Social media analytics tools list is an important component to any online marketing strategy. I’ll take you through which social media analytics reporting tools are available and what they do. Here are some of the best social media analytics tools and platforms you must use and experiment with in order to get maximum ROI on your social marketing efforts.
Financial reporting can be a daunting task for any business owner. However, the essentiality of accurate and clear financial reports is well worth the effort over time. In addition to your daily operations, taking financial reports from the quarter to the half year, year on year gives you key performance indicators that help you plan for the future.
If you are looking for a best free reporting tools, here is a list of top business intelligence reporting tools that will help you to better understand your data. We reviewed numerous Reporting Tools in order to come up with this list of the Best Free Reporting Software.
Free reporting tools are software products that generate information from various data sources, providing businesses with performance insights. These tools can be used to analyze productivity and provide real-time data, helping to empower business users. However, free reporting tools have limitations due to the fact that they are free by design, in terms of features, support or flexibility.
Why Are Reporting Tools the Best Solution?
A reporting tool is a system that gets data from various sources and assembles it in tables, charts, visual presentations, or other styles so that the information is easier to work with.
In other words, its basic goal is to convert the data into any available form with the further use of the collected information for the necessary purposes: for presentation, counting, visualization, etc.
Reporting tools offer numerous benefits when they are chosen and implemented effectively. With the insights received companies may:
- optimize internal processes
- detect inefficiencies and understand how to fix them
- discover new effective business opportunities
- enhance business operations
Metabase
Another simple option is Metabase: an easy-to-use and free reporting tool that allows filtering and grouping your data to create the report that suits your demands. Metabase software gives an opportunity for outstanding integration and performance facilitation. This tool is for those who do not enjoy digging into some complex nuances and are looking for a fast and elegant solution.
Another advantage of Metabase is the dashboard which facilitates the creation, organization, and distribution of data. Charts and graphs are also available at hand.
Knowage
And last but not least, Knowage is a suite of autonomous products that allows defining their functional needs, with the possibility of extending the set of products later. It is available in two versions: Knowage Community Edition with open source license (ensuring full utilization of analytics functionalities and full operativeness of the final user) and Knowage Enterprise Edition, with a subscription model (ensuring the professional services required for use in business settings).
In this reporting tool KPIs, alerting systems, and thresholds are greatly promoted. Generally, Knowage software is used to build reports, interactive cockpits, and multidimensional analysis.
Flexmonster Desktop
With Flexmonster Pivot Table & Charts for Desktop, you can compose professional reports using Excel-like features for interactive reporting. This is a perfect solution if you find BI tools too complicated and at the same time, no free tool is sufficient for your needs.
Flexmonster Desktop is not so complex as BI reporting software, but highly functional and fast. This reporting tool allows us to load over a million rows of data and still have a smooth scroll.
All functions are easy to find and apply due to the friendly UI: filter, sort, aggregate, and drill through your data to get the needed insights that were hidden under tons of data.
FineReport
FineReport is a reporting tool that is free for personal use, without time and function limits.
The Excel-like interface is easy for users to generate, export, and print complex reports or irregular reports. Its capabilities of excel reporting tools, such as importing data from excel in batches, make creating reports from excel be incredibly convenient.
The data entry function makes this reporting software distinctive from others. Users can write the data back to the database via the web reports created by FineReport.
Besides, various open APIs make FineReport more flexible than open-source reporting tools to be integrated with other systems, and more efficiently to be customized.
The other stunning features of this software include,
- Open APIs for customization
- Dynamic Reports
- Query reports
- HTML Reports
- Automation Reports
- Adaptive display on mobile, tablet, TV screens
- Report Management
JasperReports
JasperReports Server Community Edition is Jaspersoft’s free version. It is one of the most popular open-source reporting tools. It is licensed under GPLv2 and is written in Java. This reporting tool supports multiple data sources, as well as supports various exporting formats such as PDF, HTML, CSV, and XML.
JasperReports also includes multiple components:
- JasperReports Library- an open-source reporting engine library
- JasperReports Server – a standalone, embeddable report server that analyzes data and provides scheduled task services.
- Jaspersoft Studio- an Eclipse-based report designer that creates complex reports, including charts, images, subreports, crossovers, and more.
- Jaspersoft ETL – an open-source ETL system that is easy to deploy and execute, creating a comprehensive data warehouse and data set.
Designhill Report Generator
Designhill’s report generator is a leading tool to create professional business reports, sales reports, budget reports, etc. This is a user-friendly report generator tool that everyone can use to make reports for free without any prior experience and skills.
You just need to follow a few simple steps in order to generate reports using this report maker tool. First of all, select a design template from thousands of report templates available in Designhill’s library.
Then start personalizing it with the choices of your colors and logo in your reports using the “upload button” for a more professional look. You can choose the color that best suits your brand. You can download or save your report once it’s created.
iReport
iReport is a free and open-source report designer designed for the JasperReports Library and JasperReports Server. It can create complex reports such as charts, images, sub-reports, cross-tables, etc. The documents can be published and exported in a variety of document formats.
