Best Dashboard Software and Tools

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Dashboards display the most important information for a team or company to achieve its objectives. Dashboard software gets all stakeholders on the same page by giving them a consolidated and arranged view of important information on a single screen that they can monitor at a glance. The best dashboard software solutions make it easy for the creators to set up and deploy useful, visually engaging dashboards, and ensure these intelligence assets are highly accessible to users to allow self-service analytics and to find actionable insights quickly and accurately.

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Top Dashboard Software and Tools

Here is a list of our recommended dashboard software and tools that can help businesses and organizations make better decisions.

Google Data Studio

Google Data StudioGoogle Data Studio is a free dashboarding and data visualization tool designed with the casual user in mind. It enables individuals, teams, departments, and companies make smarter business decisions by unifying data in one tool and allowing users to easily create reports without having to write code or queries. Teams can share real-time reports and automated dashboards so the right people get regular updates that help them perform their work with the right information.

Google Data Studio includes data connectors that readily connect to sources such as Google Ads, Analytics, BigQuery, and other databases and data sources. Users can also make use of community-developed connectors and secure APIs. Google Data Studio’s tools transform raw data into meaningful information, which serves as the foundation for broad array of charts, graphs, pivot tables, and other visualizations. Built-in sharing and real-time collaboration features use the same technology as Google Drive.

Google Data Studio

Pros

  • Shareable reports
  • Easy-to-use dashboards
  • Graph and chart options

Cons

  • Limited support without a Google Workspace account
  • Needs additional 3rd-party integrations

Datadog

DatadogDatadog’s cloud monitoring Software-as-a-Service platform enables companies to visually monitor the health and performance of their data infrastructure, servers, cloud connections, as well as important metrics, business applications, and teams using a single platform. With multiple ready-to-use integrations, users can connect and aggregate metrics and events across a company’s technology stack.

Datadog provides the tools to build real-time interactive dashboards. Users can see high-resolution graphs containing metrics and events across multiple sources in real time. They can explore and manipulate data by host, device, and other configurations. Other features are computations and custom views done interactively or with code. Dashboards are shareable, provide alerts, and allow users to build new integrations through API.

Datadog

Pros

  • Integration with any data source
  • Pre-built dashboards
  • Ease of setup

Cons

  • UI redesign would give a better user experience
  • Pricing is on the high side

HubSpot Dashboards and Reports

HubSpotHubSpot is a popular CRM platform used by companies across the world. It also has a collection of free and premium tools and resources that help businesses grow, including dashboard and reporting software. Hubspot gives marketing, sales, service, and operations teams accessible analytics, reporting, and dashboards that are easy to use by all users.

HubSpot enables users to create custom dashboards and reports without help from a data analyst. It connects and collects CRM, marketing, sales, and service data that brings multiple reports into a single dashboard. Users can choose pre-configured templates from a library, import data into HubSpot using custom objects, and integrate other apps to make comprehensive custom reports. Advanced reporting permissions allow users to make reports public, private, or restricted to specific users.

HubSpot

Pros

  • Analytics tied to the CRM
  • Flexible reporting
  • Easy event tracking

Cons

  • Lack of segmented reports
  • Few analytics APIs are offered

MicroStrategy

MicroStrategyMicroStrategy is a provider of business intelligence and analytics solutions to the financial services, healthcare, retail, and government industry sectors. Its solutions deliver modern analytics experiences to users on any device. With more than three decades of experience, MicroStrategy continues to bring innovative solutions to the market.

MicroStrategy offers highly adopted business dashboards to provide visualization tools to analytics professionals, students, and directors of global organizations. Its dashboards connect to a variety of sources through an API, from a flat file, or from a database. Visualization tools include different types of graphs and charts. Other features include filters for data discovery or self-service analytics, KPI segmentation, and an intuitive navigation menu to allow users to move from dashboard to dashboard.

MicroStrategy

Pros

  • Data blending and modeling
  • Dashboard filters
  • Data querying

Cons

  • Data visualization options need enhancements
  • Interface is not as intuitive as other options

Sisense

SisenseSisense is an AI-driven platform that enables users to apply analytics to different aspects of business, including customer-facing applications and employee workflows. It lets teams connect, analyze, explore, and collaborate in a simplified way into existing workstreams or products so they can gain insights. It is a customizable, extensible, and scalable solution to provide a seamless and delightful experience.

Sisense allows users to create custom dashboards with a drag-and-drop user interface. It has smart calculation and charting options to visualize and analyze data easily. Users can customize its dashboards for the desired look and feel as well as include images, text, videos, and links. Furthermore, users can filter or drill down on interactive dashboards and turn data into actionable applications.

Sisense

Pros

  • Data visualizations
  • Ease of use
  • Responsive support

Cons

  • Some formatting may require coding
  • Limited mobile functionality

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is perhaps the dominant player in data software, available as a cloud service or desktop solution, Date visualization through dashboards is a feature of the service only. Power BI’s unified and scalable platform provides self-service analytics and enterprise business intelligence to help users gain a deeper insight into their data. Teams can connect to data, model it in various ways, and visualize it through personalized reports.

The visualizations in Power BI dashboards are in the form of tiles that users can pin from generated reports. Dashboards serve as entryways to underlying reports and datasets. Selecting a visualization on the dashboard takes a user to a specific report and dataset. Other features include conversational language queries, built-in sharing, collaboration, security, and direct integrations with Microsoft applications like Teams and Excel.

Microsoft Power BI

Pros

  • Intuitive interface
  • Graph and chart options
  • Responsive support

Cons

  • Limited formatting flexibility
  • Some users find the reliance on Excel to be counterintuitive

Mode

ModeMode is a collaborative data science platform for different data teams. This analytics software includes a cloud-based SQL editor, Python and R notebooks, and interactive visualizations. It has a visualization builder with a powerful analytics engine that allows users to explore large datasets, ingesting up to 10GB of data for more descriptive charts. It bypasses memory limits in web browsers by processing data on the server side.

