Alternatives

11 Best Databox Alternatives in 2024: Reviews & Pricing

Databox is a great data analytics tool, but users say the platform can be clunky and unreliable, with poor customer support that takes weeks to reply to emails.

To help you find the best Databox alternative, I did three things:

  1. Spoke with our customers who previously used Databox.
  2. Scoured online reviews and community forums for the best alternatives.
  3. Consulted our data engineers for technical details of each alternative.

I want this guide to be genuinely helpful to you, so I also included a comparison of 20 features for each tool so you can find the best fit. 

Let's dig in.

Whatagraph marketing reporting tool
Yamon

Oct 28 2024 10 min read

Banner image for 11 best Databox alternatives article - Whatagraph

Table of Contents

  • 11 Best Databox Alternatives and Competitors in 2024
  • 1. Whatagraph
  • Databox vs. Whatagraph: Head-to-Head Comparison
  • 1. Stable, reliable platform with accurate data and metrics
  • 2. Powerful (but easy) data organization features
  • 3. Easier and faster to build visualizations
  • 4. Clean, sleek, and white-labeled reports
  • 5. Fast and friendly customer support
  • 6. Straightforward pricing, no hidden costs
  • 2. Klipfolio
  • 3. Tableau
  • 4. Looker Studio (a.k.a. Google Data Studio)
  • 5. Geckoboard
  • 6. DashThis
  • 7. Grow
  • 8. NinjaCat
  • 9. Cyfe
  • 10. Improvado
  • 11. TapClicks

Based on ex-Databox users and reviews online, here are the biggest issues with Databox:

❌ Difficult to use: Databox’s interface can be a pain to navigate, especially for first-time users. You need to build dashboards and reports in two different environments, meaning you have to learn each one from scratch. Ex-Databox users we’ve talked to said they had to spend 2-4 hours on creating just one report.

❌ Unappealing UX/UI: Databox visualizes metrics in a “box” format, which is more suitable for internal use, rather than for external reporting. Metrics look squished and hard to read, which can overwhelm clients or the C-Suite.

❌ System outages: Databox users suffer from prolonged and frequent platform outages, some lasting up to 3 weeks. Even when the platform works, client-facing reports and metrics break very often, causing frustration.

❌ Inaccurate data: Due to these system outages and unstable integrations, users say their reports often show incorrect data (if they show data at all). Others say simple calculations were “wrong too often” and that they had to manually calculate metrics. This is dangerous if you're an agency as inaccurate data can cost you your client’s trust (and their business).

❌ Poor customer support: All these issues could be resolved with responsive support, but 90% of Capterra and G2 reviews complain about Databox's “terrible support and customer service”. Emails are ignored and critical issues take months to fix.

---

Sounds like a lot? That’s what we’re here for.

In this article, we’ll take you through 11 best Databox alternatives that are easier to use, more stable, and come with great customer support.

11 Best Databox Alternatives and Competitors in 2024

In a nutshell, here are the 11 best Databox alternatives we’ll review in this article:

  1. Whatagraph
  2. Klipfolio
  3. Tableau
  4. Looker Studio
  5. Geckoboard
  6. DashThis
  7. Grow
  8. NinjaCat
  9. Cyfe
  10. Improvado
  11. Tapclicks

Have a set of features you're looking for in an alternative? Compare them in this table:

Features Whatagraph Klipfolio Tableau Looker Studio Geckoboard DashThis Grow NinjaCat Cyfe Improvado TapClicks
Ease of use Easy Hard Medium Hard Easy Easy Medium Medium Easy Easy Easy
No. of Out-of-the-Box Data Connectors 55+ 130+ 100+ 21 90+ 34+ 75+ 150+ 100+ 32 200+
Custom API Access
Data Blending
Custom Metrics and Dimensions
Custom Reports and Dashboards
Campaign Overview and Monitoring
White-labeling
Data Update Frequency Every 30 mins across all integrations and pricing plans Depends on your pricing plan, from 4 hours to 30 minutes Default is every 12 hours but you can set custom frequencies Depends on APIs, from 15 mins to 4 hours Depends on data source, from 1 to 60 minutes Once a day or on-demand update Custom frequency - from 15 mins to 1 hour Every day or manual data refresh Depends on the data source ? Automatically everyday or manual refresh
Data Segmentation and Filtering
Alerts and Notifications
(out of 5.0)
Multi-Client Management
(with $$$ being the highest)
?
User Management Admin, Manager, or Editor Account Administrator, Klip Viewer, Klip Editor Creator, Explorer, or Viewer Viewer, Editor, or Owner Admin and View Only Users of the same account are considered "Admins" Admin, Architect, Analyst, Visualizer, Consumer, or View Only System Admin, Standard User, Restricted Partner, Dashboard User, Account Executive, and more Account owner, Admin, Read only Admin, Editor, or Contributor Super admin, Business unit admin, Agent, Client
Automated Report Sharing
(via email)
(via email)
(via email or Slack)
(via email)
(via email and Slack)
(via email)
(via email)
(via email)
(via email)
Data Export PDF, XLS, CSV Export dashboards as PDF or image files. Export only individual Klips as CSV PNG, PDF, CSV Google Sheets, CSV, Excel (only chart level)
PDF only CSV Email, PDF PNG, JPEG, PDF, CSV PDF (only for reports) Excel, Google Sheets, CSV
AI Insights
(coming soon!)
(for Powermetrics only, not for Klips)
Customer Support Live chat, email, Help Center for all pricing plans Email, Help Center Tableau community forum, Help Center, Email, Consulting services (for a fee) Help center, community forums Live chat, Email, Help Center Email, Help Center for all pricing plans Live chat, Phone, Email, Help Center Live chat, Email, Help center, Academy Email, Help center Live chat, Email, Help center Email, Help center
Dedicated Customer Success Manager
(included in all pricing plans)
(only available as an add-on)
?
(available on the more expensive plans)
(only on higher-priced plans)
? ?
Data Security and Compliance ISO 27001, Enterprise SSO, GDPR compliant, AES-256 encryption, Two-factor authentication, AWS hosted servers AWS hosted servers, 2048-bit RSA key access for servers, no passwords, SSL, RBAC MFA, SSL/TLS encryption, ISO 27001, ISO 27012, ISO 27018, GDPR and CCPA compliant ? AWS hosted servers, HTTPS (128-bit TLS), RBAC, PCI DSS compliant Encrypted URLs, Password protection, Restrict IP addresses, GDPR compliant SSL encryption, SHA-encrypted passwords, Two-factor authentication, SOC 2 certified, GDPR compliant, DigiCert SSL, OAuth connections GDPR complaint, DDOS protection, data encryption, MFA, RBAC AWS hosted servers, OAUTH protocols ? HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II and SOC 3, HTTPS/TLS 1.2+, MFA, SSO
Pricing
(with $$$ being the highest)
$ $$ $$$ Free for native connectors $ $ $$ $$ $ $ $$

