Dashboard Software

How We Evaluated & Ranked Dashboard Software

Before we reviewed the top dashboard alternatives, we first ran them against a set of criteria. These include their industry focus, business size, and deployment options, along with core features.

Industry & Business Size Focus

Dashboard systems are widely used across different industries, including:

• Marketing
• Ecommerce
• Hospitality
• Healthcare
• Finance.

Most solutions are also suitable for businesses of different sizes. Some vendors tailor their products to meet the requirements of small and medium-sized companies. Others are more focused on providing robust solutions for large organizations.

Dashboard tools often define their target audience by the features they incorporate. That way, large organizations get access to all product features, both advanced and custom ones. By contrast, small businesses that won’t use specific features can choose only those that will help them save time and help make data-backed decisions.

Deployment

The most common deployment options of the software include:

• On-premise — This type of software implementation typically includes a high level of product customization and security. On the flip side, it requires a large upfront payment. Additionally, as these dashboard solutions are installed on a company’s servers, and as a consequence, its IT department is in charge of updating and maintaining the software.
• Cloud-based — In-cloud deployment comes with a flexible pricing structure based on recurring monthly fees. Software maintenance is in the vendor’s hands, which allows businesses to reap the software’s benefits right away without any technical involvement.
• Hybrid — Hybrid solutions are a combination of on-premise and cloud-based software, and they leverage the resources of both.

All of these options come with pros and cons, so what you should do before choosing a dashboard system is to consider your budget, security, and customization requirements, and then make a decision accordingly.

Types of Dashboards

The main types of dashboards are operational, strategic, and analytical.

Operational Dashboards

This type of dashboard focuses on tracking a company’s daily goals. It analyzes and displays essential metrics and KPIs throughout the day, while data refresh intervals are near real-time.

Strategic Dashboards

Executives looking for company-wide KPIs commonly rely on strategic dashboards. Data refresh intervals are less frequent compared to the operational ones.

Analytical Dashboards

Lastly, we have analytical dashboards. They are used to dive deep into historical data, extract trends, and predict results.

Business Dashboard Software Core Features

After the classification process, we move on to the essential features of the software.

Drag-and-Drop Tools

Dashboards allow users to add, edit, or remove different data blocks. To facilitate the dashboard creation process, vendors should incorporate the drag-and-drop functionality into their products.

Dashboard Templates

Creating a dashboard from scratch gives users total control of its look and feel. In some situations, however, users might not have the time to do it, which is where premade dashboard templates come in.

A dashboard tool should further support customization options, which will allow users to turn a generic template into their own data insight tool.

Chart Types

Dashboards help users visualize their data in the way they find the most convenient. Some of the most popular chart types include bar and pie charts, histograms, and Gannt charts.

Other types of charts range from waterfall and funnel charts to bullet graphs and single values.

Dashboarding tools further offer tooltips, which are perfect for providing your audience with additional information and explanations of specific visuals. The information inside them is displayed with a hover of the mouse.

Dashboard Connectors

One of the software’s most essential features is dashboard connectors, which enable users to import data from various sources and centralize it in a single platform.

Common data connectors include files, databases, and applications. If you want to import data from your databases, make sure that the dashboard program you want to use is compatible with the database of your choice (Oracle, SQL, etc.).

Data Filters

Once all data is accessible from a centralized location, users should have the option to organize it by using various data filters. The basic options include text, numeric, and date filters.

Some of the many examples of filtering include sorting data by year, quantity, revenue, country, etc.

Additionally, users should be able to manage filter conditions using AND/OR statements.

Data Blending

Another useful feature found in BI dashboard software is data blending. This functionality lets users combine data from different sources to generate new insights.

Data Drill Down & Drill Through

Thanks to the drill-down functionality, users can select a data element and explore it on a more granular level. Drill throughs, on the other hand, allow users to analyze and present the same data through different visualization tools and reports.

Data Refreshing Rates

Depending on the type of dashboard product, data can be refreshed in real-time or near real-time, hourly, and daily.

Permissions & Roles

A dashboard application should help users set different permissions and set rules on who can see or edit a dashboard.

The product should further allow users to choose between public and private dashboards. The first option will make a dashboard visible to everyone, while the second will allow users to share their data with specific team members.

Notification System/Alerts

A stellar notification system is another feature that helps set excellent dashboard applications apart from the mediocre ones. Businesses need to keep a close eye on their KPIs, and if any of these values changes, they should instantly be notified about the changes so that they can react quickly.

