Table of contents:
The Versatility of Dashboard Solutions
Considering a dashboard or data solution platform for your organization or business? You’ve come to the right place.
As the world economy becomes increasingly data-driven, data dashboards are becoming increasingly indispensable for any self-respecting company that wants to stay on top of their game.
Dashboards are needed by companies, teams, and individuals to monitor their most important KPIs and other metrics. Immediate, up-to-date knowledge of KPIs guarantees that you can stay ahead of the curve in a highly competitive business environment, giving you the flexibility to respond to market volatility while boosting individual employees’ performance.
The not-so-secret strength of data dashboards lies in their versatility. They can track data in a huge number of ways, displaying a plethora of widgets that best match your business goals. Some offer gamification capabilities; others have highly advanced analytics tools that can sort through vast quantities of data. But where to start?
What to Look For in a Dashboard Solution
There’s a dizzying array of data solution providers on the market, offering a variety of capabilities, add-ons, and integrations ranging from Excel plugins to advanced BI tools. While some of these tools cluster at similar price points, their price range overall is entirely free to thousands of dollars per month. With such a wide distribution of cost, trying to find the best dashboard value for money based on your organization’s particular needs can be a real head-scratcher.
Thankfully, we’ve removed some of this work for you. Below, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the biggest dashboard and data platforms on the market, breaking them down by their strengths, weaknesses, and pricing plans, so you can best decide the solution ideal for your company’s needs.
One last thing. When browsing for a dashboard solution, be sure to ask yourself the following questions, answering them based on what your company or organization requires:
- What does the dashboard visualize?
- Does it integrate with my systems? Does it require third-party integrations to unlock its full range of functionality?
- How fast is its refresh speed, and how much does it matter?
- How easy is it to use?
Ready? Let’s dive in.
Note: All listed prices are from annual (not monthly) payment plans. All prices are correct as of December 2024.
1. Plecto
It wouldn’t be a SaaS blogpost if we didn’t start with our own product—Plecto. This isn’t your ordinary BI dashboard solution. While it offers the capabilities of many other dashboarding solutions, it also provides gamification elements to encourage your teams’ performance—and get them to have some fun too. Plecto works best for sales and customer support teams.
Strengths
- Unlimited dashboards, data sources and TV connections.
- Real-time data integrations wherever possible, making Plecto the ideal tool for high-volume sales and support teams.
- Plecto offers two types of dashboard solutions: Real-Time and Dynamic Dashboards. All data in both options updates automatically, allowing you and your teams to have immediate, transparent access to relevant data. The Dynamic Dashboards option gives your employees individual, personalized dashboards and allows you, the manager, to toggle between these on your own devices.
- What really sets Plecto apart is its gamification capabilities. Combined with its data visualization capacity, Plecto’s complete package allows your team to monitor their progress, get and stay motivated, boost their performance, and have a lot of fun while doing so!
- With several exciting gamification tools at your disposal—instant notifications, badges, contests, the Spinning Wheel and Rewards Store—Plecto offers the perfect balance between BI insight display and team motivation.
- Finally, Plecto is a highly customizable platform, meaning that its dashboards can be tailored to the use cases of various industries.
Weaknesses
Because its primary focus is to boost team performance through the power of data, Plecto lacks the more advanced data and statistical analysis tools of platforms such as Tableau or Zoho Analytics. These platforms are better for such tasks as forecasting and trend modeling.
Pricing
Plecto’s pricing scheme is based on having 10 tracked licenses per month; increasing the number of licenses will increase the monthly price. Add-ons—dynamic dashboards, coaching and training, and single sign-on—are all available for an additional $220/month.
- Medium: $200/month
- Large: $320/month
- Enterprise: custom pricing
2. Power BI
Considered the market leader for BI and data analysis, Power BI harnesses the strength of Microsoft Fabric to deliver all-around user functionality. Power BI is targeted at data analysts and C-suite management.
Strengths
- Power BI offers a plethora of features for businesses and organizations of all sizes at a relatively inexpensive price.
- Alongside its huge variety of widgets, Power BI also comes with AI and predictive analytics features.
- One of Power BI’s most unique features is its “What If” tool, used for forecasting and predictive analysis. This tool allows the user to visualize parameters with up to 1000 unique values.
Weaknesses
- Power BI’s main weakness is that it is hard to use. Companies typically require a dedicated data analyst to use this platform, and sometimes even a consultant too.
- Free and Pro plans limit datasets to only 1GB of storage.
- Connectivity with non-Microsoft integrations is less than seamless.
Pricing
PowerBI comes in five pricing tiers, ranging from free to $5000/month. A 60-day free trial is also offered, but a company/organization email is required to access this feature.
- Free
- Pro: $10/month per user
- Premium: $20/month per user
- Power BI Embedded: variable pricing
3. Tableau
Founded in 2003 at Stanford University, Tableau is one of the world’s leading data analysis and visualization platforms, It’s targeted at data analysts of all backgrounds, as well as C-suite management. Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in 2019.
Strengths
- Tableau has a top integration with Salesforce.
- It comes with predictive analytics, generative AI, and a huge range of widgets.
