Cheaper alternatives to Tableau – Part 1

Data Visualization is the presentation of data in pictorial/graphical format. It is the process of converting numbers into pictures. Human brain processes the data points displayed in charts and graphs much faster than numbers and tables. Data visualization enables us to see analytical results visually helping us to find relationships, trends, hypothesis, and concepts and enable us to predict future.

Tableau is the market leader in data visualization. Its simple interface and drag n drop feature helps us create beautiful visualization in very little time without the hassles of writing pages of code. But good things don’t come cheap. Also tableau doesn’t let us embed the dashboards in websites (except for tableau public). Here we will look at some of the other visualization tools that come cheaper and are effective:

1)      Sisense

Sisense has come out as one of the best alternates to tableau with a lot of users having positive things to say about it. Sisense features a simple and uncomplicated GUI with drag and drop feature. It’s easy to use and helps to design interactive dashboards and charts very easily and quickly. It’s accessible on any device. The desktop version requires 8 Gb of RAM which is quite high but it has a web based named version Microsoft Azure which can be used. Sisense also featues data warehousing, ETL in a very simple interface keeping the end user in mind. The dashboards/reports created using Sisense can be embeded in websites.

Pros: Ease of use, ease of sharing,

Cons: data needs to be in tabular format else separate ETL is needed, pricing is on the higher side.

Pricing: Pricing is based on demand. The price is quoted by sales team based on requirements like Project Type, number of users , data volume, project timeline. The sales team is quick and efficient to revert back. A 30 day trial can be downloaded however you would need a machine with 8 Gb RAM to install.

Website: www.sisense.com

Examples: www.sisense.com/demo

2)      Clicdata

Clicdata is a cloud based dashboard platform that is easy to use with a drag n drop interface. It has a wide range of charts and widgets to be chosen from and a lot many features are coming soon. It is ideal for small businesses as the pricing is very reasonable.

Most data sources are supported by ClicData including Excel, CSV, databases (SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL and Access have direct connectors – others can be accessed via an ODBC driver), and cloud based services such as SalesForce, Twitter, Facebook, Basecamp and Google Analytics. Extract, transform and load (ETL) capabilities include calculated fields, SQL functions, joins over multiple databases and database versioning (up to 30 versions).

The dashboard can be shared using live link which can even be password protected or can be embedded in a website. Social sharing has also been enabled.

Pros: Ease of use, ease of sharing, very reasonable pricing, and cloud based

Cons: No 24/7 live phone or chat support, a lot of features are marked coming soon which restricts its use.

Pricing:

Free – 1GB storage – only local files can be connected, data to be refreshed manually

Professional- 20$/month – 5 GB storage (5$/month for each additional GB) – data refreshes automatically everyday

Dashboard publication – upto 5 users , 5$/month for each additional user

Enterprise- 50$/month – 25 GB storage (5$/month for each additional GB) – data refreshes automatically hourly

Dashboard publication – upto 10 users , 5$/month for each additional user

Website: www.clicdata.com

Examples: www.clicdata.com/examples/

3)      Jolicharts

Jolichart is another web based visualization tool. The interface is simple and uncluttered. Options include several chart types including mapping and also video embedding in dashboard. The dashboards are pretty easy to arrange, with interactive chart placing and resizing. In addition to uploading data manually, you can connect to a database or use the Jolicharts API to automatically send data to a chart datasource within Jolicharts.

The dashboards can be shared with private links and has also social sharing option. I personally found Jolichart to be better than clicdata. Its simple, fast and accessible from anywhere.

Pros: Ease of use, various charting options available, Private links for even free version

Cons: Limited customization, documentation and labelling can be a little confusing

Pricing:

PRO – 29 Euro/month – 10Gb storage , upto 5 contributors, sharing with private URL available

Enterprise – 69 Euro/month – 250Gb storage , unlimited contributors, sharing with private URL available

Website: www.jolicharts.com

Examples: http://www.jolicharts.com/#gallery

4)      Slemma

Slemma is another web based visualization tool. It has a simple and uncluttered interface. It features quite a few options in charting with options of wordcloud, heatmap and funnel which are not available in most of the web based tools. Adding text and media is also easier. Slemma dashboards can be shared using direct links or can be embedded in websites. Slemma can also be used for creating beautiful infographics. Dashboards are customizable and offer integrations with Oracle, IBM DB2, Google Drive, MySQL, and PostgreSQL, among others. Additionally, users can upload files directly or via URL. It can be connected to various clouds too.  One can create teams and invite collaborators as editors or viewers, share dashboards and data with one click and control who sees what and how they can collaborate.

Pros: Ease of use, unique charting options, Cheap, Slemma app can be integrated in chrome

Cons: Limited features

Pricing:

Pro – 29$/month – scheduled and manual data refresh, enterprise grade security.

Website: https://slemma.com

Examples: https://slemma.com/gallery

5)      Data Hero

Data Hero was another tool that I loved. As soon as one loads the data, data hero starts assisting the user. You can change the data types which is not available in most web based tools. After loading the data, it automatically suggests the various data types which results in faster and easier visualization. Data hero also provides the option of combining datasets. Another interesting feature is that we get to select our variables first and then the chart type which is lot easier for less experienced users. And it creates beautiful charts and dashboards. Sharing can be through direct links.

Pros: Super easy, beautiful outputs, lots of suggestions

Cons: I didn’t find anything so far. May be increase in chart types.

Pricing:

Free – Create and share unlimted charts, Import directly from 26+ services, unlimited uploads upto 2MB.

Premium – 59$/ month – create and share unlimited dashboards, automatically chart update, customized chart branding.

Team – 89$/month – share your dashboards, create and administer a team, sharing controls, dashboard viewers can be added at 9$/month

Agency – To be contacted – create and administer client teams, share dashboards with clients. Includes team and viewers licenses.

Website: https://datahero.com

 Example: https://datahero.com/blog/category/analytics-dashboards/

Here we come to an end of part 1 of our article. Barring Sisense, all other mentioned tools are web based. In the next part we will look at some other tools. Stay tuned. Thanks.