Taking this into account, we look for software that not only has a top-class alert system but also allows users to set custom alerts.

Sharing Options

The more sharing options a dashboard solution supports, the better. The software typically offers dashboard sharing via URLs, PDF files, and email screenshots.

Devices-wise, the software offers wall-mounted TV, web browser, and mobile device sharing.

Mobile App Support

Business intelligence dashboard software is not complete without app support. With that in mind, users should be able to keep track of KPI changes and share dashboards with their team on the go.

Custom Branding

Next, a dashboard solution should allow users to customize it with their branding. That includes a custom URL with the company’s name and logo.

Customer Support

A vendor’s customer support impacts the quality of its product. Especially in the cases where the software has a steep learning curve, easily accessible customer service is a must.

The best dashboard apps commonly offer support through live chat, email, and phone. An extensive product knowledge base is a plus.

Security

Another essential feature of the software is security. These products deal with a business’s valuable data, so data backups, SSL encryption, and overall, a secure software environment is vital in our rankings.

Pricing Policy

The last step of our in-depth evaluation methodology relates to software pricing. While we appreciate budget-friendly solutions, we won’t recommend cheap dashboard software if it doesn’t get the job done but rather, focus on the price-to-quality ratio.

Additionally, only products whose pricing isn’t too high above or below the industry standard make it on our list.

Apart from an extensive feature list, we also favor the products that come with a free trial or a money-back guarantee.

Reviews of the Best Dashboard Software

Databox

Databox is the leading business analytics platform that allows users to create template-based and custom dashboards so that they can easily track their KPIs. The vendor works with businesses of all sizes. So far, over 15,000 companies have used the Databox software. The product’s largest audience is digital marketing companies, but any business that wants to have a clear understanding of its data can use Databox.

Pros

• More than 70 data connectors
• Close to 300 pre-built templates
• Drag-and-drop dashboard builder
• Supports hourly data refresh intervals
• A free version available

Cons

• A limited number of dashboards

Features

The Databox dashboard software allows users to easily create dashboards by connecting their data with one of the platform’s 70 one-click data connectors. Available data sources include social media channels, ecommerce, project management, CRM software, and so on. Additionally, Databox supports data inputs from any source through its REST API and Zapier integrations.

The software has an extensive library of pre-built dashboard templates. The vendor groups the 284 templates by category and data source, so users can quickly find the one that suits their needs.

This reporting dashboard software offers a multitude of visualization tools, including tables, numbers, text, images, funnels, bar charts, and lines. The drag-and-drop functionality allows users to simply add and resize any element they like.

By selecting a data source, users can also set metrics browsing through the Databox library. It features over 3,000 metrics, such as users, sessions, page views, and bounce rates. Creating custom metrics is an option, too, thanks to Databox’s Query Builder. This BI dashboard software offers calculated metrics so that users can get insights into KPIs, average revenue per user, and conversion rates. From here, users can set date ranges and add goals.

Next, Databox supports user management, allowing dashboard owners to add users and assign them different roles, i.e. administrator, editor, user, and viewer. Based on their role, users are allowed different interaction levels with dashboards.

Data refresh rates can be either hourly or daily, while the vendor’s impeccable alert system lets users track changes relating to their business’s most important metrics.

Other features of the dashboard system include scheduled snapshots, native mobile apps, custom branding, and annotations.

Pricing

Databox offers four packages, starting with a free plan that includes three users, dashboards, and data sources. It also supports daily data refresh intervals, as well as an abundance of features.

Users that want to import data through the company’s API will have to subscribe to the Basic plan. It costs $49/month and includes 10 users, dashboards, and data connectors.

Next up is the Plus plan ($99/month), which, on top of the features available with the Basic plan, supports data integrations, Query Builder, and data calculations.

The dashboard reporting tool has another plan — Business —priced at $248/month. It lifts the number of users, dashboards, and data sources to 20, 50, and 50, respectively. It also supports custom branding and advanced security features.

DashThis

DashThis is a comprehensive reporting tool that focuses on several marketing fields, including social media, PPC, SEO, web analytics, and SEM. Industry-wise, DashThis has a user base across different verticals, such as healthcare, ecommerce, automotive, and marketing.

This cloud dashboard software is a favorite among digital marketing agencies and teams. In terms of business size, it is a perfect solution for freelancers, small businesses, and large organizations.