Mode reports and dashboards allow users to create and reuse calculated fields and custom formulas. It has intuitive, drag-and-drop controls for deep exploration and analysis. It also has a wide range of interactive charts, pivot tables, and custom visualizations. Other features include scheduled reporting, granular permissions, and embedded analytics.

Mode

Pros

  • Data querying
  • Ease of setup and use
  • Responsive support

Cons

  • Occasional bugs can provide inaccurate reports
  • Data visualizations not as extensive as other solutions

Domo

DomoDomo is a low-code data application platform on the cloud. Users can build data applications to get work done and achieve business goals. From the platform, users can connect, combine, and transform data for analysis. The platform also allows users to extend their data solutions and provide analytics and applications to their customers and partners.

Domo lets users build real-time data stories using reports and dashboards. Teams can build interactive and customizable dashboards with a simple interface. Automated reporting gives team members access to the latest data to gain real-time insights. It supports guided data storytelling through custom views. Other features include self-service BI, custom alerts, and cross-device compatibility to get just-in-time data from anywhere.

Domo

Pros

  • Data tracking and reporting
  • Dashboard sharing and embedding
  • Graph and chart options

Cons

  • Not easy to customize, may require IT
  • Can be heavy on computing resources

Grow

GrowGrow is no-code business intelligence software that helps users make data-driven decisions. It has data integration tools to connect data as well as store and blend it from multiple sources. It provides a single platform to provide companies with a solution for all their BI, data analytics, and business dashboard requirements. It also has modern tools for data exploration using interactive dashboards.

Grow allows teams to combine and transform data from different sources, which they can filter, slice, and explore with a variety of visualizations to gain insight. Chart type varieties include series, non-series, and special types. Users can build and manipulate custom views with filter, slice, compare dates, sort, limit, and key-value functions. Other features are a dynamic display of data, pre-built dashboard blueprints, and sandbox dashboards prior to deploying it live.

Grow

Pros

  • Data visualization options
  • Co-editing and collaboration
  • Responsive support

Cons

  • Limited predictive analytics as a BI tool
  • Adjusting dashboard layout needs to be simpler

Looker

LookerLooker is a business intelligence and data analytics platform. Its modern tools enable users to gain in-depth analysis using real-time dashboards. It helps teams get access to consistent data, so they get up-to-date information in their reports. It can also unify all existing tools to produce new and relevant data. Its embedded analytics give teams the capability to create custom apps for their unique needs.

Looker data visualization and dashboards are interactive and dynamic. It gives users the flexibility to drill down into data as well as provide a bird’s-eye view of the bigger operations. From a single dashboard, filters can create a dashboard for different individuals and groups, such as one for sales reps, one for customer support, and another one for external viewers. It also has an extensive library of visualizations to choose from like funnels, maps, gauges, timelines, donuts, and combined charts.

Looker

Pros

  • Dashboard filters
  • Drill-down to details
  • Responsive support

Cons

  • Navigation needs to be more intuitive
  • Access to dashboards can be confusing

Read also: How to Create a Dashboard in Looker

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What is Dashboard Software?

Dashboard software is an application that displays a graphical summary of data, often drawing from multiple data sources and platforms. It can display aggregated or summarized graphical data via a desktop app, a web browser, or a mobile device. It is a characteristic of the software to provide dynamic and interactive visualizations showing real-time data that users can explore and manipulate from different views, from a high overview down to minute details.

Dashboard software’s ain strength lies in the way it provides critical visibility into the performance and health of an organization, its business, or operations. It serves users at different levels of the organization. Analysts can compare data, see trends, and make forecasts. Managers can monitor business health and identify opportunities, while executives can develop strategies and make high-level decisions. Dashboards are also useful to different operational teams, alerting them to respond quickly to possible risks and identified anomalies.

Read next: Maximizing Dashboards for Project Managers

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Typical Features of Dashboard Software

Modern dashboard software uses the latest technology available on the platform it runs. Whether it runs on a specific desktop OS, a web browser, a mobile device, a smart TV, or other video display appliances, it maximizes the display, making it highly usable. But it does more than just display information; the best dashboard software will include these features:

Multiple, simultaneous data source interconnection

Dashboard software lets users import data from a variety of data sources. It has multiple, ready-to-use data connectors that can connect or integrate into different data sources simultaneously. The ability to integrate with several data sources, relational databases, and cloud-based database applications results in the speedy, accurate, and efficient generation of reports.

Customization and ease of use

Dashboard software is customizable, allowing users to focus on specific areas of the business or organization through key performance indicators (KPIs). Custom fields help create individual calculated fields as well as combine several fields into a merged field. Aside from KPIs and calculated fields, users can analyze complex datasets with simple drag and drop controls. Intuitive navigation makes it easy for all types of users, including non-tech members, to adopt a powerful analytical tool.

Chart types and advanced chart options

The best dashboard software provides numerous visuals and graphical components to choose from to transform and interpret tabular data. From a library of visualizations, users can choose the appropriate chart type to show data relationships in the most meaningful way. The most popular chart types are bar charts, Gantt charts, histograms, and pie charts. Advanced options include adding a secondary axis, combining multiple chart types, and displaying trend indicators.

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Ready to Try a Dashboard Software for Your Business?

Dashboard software enables businesses to interact with their current data and identify trends to monitor important metrics in real time. Dashboard visuals allow users to make data-driven decisions quickly. To select the right dashboard software, it is essential to analyze your business needs to ensure that you get the right dashboard software for your organization.

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