For business intelligence software, the ability to collate data from disparate sources is important. This means that all information, internal and external, must be housed under a single source of truth. Otherwise, conflicts, such as inconsistencies of data, might arise when they get pulled for analytics. It goes without saying that this will affect the insights you’ll get from your BI tool.

If you are conducting business intelligence software research for your company, Alteryx is one good example. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution and thus, it comes with a couple of weaknesses. For some, those drawbacks are easily dismissible while others find them to be the deal-breakers. If you’re on the latter side, no worries. We’ve prepared a list of top Alteryx alternatives that you can check out.

What is Alteryx?

Alteryx is a BI tool that’s ideal for data analysts because of its offerings like data mining and predictive analytics. It has three main components — Designer, Server, and Gallery — that work separately to do different tasks. However, these components can also work together to collect data from all the external sources. The data could come from MS Excel, Hadoop, Salesforce, and more. After aggregating them all, the system generates an in-depth report that could give you insights into your operations.

Alteryx also features a drag-and-drop interface which allows you to easily produce raw data that can be used for analytics. Furthermore, the system supports multi-deployment, including cloud-based and self-hosted, which extend its flexibility.

The software is using an open API architecture that allows you to seamlessly integrate it with different business apps. Thanks to this, it’s easier to extract business data for you to use. Alteryx has a pricing scheme that is mainly calculated based on your annual licenses and deployment. It starts at $1.950/year.

Alteryx is a flexible yet easy-to-use BI tool that novice and professional data analysts can leverage to make sense of company data.

Disadvantages of Using Alteryx

As you can see from the overview of the product, Alteryx is a capable BI tool. With that said, however, it’s far from perfect. While we can say that to practically every solution, it might be that this software’s flaws, in particular, are big issues for you.

For instance, Alteryx has below average performance when it comes to map visualization. Another is that the software seems to reach its limit after processing a few billion records.

There are other issues regarding this BI tool. If you find these as major problems for you, no worries. There are still plenty of sound Alteryx alternatives out there. This includes the following:

Alteryx Alternatives

1. Owler

Owler is a BI tool that’s capable of providing companies of all sizes from different sectors with actionable business insights. They can get critical data analytics on a timely and regular basis as well. It features an in-depth business profile of millions of businesses worldwide. The platform also takes care of providing daily updates, snapshots, movements, and events regarding your industry of interest.

Aside from having an API that can connect with other systems, Owler also natively integrates with SalesLoft, Nimble, DataFire, and more. The system does not offer any enterprising plan since it’s a crowdsourcing intelligence for everybody. Hence, it’s free.

2. Jaspersoft

Jaspersoft is a BI platform that uses open-source commercial business models and has over 15 million users across the globe. It’s a simple and robust solution for different types of businesses. The system empowers smarter decision making through an interactive dashboard, analytics, and reports.

Jaspersoft also supports cloud deployments and big data which enables it to efficiently deliver self-service capabilities to its customers. Furthermore, you can easily create custom dashboards which you can use for yourself or you can share with others.

The system is offered through quote-based pricing only. This means that you have to contact the vendor to get a plan dependent on your needs.

3. Salesforce Analytics Cloud

Salesforce Analytics Cloud is a cloud-hosted analytics tool that’s designed to be used particularly by mid-sized businesses and large enterprises. It’s a comprehensive BI tool that lets you create documents, manage your work, add custom fields, and more. Regardless of its name, Salesforce Analytics Cloud is also perfectly capable of functioning on desktop and mobile devices.

The cloud-based software can natively integrate with other Salesforce solutions and external business applications in AppExchange. There are two enterprise plans available for Salesforce Analytics Cloud – Einstein Discovery User and Einstein Analytics Plus. Pricing starts at $75 per user/month.

4. Logi Analytics

Logi Analytics is another leading BI platform that enables organizations to engage with users; giving them the information they need. The system is also helpful to programmers who create smart applications and services for customer and enterprise use. It helps your business connect all data sources available, making the process of retrieval of information easier. Not only that but aggregating disparate data sources also makes it easier for programmers to create more powerful intelligence applications.

The system allows developers to connect with several data sources including Google Analytics, MySQL, MS Excel, Oracle, and more. Moreover, programmers can use the system’s API for JavaScript embedding. Logi Analytics is available by quote. You can contact the vendor to inquire about its pricing.

