, and Python and R notebooks are all included in this Cloud-based business reporting platform.
Connecting data sources to the built-in SQL editor and visualization platform is simple with Mode Analytics. You may also set dashboards to auto-update, with themes and styles that can be changed on the fly to create visually appealing data representations.
You can even share Python or R notebooks without having to worry about replicating development settings because the data, analysis, and final dashboard can all be shared using Mode.
It’s a fantastic solution for data scientists and code ninjas who wish to cooperate more effectively by sharing dashboards and reports.
Mode Analytics pricing: available upon request, and a free trial is available.
26) Best Reporting Tools: datapine
One of the data reporting tools, datapine allows business users to easily and securely monitor and transmit key performance indicators (KPIs) in a timely manner. This makes Datapine an excellent reporting tool. This gives every employee in the organization the ability to always access current, reliable information to make informed decisions based on facts.
As part of a new wave of reporting tools, Datapine makes powerful analytics features accessible to non-technical people as well, all owing to its user-friendly interface. With a few clicks, it is possible to link many data sources—such as databases, social media platforms, CRM and ERP systems, flat files, and more—that are required for the reports.
Drag and drop is a useful tool for creating customized, visual KPIs that can be saved on dynamic, interactive dashboards. The foundation of datapine’s BI reporting solution is also these expert KPI dashboards. They provide an abundance of contemporary dashboard features, including AI-powered and interactive dashboard elements, advanced global filters, and predictive analytics.
Additionally, you get access to more than 80 expert dashboard templates for various company roles and sectors. Lastly, there are several methods to distribute the dashboards: you can embed them in third-party apps, share live dashboards via a URL, or have automated email reports sent to you.
Datapine Pricing: Datapine has a limitless 14-day free trial period and configurable pricing that starts at $250 per account.
27) Best Reporting Tools: ProWorkflow
ProWorkflow was developed in 2002 with the purpose of serving as a project management tool for analytics and reporting requirements. A user-friendly dashboard with a graphical breakdown of your current stats for ongoing, finished, and upcoming work is displayed as soon as you log in to this program.
Standard reports include your projects, tasks, time, and financial data, along with comprehensive information on burden and performance. You may create your own report using custom reports, choose the data and criteria you want, and even share the report with your colleagues.
The reporting displays and downloads don’t have a lot of visual appeal. The information is reliable and simple to understand, but you may need to do some manual graphic design if you want some extra visual appeal. It could be necessary to make some manual graphic design adjustments.
ProWorkflow Pricings: ProWorkflow has a monthly fee of $10 per user and can accommodate up to 10 active projects.
28)Best Reporting Tools: Octoboard
Companies and marketing firms utilize Octoboard as a reporting tool. The program is able to gather information, produce insights, and produce reports automatically. It is cloud-based, so you can access it at any time and from any location, which makes sharing reports with clients simple. Additionally, Octoboard has connections to a wide range of well-known social media platforms and analytics programs, so you may create reports from any system that a company employs.
Octoboard pricing: Octoboard has a monthly fee of $15 per user.
How to choose the right and best reporting tools?
You have now got a variety of options to choose from. You can use this guide which has been compiled to select one of the best business reporting solutions. Hope this information aids you in making an informed decision.
What are the benefits of Reporting Tools?
- Reporting Tools are useful because they collect data from a variety of sources (Inventory, Sales, Conversions, Site Traffic, Social Media Impressions, Time Spent, and so on) and organize it in a visual format that consumers can understand.
- Reports may usually be saved in a variety of formats, printed and distributed, displayed, and presented, making them an excellent way to quickly convey vast amounts of important data.
- Reporting also enables you to ask big-picture questions and then gather the data you need to make the best decisions.
BI Software VS Reporting Tools/Reporting vs business intelligence tools
Many BI software packages have Data Reporting features. Many individuals confuse reporting software with Business Intelligence software, but the two are not the same. A Reporting Tool focuses on data display, whereas a BI tool focuses on data analysis.
Reporting Tools, as previously said, are primarily used by IT departments or report developers. To create reports and chart reports, as well as electronic invoices, process sheets, and receipts, they employ reporting software. These show you your present and previous status.
Business Intelligence software is typically used by data analysts and business professionals. ‘Data+business understanding‘ is the essence of BI software. The ‘data’ element is similar to reporting software in that it is statistics and data display. ‘Business understanding’ refers to using BI capabilities like OLAP analysis and data mining to do in-depth data analysis and smart data forecasting. It explains why the statuses are as they are, as well as how to improve performance in the future.
In terms of reporting, however, BI software is lacking in terms of report styles, chart diversity, and print functionality.
Advice for using tools for reporting
Here are some more pointers to help you make the most of your reporting resources:
- Identify the ideal tool for a business to use: To make sure you select a tool with all the functionality you need, do some research to find out which products are ideal for your specific business.
- Select the appropriate format: Selecting formats that make your data easier to interpret is important since certain data may be better suited for particular formats than others. Moreover, make an effort to select reporting tools that can generate the formats you need.
- Consider the organization’s structure: Taking the organization’s structure into account can help you select the best reporting tool. Select a tool after considering if the company promotes individual or collaborative work and choose a tool that matches your work style.
- Recognise your target: Consider the kind of reports that the people you share reports with are most familiar with. This might assist you in selecting a reporting tool that is appropriate in terms of complexity.
- Examine your reporting resources: After selecting your reporting tools, be sure to familiarize yourself with all of its functions. This might assist you in maximizing the resources that the company you work for employs.
Conclusion
This article provided you with an in-depth analysis of the Best Reporting Tools in the market allowing you to understand which tool would be the best for your business and data needs. Combining data from various sources to perform the required analysis can either be done manually or automatically in real-time using existing platforms like Hevo which can then be connected to one of the best Reporting Tools in the market.
Vishal Agarwal is a Data Engineer with 10+ years of experience in the data field. He has designed scalable and efficient data solutions, and his expertise lies in AWS, Azure, Spark, GCP, SQL, Python, and other related technologies. By combining his passion for writing and the knowledge he has acquired over the years, he wishes to help data practitioners solve the day-to-day challenges they face in data engineering. In his article, Vishal applies his analytical thinking and problem-solving approaches to untangle the intricacies of data integration and analysis.