Let’s dive into each of these tools.

1. Whatagraph

Most suitable for: Medium to large marketing agencies with 10+ employees

If you’re looking for an easier and more stable Databox alternative with excellent customer support, Whatagraph is the best choice.

Whatagraph is an all-in-one data platform that makes it easy to connect, organize, visualize, and share your data in one place.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

  1. Connect to your data sources and channels in a few clicks. Your data will flow in automatically.
  2. Organize and unify your data to be analysis-ready. Make custom metrics, dimensions, and blends without writing a single line of code.
  3. Visualize your data using drag-and-drop widgets or ready-made templates. Create white-labeled reports with custom logos, domains, and color schemes.
  4. Analyze your data any way you want using powerful filters and custom tags. Get a clear view of performance in one place, spot trends, and use these insights to lower costs and boost ROI for clients.
  5. Share reports as live links, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, or automated emails. You can also transfer your data to BigQuery and Looker Studio through Whatagraph.

Whatagraph_flow.pngPlus, all our pricing plans come with a dedicated Customer Success Manager and live chat support. Our amazing Customer Support team responds to chats within 4 minutes.

But how does Whatagraph compare against Databox exactly? Let’s take a look:

Databox vs. Whatagraph: Head-to-Head Comparison

Our Product team did extensive research on how Whatagraph compares against Databox and you can find the full breakdown here.

In a nutshell, here are six key ways Whatagraph outperforms Databox:

1. Stable, reliable platform with accurate data and metrics

The three biggest complaints we hear the most about Databox are:

Unreliable: Databox has frequent, long-lasting outages, according to reviews like this one:

A screenshot of Databox user review - WhatagraphUnstable: Templates, widgets, charts, and graphs on Databox often breaks. Hear from this one particularly frustrated user who wasn’t able to fully “launch” Databox:

A screenshot of Databox user review - Whatagraph Inaccurate: Databox frequently shows wrong metrics and calculations on reports, requiring manual intervention. Take a look at this review:

A screenshot of Databox user review - WhatagraphWhatagraph eliminates these pain points.

Our data integrations are fully-managed, which means they’re more seamless, stable, and reliable.

Our Product engineers regularly maintain these integrations so there would be less breakages and outages. We also have an emergency alert that will wake up our engineers (even if it’s 3 am where they are) to quickly fix system outages, if there are any.

Fully-managed integrations also mean bugs get resolved faster without needing to get a third-party company involved.

In terms of speed, you can work with 10 sources and 100 widgets at the same time on Whatagraph without slowing down the platform.

And thanks to a recent update to Google Kubernetes Engine, even reports with heavy widgets, tabs, and charts take less than 10 seconds to load on Whatagraph.

Plus, our dashboards have a consistent refresh rate of 30 minutes in all plans across all your reports, blends, and integrations. In comparison, Databox’s data refresh rate can range from 1 to 24 hours.

All of this means:

✅ There are no inconsistencies or “lateness” in the data on Whatagraph. It’s up to date every 30 minutes.

✅ Your reports load instantly and shows the right metrics. No surprises right before a meeting with your client!

✅ System outages (if any) are quickly resolved by our Product engineers who are on-call 24/7.

Our users love how seamless, stable, and simple the data connection process is. Here’s what one of them said on G2.com:

Screenshot of Whatagraph Review - Whatagraph

2. Powerful (but easy) data organization features

If you have 100s of scattered data across different sources, campaigns, channels, and accounts, you need a way to organize them all into unified metrics and dimensions before you visualize the data.

This helps you get a clearer view of performance and keeps your reports neat and tidy.

On Databox, the only thing you can do is create custom metrics through a “Metric Builder” and “Calculated Metrics” which are both difficult to use, requiring complex workflows and SQL coding skills in some cases.

What's more, every time you want to create a metric, you'll need to leave your dashboard, create the metric in another tab, then go back to your dashboard. This wastes time and creates a lot of unnecessary hassles.