5. Sisense

Sisense is a comprehensive business intelligence solution that enables the joining, analysis, and visualization of information. This helps make smarter business decisions and create actionable strategies. Sisense lets you collate all the data you need and then present it through interactive, drag-and-drop dashboards. Thanks to this, it’s easier to extract valuable insights and share them with your colleagues or partners.

Sisense offers APIs and various developer tools that allow it to connect with other applications. This includes Salesforce, Oracle Database, Google Adwords, MySQL database, PostgreSQL, Splunk, Hadoop Hive, and more. You can also use RSSBus to connect the system with social networks and other CRM platforms. To avail of the software, you can ask the vendor for a quote.

Sisense’s robust system allows users to easily handle large data sets to optimize report generation and derive actionable insights.

6. Looker

Looker is a data-discovery and business intelligence solution that offers an intuitive approach when it comes to data exploration. It provides a web-based, interactive interface that allows any user to retrieve enterprise data. Being a web-based solution, this platform is easily accessible anytime and anywhere.

Looker is also helpful in creating and sharing reports. Because of this, any type of company can easily generate critical information that’s necessary for smarter decision making. It also sports various customizable features.

The platform provides an API that allows you to connect it with other external applications. Finally, you can contact the vendor for its pricing.

7. Active Intelligent Server (AIS)

Active Intelligence Server is a capable BI solution that empowers businesses to instantly analyze data. Afterward, you can present the information you gain through rich visualization that makes data easier to comprehend. Consequently, coming up with the next intelligent decision also becomes easier. It’s a versatile tool that is useful for a wide range of industries including manufacturing, healthcare, education, and retail.

While capable of working as a standalone BI tool, AIS can also sit on top of different types of solutions like CRM, HR tools, and ERP. Active Intelligent Server is available on three pricing tiers – Free, Pro, and Premium. The Pro edition starts at $5 per user/month.

8. Demandforce

Demandforce is a well-rounded automated marketing platform that also presents features such as reputation management and online booking. It’s made for professional individuals and businesses of all sizes. It uses smart marketing strategies to help users attract more clients from local and other areas. The system also increases your customer engagement which helps in growing your business. Moreover, it’s cloud-hosted so it’s easily accessible to your customers which makes communication between you more transparent.

Demandforce can integrate with different scheduling management solutions. The system also caters to different types of industries with varying needs. Therefore, you should contact the vendor to get an enterprise pricing quote.

9. SAP BusinessObjects BI

SAP BusinessObjects BI is an analytics and reporting platform made of various applications capable of data discovery, analysis, visualization, and more. It’s also easy to use because it utilizes a drag-and-drop interface for searching and analyzing data regardless of its scale. The system can also serve as a front-end BI solution. This means that you can store data from a variety of back-end sources.

The system can integrate with other SAP products including SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, SAP Access Control, and SAP Risk Management. SAP BusinessObjects BI has a standard plan which starts at $185.

10. Chartio

Chartio is one of the easiest BI tools to set up and use. It has a drag-and-drop interface as well as ready-to-use and shareable queries. While simple, it’s still a powerful solution that allows real-time exploration of business data. It can also create reports and manage every BI needs of your business.

The system integrates with a variety of business apps like Salesforce, Amazon RDS, Marketo, and HubSpot. Chartio is a quote-based solution so you have to contact the vendor if you want to inquire of its pricing.

Chartio is a BI tool that makes it easy for tech-averse and tech-savvy users alike to organize, analyze, and visualize both complex and simple data.

What to Consider When Choosing BI Tools?

All the products included in this list of Alteryx alternatives are good at what they do. However, it doesn’t mean that you can just choose randomly among them. We won’t even single out a product as a top choice. That’s because while there are common indicators of a good business intelligence solution, there’s also a lot of factors that are tied to your organization. This means that if you look from the various perspective of your business – budget, size, scale, specs, etc. – you must at least consider the following:

• Take a look particularly at the license fees, training costs, hardware expenses, and professional services.
• How much data do you need to store and process? Can your chosen tool handle it?
• How long before you can actually use the system? See if your time goal is feasible with every software you consider.
• Can the BI tool of your choice seamlessly integrate an extensive list of business management software?