BrightGauge vs. Zendesk Explore

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
BrightGauge is a BI tool from ConnectWise that puts essential information in one place, providing visibility for more informed decisions. The user can customize BrightGauge dashboards and sync other business tools in its BI dashboard software for ultimate visibility. Users can also display data with embeddable gauges on public sites.N/A
Zendesk Explore
Score 7.8 out of 10
N/A
Zendesk offers Explore, a business intelligence and customer analytics tool which integrates with the Zendesk suite featuring ticket analytics, custom fields, dashboards, and other features. Zendesk is migrating customers of the BIME analytics product, which is approaching end of support, to Zendesk Explore in 2019.N/A
Pricing
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details——
More Pricing Information
Features
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
BI Standard Reporting
Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.9
9 Ratings
4% below category average
Zendesk Explore
9.0
9 Ratings
9% above category average
Pixel Perfect reports6.85 Ratings7.15 Ratings
Customizable dashboards9.09 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Report Formatting Templates8.08 Ratings9.97 Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.2
9 Ratings
1% above category average
Zendesk Explore
8.5
9 Ratings
5% above category average
Drill-down analysis9.09 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Formatting capabilities7.09 Ratings9.09 Ratings
Integration with R or other statistical packages8.04 Ratings5.65 Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration9.08 Ratings10.09 Ratings
Report Output and Scheduling
Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.0
9 Ratings
4% below category average
Zendesk Explore
8.6
9 Ratings
3% above category average
Publish to Web9.05 Ratings7.86 Ratings
Publish to PDF8.09 Ratings9.07 Ratings
Report Versioning7.05 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Report Delivery Scheduling8.09 Ratings8.97 Ratings
Delivery to Remote Servers8.12 Ratings8.54 Ratings
Data Discovery and Visualization
Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.6
8 Ratings
6% above category average
Zendesk Explore
7.7
7 Ratings
5% below category average
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)8.88 Ratings7.46 Ratings
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization9.03 Ratings7.66 Ratings
Predictive Analytics8.04 Ratings6.55 Ratings
Pattern Recognition and Data Mining00 Ratings9.43 Ratings
Access Control and Security
Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.7
9 Ratings
11% below category average
Zendesk Explore
9.2
9 Ratings
7% above category average
Multi-User Support (named login)8.09 Ratings9.58 Ratings
Role-Based Security Model5.08 Ratings9.59 Ratings
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)8.68 Ratings8.07 Ratings
Single Sign-On (SSO)9.01 Ratings10.07 Ratings
Report-Level Access Control00 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Mobile Capabilities
Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
8.9
3 Ratings
11% above category average
Zendesk Explore
8.0
7 Ratings
1% above category average
Responsive Design for Web Access9.02 Ratings6.85 Ratings
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile8.73 Ratings8.96 Ratings
Mobile Application00 Ratings8.42 Ratings
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Product A and Product B
BrightGauge
7.7
4 Ratings
3% below category average
Zendesk Explore
6.3
4 Ratings
23% below category average
REST API10.03 Ratings6.14 Ratings
Javascript API9.62 Ratings6.33 Ratings
iFrames6.01 Ratings6.03 Ratings
Java API6.01 Ratings5.93 Ratings
Themeable User Interface (UI)5.01 Ratings6.63 Ratings
Customizable Platform (Open Source)9.62 Ratings7.02 Ratings
Best Alternatives
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
Small Businesses
Cyfe
Cyfe
Score 8.3 out of 10
BrightGauge
BrightGauge
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Reveal
Reveal
Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
TIBCO Jaspersoft Community Edition
Score 9.7 out of 10
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User Ratings
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(9 ratings)
9.2
(9 ratings)
Usability
9.8
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
10.0
(2 ratings)
User Testimonials
BrightGaugeZendesk Explore
Likelihood to Recommend
ConnectWise
I think this tool is an absolute have to have for MSPs, especially those using ConnectWise PSA for a ticketing system. From internal KPIs to showing customer's the value of your Managed Service, you will need this tool. 9/10 because the need for longer data sets is growing for my team. Trend lines over time are a big push industry wide to show improvements in our customers over the time as our MSP customer. Presently my team has to use CW PSA's Report Writer and that tool is the least user friendly we've encountered. Looking forward to the evolution of BrightGauge for our business
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Zendesk
Compared to other analytics functions of other Ticket Management System, Zendesk Explore is the easiest to learn. Moreover, the learning curve is high. Once you pick up the fundamentals, you will be able to create all types of analytic reports. In addition, if you know basic coding or SQL, you can create your own metrics and attributes to capture extremely specific elements such as the tickets that contain a certain word or etc.