JFreeChart
JFreeChart is a 100% open-source Java programming drawing gallery that is easy to extend. It can generate line graphs, bar charts, pie charts, graphs, area charts, Gantt charts, dashboards, mixed graphs, and other charts. These charts can be exported as PNG, JPEG pictures.
- It is free, stable and lightweight, supporting multiple chart types
- It is a flexible design that is easily extensible and applied to both server-side and client-side applications
- It supports a variety of exporting types, including Swing components and JavaFX components, image files (including PNG and JPEG), and vector graphics file formats (including PDF, EPS, and SVG)
- JFreeChart is open source, which is under on the GNU general public license (LGPL) open source license
Pentaho
Pentaho is a free set of tools that has multiple functionalities available, such as reporting engine, reporting designer, and reporting SDK. The Pentaho Community Edition is licensed under ASL or Apache Software License.
Using this tool, you can convert the prepared files to the following formats: PDF, Excel, HTML, rich text, text, CSV, and XML. Also, the sourced files can change different sources to readable data.
BIRT
BIRT is a data reporting tool based on Eclipse. It allows creating reports and embedding them later on in web applications or clients.
There are two sections of BIRT functionalities: a visual designer and the runtime features. The first one allows you to develop any BORT design, while the second can be used in any JAVA environment.
BIRT has an additional diagram engine feature, allowing you to sync it to any BIRT diagrams.
Finally, the design templates are saved as XML files. You can also access several databases such as SQL databases, jfire script objects, JDO data store, POJOs, Web services, and XML.
Seal Report
Seal Report is a data reporting tool for the Microsoft .NET framework written entirely in C# language. It offers a holistic framework, allowing you to build dashboards and report data from any database every day. The key function of this tool is simplifying the installation process and dashboard design.
The key functionalities of Seal Report include:
1. Dynamic SQL database. Users can either use SQL or instruct the Seal engine’s dynamic SQL to query the data system.
2. Local pivot tables. Users can display the element in the pivot tables and dashboards using drag and drop. It also supports HTML5 charts.
SpagoBI
SpagoBi is a 100% open-source suite, designed and managed by SpagoBI lab’s Engineering Group. This reporting tool provides data analytics features, including traditional reporting, charting capabilities and bespoke solutions like geo-location analytics, social network analytics, self-service analytics, and what-if analytics.
This reporting tool also possesses the timing of task functions. Also, it supports query engines like Hive for the big data solution. The latest adaptation includes the client and the authority management module.
Open Reports
Open Reports provide web reporting solutions that allow users to view dynamically created reports in PDF, HTML, or XLS format through a browser. OpenReports is developed in Java. It supports a variety of open-source reporting engines, including JasperReports, JFreeReport, JXLS, and Eclipse BIRT, to provide a wide range of reporting requirements.
Easy Report
EasyReport is an Excel plug-in written in c# and is an easy-to-use database reporting software that supports MS SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. Its main function is to convert the row and column structures found in SQL statements into HTML tables. It also supports RowSpan and ColSpan. The Easy Report supports the export of Excel reports, chart display, and fixed table header and left column functions.
Besides, it has the function of timing task, supports query engine (Hive, etc.) for the big data product, provides the REST API service interface. The new version adds the user and authority management module. Mybatis framework is used for data access to facilitate secondary development. It has a 15-day free trial.
Types of Reports
Interactive and Static Reports
Real-time reports provide dynamic access to the latest information and at the same time give the user the opportunity to keep interacting with data in different forms in real-time.
A static report is more like a picture of information over a predetermined period to show some specific insights and assist in making decisions or picture a thought. After the static report was used for its purpose, it remains in archives for possible historical analysis.
The difference is obvious: you cannot modify static reports as an end-user while it is the feature of dynamic reports which offer viewing data at the moment and make improvements. Besides, with interactive reports, you can use some useful functions: filter, sort, or drill through the data.
Lateral and Vertical Reports
This classification applies to the aim of making a report. The reports which are intended to provide control to the administration and help in management coordination are vertical reports. And the reports traveling among various parts of the same organization level are lateral.
Other Reports
There are also periodical reports which are just scheduled to be shown regularly. They are usually meant to be shown to management at some specific time. Automatically generated data reports are few examples of periodic reports. We can also mention functional reports. These are kinds of reports which are meant for some specific area such as financial reports, marketing reports, or accounting reports.
Conclusion
The best free reporting tools can bring a brand new perspective, leading to insights that help gain better understanding of your customers, competitors and even the ecosystem where your organization operates. If you know the best free reporting tools, you can plan your media strategy with more precision, choose which assets to invest in and which to cut without fail.
The companies use different types of the best free reporting tools for presenting their reports to senior management individuals in the organisation. All these tools are available online only. Now, it is easy to find out the best free reporting tools that could be helpful for you.