Some of the best Google Data Studio alternatives for easy tracking of KPIs are Datapad, Looker, Databox, InetSoft, Grow, Infogram, Agency Analytics, DashThis, and Geckoboard.
In this guide, you will find a full comparison between these Data Studio alternatives and know why they’re better.
Although you get several pre-built report templates, they're all not perfect for copy-pasting purposes. You often need to spend a lot of time customizing the report as per your requirements.
For the most part, data collection and visualization get more challenging as you scale up with Google Data Studio. You start encountering frequent delays in updating sources and lags in refreshing and stacking data.
Even though you have already spent enough time figuring out the perfect bars and graphs to represent your data, these additional delays might waste your time.
Real-time updation of data is also an issue with Google Data Studio. We came across several complaints from data researchers about how long it takes to obtain data that is 100% accurate.
Although the platform is backed by plugins to combat the issue, when it comes to creating up-to-date reports, the user interface is something you would still dislike.
Similarly, Google Data Studio lags when using real-time data and report connections as queries get more complicated and lengthy.
Google Data Studio isn't a suitable solution for large agencies and organizations with large clientele and several KPIs to track. You may ask why.
Data Studio limits you with the number of charting options you can use for data visualizations. You must know that with Google Data Studio, you're limited to as low as 50 components and data points per page.
Although the platform provides an interactive user experience, advanced users may find the customization features lacking compared to other business intelligence and data visualization tools.
Lastly, among the weaknesses mentioned above, the lack of APIs for automation and the limited data sources is something that you will crave when using Google Data Studio.
In today's hyper-competitive business environment, automation is a sought-after feature for any tool, irrespective of its functions and purpose.
For example, top-performing agencies often need ad-hoc data delivered daily or at least weekly, in addition to monthly or quarterly reports.
While that's possible using manual processes in Google Data Studio, the absence of any way to reliably employ agency automation (without employing workarounds) can quickly throw a wrench in your reporting workflows.
When talking about integrations, there's no doubt that Google Data Studio provides seamless integrations within Google's ecosystem. However, the same becomes complicated when you want to source data from a third-party application.
The lack of native integrations to popular data sources like HubSpot or Salesforce might turn out to be a problem for users.
It’s now time to review the above-mentioned alternatives in detail.
Datapad helps you track all essential metrics from stunning dashboards.
The beauty of Datapad lies in its simplicity and ease of use. With our tool, anyone in your team with zero technical knowledge can start building reports in mere seconds.
As a go-to solution for Agencies, Datapad makes it easy to onboard new customers with 1-click templates and share performance reports with read-only links.
Datapad also makes it easy to collaborate as a team with the ability to drop comments on KPI cards.
The AI insights tool lets anyone detect anomalies in their data and provides actionable to-do items to increase performance.
Creating reports for your business is no easy task. You have to determine a lot, from which metrics to choose to design the right charts.
If you are an agency and want to create the same reports for multiple clients, then this hassle becomes even more burdensome.
Guess what? Datapad lets you do all this with just a few clicks.
With Datapad's templating features, you can:
Tracking KPIs isn't a one-person job when you have a lot of them; you need a team. But not all KPI dashboard tools let you bring your team on board.
Guess what? Datapad lets you do it quickly and easily.
Moreover, you can assign individual team members tasks to handle, goals to achieve, and metrics to measure.
With Datapad's team collaboration feature, you can:
Wouldn't it be great if you could check your business KPIs first thing in the morning, straight from your inbox?
With our dashboard software, you can subscribe to any dashboard and receive daily email updates.
All you have to do is build a dashboard, click the subscribe button, and set your email preferences.
The best part is you can share reports with anyone, even emails outside of your organization or workspace.
With Datapad’s report and scorecard automation, you can:
Datapad has a free tier that includes 1 dashboard. If you want more, you can upgrade to the $30 Standard Plan, which includes 3 dashboards and scales with your usage. Datapad also offers a Business Plan tailored for agencies and includes dedicated customer support.
We are now offering an earlybird discount to all users, so it's a great time to sign up and give Datapad a spin.
Comparatively, both platforms are free to use. However, Google Data Studio comes with a steep learning curve for novice users. Datapad, on the other hand, is an easy-to-use tool with a fantastic user interface.
When it comes to automation and customization flexibility, again, Google Data Studio lacks behind in many ways. Here're a few other reasons why Datapad can be a better alternative to Google Data Studio.
With Google Data Studio, you can't drill down data as much as you can with Datapad or any other KPI dashboarding tool.
Although it’s a free tool, you need some depth to analyze KPIs and make data-driven decisions.
It’s crucial because your company’s growth depends on results that come out of KPI tracking.
Mobile phones, being your closest family member, helps you in every possible way. And you expect your dashboarding tools to be mobile-friendly, right?
Unfortunately, Google Data Studio canvas doesn't have a responsive design. This means your dashboard won't fit your mobile screens.
And even if it does (miracles happen, you know), you are bound to stare at this because editing an unresponsive dashboard would be a headache.
Google Data Studio isn't a great choice if you're a large organization with a lot of data to monitor for different layers and departments.
Although the platform is well-integrated into Google's ecosystem, sourcing data from an external source is time-consuming.
Plus, the tool lacks integrations to some popular platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce.
Looker, a product of Google's ecosystem, is a leading data visualization and analytics tool that helps you visualize your data to tell better stories.
