Business intelligence (BI) tools help businesses analyze, monitor, collect and predict future business conditions by deriving decisions based on reading complex data available.
Today companies have a strong alignment between sales, marketing, and Bi teams to push business results forward. From database integrations to automated reports, to real-time metrics and useful data visualization tools, and more, a strong Bi Team represents the company’s real strength and robustness in uncertain times.
In this guide, I reviewed and ranked the best business intelligence (BI) tools based on support, pricing, integrations, user seats, ease of use, attribution models, reporting capabilities, and more.
So let’s get started.
What Are the Best BI Tools?
Here is my list of best Bi tools to use this year.
1. Tableau
Best Data Visualization and Data Discovery Tool ($12 per user, per month)
Tableau is a BI and Analytics software that assists you by customizing and embedding data analytics with your products. Plus, it helps you understand your complex data in a very simple way by supporting integrations of multiple presentation tools into its platform.
It provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface to help you analyze and access data, prepare reports, and share insights across the organization. Moreover, it simplifies complex tasks like joining and pivoting using its drag-and-drop feature.
Furthermore, it utilizes smart algorithms to detect and correct all redundant tasks like typo correction in a single click. Moreover, you can use the Tableau Prep feature can help you prepare, combine, and clean your data at a faster pace.
Key Features of Tableau:
- Tableau Maps – Automatically turns your location data into interactive maps with 16 levels of zoom. Plus, you can add custom geocodes to map your data accordingly.
- Device Designer – It helps you publish, design, and customize optimized dashboards for smartphones, desktops, and tablets.
- Live Charts – Provides data-rich visual patterns of the live charts to help you explore and understand the real-time data.
- Tableau Blueprint – Provides you with a methodology to create a data-driven organization. Right from analytics strategy to maintenance and support you get an entire plan before implementing it.
Pros of Tableau:
- Offers interactive Visualizations
- Allow you to create a compelling narrative using live stories
- It supports numerous third-party sources like Google Analytics, MS SQL, Oracle, MS Excel, etc.
- Share reports and data securely using Tableau Server or Tableau Online
- Allows you to study large datasets on your laptop by combining computer graphics tools and databases.
- Provides an Ask Data feature that utilizes smart algorithms to optimize, profile, and index data sources
Pricing Plans
Tableau provides different pricing plans for different deployment options.
On-premises or Public cloud:
- Creator Plan: $70 per user, per month
- ExplorerPlan: $35 per user, per month
- ViewerPlan: $12 per user, per month
Fully hosted by Tableau:
- Creator Plan: $70 per user, per month
- Explorer Plan: $42 per user, per month
- Viewer Plan: $15 per user, per month
Tableau costs $70 per month if you are an individual. Moreover, you can buy add-ons like Server Management ($3 per user, per month) and Tableau Data Management ($5.50 per user, per month) if you like.
2. Sisense
Best for Deploying and Building Analytics App (Custom Quote)
Sisense business intelligence tool that is designed for not really tech-savvy people to manage large and complex datasets in a simplified way. Plus, it allows you to create analytic apps and embed the analytics apps anywhere you want.
It provides a self-service analytics platform that brings data together from numerous sources like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Adwords. Moreover, it allows you to create enterprise-grade analytics apps both on the cloud and on-premises to lower the total incurring cost.
Additionally, it provides integration with R functions in formulas that help in advanced BI reporting and predictive analytics.
Key Features of Sisense:
- Interactive Dashboard – Enables you to find a solution to complex problems by allowing you to explore, mine, and filter data.
- Flexible Data Combine – Its drag-and-drop feature allows you to merge data from multiple sources to gain access to actionable insights, to even a non-technical person.
- Robust Cleaning – Dig into the native data source to identify and rectify data blunders without affecting their state. Plus, it allows you to secure dependable analytics with greater details.
Pros of Sisense:
- Allows you to submit your own open-source designs.
- Provides hundreds of predesigned data visualization widgets.
