4 Top-Rated Affordable Reporting Software

Unlike spreadsheets that simply scratch the surface of data, reports act like magnifying glasses, unveiling meaningful data insights. That’s where reporting software solutions come into play. These tools automate the data reporting process, from collection to analysis and report generation. They help visualize large volumes of data, drill down for deeper analysis, and identify actionable trends to make informed decisions.

However, purchasing reporting software can be a costly affair, especially if you’re on a budget. To help you choose, this article highlights four top-rated affordable reporting software based on verified software reviews and pricing found on vendor websites. Per our research, we’ve considered products priced less than $38 per month as affordable software and arranged them in ascending order of their prices. (Read how we shortlisted these products at the end of this article.)

We’ve grouped these products into two categories: dedicated reporting and analytics software and business management suites with reporting capabilities. Irrespective of the category, all tools offer the core features of reporting software: ad hoc reporting and data visualization.

Asana is a business management suite with reporting capabilities. It lets you use pre-built dashboard templates or create new ones for various reporting needs, such as employee turnover and marketing campaign performance. It also allows you to choose different chart styles (column, line, burnup, donut, and number) to visualize tasks, projects, and goals. You can filter reports by a specific date range, project status, owner, and task status, among other parameters. To assess data in more detail, you can click on a specific cell or data point in the report and view the associated goals, projects, or tasks behind them.

Product features of interest:*

• Data mapping: Import the data from various sources, such as integrated customer relationship management (CRM) software or external platforms. Map the imported data points to relevant fields within the reporting dashboard (e.g., match a “due date” from your task list to the “deadline” field in the platform) and filter them based on your requirements.

• Co-edit reports: Allow project stakeholders or team members to provide immediate feedback by leaving comments, adding annotations, and having discussions directly within the reporting dashboard. 

• Shareable insights: Generate key business reports, such as annual revenue and employee performance reports, and share them with stakeholders via email or the company intranet.

Starting price: $10.99 per user, per month

Billing cycle: Annual

Customer support options: Chat, help center, and video tutorials

Who should consider Asana?

Businesses looking to access real-time data on various business functions, such as employee performance or project costs, can consider Asana. Its reporting dashboard provides various prebuilt templates to visualize data and track the real-time status of campaigns, projects, tasks, goals, etc. Users can select between different chart styles—from simple line graphs to burnup charts. They can filter the data to choose a specific date range, exclude certain tasks, and more. Additionally, they can keep the reporting dashboard private or share it with specific team members.

**Analysis performed December 2023

Syft Analytics is a reporting and analytics tool for financial businesses. It helps create custom profit and loss statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements, among other financial reports. It lets you build an interactive dashboard to visualize key performance indicators (KPIs) from various departments, including product, operations, and accounting. You can drag and drop charts, graphs, and tables to customize the reporting dashboard’s layout and use filters to drill down into specific data points for deeper analysis. You can auto-import data from external systems, such as payment processors and point-of-sale systems, or upload it manually.

Product features of interest:*

• Scorecards: Display real-time financial metrics, such as revenue, expenses, and profits, on the reporting dashboard, and use scorecards to track business performance. You can define specific goals for various metrics (e.g., increasing revenue by 10% or reducing costs by 5%) and monitor progress toward your targets.

• Driver-based forecasts: Identify the factors influencing your business, such as seasonality, marketing campaigns, or economic trends, and build forecasts based on their real-time impact. This feature uses machine learning to anticipate revenue and expenses.

• Data clean up: Run automated checks based on predefined rules to identify typos, outliers, and discrepancies in your financial data. This feature also helps spot suspicious activities such as unusual transactions or duplicate payments.

Starting price: $15 per entity, per month

Billing cycle: Annual

Customer support options: Call, chat, and knowledge base

Who should consider Syft Analytics?

Syft Analytics is worth considering for businesses looking for a financial reporting solution to improve their forecasting and budgeting processes. Its driver-based forecasting feature uses machine learning to analyze real-time factors influencing business outcomes, such as seasonality and economic trends. This feature promotes financial agility and preparedness by helping anticipate future performance, make accurate forecasts, and create adaptable budgets that align with the predictions. It also enables informed budget adjustments and cash flow management, enhancing the accuracy of financial reporting.

**Analysis performed December 2023

Reportei is a reporting and analytics tool for social media and digital marketing teams. Its AI-powered reporting module not only generates reports to offer valuable insights into your campaign or project performance but also provides personalized recommendations to optimize your digital marketing strategies. You can select the frequency, analysis period, and recipients, and send the reports automatically via email. You can also create a custom interactive dashboard and choose from various widgets displaying different metrics, charts, and tables to personalize data reporting to your specific marketing or sales goals.

Product features of interest:*

• Dashboard of indicators: Get a real-time overview of KPIs for marketing and sales efforts. This feature sends automated notifications when key metrics, such as revenue or budget allocation, deviate from your goals or predefined thresholds. These alerts act as early warning signs, prompting you to take corrective action.

