Announcing the Top Rated Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms for 2019

We are excited to announce the Top Rated Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms for 2019! Top Rated awards showcase today’s top-of-the-line products in Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms based solely on user feedback and satisfaction scores. These awards make the voice of the market the primary decider into the industry’s best products.

Top Rated awards are the most trusted in the industry because they are never influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s size, popularity, or status as a TrustRadius customer.

Here are the winners:

TIBCO Spotfire

TIBCO Spotfire is a data analytics platform with discovery and visualization features. It offers data wrangling tools alongside its visualizations, allowing users to combine and modify data sources as they go. Spotfire’s analytical engine can find and display trends, outliers, and patterns without manual analysis. The platform also includes pre-built predictive analytics functions. Live data dashboards help users make real-time decisions. A majority (57%) of TIBCO Spotfire’s users on TrustRadius are from enterprise-level organizations. Reviewers value Spotfire’s support for custom functions, smooth integration with many sources of data, and shallow learning curve.

“Various data connectors [provide] seamless connections to a huge number of data sources from Spotfire…An extremely powerful product, yet it’s very easy to learn how to use it even on an advanced level.”

– Akos Krommer | Solution Specialist | Computer Software Company

Tableau Desktop

Tableau Desktop is a data discovery and visualization system. It aims to help users make informed, data-driven decisions. Tableau can connect to both on-site and in-cloud data sources, linking disparate datasets together. A simple drag-and-drop interface allows users to quickly create complex visualizations. Tableau’s pane of pre-built analytics add more options for illustrating and understanding data. It also includes geographical data mapping, mobile dashboards, and secure sharing through Tableau Online and Tableau Server. Users from enterprise-level organizations make up a large portion (44%) of Tableau Desktop users on TrustRadius. Reviewers value the software’s breadth of data connections, sharing capabilities, and ease of use. 

“Selecting the fields and metrics is quite easy. We can create the formulas for presenting any variable…For merging the data i.e columns, it is very easy. We just need to drag and drop the columns.”

 – Akshaya Bhardwaj | Consultant | Outsourcing/Offshoring Company

Tableau Online

Tableau Online is a SaaS data analytics and visualization tool. The cloud-hosted platform is available from browsers and a mobile app. Users can create data visualizations in an online interface or with natural-language queries. Tableau Online can embed interactive dashboards in web pages or integrated apps like Salesforce. A detailed permissions system helps administrators control who can see, interact with, and edit data. A significant number (42%) of Tableau Online users on TrustRadius are from enterprise-level organizations. Its scalability, intuitive user experience, and aesthetic dashboard designs make it popular with reviewers. 

Tableau Online is one of my favorite applications in our toolbox and I thoroughly enjoy showing our clients how powerful it can be to get them started…It is powerful, easy to load data into, it is compatible with many sources, feature-rich, and packaged up behind a super-slick UI. 

– Verified User | Project Manager in Professional Services | Management Consulting Company

Tableau Server

Tableau Server allows Tableau Desktop users to publish dashboards to a central server for sharing and collaboration. It can be deployed onsite or on a public cloud. It offers many of the same features as Tableau Online, such as a browser-based interface, natural-language queries, and dashboard embedding. The software also includes governance tools to help manage and curate data sources. Administrative tools help admins manage users, check server status, and track usage. The platform supports on-site deployment and deployment to public cloud solutions such as AWS. Many (45%) Tableau Server users on TrustRadius are from enterprise-level organizations. Reviewers value its easy dashboard sharing functions, detailed security options, and collaboration tools. 

“Tableau Server has had a huge positive impact. It has allowed us to quickly distribute complex dashboards across the company…It is easy to manage permissions to control who can collaborate on certain projects. It is also easy to edit a coworker’s workbook and publish changes.”

– Jacob Rasmussen | Data Engineer | Computer Software Company

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a BI platform with data discovery and visualization tools. It boasts extensive customizability with its SDK and APIs. Developers can create custom visuals, embed reports and dashboards, and automate data management. Custom visuals and other apps can be shared with the community in an online marketplace. Microsoft Power BI also includes AI-assisted visualization tools for quick analysis. The platform integrates with the Microsoft Office suite to collaborate on and share data reports. Users from enterprise-level organizations make up a significant number (43%) of Microsoft Power BI users on TrustRadius. Reviewers appreciate its low price point, integration with other Microsoft apps, and data transformation tools.

“…[The] ability to extract, transform and load all data [allows] you to customize every data set and be confident in the quality and consistency of the data…the user isn’t required to acquire or manipulate data before being able to pull it into a report. You can get the data from its source every time and apply exactly the same transformations in fractions of the time.”