- Capable of handling a substantial amount of data
- Combines on-premises, public clouds, and private cloud resources to develop a hybrid solution.
- Provides notification directly into your white-label mobile apps, smartphones, or tablets.
Pricing Plans
You can get a price quote based on the number of users, project timeline, data volume, project type, etc.
3. SAP Business Intelligence
Best for Cross-Enterprise sharing and Analytics Reporting (Custom Quote)
SAP Business Intelligence offers various advanced analytics solutions including planning & analysis, machine learning, and real-time BI predictive analytics.
Additionally, its business intelligence platform offers mobile analytics, office integration, analytics applications, and data visualization. Its cross-enterprise sharing option allows you to share real-time reports and data. Furthermore, it performs large-scale data analytics and embeds data into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.
Key Features of SAP Business Intelligence:
- Predictive Analytics – Utilizes machine learning algorithms to predict future trends based on your data. Plus, it comes equipped with ML model management tools and pre-built algorithms.
- SAP Analytics Cloud – Provides access to all database solutions and combines multiple analytical tools at a single location.
- Business Objects BI Suite – The software offers real-time data access with multiple capabilities, including data visualization, ad hoc reports,
Pros of SQP Business Intelligence:
- Free Demo and customized pricing
- MS Office Integration
- Supports Multilingual reports.
- Available on both cloud and on-premise
- Provides an option to embed analytics with business applications.
- Offers a color-based analytics solution
- Provides a central location for all insights and custom dashboards for data reporting
- Offers augmented analytics to understand complex data quickly.
Pricing Plans
SAP also provides quote-based pricing based on the information you fill on the form like company name, number of employees, etc.
So now let’s cover the basics.
What Are BI (Business Intelligence) Tools?
BI or Business Intelligence software helps you churn out actionable insights by processing and analyzing your business-critical data. Additionally, it performs a crucial role in identifying an organization’s fundamental weaknesses and strengths by pooling entire data resources for forecasting existing trends.
Moreover, BI tools help the management deploy resources more optimally, make data-driven decisions, and visualize the mapping of different datasets among each other. On top of that, advanced BI software harnesses cloud-computing capabilities and big data to simplify complex data analysis further.
Furthermore, you can deploy and integrate modern Bi solutions with legacy systems.
Which Features Do You Need in BI Tools?
These are some important features you need to look for in a BI tool:
- Operational Reports – This should allow you to track and analyze daily events to make data-driven decisions.
- Interactive Reports – The reports should allow you to analyze and aggregate a lot of data lucidly. Plus, it should identify outliers, anomalies, and trends in the historical data.
- Ranking Reports – This will help you categorize business segments into those which are working from the ones which are not. Additionally, you can analyze it through various dimensions for various sectors.
- Open Integration – Bi Tool should offer integrations to fetch data from various sources like social media platforms, websites, email, and more.
- Executive Dashboard – Your BI Tool should provide an intuitive dashboard to analyze real-time critical business data sets using customized reports, summaries, graphs, and other personalized charts.
- Geospatial Mapping – This feature will basically allow you to perform data analysis region-wise. Location intelligence will allow you to derive decision that is specific to a particular area or demography with the aim to increase productivity and profits.
Best BI Tools – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best BI tools for the business to use this year. I will keep updating the list with other good BI software tools available in the market.
Finally, with a massive rise expected in the big data analytics market post-pandemic, it is important that you start harnessing the power of cloud data.
Additionally, the amazing thing is that BI tools offer easy-to-install business intelligence capabilities, including visualization, reporting, data augmentation, and more.
However, you need to understand that each tool comes with its own uniqueness. For instance, Microsoft Power Bi and Domo are best for large enterprises requiring complex reporting capabilities.
Finally, make sure to go through every detail thoroughly before making the final decision to purchase.
Which Bi Tools are you planning to use for your business? Let me know in the comment section below.
More from Smashitbuck: To check out my other software reviews, read my post on the ERP software, 3PL services, and cold email software to use this year.
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