- Tableau’s visualizations are widely praised for being aesthetically pleasing, especially as they are based on a “drag and drop” interface.
- Finally, Tableau is considered one of the easier data solution platforms to use.
Weaknesses
While still easier to use than other comparable platforms, it’s still no walk in the park to learn Tableau either, especially its more advanced customizations.
Pricing
Tableau’s pricing scheme reflects the three tiers of the platform: Tableau, Enterprise, and Tableau+. “Regular” Tableau comes in three price points, ranging from $15 to $75/month. Enterprise ranges from $35 to $115/month, and Tableau+ has custom pricing only. No free trial is available for any of these tiers. However, Tableau Public allows data visualizations to be created and shared online for free.
- Viewer: $15/month per user
- Explorer: $42/month per user
- Creator: $75/month per user
- Enterprise Viewer: $35/month per user
- Enterprise Explorer: $70/month per user
- Enterprise Creator: $115/month per user
4. Klipfolio
Designed to be an intuitive BI solution for all, Klipfolio comes in two formats: Klips (for small businesses), and PowerMetrics (for a modern analytics stack). It’s a platform targeted at data analysts and those who engage with BI, irrespective of their exact role in an organization.
Strengths
Klipfolio’s intuitive interface goes hand-in-hand with a variety of user-friendly features within the platform.
- With over 100 integrations offered, including automatic data retrieval from Excel and Google Sheets, Klipfolio is ideal for engaging with large data sets.
- Klipfolio is a highly customizable platform, even allowing for in-house data manipulation.
- Klipfolio is a useful tool for agencies who need to display metrics to its clients, as it has automatic email notifications about progress and goal achievements. These emails include links to personal metrics and dashboards.
Weaknesses
- Klipfolio’s data updates are never faster than 15 minutes, even when the user is subscribed to a business-tier plan.
- It can also be confusing to navigate between Klips and Powermetrics within the platform.
Pricing
Klipfolio has separate pricing plans for PowerMetrics and Klips. PowerMetrics has a 30-day free trial included; Klips does not.
- PowerMetrics Professional: $56/month
- PowerMetrics Business: custom pricing
- Klips Base: $80/month
- Klips Grow: $170/month
- Klips Team: $310/month
- Klips Team+: $600/month
5. Databox
Databox helps businesses make sense of multiple complex data sources by providing a single source of truth—dashboards with actionable insights for decision-making at any time, any place, on any device. Databox is targeted at marketing, sales, and financial departments, as well as marketing agencies and consulting firms.
Strengths
- Databox offers a solid package of feature availability and reliability for customers.
- Particular features worth noting include 3 free hours of support to set up a dashboard within any 24-hour period of a free trial.
- Databox has hundreds of dashboard examples provided on its website, particularly useful for inspiring beginners to the platform.
- AI features are included in Databox plans.
Weaknesses
- Databox will update every 15 minutes, but an add-on is required to access this capability.
- Pricing can increase significantly by how many data sources you need to connect. So if you require a complex data setup, Databox can become quite expensive.
Pricing
Databox has a five-tier pricing model, ranging from free to $800/month. The exact pricing of the Premium tier is dependent on the number of data sources. A 14-day free trial is provided to all prospective customers.
- $0 (Free)
- $47/month (Starter)
- $159/month (Professional)
- $319/month (Growth)
- $799/month (Premium)
6. Geckoboard
One of the most approachable dashboard solutions on this list, Geckoboard provides simple and engaging solutions for nonspecialists who require access, understanding, and awareness of their data to make informed decisions. With this open and horizontal approach, Geckoboard’s appeal is targeted at all departments and company sizes.
Strengths
Geckoboard has several benefits that make it an appealing choice for people who need “just the numbers” without any of the tech jargon.
- It’s easy to connect data and build a dashboard in Geckoboard.
- Geckoboard offers 80+ integrations, including OneDrive, Excel, Zendesk, and several marketing platforms.
- While Geckoboard doesn’t have all the “bells and whistles” of other platforms, its relative lack of customization can actually be ideal for teams requiring only a rudimentary breakdown of their data.
- Geckobard’s basic package (Essential) is one of the cheapest on the market today.
Weaknesses
Although it offers real ease of use to new customers, Geckoboard has several drawbacks.
- These include no AI, and no dedicated reporting features.
- Although there’s no strict limit on the number of dashboards you can make per plan, you have to pay more for every new dashboard you create. For example, Geckoboard’s Essential plan charges $44/month for 1 dashboard—but this price increases to $135 if you want 5 dashboards.
- There’s a lack of customization and numerous restrictions in place—for example, how many dashboards you can create, the number of data sources you can input, and the number of TVs you can use to display dashboards. With Geckoboard, wanting to build more typically means that you have to pay more.
- Finally, no Geckoboard app is available—customers can use only a regular browser to access the platform on a mobile.
Pricing
Geckoboard has a three-tier pricing model. Pricing varies based on the number of dashboards. A free 14-day trial is also offered.