Pros

• Ease of use
• Allows for an unlimited number of users
• Over 30 data sources available
• Comes with a 15-day free trial
• Custom branding options

Cons

• Lacks mobile apps
• No live chat support

Features

With DashThis, users have the option to create periodic, rolling (tracking trends), and campaign dashboards. As one of the best data dashboards, the platform supports a host of sources, including Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, and others. Additionally, users can import their data from any other sources through the DashThis CSV file import system.

Next, the software offers pre-built templates, but if you want to, you can also create one from scratch. With the option of cloning a template, you can then use it over and over.

Before you start experimenting with different metrics, you can set the range you want to monitor and protect your dashboard with a password.

The dashboard reporting software offers various visualization tools, including column, line, and area charts. Adjusting the look and feel is frictionless thanks to the software’s drag-and-drop functionality.

DashThis supports pre-built metrics which further facilitate the dashboard creation process. The option to add an unlimited number of users is available, too.

Sharing dashboards with your clients can be done via email, PDFs, and URLs. It is also possible to automate the reporting process by setting the sharing date and frequency.

Pricing

One of the unique features of the DashThis dashboard reporting software is that it includes all software features with all of its plans. Plus, all users get a product specialist.

Available plans include Individual ($33/month), Professional ($109/month), Business ($209/month), Standard ($339/month), and Enterprise ($499/month).

The plans differ by the number of dashboards, ranging from 3 to 100. Businesses that need more dashboards can subscribe to the Elite plan, which supports a custom number of dashboards and has a few other perks.

Zoho Analytics

The Zoho Analytics cloud dashboard software helps businesses get a comprehensive understanding of their data with a variety of features it offers.

The vendor is known for offering a suite of products that range from project management, CRM, and HR software to support desk and website builder tools. Much like all products from the Zoho family, Zoho Analytics is also highly secure and reliable.

Pros

• Drag-and-drop dashboard builder
• Supports data blending
• Outstanding product support
• Available in the cloud and on-premise
• Custom branding options

Cons

• Live chat available only with the top-tier plan
• A somewhat steep learning curve

Features

Zoho Analytics is one of the best dashboard products that allows users to import their data from a wide range of sources. The platform supports over 100 data connectors, including files and web feeds, databases, cloud storage services, and business applications. It’s also possible to sync data from custom sources through Zoho’s API.

Users can create an unlimited number of dashboards, using any of the visualization tools the software supports, while the drag-and-drop functionality helps accelerate software adoption. The premade functions help identify a business’s key performance indicators.

The KPI dashboard software further supports data blending, allowing users to combine data from different sources, and get new insights. Data drill-downs help get a more granular view of the data.

Users also benefit from the software’s forecasting functionality, which predicts trends taking into account historical data. The alert system meanwhile notifies users about any changes through emails or in-app notifications.

Other notable features include native mobile apps for iOS and Android, Zoho’s smart assistant, Zia, permission-based access to dashboards, daily and hourly data synchronization, snapshots, and backups.

Pricing

Let’s take a look at Zoho’s dashboard software pricing. The vendor offers a free plan with two users, an unlimited number of dashboards and reports, and 10,000 data rows. The option to import your data from business apps is not available with this plan, though.

Apart from the free version of the software, you can choose any of the following packages:

• Basic — $22/month, two users, 0.5 million rows, all data connectors, daily data refresh intervals
• Standard — $45/month, five users, one million rows, hourly data refreshing, user management, smart assistant Zia, data snapshots, alerts, and backups
• Premium — $112/month, 15 users, 5 million data rows, activity logs, and custom dashboard software branding
• Enterprise — $445/month, 50 users, 50 million data rows, better performance, and live chat technical support.

ClicData

Companies looking to connect their data and quickly turn it into beautiful dashboards will find outstanding value in ClicData. The platform has a broad user base of over 1,000 businesses from various industries, including healthcare, finance, marketing, and software development companies. It has also proven to be a powerful data tool for both small and large businesses.

Additionally, ClicData is a highly secure solution that stores all users’ data in Microsoft Azure, helping the product rank among the best business dashboards.

Pros

• More than 250 data connectors available
• 50+ visualization tools
• Mobile app support
• A 15-day free trial

Cons

• A steep learning curve
• Somewhat pricey

Features

ClicData is a powerful business intelligence tool that helps users understand, organize, and present their business data. They have the option to import data from a variety of sources, be it social media websites, cloud storage, local files, or databases.

What’s great about ClicData is that the software doesn’t just import the data — it also verifies it. This dashboard tool checks for inconsistencies and cleans data. It eliminates extra spaces, checks date accuracy, and makes sure state abbreviations are consistent across all files.