In comparison, Whatagraph makes it easy to group, organize, and monitor your scattered data and get actionable insights from it.

Whatagraph's data organization features - WhatagraphYou can create data blends, custom metrics, and custom dimensions all through simple workflows that only take seconds to set up--natively from your report.

For instance, say you want to report on the total number of “Add to Cart” from both Facebook Ads and TikTok Ads. You can set up a custom metric on Whatagraph, like so:

How to create custom metrics on Whatagraph - WhatagraphThis video digs deeper into data organization on Whatagraph:

Another key feature that ex-Databox users love about Whatagraph is our Source Filter.

Previously, you could only add filters on the widget level if you wanted to slice and dice your data. For instance, if you had a report with 20 Facebook widgets, you’d need to go through each of them to apply the same filter (e.g. a campaign filter).

With Whatagraph’s Source Filter, you can simply go to the Facebook source that’s connected to these 20 widgets, apply the filter to the source, and it will be applied to all widgets immediately.

This saves so much more time and hassle, and you’ll be able to slice and dice your data any way you want. Here's how the Source Filter works:

source filters.gif
We also recently launched Performance Monitoring, which makes it even easier and faster to organize your scattered data and get actionable insights from it. You can:

  • Group 100s of scattered data sources into unified metrics in seconds
  • Add custom tags to your data and filter it by client, business type, location, Account Manager, or whatever makes sense for your business
  • Visualize your key metrics in one view and easily spot performance trends

Overview.pngPowerful and easy data organization on Whatagraph means:

✅ Your reports are easier to read, neat, and tidy.

✅ Your clients clearly see the value you’re delivering rather than being stuck interpreting data.

✅ You can analyze and compare performance any way you want, and use these insights to deliver better results for clients.

3. Easier and faster to build visualizations

To create visualizations on Databox, you'll need to work with two environments: dashboards and reports. This means you need to create TWO different pages for one report, costing more time and effort.

In fact, ex-Databox users said they were spending 3-4 hours per report. Multiply that by 50 reports per month, and you’re spending 200 hours just on reports.

(Side note: There is an option to add a “dashboard” into a “report”, but this makes reports too overwhelming and hard to read.)

In contrast, on Whatagraph, you build one dashboard, and that doubles down as a report. You can white label this report easily, and download it as PDFs, share live links, or send automated emails to clients.

PPC reporting tool template - Whatagraph
Building your first dashboard/report is as easy as 1-2-3 on Whatagraph. You can either:

  1. Start from a blank page and use our drag-and-drop widgets to add metrics onto the dashboard.
  2. Use one of our ready-made report templates or dashboard examples.
  3. Use our Smart Builder to instantly create dashboards for your favorite marketing channels (e.g. Google Analytics 4, Google Ads).

This video breaks it down in detail:

On Databox, for each metric you want to visualize, you’ll need to spend time picking and choosing a widget type that would work best. For instance, you’ll need to choose from either a single widget vs. pie chart vs. table for a specific metric.

On Whatagraph, we offer pre-made widgets for common metrics for a particular data source or channel. You can simply drag-and-drop these onto your dashboard. No need to spend unnecessary time choosing a specific widget type.

widget.gifBut just because they’re “pre-made”, doesn’t mean they’re not customizable. For each widget, you can still:

  • Change or remove icons
  • Rename the metric
  • Apply custom formulas (e.g. data blends)
  • Adjust date ranges
  • Change currency displays
  • Add or hide footers
  • Customize the colors

A screenshot of how to change currency on Whatagraph - WhatagraphIf that’s not enough, you can also create custom widgets from scratch and save them as “templates” to re-use them the next time. These widgets are also fully-responsive. You can resize them however you want—horizontally and vertically.

Whatagraph also comes with thoughtful design features that make your user experience smooth as butter. You can:

Change the orientation of your reports as Landscape or Portrait

✅ Adjust the width and height of your charts and graphs right on the dashboard

✅ Save reports as “templates” and re-use them the next time

✅ Edit linked reports in one go, rather than one by one

✅ Add multiple “Tabs” within a single report to visualize performance from different channels or campaigns. This prevents lengthy reports that take ages to load.

Thanks to this simple and intuitive interface, “Ease of use” is our biggest pro on G2.com, and one user raved:

Screenshot of Whatagraph review - Whatagraph
4. Clean, sleek, and white-labeled reports

On Databox, data is presented in a “box” format (hence the name). This works for monitoring data by your internal team, but it’s not appealing for clients who want to see professional PDF-style reports.

In the image below, you can see how the metrics are “squished” together and difficult to read and understand. The background color can also be distracting.

Databox's dashboard templateTo create reports, you can either add this dashboard to a “report” slide or create a new slide from scratch.

Databox reporting process.gifThis PowerPoint-slide-style report might not be for everyone. Plus, you'll need to spend more time creating a report like this from scratch rather than downloading your dashboard as a report.

In comparison, Whatagraph’s dashboards and reports are clean, sleek, and easy to read, with the right amount of customization to make it your own. You can:

  • Upload your logo or your client’s logo
  • Create custom color schemes
  • Add footer and header texts
  • Create custom domains to host and share your reports
  • Change the icons and colors of your widgets

Customize_your_PPC_reports.pngAnd when the time comes for sharing these reports, you can either:

  • Send automated emails to specific people at specific times, days, and cadence. Customize the email subject lines, body copy, and even domains.
  • Send instant live links to anyone.
  • Download PDFs or Excel spreadsheets.