It's an enterprise-grade platform for BI, data applications, and embedded analytics to help you explore and share actionable insights in real time.
Looker is a modern dashboarding platform used by over 160 companies, including Square, TypeForm, 9GAG, and more. It's best for market researchers and data-driven enterprises who want to explore data.
Looker offers a free trial. You can request a demo of the software. However, it doesn't have any pricing information mentioned on its official website. You can request a quote from their pricing page.
✅ Reliable customer support
✅ Easily share reports and dashboards via smart URLs
❌ Steep learning curve (difficulty on onboarding teams)
❌ Lacks visualization and customization capabilities
❌ Slows down when processing complex data
Databox is an award-winning dashboarding and business intelligence platform that helps you and your team quickly connect your data, build and share reports, monitor trends, and discover insights. Everything from a unified dashboard and in real-time.
Unlike Google Data Studio, Databox has a dedicated mobile app. More than 20,000+ businesses have benefited from the magic of Databox.
Databox is suitable for small to large businesses and offers mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.
Databox offers a free-forever plan that includes 3 Data Source Connections, all standard features, and 60+ Databox Integrations. Apart from this, Databox has three premium plans:
✅Has a dedicated mobile app
✅Ample amount of integrations and data connectors
✅Stunning data visualizations
✅Easy-to-customize and share dashboards
❌No Youtube integration
❌Steep learning curve (requires time for training)
InetSoft is an easy, agile, and robust BI and dashboarding software that helps businesses blend data from multiple sources and present them with stunning visuals under one unified dashboard.
InetSoft's users range from Fortune 500 organizations to power users, data scientists, and small businesses.
InetSoft offers free-forever individual and business plans. Besides this, it has two other plans:
✅Architecture is open to easy integrations and data modules
✅Allows to translate or localize your dashboard
✅Reliable customer support
❌Outdated UI/UX
❌Intricate data blocks can be challenging to manage
Grow is a no-code BI and analytics platform empowering data-driven leaders and business owners to make progressive business decisions.
The platform allows you to create highly customizable dashboards for monitoring business performance and key activities across your organization.
Grow is a cloud-based platform best suited for small to medium-sized enterprises for their KPI tracking and data visualization needs.
Grow has no pricing mentioned on its official website. However, you can request a free trial and test the product yourself.
✅No-code platform (best for non-technical users)
✅Well-integrated with popular tools and platforms
✅Highly customizable dashboards with great user-interface
❌Takes a long time to update specific categories
❌Lags in ‘real-time’ data updation
Infogram is an intuitive visualization tool that empowers teams to create infographics, reports, data dashboards, and pictorial representations of all kinds.
Infogram is not entirely a KPI dashboarding tool, but when it comes to data visualizations, it has the most amazing collection of visualization elements, among other tools.
Infographic is for marketing teams, business teams, early-stage designers, and professionals who want to transform their raw and messy data into stunning visualizations.
Infogram offers a free-forever plan with 37+ interactive charts and up to 10 projects. Apart from this, it has three premium plans, namely:
✅Easy for non-technical professionals with a simple interface to visualize data
✅Satisfactory amount of charts and graphs
✅Easier integration with standalone landing pages and social embed
✅Mobile responsiveness
❌Doesn’t support complex visualizations with multiple layers of data and dependability
❌Inability to add custom class or CSS style sheets
❌Inability to download charts and graphs (until you have a pro, business, or enterprise plan)
Agency analytics is the only agency-first platform to offer data visualization needed by small to large agencies, mainly in the marketing services sector. It gives you the freedom to create stunning dashboards connecting all your clients under one roof.
Agency Analytics is for agencies and professionals who provide branding and marketing services to a set of customers and want to share live reports.
Agency Analytics offers a 14-day risk-free trial. After which it has three premium plans:
✅Impactful and numerous integrations
✅Clear and secure data handling
✅Excellent customer support
❌Unable to process complex databases
❌Inefficient and flawed conversion and goal tracking in some cases
DashThis is a cloud-based automated marketing reporting tool that allows users to create custom dashboards and streamline their reporting process hassle-free.
DashThis is for digital marketers and agencies who thrive on data-driven insights in a cost-effective manner.
DashThis has a 15-day free trial period, after which the platform offers four premium plans, namely:
✅Easy to use with quick setup
✅In-depth functionality and flexibility
✅Reliable customer support
❌ Pricing policy is complicated (price increases with an increase in the number of dashboard creations)
Geckoboard helps you create a professional real-time dashboard in a matter of minutes. Its robust integrations and user-friendly interface allow anyone to build dashboards and track KPIs on the go.
Geckoboard is trusted by 1000s of data-driven organizations, including Airbnb, BuzzSumo, and more. It's perfect for everyone - company, investor, marketing, sales, support, ecommerce departments, and more.
Geckoboard offers a free plan which includes a single spreadsheet-powered dashboard. Apart from this, it has three premium plans:
✅Come with a lot of integrations
✅Can build mobile-friendly dashboards
✅Easy to share live dashboards
❌No dedicated mobile app
❌Free version offers a single dashboard
Unlike the tools mentioned above, which have some pros, cons, complexity, or expensive price attached to them. Datapad is a standalone software that assists you in managing your business hassle-free.
But that's just not it!
Datapad lets you track all your KPIs in one place; it doesn’t make you switch between the web app and the mobile app for data updation or customization.
Sign up to our platform, download the app, and get started in no time.
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