In terms of visualization, users can present their data using 15 different chart formats. Adding images, audio, video, and titles to dashboards is available as well. Dashboards can be customized via the drag-and-drop functionality.

Another feature of the product is the data merge. It allows users to merge data from different sources and get new insights. There is no need to refresh merged data separately, with the business dashboard software taking care of that as soon as the original data changes.

Once a dashboard is created, it is set to be private or public. A dashboard owner can share it as a URL, PDF, or image.

Other essential features include setting alerts for your most important KPIs, replacing ClicData’s branding with that of your company, and managing your dashboards and reports on the go with the vendor’s iOS and Android apps.

Pricing

There are four plans for the ClicData software, including Premium ($79/month), Team ($259/month), Enterprise ($499/month), and Dedicated (from $870/month).

As of the more advanced dashboard programs, ClicData includes onboarding support with all of its plans.

The main differences between the packages are related to the number of users, the cloud storage space, and types of sources for data import.

Monday.com

Monday.com is widely known as a leader in the project management market. The vendor recently added dashboards to their offering. Based on the variety of features the software comes with, Monday.com has done an excellent job of helping companies understand and analyze their data while eliminating the guesswork.

The project management dashboard software is a favorite among businesses of all sizes from the most diverse fields.

Pros

• Intuitive user interface
• Drag-and-drop functionality
• Highly customizable
• A wide choice of dashboard widgets
• Secure and reliable

Cons

• Limited dashboard functionalities with the entry-tier plan
• Minor mobile app bugs

Features

With Monday.com, you don’t have to worry about missing the most important changes in your business data. The software provides dashboard tools to help companies view all of their project data. Whether you want to see all your upcoming work, check your progress across multiple projects, or get an overview of how much time your team has spent on specific projects — you can do it all with Monday.com.

The platform helps users easily create boards and combine them into a single dashboard. Users can choose between 15 widgets to customize a dashboard according to their preferences. These include table, battery, and chart widgets, as well as entertaining Llama farms.

The dashboard application lets you add up to five boards, where each llama represents one board task. Based on the project length, you can choose to have large llamas for long-term projects, and smaller ones for shorter projects.

The product further allows users to add the Board Updates widget, which will display live stream updates for the selected boards. It’s also possible to add a playlist to a dashboard and listen to music while keeping track of the essential project information.

Using Monday.com data dashboard software, users can create public and private dashboards and manage them on the go with the vendor’s native apps for iOS and Android devices.

Pricing

Basic ($39/month), Standard ($49/month), Pro ($79/month), and Enterprise (on-demand pricing) — these are the available plans. This pricing applies to small teams of up to 5 users. As the number of users increases, so does the cost of each subscription.

Scoro

Our dashboard software reviews continue with Scoro which is all about providing businesses with the tools they need to make data-driven decisions. Their platform is an ideal fit for small and medium-sized companies. It offers a free trial, so users can try the software and see first hand if it meets their requirements.

Pros

• Drag-and-drop functionality
• Extensive dashboard library
• Supports dashboard duplicating
• A 14-day free trial

Cons

• No live chat support
• Lower-entry plans support few integrations
• Onboarding billed separately on most plans

Features

The Scoro software lets users create dashboards easily. The platform can be used as project management, sales, or finance dashboard software. Based on the different types of supported dashboards, users can check the overall performance of their business, keep track of their sales team’s achievements, see how productive their employees are, and get insights into their company’s financial well-being.

Once they create a dashboard, users can add metrics, graphs, and widgets, or customize the default dashboard elements. Available metrics include results, ratio, and custom metrics. All metrics are divided into four categories: project management, sales, finance, and productivity. Users can then filter the data so that they see only the most relevant information.

This project management and finance dashboard software further supports duplication, which helps create dashboards for different departments in a company.

Integrations-wise, Scoro allows users to import data from various sources, including Zapier, Xero Accounting, Salesforce, and Dropbox, among other solutions.

Pricing

Scoro has four pricing plans — Essential ($26/month), Work Hub ($37/month), Sales Hub ($37/month), and Ultimate (on-demand pricing).

Additionally, the Work Hub and Sales Hub have two different editions, each offering Standard ($37/month) and Pro ($49/month) options.

Klipfolio

Klipfolio ranks as one of the best dashboard platforms, and for a good reason. The vendor caters to businesses from a string of industries, including insurance, ecommerce, and healthcare. The solution further focuses on offering tools for different company departments that range from sales and marketing to user experience teams and customer support.