• Performance comparisons: Compare performance across different time periods, channels, or campaigns to identify trends and analyze effectiveness. This feature helps identify any scope for improvement in your current marketing strategies and make necessary adjustments.

• Granular access permissions: Manage user access rights to dashboards and reports, ensuring data security and confidentiality. You can define user roles and permissions for editing, sharing, or requesting changes.

Starting price: $24 per month for three users

Billing cycle: Monthly

Customer support options: Help center and knowledge base

Who should consider Reportei?

Marketing teams seeking a proactive approach to identifying and resolving deviations from predefined campaign goals might find Reportei’s dashboard of indicators valuable. This dashboard offers real-time monitoring of key marketing metrics, including revenue, resource allocation, and website traffic, and sends automated alerts when these metrics deviate from their pre-set thresholds. Think of it as an early warning system that delivers proactive notifications, helping identify potential issues, take corrective actions promptly, and stay aligned with strategic objectives.

**Analysis performed December 2023

As a dedicated reporting and analytics solution, Databox offers pre-installed, customizable report templates and dashboards for various business processes, including sales, marketing, SEO, social media, and project management. Its drag-and-drop editor lets you arrange and customize report elements, such as charts, tables, graphs, and texts. You can set up automated reports to be delivered regularly to specific departments or stakeholders. You can define user access permissions (view, edit, share) for your team members. You can also maintain a record of all created reports, monitor upcoming scheduled reports, and review the PDF archive from a centralized dashboard.

Product features of interest:*

• Data stories: Automatically generate dynamic text summaries, insights, and interpretations for each data point based on your input. The generated text updates automatically whenever your data refreshes, ensuring your reports reflect the latest information.

• Data calculations: Create custom metrics and formulas to analyze data. You can use a range of mathematical operations, such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, to manipulate data and derive meaningful insights. This can involve calculating ratios, percentages, averages, and other statistical measures.

• Automated reminders: Set up automatic notifications to send reports to stakeholders. You can designate specific individuals as approvers, and they’ll receive a notification when the report is ready with an option to approve, reject, or request changes. 

Starting price: $47 per month for five users

Billing cycle: Annual

Customer support options: Chat and help center

Who should consider Databox?

Databox is worth considering for businesses looking to automate the process of analyzing large datasets to extract meaningful insights. The data stories functionality automatically uncovers trends, anomalies, and hidden correlations within data, generating insightful summaries and interpretations. This saves valuable time, allowing analytics and business intelligence teams to shift their focus from data crunching to strategic analysis and action planning. By providing context and meaning to data, the data stories feature makes it easier for team members and stakeholders to understand and engage with the insights presented.

**Analysis performed December 2023

Reporting software solutions can cost as low as $5 per month or up to $499.95+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of users, infrastructure requirements, business size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most reporting solutions typically include the following pricing plans:

• Free trials: Range from seven to 30 days and give users access to either all or limited features of the software. These no-cost trial plans are ideal for businesses that wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.

• Free versions: Offer limited access to basic software features. These free plans are ideal for small-business owners or individuals on a budget.

• Entry-level plans: Start at $5 per month and offer access to limited features. These are ideal for small businesses with basic reporting needs, such as custom reports, reporting templates, a drag-and-drop editor, and shareable reports.

• Mid-tier plans: Range from $15 to $250 per month and offer advanced features such as data calculations, predictive analytics, and collaboration tools. These are suitable for businesses that have outgrown basic reporting tools but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level systems.

• High-end plans: May cost more than $499 per month and offer a range of advanced capabilities, including unlimited features from entry-level and mid-tier plans, AI-powered reports, integration with social media platforms, customizable dashboards, and priority support. These plans are suitable for large enterprises with cross-functional analytics teams.

Ask the following questions to reporting and analytics software vendors to ensure you find the best software match for your reporting needs. 

• How well does the software integrate with existing tools and databases? 

Reporting platforms work in sync with other software solutions to create business-critical, insightful reports. Key functionalities such as data summaries, dashboards, and data visualization require input from platforms such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and business intelligence solutions. Moreover, when the reporting tool works well with your existing databases, it streamlines data access for reporting, eliminating data silos and manual transfers

• Does the software offer user access permissions for different reports? 

Most business reports include sensitive business data, making access permissions critical for data security. Check whether you can set up different levels of access (e.g., view, edit, and comment) and permissions for users from various departments, functions, roles, etc. By monitoring access, you mitigate the risk of data breaches and ensure users only interact with reports relevant to them. This helps maintain data security and compliance with privacy regulations.

• Can the software scale to accommodate future growth? 

As your business grows, you can expect a substantial growth in data volumes. For example, your CRM data will increase as your customer base expands, necessitating a reporting tool that can handle larger datasets and complex customer segmentations. Therefore, it’s essential to choose reporting and business intelligence software that can scale up to accommodate growing data requirements. Scalable software can handle larger datasets, increased user activity, and more complex analyses without sacrificing performance.