There's also the option to export standalone widgets as PDFs or Excel spreadsheets instead of entire reports. You can't do this on Databox.

Apart from report sharing, you can also transfer your data to BigQuery on Whatagraph to have a centralized storage for your cross-channel data.

5. Fast and friendly customer support

Using a marketing analytics tool can be overwhelming. There are times you just need some (or a lot) of help from a product expert to get the platform up and running the way you want it to.

With Databox, however, it’s incredibly difficult to get the help you need when you need it.

Multiple reviews on G2.com and Capterra mention how Databox’s customer support is “unresponsive”. Emails sent to support get ignored and issues go unresolved for months. It's also important to note that “Priority Support” is only available on the expensive plans.

A screenshot of Databox user review - WhatagraphOn Whatagraph, all our pricing plans come with a dedicated Customer Success Manager and live chat support which replies to your questions within 4 minutes.

Your dedicated CSM will help you with:

  • Migrating data from your current platform
  • Connecting to channels and data sources
  • Organizing your data
  • Creating reports
  • Anything else you need

6. Straightforward pricing, no hidden costs

Databox is well-known for being “cheap” but that’s because most of their pricing plans are missing important features like:

❌ Priority support

❌ Enterprise-level security

❌ Fast data refreshes

Most users who opted for these plans end up having issues like slow customer support and slow dashboards once they start using the platform.

Here’s a breakdown of their full pricing:

A screenshot of Databox pricing - WhatagraphIn comparison, Whatagraph’s pricing is straightforward. All our plans include:

  • 55+ fully-managed integrations
  • Custom integrations via APIs, Google Sheets, and BigQuery
  • Unlimited dashboards and reports
  • Unlimited data blends, custom metrics, and dimensions
  • Data transfer to BigQuery
  • Dedicated Customer Success Manager
  • Fast customer support via live chat

This means:

✅ There are no surprises on your invoices. We won’t overcharge you more than what you agreed to.

✅ You don’t need to worry about not being able to do advanced custom data calculations and transformations.

✅ You can have peace of mind knowing your CSM and our customer support team are here to help you with whatever you need.

Convinced Whatagraph is the right Databox alternative for you? Book a call and tell us exactly how we can help.

Key Features

  • 55+ native integrations
  • Custom integrations through Custom API, Google Sheets, or BigQuery
  • Versatile drag-and-drop widgets for reports and dashboards
  • Custom metrics, dimensions, and data blends
  • Currency conversions
  • Library of pre-made dashboard and report templates
  • Export to Excel and CSV
  • Custom branding and white-label features
  • Automated report sharing via email
  • Links to live dashboards
  • No-code data transfer to BigQuery and Looker Studio

Whatagraph Reviews from Real Users

“To me, Whatagraph is like the Tesla or Mercedes of digital analytics tools, their clean and simple way to present complex marketing data. I highly recommend it to anyone working with marketing analytics who values efficiency and clarity in their reporting.” (Source)

“Whatagraph has a simple user interface that is easy to navigate even for those who don't have analytical skills.” (Source)

“What I like best about Whatagraph is having the ability to create reports fast and easy. No more spreadsheets to do reports, they have a great variety of templates.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • All-in-one marketing performance monitoring and reporting solution
  • Easy to use by anyone on your team
  • Fast campaign performance and insights
  • Stunning visual reports
  • Makes results easy to interpret
  • Excellent live chat customer support

Cons:

  • No freemium plan
  • Can be expensive for small agencies (under 10 employees) and freelancers

Whatagraph Pricing

Whatagraph offers three pricing plans based on the amount of “source credits” and access to customization and data organization capabilities.

You can use source credits to connect data sources, send data from a source to a warehouse, and blend cross-channel data together.

Reach out to us for a custom pricing plan, just for you.

2. Klipfolio

Most suitable for: Large data teams at companies and large agencies

Klipfolio report - Whatagraph
Klipfolio is a data analytics and a business intelligence tool in one. It offers two key products:

  1. PowerMetrics: Suitable for data teams at large companies, this is a data analytics solution to centralize, standardize, and share accurate metrics throughout the organization. Non-data teams can then use these certified metrics for their dashboards and reporting needs.
  2. Klips: These are your regular data visualization dashboards and reports. Klips integrates with 130+ platforms and you can also use a Rest/URL option for custom integrations.

Compared to Databox, Klipfolio is more reliable, real-time, and powerful with a wider variety of data organization features offered by PowerMetrics. It also comes with more integrations (130+) compared to Databox’s 90.

However, Klipfolio also comes with a steep learning curve like Databox, requiring CSS skills to customize your dashboard themes. Whatagraph still remains undefeated in terms of user-friendliness.

Key Features

  • 130+ integrations including warehouses, SQL databases, and file-sharing services
  • Data blending, unifying, aggregating
  • Custom metrics and dimensions
  • AI insights
  • Custom dashboards and reports
  • Export dashboards as PDF or image files. Export only individual clips as CSV
  • Scheduled reports

Klipfolio Reviews from Real Users

“Klipfolio has a user-friendly interface. It can be easily connected with databases, Excel sheets, and Google sheets which makes data integration very smooth and easy.” (Source)

“I love the full range of capabilities that are possible when building a Klipfolio dashboard (specifically with their Klips product).” (Source)

“Every time I contact support I get the impression that I am bothering them. I will not be renewing this platform because I do not feel valued as a customer.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use and set up
  • Powerful data analytics and organization options
  • AI insights to help make data-driven decisions

Cons:

  • Expensive with important features only available as add-ons or in Enterprise plans
  • Limited customization for dashboards and templates
  • Unhelpful customer support

Klipfolio Pricing

Klipfolio offers three pricing plans for two of their products: PowerMetrics and Klips.