Klipfolio is also an excellent choice for companies of all sizes.

Pros

• More than 300 data connectors
• Supports data blending
• Premade dashboard templates
• A wide range of customization options

Cons

• Steep learning curve
• Large dashboards have slow loading times
• Lacks live chat functionality

Features

Klipfolio doesn’t need a dashboard software comparison to stand out from the crowd. This powerful dashboarding product leaves very little to be desired. It packs in a bunch of features that make creating stunning dashboards relatively easy. The reason some users claim the software has a steep learning curve is that Klipfolio has a wealth of features, both essential and advanced ones. For this reason, getting a firm grasp of the software might take some time.

Let’s start with the data sources Klipfolio supports. Users can import their data through more than 100 data sources, while more are available via Klipfolio’s REST API. The dashboard software groups its connectors in over a dozen categories, including cloud storage, finance, human resources, and sales and CRM.

Next, users can choose one or several Klips from the software library. Currently, there are more than 400 Klips. Are you wondering where your company stands in terms of social media following? There’s a Klip for that. Do you want to know what your top 10 YouTube videos are? There’s a Klip for that too. Do you want to compare the number of lost and new YouTube subscribers? Well, you get the picture.

Among its various uses, Klipfolio is designed as an SEO dashboard software. The platform features an abundance of SEO-specific metrics.

In terms of reporting actions, the software supports sorting, grouping, and filtering. Visualization tools are not in short supply either. They range from pie charts and pictographs to line, bar, and funnel charts.

Users can share their dashboards on big screens and through email snapshots, URLs, and Slack.

Pricing

Klipfolio has four pricing plans: Publish, Grow, Team, and Team +. The dashboard software cost ranges from $49/month to $399/month.

The difference between the plans is in the number of users. The lowest-priced plan supports five users, while the other three can have an unlimited number.

The number of dashboards varies, too, ranging from 5 to 60 dashboards. Next, to get up to the minute data refresh rates, users must subscribe to the Team+ plan. It supports data refresh every 30 minutes, whereas, with the Publish and Grow plans, data refresh rates are hourly.

Single Sign-On, priority support, and one-on-one onboarding are only available with the top two packages this online dashboard offers.

SimpleKPI

SimpleKPI strives to provide businesses with easy-to-use tools that will help them understand their most important metrics. Apart from a wealth of tools for creating dashboards and reports, SimpleKPI offers tailored subscriptions for companies of all sizes and from different industries.

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Pre-built dashboard templates
• A variety of graphs and charts

Cons

• No live chat support
• Lacks native mobile apps

Features

Companies that want to turn their data into meaningful insights and track the overall health of their business will find great value in SimpleKPI’s analytics dashboard software. The solution offers an intuitive interface that helps users learn its ins and outs in a jiffy.

SimpleKPI is equipped with a variety of pre-built dashboard templates from across industries, making the software highly popular among call centers, financial institutions, marketing, and SEO agencies. Each template comes with a set of key performance indicators tailored for each industry.

The vendor further offers over 40 charts and graphs. Bar and line charts, RAG gauges, and single KPI charts are all available with the dashboard software.

Regarding data sources, SimpleKPI allows users to import data from spreadsheets, Google Analytics, and their API. The platform also offers the option to set alerts for a business’s key metrics.

Other features of the software include data drill down, various sharing options, and user management capabilities.

Pricing

SimpleKPI has one pricing plan that costs $99/month. It includes all features and offers a 10% discount with annual subscriptions.

How to Choose the Best Dashboard Software for Your Needs

We’ve ranked the top products, but we won’t stop there. We are also here to help you decide which of these software solutions is the best fit for your requirements.

Step 1: Filter Based on Business Size, Industry, & Deployment

The first thing you want to do is look for the products that don’t focus or have experience in your industry and scratch them from your list. If you are a small business owner, eliminate the solutions that work exclusively with large organizations, making sure that only small business dashboard software remains on your list. Medium-sized and large organizations should do the same.

Also, think about the deployment options, and based on your implementation preferences, leave only the solutions that match these preferences.

Step 2: Define Your Needs

What features do you expect from the software? Are you looking for products with hourly data refresh intervals? Which data sources a vendor should offer to help you import your data?

After you’ve defined the most important features, compare them against the software that met your requirements in step 1. Then, remove the dashboard software that lacks the desired features.

Step 3: Define Your Budget

You’ve come to the final step. Determine how much money you want to spend. Compare the solutions from step 2 with your budget. The products that fall within your spending range are your top candidates.