– Verified User | Project Manager in Information Technology | Computer Software Company

Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio is a free, web-based data visualization tool. Its data connectors import and structure data from sources like MySQL and Google Ads. A visual data explorer, pre-built functions, and support for custom formulas help clean and combine data. Data Studio’s reports and dashboards can be customized to show viewers only the data they need to see. Integration with Google Drive lets users control access permissions and collaborate in real time. Users from small and mid-size companies make up a large majority (37% each) of Data Studio’s TrustRadius user base. Its lightweight footprint, integration with other Google tools, and overall ease of use make Google Data Studio a popular starting point for data visualization among reviewers.

“In addition to having a low cost of entry to visualization, it can be relatively easy to set up for any user with little to no experience…It’ll provide you an easy to use data visualization tool that can crank out dashboards that are client ready with support from the Google community.”

– Verified User | Analyst in Marketing | Automotive Company

Domo

Cloud-based BI platform Domo offers many data discovery and visualization features. It includes visual, no-code data transformation tools. Pre-built functions and support for R and Python scripts help prepare data for predictive analysis. Domo’s real-time data visualizations stay up-to-date with current data and can send alerts when the data changes. Customizable dashboards let users lay out visualizations and define how they interact with each other. Domo users on TrustRadius are mostly (55%) from midsize companies. Reviewers like its user-friendly interface, real-time updates, and “drill down” feature for viewing underlying data. 

“Domo allows us to drill down in a specific area and place orders based off of the data it provides, such as weekly sales on a specific item or category…It updates almost instantly and allows management to see where we stand at any moment in the day.”

–Byron Conner | Assistant General Manager | Retail Company

Qlik Sense

Qlik Sense is a data visualization and discovery platform. The software is centered on its data association engine, which automatically indexes and relates imported data. Its interactive analysis and global search tools help users freely explore indexed information. Artificial intelligence tools suggest insights and power a natural-language chatbot that can fulfill analytics requests. Developers can use its open API to embed visualizations and create extensions. A slight majority (51%) of Qlik Sense users on TrustRadius are from large enterprises. Reviewers value Qlik Sense’s speed, ease of use for novices, and efficient data navigation tools.

“Qlik’s associative data engine (based on a proprietary in-memory database) makes the slicing and dicing of data very easy…It’s also very easy to use from the end-user perspective and that’s why many business users love it.”

– Timo Saloranta | Head of Data Operations, Data Architect | Internet Company

QlikView

QlikView is a BI platform and the precursor to Qlik Sense. It, too, is  built on a data association engine and encourages free-form data exploration. It includes pre-made data visualizations and supports analysis with tools like R. Users can combine analysis results and visualizations into dashboards for sharing. The platform also includes collaboration features, like comment threads and session-sharing. Users from enterprise-level organizations make up many (43%) of QlikView’s users on TrustRadius. Reviewers like QlikView’s collaboration features, customization options, and proficiency in handling large datasets. 

“QlikView can effortlessly combine all sizes of data sets…Social data share and other group-specific share provide ease of use in sharing finalized reports and dashboards. A wide range of customization options in creating custom components and user mapping is an added advantage.”

– Verified User | Consultant in Information Technology | Hospital & Health Care Company

Congratulations to the winners of the Top Rated Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms Award!

What are Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms?

Data discovery and visualization has become a new standard for business intelligence (BI) software. As businesses generate larger amounts of data, it becomes harder to draw meaningful conclusions from that data. Data discovery and visualization tools aim to help both analysts and non-analysts find patterns and outliers in business data. 

Most products in this category include interactive visualization methods, such as heatmaps, scatter plots, and geographic overlays. They often support custom statistical analysis programs. Some may also include pre-built statistical analysis tools. Data mining and pattern recognition features help direct users to potentially important trends. Recently, some data discovery tools have added attention-grabbing, animated visualization formats designed for social media.

Before buying data discovery and visualization software, consider the extent of your data needs. Businesses with large, diverse datasets may benefit from a full BI solution with data discovery features. Other buyers with smaller datasets may be satisfied with a more lightweight tool. If you’re considering replacing existing BI software with a solution that includes data discovery and visualization features, thoroughly analyze the costs and benefits. The change is likely to take plenty of time, effort, and adjustment!

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the 2019 Top Rated Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap as of July 1st, 2019. To qualify for the Data Discovery and Visualization Platforms Top Rated Award, products must have at least 10 reviews written within the past year, a TRScore of at least 7.5 out of 10, and must receive at least 1.5% of the traffic in their category.  Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the TrustMap based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.