As of October 2024, here are the plans for PowerMetrics:

  • 30-day free trial
  • Professional: $300/month for 10 users and unlimited metrics.
  • Enterprise: Custom pricing for 10 users, unlimited metrics, and priority support.

It’s also important to note that important features like data warehouse integrations, AI insights, and custom domains are only available as add-ons, unless you purchase the Enterprise plan.

Klips’ pricing is further divided into plans for businesses and for agencies.

As of October 2024, here are the plans for businesses:

  • Grow: $190/month for 15 dashboards and 1 hr data refresh rate. No priority support or custom onboarding available
  • Team: $350/month for 30 dashboards and 15 min data refresh rate. No priority support or custom onboarding available
  • Team+: $690/month for 60 dashboards and up to the minute data refresh rate. Includes priority support and custom onboarding

As of October 2024, here are the plans for agencies:

  • Agency Lite: $190/month for 20 dashboards, 20 clients, and 1 hr data refresh rate. No priority support or custom onboarding available.
  • Agency Pro: $420/month for 40 dashboards, 40 clients, and 30-min data refresh rate. No custom onboarding available.
  • Agency Premier: $1025/month for 70 dashboards, 70 clients, and 30-min data refresh rate.

Side note: On Whatagraph, you can get unlimited dashboards, unlimited clients, 30-min data refresh rate, priority support, and custom onboarding on ALL our plans. Reach out to us for a pricing plan just for you.

3. Tableau

Most suitable for: Data teams at large enterprises

Tableau marketing dashboard - Whatagraph
If you’re looking for an enterprise-level business intelligence solution, Tableau is a great choice.

For a powerful data analysis tool, Tableau is still easy to use with a drag-and-drop interface and visual query builder. You can generate insights quickly and share them with stakeholders through reports.

The charting and data exploration features are more sophisticated than Databox, as Tableau provides robust analytics capabilities, including support for advanced calculations, statistical functions, and predictive modeling.

You can perform complex data analysis, uncover trends, and identify opportunities for optimization using features such as trend lines, forecasting, and clustering.

What’s more Tableau boasts quite a large and active user community called “Tableau Community Forums” with a wealth of resources, forums, and online training materials to help you learn the platform and troubleshoot issues.

You can also purchase “Success Plans” that come with personalized training and support.

However, Tableau is (a lot) more expensive than Databox as it’s mainly for enterprises.

Key Features

  • 90+ integrations
  • Custom metrics and dimensions
  • Data blending
  • Drag-and-drop dashboard interface
  • AI-powered insights

Tableau Reviews from Real Users

“Tableau allows me to create my own structured data from a lot of unstructured data.” (Source)

Tableau has an uncanny ability to transform complex data into visually stunning and easily understandable representations.” (Source)

“Tableau can be costly, particularly for startups.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Powerful data analytics and visualization
  • Easy to use and implement
  • Seamless data integrations

Cons:

  • Can be expensive if you need advanced features
  • Takes a lot of time to load for large datasets
  • All the preprocessing of the data (data cleaning) has to be done beforehand. Data cleaning cannot be done in Tableau

Tableau Pricing

As of October 2024, Tableau offers three pricing plans:

  • Viewer: $35/user/month, billed annually
  • Explorer: $70/user/month, billed annually
  • Creator: $115/user/month, billed annually

4. Looker Studio (a.k.a. Google Data Studio)

Most suitable for: Freelancers and boutique agencies

Google’s free reporting tool, Looker Studio, is a popular choice among marketers.

Looker Studio comes with 21 native integrations with Google-based platforms like Google Ads, DV 360, Google Sheets, and Google Analytics. You can also connect to BigQuery, MySQL, and Microsoft SQL servers on Looker.

Once your data sources are connected, you can use Looker’s drag-and-drop report editor to ad:

  • Charts, line bars, pie charts, geo maps, area and bubble graphs, data tables, pivot tables
  • Filters and date range controls
  • Links and clickable images
  • Custom text and images
  • Custom styles and color themes

You can then invite teams or clients to view or edit your reports, or send them links in scheduled emails.

Many of the ex-Databox users we’ve talked to say they had to use Looker Studio together with Databox because the former was more reliable and stable than the latter.

However, they were still facing the same challenges like slow load times, data breakages, and inaccurate data on Looker Studio.

Key Features

  • 21 native connectors (free)
  • 1000+ “partner” connectors (paid)
  • Drag-and-drop report builder
  • Data blends
  • Custom images and text
  • Custom styles and color schemes
  • Mobile app

Looker Studio Reviews from Real Users

“I love the way you can present data from multiple sources in one report. I also love the ability to blend different tables and show the information in one chart.” (Source)

“Unfortunately, connectors break quite regularly and reports containing a lot of data can take a lengthy time to load.” (Source)

“Looker studio needs more report downloading options such as Word and PDF.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Free (to an extent)
  • A huge range of data visualization formats and options
  • Easy to use for basic reports

Cons:

  • Slow loading
  • Connection breakages and inaccurate data
  • Limited report sharing options (no Word, Sheets, or PDFs)

Looker Studio Pricing

Looker Studio is free for connections with 21 native integrations, which are mostly Google-based platforms.