- $44/month (Essential)
- $175/month (Pro)
- $615/month (Scale)
7. Supermetrics
Supermetrics is a marketing analytics platform that streamlines data collection and analysis by connecting relevant data to analytics and reporting tools. Rather than being a platform to create dashboards, Supermetrics helps marketers consolidate data from disparate sources.
Strengths
Supermetrics is an ideal tool for marketing teams to analyze their data.
- Its automation, ease of use, and customer support are all major points in its favor.
- Supermetrics has a wide range of connectivity not only with the usual analytics platforms, but with social media, advertising, and email marketing services too.
- Supermetrics’ strong suit is its scalability—its ability to handle all data loads in businesses and organizations of all sizes.
Weaknesses
- Supermetrics’ biggest drawback is its pricing—particularly expensive for several integrations, thereby restricting their use to only enterprise-level businesses.
- Because it’s a pipeline tool, it doesn’t store any data itself. Users who wish to do so will have to pair Supermetrics with a third-party vendor.
Pricing
Supermetrics’ pricing scheme is unique. When integrated with data lake and data warehousing platforms, such as Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage, pricing is tailored to the client’s industry and needs. However, integration with a visualization or spreadsheet product, such as Power BI or Google Sheets, follows a more conventional pricing model, as shown below. A free 14-day trial is available.
- Starter: €29/month
- Growth: €159/month
- Pro: €399/month
- Business: custom pricing
8. Looker Studio
A Google Workplace feature, Looker Studio allows you to convert your data into informative, interactive, and easy-to-read dashboards and reports. With full connectivity to Google-based data sources and its collaborative features too, creating and sharing dashboards and similar data-based insights with Looker Studio is a breeze.
Strengths
- As it’s a Google product, Looker Studio’s accessibility is unmatched, and it connects seamlessly with all other Google products.
- For the same reason, it’s a totally free platform.
- Finally, Google’s Gemini AI has been incorporated into Looker Studio, allowing users to ask questions and gather insights about their data with natural language.
Weaknesses
Looker Studio’s main weakness is its lack of customizability.
- There is a limited number of chart styles and advanced formatting options available.
- Non-Google platforms are excluded from its data source integration.
- Looker Studio does not offer any advanced support.
Pricing
As it’s a feature of Google Workplace, Looker Studio is entirely free.
9. Zoho Analytics
An integral part of the Zoho family of products, Zoho Analytics is a BI dashboard solution that truly packs a punch, trusted by organizations of all sizes across the world. Not entirely intended for BI beginners, Zoho Analytics’ target consumer base are professional data analysts.
Strengths
- Besides its seamless integration with other Zoho products, it’s fully compatible with many third-party analytics tools as well.
- Zoho Analytics comes with AI-powered insight.
- It’s also noteworthy for having aesthetically pleasing dashboards.
- One of Zoho Analytics’ unique features is that you can embed a piece of live data created with the platform—a table, report, or dashboard—into a webpage.
Weaknesses
- Zoho Analytics is a difficult platform to get started with.
- It can be hard to locate different features within the platform.
- Customer support is insufficient.
Pricing
Zoho Analytics’ pricing comes in four tiers, ranging from €24 to €455. A 15-day free trial is offered.
- Basic: €24/month
- standard: €48/month
- Premium: €115/month
- Enterprise: €455/month
10. Domo
A dashboard solution designed for BI and data analytics at the enterprise level, Domo is used and trusted by several of the world’s biggest companies—among them ESPN, Unilever, and Cisco.
Strengths
As its target customers are large enterprises, Domo possesses powerful tools ideal for processing large datasets.
- Domo can forecast trends, as well as return data to your system of choice.
- A large number and range of widgets are available in Domo, and all widgets will automatically prepopulate based on the type of data that you have imported.
- With AI features included in the platform, Domo’s most unique feature is its natural language AI for data analysis.
Weaknesses
Despite its enterprise-level focus and features, Domo comes with some notable drawbacks.
- Domo is a hard-to-use platform, creating a difficult learning curve if the customer isn’t familiar with BI.
- Domo is an expensive platform, with an unconventional and complicated pricing structure.
Pricing
Domo offers three price plans: Standard, Enterprise, and Business Critical. However, its unique pricing structure is determined by the user’s consumption. Organizations are billed on the basis of their overall Domo usage, rather than via a monthly or annual contract. Domo provides a 30-day free trial to all new users.
Just a Few of the Many Dashboard Solutions
Remember—these 10 dashboard solutions are only a starting point for the number of platforms on the market. There’s plenty more out there—but the ones listed here are some of the most prominent, most used, and most trusted by businesses and organizations of all sizes.
There is no “best” solution for your data dashboard display, only what’s best for you. Various factors—including budget, technical expertise, and required level of customization—make finding the right dashboard a unique experience for every buyer.
Still have questions? Feel free to contact Plecto for more information about the best dashboards for your needs. Happy hunting!
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JAMES NIILER
Content Specialist
An in-house content writer and specialist at Plecto, James brings an academic touch and journalistic flair to his marketing copy. Having worked and studied on both sides of the Atlantic, James is a great believer in the importance of communicating across cultures and industries. Catch his work here on the Plecto blog, or as a guest contributor on other B2B websites.
