As a CEO, a Co-Founder or a C-level exec in a successful startup, you might reach that point where you’re outgrowing your current reporting/analytics homemade solution built on Excel or Google Sheets. You’re probably looking for a lightweight reporting solution that will pull from your database and provide the ability to easily create & customize reports and dashboards.
If you have a hard time deciding between the options on the market and wonder whether you should head straight to the leading softwares or you should rather be looking at other solutions, we’ve done the homework for you.
This article will help you take your decision, narrowing our analysis to the best reporting, business intelligence and data analysis tools in 2020, based on user reviews of their features: Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Qlik Sense, ThoughtSpot, Looker, Zoho Analytics, Toucan, Alteryx Platform, Sisense, Chartio.
For more information about our data sources and details regarding the terminology used in the features rating, you can refer to our methodology at the end of the article.
Top 10 Reporting Tools in 2021 | Summary Comparison

Top 10 Reporting Tools in 2021 | Detailed Comparison
If you seek a market leader
Microsoft Power BI
https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/
General Rating
4.3 (2080 ratings)

Their Promise
Find clarity when you need it most
Their Value Proposal
Empower team members to discover insights hidden in your data with Microsoft Power BI.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Heathrow Airport, GE Healthcare, Aston Martin, Meijer, DocuSign
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$9.99
Features Rating
Tableau
General Rating
4.3 (1776 ratings)

Their Promise
Changing the way you think about data
Their Value Proposal
Harness the power of your data. Unleash the potential of your people. Choose the analytics platform that disrupted the world of business intelligence. Choose Tableau.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Nissan, Verizon, Pfizer, Mondelez, WFP
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$70
Features Rating
Qlik Sense
https://www.qlik.com/us/products/qlik-sense
General Rating
4.5 (250 ratings)

Their Promise
Agent of transformation
Their Value Proposal
Qlik Sense sets the benchmark for a new generation of analytics. With its one-of-a-kind associative analytics engine, sophisticated AI, and scalable multi-cloud architecture, you can empower everyone in your organization to make better decisions daily, creating a truly data-driven enterprise.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Volco, Lenovo, McKesson, Rentokil Initial
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$30
Features Rating
ThoughtSpot
General Rating
4.5 (34 ratings)

Their Promise
Search & AI-Driven Analytics
Their Value Proposal
Analytics as easy as your favorite app
Video Presentation
Clients include
Walmart, Scotiabanl, De Beers, Miami Children's Hospital, Celebrity Cruises
Pricing starts at (user/month)
By quote
Features Rating
Looker
General Rating
4.4 (164 ratings)

Their Promise
Find true power in your data
Their Value Proposal
Drive better outcomes through smarter data-driven experiences.
Video Presentation
Clients include
The Economist, Hubspot, Deliveroo, Yahoo!, Transferwise
Pricing starts at (user/month)
By quote
Features Rating
Zoho Analytics (previously Zoho Reports)
https://www.zoho.com/analytics/
General Rating
4.4 (67 ratings)

Their Promise
Business Intelligence, Reporting and Analytics Software
Their Value Proposal
Zoho Analytics (previously, Zoho Reports) is a self-service BI and data analytics software that lets you create visually appealing data visualizations and insightful dashboards in minutes.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Allianz, HP, Suzuki, IKEA, PHILIPS, PETA
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$25
Features Rating
If you are an independent thinker
Toucan
General Rating
4.9 (28 ratings)

Their Promise
Data Stories for non-technicals
Their Value Proposal
Simple answers to fundamental questions
Video Presentation
Clients include
LVMH, Carrefour, Renault Nissan, JCDecaux, BiC, BNP Paribas
Pricing starts at (user/month)
By quote
Features Rating
Upcoming data
Alteryx Platform
General Rating
4.7 (47 ratings)

Their Promise
Alteryx is a Magic Quadrant Leader
Their Value Proposal
Alteryx Named a Leader in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms
Video Presentation
Clients include
Dell, Vodafone, Unilever, Hyatt, Audi
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$433
Features Rating
Sisense (previously Periscope)
General Rating
4.6 (140 ratings)

Their Promise
Power to the builders. Insights for everyone.
Their Value Proposal
Empowering developers, data engineers, and business analysts to simplify complex data and transform it into powerful analytic apps.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Nasdaq, GE, Fulitsu, Hewlett Packard, Verizon
Pricing starts at (user/month)
By quote
Features Rating
Chartio
General Rating
4.3 (27 ratings)

Their Promise
Where teams explore data
Their Value Proposal
Create powerful dashboards from your company’s data and quickly discover insights with Chartio.
Video Presentation
Clients include
Doordash, Shazam, Squarespace, Reuters TV, Trustpilot, Financial Times
Pricing starts at (user/month)
$40
Features Rating
🧡 Bonus tool: Actiondesk 🧡
If you’re looking for a reporting/analysis tool that works like a spreadsheet to build reports from SQL, Hubspot and more, you might like our product Actiondesk. There is no learning curve and report customization is limitless.
Our methodology
Here is the source of our data for this top 10:
- Rating: gartner.com and producthunt.com
- Their promise: company's tagline on the website homepage
- Their value proposal: company's argumentation on the website
- Video presentation: company's youtube account
- Clients include: company's website
- Pricing starts at (user/month): company's website
- Features rating: g2.com and producthunt.com
Details regarding the terminology used in the features rating:
- N/A: Not enough data available from the user reviews to provide a proper rating.
- Reports Interface: Reports interface for standard and self-service reports is intuitive and easy to use.
- Steps to Answer: Requires a minimal number of steps/clicks to answer business questions.
- Graphs and Charts: Offers a variety of attractive graph and chart formats.
- Score Cards: Score cards visually track KPI's.
- Calculated Fields: Using formulas based on existing data elements, users can create and calculate new field values.
- Data Column Filtering: Business users have the ability to filter data in a report based on predefined or automodeled parameters.
- Data Discovery: Users can drill down and explore data to discover new insights.
- Search: Ability to search global data set to find and discover data.
- Collaboration / Workflow: Ability for users to share data and reports they have built within the BI tool and outside the tool through other collaboration platforms.
- Automodeling: Tool automatically suggests data types, schemas and hierarchies.
- Predictive Analytics: Analyze current and historical trends to make predictions about future events.
- Data Visualization: Communicate complex information clearly and effectively through advanced graphical techniques.
- Big Data Services: Ability to handle large, complex, and/or siloed data sets.
- Data Transformation: Converts data formats of source data into the format required for the reporting system without mistakes.
- Data Modeling: Ability to (re)structure data in a manner that allows extracting insights fast and accurate.
- WYSIWYG Report Design: Provides business users an interface to easily design and refine their dashboards and reports. (What You See Is What You Get)
- User, Role, and Access Management: Grant access to select data, features, objects, etc. based on the users, user role, groups, etc.