5. Geckoboard

Most suitable for: Medium to large businesses in the Customer Service, Sales, and eCommerce sectors

Geckoboard is an easy to use dashboard software for Customer Service, Sales, and eCommerce businesses.

With it, you can connect to 90 data sources, design your dashboard, and share the dashboard with your team members or the C-Suite.

Once your data is connected, you can create three main types of dashboards:

  1. A blank dashboard (similar to Whatagraph’s)
  2. TV dashboards for internal presentations
  3. Mobile dashboards
  4. Snapshots and reports

Another cool feature about Geckoboard is its “KPI notifications” which sends notifications when KPIs trend up or down via Slack.

Geckoboard’s main superiority over Databox is its ease of use. Users online say you can create beautiful dashboards for clients and teams without any technical knowledge.

However, unlike Whatagraph, you won’t be able to create custom data blends, metrics, and dimensions on Geckoboard. This can be a deal breaker if you’re a large company and you need to organize your scattered data to create easy to read and impactful reports.

Key Features

  • 90+ integrations with Customer Service, Sales, Finance, and eCommerce channels
  • Drag-and-drop dashboard builder
  • KPI notifications
  • Slack integration
  • Automated email reports
  • TV dashboards
  • Mobile-friendly dashboards
  • Dashboard examples for businesses

Geckoboard Reviews from Real Users

“I love how simple it is to use. That you can connect data from so many different sources in an easy way.” (Source)

“Connecting the dashboard with the Tv works like a charm.” (Source)

“Geckoboard could use more features and options for customization. Compared to other tools like Power BI or Tableau, Geckoboard didn't have as many advanced tools for analyzing data or changing how things looked. I wished I could make more complicated charts and do special calculations.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use and set up
  • A wide variety of integrations
  • Great customer service

Cons:

  • Can be pricey if you want to add more dashboards
  • Limited customization options for dashboards
  • No advanced calculations, blends, and custom metrics and dimensions supported

Geckoboard Pricing

Geckoboard’s pricing is based on the number of dashboards. But unlike DashThis (which includes unlimited users), Geckoboard has limitations on the number of users.

As of October 2024, Geckoboard offers three pricing plans:

  • Essential: $149/month for 5 dashboards, 3 users, 1 TV share, and core data sources
  • Pro: $199/month for 5 dashboards, 10 users, 3 TV shares, and pro data sources
  • Scale: $699/month for 30 dashboards, 25 users, 10 TV shares, pro data sources, and dedicated Support rep

6. DashThis

Most suitable for: Small businesses and freelancers


DashThis is a simple marketing reporting tool that connects to 30+ marketing platforms and visualizes KPIs on dashboards.

If you don’t see a built-in integration you need, you can also upload your own data using a nifty CSV file or a Google sheet.

Once your data is connected, you can visualize it using three key dashboards:

  1. Periodic dashboards: These are dashboards based on specific time periods and cadence, like daily, weekly, monthly, semi-annually, and annually.
  2. Campaign dashboards: These dashboards are used to isolate and highlight a specific campaign for a custom date range.
  3. Rolling dashboards: These dashboards show trends of metrics for three different date ranges.

These dashboards are also pre-made, meaning you can quickly get started rather than spending hours building dashboards like on Databox.

On the more pricier plans, you’ll get a dedicated product specialist assigned to you who will help you set up your dashboards.

However, DashThis is more suitable as a reporting tool rather than a data analytics platform. There are very few options to customize or organize your data on DashThis.

For instance, if you’re at a marketing agency and you have international clients, you might want to convert the currency of cost metrics on your reports. DashThis doesn’t allow you to do so, while Whatagraph does.

Also, you can only “merge” widgets together in DashThis; you can’t blend data sources to the full extent or create advanced metrics and dimensions. On Whatagraph, you can easily organize your data any way you’d like using simple workflows.

Key Features

  • 30+ integrations
  • Custom data upload via CSV file or Google sheets
  • Visualization dashboards
  • Automatic data refreshes
  • Upload client or band logos
  • Create custom widgets, domains, color schemes, and email addresses
  • Library of report templates
  • Report sharing via email, URL, or PDF

DashThis Reviews from Real Users

“DashThis is super user friendly. I am someone who doesn't know too much about Data Dashboards, but this platform was super easy to use.” (Source)

“There are some limitations to what you can bring in and they don't yet offer custom calculations.” (Source)

“It is a little annoying to move things around in a dashboard. You have to move each individual widget to a new section rather than moving an entire section in a dashboard.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use and set up
  • Many templates and dashboard examples available
  • Relatively inexpensive

Cons:

  • Limited data organization and customization features
  • Limited data integrations
  • Basic-looking reports

DashThis Pricing

As of October 2024, DashThis offers four pricing plans:

  • Individual: $49/mo or $42/mo, paid yearly. Includes 3 dashboards. No white-labeling features, personalized onboarding, or priority support.
  • Professional: $149/mo or $127/mo, paid yearly. Includes 10 dashboards. No personalized onboarding or priority support.
  • Business: $289/mo or $246/mo, paid yearly. Includes 25 dashboards, white-labeling, personalized onboarding, and priority support.
  • Standard: $449/mo or $382/mo, paid yearly. Includes 50 dashboards, white-labeling, personalized onboarding, and priority support.

7. Grow

Most suitable for: Data analysts at medium to large enterprises

Grow is a no-code full-stack business intelligence platform that combines ETL, data warehousing, and visualizations on one platform.

You can connect to 75 data sources through native integrations, including popular CRM platforms, marketing analytics tools, databases, and accounting software.

Then, you can prepare and cleanse your data using either noSQL or SQL transformations. This includes custom calculations, data blends, and advanced data filters.

Plus, Grow stores your data automatically on its platform so you don’t need to ship it to a third-party data warehouse.

You can create three types of dashboards on Grow:

  • Dynamic dashboards which display data based on who is logged into the account.
  • Dashboard Blueprints which are pre-built, single data source dashboards
  • Custom & Sandbox dashboards which shows blended data sources and metrics

These dashboards also come with powerful filtering options based on date, number, or categorical logic.

You can then share them through emails, shareable URLs, Slack, TV-mode, or tables of raw and transformed data.

The key advantage of Grow over Databox is its reliability. The platform uses APIs to import data seamlessly from data sources, and it continually refreshes the data so your metrics are up-to-date and reliable.

However, Grow is more suitable for internal data storage and monitoring rather than for external reports. Their dashboards are very nitty-gritty which can overwhelm clients or the C-Suite.

Key Features

  • 75 native integrations
  • Built-in data storage
  • SQL or non-SQL based data transformations
  • Customizable dashboards
  • Advanced data analytics and predictive modeling
  • Real-time data updates

Grow Reviews from Real Users

“As an analyst, I have recently started working on this tool and this is by far the best. It helps me to create powerful data visualisation as well as to gain insight from that data.” (Source)

“The interface could be better and overall user experience creates lag sometimes.” (Source)

“The back end seems quite complex to work so really need an IT expert to do the set up, but once it's working it's great for users.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Inuitive, easy to use interface
  • 24/7 customer support
  • No-code data pipelines, storage, and visualizations

Cons:

  • Occasional lags
  • Expensive
  • Slow performance when dealing with large volumes of data

Grow Pricing

Grow doesn’t share their pricing publicly.

8. NinjaCat

Most suitable for: Marketing agencies and brands with dedicated data scientists

NinjaCat is an end-to-end platform for connecting to your data sources, cleaning the data, visualizing it, and shipping it to destinations.

You can integrate with 100+ pre-built connectors, ranking from CRM, search advertising, web analytics, and project management tools.

You can then simplify and harmonize your data with no-code transformations and custom calculations. There’s also the option to store your data in a managed warehouse. Or, you can ship your data to external storage destinations like Snowflake, BigQuery, or Amazon S3, or business intelligence destinations like Tableau and Looker Studio.

When it comes to creating reports, you can start from a blank template (that looks like a “canvas”) and add and adjust metric widgets as needed.

Ninjacat report template
Graphic designers will be familiar with this layout as it looks a lot like a popular design tool—Figma. However, if you’re a marketer without a design background, this can be quite confusing and overwhelming.

NinjaCat’s main advantage over Databox is its responsive and helpful customer support. Users online say their support team is always available to answer questions and are open to feedback.

Key Features

  • 100+ pre-built connectors
  • No-code transformations and calculations
  • Data transfer to BI tools and data warehouses
  • Easy ad spend and campaign performance monitoring
  • White-label options
  • White-glove setup and service

NinjaCat Reviews from Real Users

“I love how it pulls in our data across several different platforms into one cohesive report.” (Source)

“The support the NinjaCat provides is exceptional.” (Source)

“I found a lot of the functionality on Ninjacat to be really clunky, unfortunately things take a LONG time to process if you're adding more than one filter to a table.” (Source)

Pros:

  • Automated client reporting
  • One platform for integration and visualization
  • Multiple choice of destinations
  • Custom branded reports

Cons:

  • Separate workspaces to organize and visualize data
  • Complex visualization builder
  • Performance issues with reports
  • No autosave in case of a crash

NinjaCat Pricing

NinjaCat doesn’t offer fixed pricing plans, and no information is available on its website.

9. Cyfe

Most suitable for: Boutique SEO agencies

Cyfe is a business dashboard app that helps you easily monitor your business data from one place and make better decisions.

You can pull data from 100+ integrations including social media, email, SEO, and sales and finance tools. You can also bring in custom data via .CSV, Google Sheets, SQL, private URL, or push API.

To build visualizations, you can start from their dashboard templates or pre-built widgets. The platform also comes with “Embedded Analytics” where you can take an entire dashboard or a widget and embed it to emails, webpages, or applications.

For SEO managers, Cyfe offers a built-in keyword ranking tool which allows you to automatically monitor website rankings across Yahoo, Google, and Bing.

The unique thing about Cyfe is that it supports 15 languages, including Korean, Turkish, and French.

However, Cyfe does not come with any advanced data calculations or organization features, nor can you transfer data to warehouses or other destinations.

Key Features

  • 100+ integrations
  • A wide library of dashboard templates
  • Embedded analytics
  • Custom and pre-build widgets
  • Built-in keyword tracking tool

Cyfe Reviews from Real Users

“It's very easy to create your dashboard and populate it with widgets from different data sources like social media, email marketing software, CRM, or just custom data in a spreadsheet.” (Source)

“The dashboards were very limited on customization and creating calculated fields.” (Source)

“Support really sucks. This never used to be the case BTW.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Easy to use and set up
  • Wide range of integrations
  • Affordable price

Cons:

  • Incorrect data on widgets
  • Poor customer service
  • Limited customization and data transformation features

Cyfe Pricing

As of October 2024, Cyfe offers five pricing plans:

  • Starter: $19/month for 2 dashboards and 1 user
  • Standard: $29/month for 5 dashboards and 2 users
  • Pro: $49/month for 10 dashboards and 5 users
  • Premier: $89/month for 20 dashboards and unlimited users
  • Agency: $150+/month for 100 dashboards, 15 users, 10 clients, and white-labeling features

10. Improvado

Most suitable for: Data teams and marketing teams at large companies

Improvado report - Whatagraph
Improvado is an end-to-end data pipeline platform that gathers data from marketing platforms, MarTech tools, and CRMs, transforms this data, and ships it to various destinations.

You can integrate with over 500 channels and harmonize and clean your data into an unified dataset.

You can then push this cleaned data to visualization tools, data warehouses, and spreadsheets, or keep your data in a fully-managed storage.

However, Improvado is an ETL tool (Extract, Transform, Load), which means you’ll need to move your data to a third-party tool like Looker Studio to visualize it.

Improvado’s uniqueness lies in its AI-powered “campaign governance” solution which automatically validates campaign targeting, naming conventions, brand safety, KPI pacing, and more. It also validates the consistency of your performance metrics and alerts you about any issues.

But because of the vast features available, it can take months to implement Improvado. This makes it a more suitable tool for enterprises who need a powerful data analytics platform, but it may be overkill for marketing agencies and small businesses.

Key Features

  • 500+ integrations
  • Fully-managed data storage
  • Unlimited data destinations
  • Pre-built dashboards
  • AI-driven data transformations
  • Marketing attribution
  • AI-powered campaign governance
  • AI-insights

Improvado Reviews from Real Users

“There are a lot of ETL tools and a growing amount of AI companies, but Improvado's customer relationships and willingness to go above and beyond really sets them apart.” (Source)

“The best aspect of Improvado is their extensive range of integrations across major social, search, and ad-server platforms.” (Source)

Improvado can be expensive, particularly for smaller businesses or startups with limited budgets.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Powerful data analytics
  • AI-powered insights
  • Helpful customer support

Cons:

  • Can be expensive for small businesses and agencies
  • Long implementation time
  • Steep learning curve

Improvado Pricing

Improvado doesn’t share their pricing publicly but based on online reviews and blog articles, the total cost can be anywhere between $2,000-$5,000 per month.

11. TapClicks

Most suitable for: Medium to large companies with PPC and SEO campaigns

TapClicks is a unique digital marketing platform in the sense that it’s eight different products bundled into one. Here’s a breakdown of each of them:

  1. TapData: Extract, transform, and load your data from one platform to another. Create data blends and complex transformations to format your data how you need it.
  2. TapReports: Visualize, optimize, and share your data with clients in customizable dashboards and automated reports.
  3. TapAnalytics: Discover trends and opportunities from your data.
  4. TapInsights: Get AI-powered insights and recommendations to optimize your campaigns.
  5. TapOrders: Automate orders and enter client objectives and goals at the point of sale. Connect a CRM, import files and create online forms for any product. Best for eCommerce businesses.
  6. TapWorkflow: Automatically route tasks based on your business processes and streamline your fulfillment workflow. Best for project managers.
  7. Raven by TapClicks: Perform site audits, rank tracking, link-building, and keyword research with in-depth insights and analysis. Best for SEO managers.
  8. Competitive Intelligence: Get local SEM data intelligence to create better proposals and to win more clients.

This all sounds great but TapClicks does seem to be a bit of a “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Based on online reviews, their connections break constantly, the data on reports is inaccurate, and the platform is difficult to use (even with 6 months of support from a CSM).

Key Features

  • Wide variety of integrations (their website doesn’t say exactly how many)
  • Advanced data calculations
  • Data Exporter to load data into data warehouses, databases, and data visualization tools
  • Interactive dashboards
  • AI-powered insights
  • Report automation

TapClicks Reviews from Real Users

“What I like best about TapClicks is that it simplifies marketing data by pulling everything into one easy-to-use dashboard.” (Source)

“I dislike TapClicks because the initial setup can be a bit overwhelming, and sometimes the data syncing isn't as smooth as I'd like.” (Source)

“After months of calls and time invested, we still had inaccuracies in the data.” (Source)

Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Powerful data analytics
  • Customizable and interactive dashboards
  • Responsive customer support

Cons:

  • Steep learning curve
  • Data inaccuracies
  • Connection issues and lags

TapClicks Pricing

TapClicks’ pricing can be confusing as you’ll need to build your own packages.

You start by choosing your data package:

  1. TapDataLite: $99/month for 64 connectors
  2. TapData+: $349/month for 250+ connectors
  3. TapData Max: $649/month for 250+ connectors and API access

Then, you choose your data destination:

  1. TapReports: $199/month
  2. TapAnalytics: $899/month
  3. TapInsights: $1399/month
  4. Third-party destinations: Custom pricing

All packages come with 10 clients and unlimited users.

Based on these pricing plans, the total cost of TapClicks can come down to 1000s of dollars a month if you want a complete data stack.

Published on Oct 28 2024

Whatagraph marketing reporting tool

WRITTEN BY

Yamon

Yamon is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Whatagraph. Previously a Head of Content at a marketing agency, she has led content programs for 5+ B2B SaaS companies in the span of three years. With an eye for detail and a knack for always considering context, audience, and business goals to guide the narrative, she's on a mission to create genuinely helpful content for marketers. When she’s not working, she’s hiking, meditating, or practicing yoga.