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Pros
ConnectWise
  • Robust and flexible kinds of dashboards and gauges
  • Great customer support that often leaves custom video recordings answering your question, showing you how to do what you're asking
  • Good ability to tie into critical data sources for our company's operations
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Zendesk
  • As with most "suite" products, if you already use other Zendesk features (Chat, Talk, etc), then Zendesk Explore adds an extra facet to the customer experience. The more we know about our clientele, the better we can understand/anticipate their needs.
  • I like that we can get as in-depth as we feel is necessary. For example, is just one customer having an issue? Or are many experiencing a similar problem? We can better rack this type of trend using Explore.
  • Our team can dive deep into the data based on exactly what we're looking for. If the marketing team wants a certain kind of segment, we can give them that info. If we want to sort by date or another set of parameters, we can do that as well.
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Cons
ConnectWise
  • Modifying data sets to bring in custom fields requires an experienced SQL engineer
  • Cost when bringing in lots of data sources can be prohibitive
  • Limited ability to format gauges and reports
  • Make MFA a requirement - this data is sensitive and giving the admin the ability to force MFA is a MUST!
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Zendesk
  • Flexibility: the platform is somewhat limited for the creation of "non-standard" metrics
  • It is complicated to create dashboards with no previous Zendesk Explore knowledge
  • The reliability of Zendesk Explore has not been great: we had at least 5 situations when the dashboard was not showing data and had to approach Customer service for support
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Usability
ConnectWise
Usability is BrightGauge's strength. Granting the ability of virtually any user to be able to create a dashboard is incredibly valuable. If an organization very simple and straight forward reporting needs then BrightGauge is a perfect fit for them. Connecting to the dataset we used was very quick and easy and I imagine it would be the same for any major data source you would like to pull from.
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Zendesk
As previously mentioned, Zendesk Explore is easy to use. There are lots of materials in Zendesk Community. In addition, the live support will also help a lot in learning Zendesk Explore, especially for beginners. Zendesk Explore might be difficult at first to learn, but anyone could learn it in just 7 days. Once the fundamentals are locked in, moving from that place to becoming an amateur at Zendesk Explore is extremely easy. Lastly, if you know basic coding and SQL, you can be a pro at it already.
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Support Rating
ConnectWise
We did not need to use BrightGauge's support for the entire time that we used it. Best support is always the one that isn't needed because nothing breaks.
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Zendesk
Support for all of Zendesk has exceeding my expectations. This company will always get a 10 out of 10 in my book. Any question you have they make sure you have the answer plus a step-by-step guide on how to do each step so you are set up for success!
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Alternatives Considered
ConnectWise
We looked very briefly at Solar Winds, but due to Connectwise the reporting was not very accurate and was conflicted.
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Zendesk
Zendesk Explore is more user friendly and the software plus maintenance cost is less. The report section is more detailed and no lag while creating report for a large data source. The report segments and formats are editable which make it more convenient to make a report according to a requirement for an individual.
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Return on Investment
ConnectWise
  • Faster compilation of Business Review material
  • For larger customers, the dashboarding has helped our customers to remain sticky and add services/revenue to our MSP. They want to add more fragments of their IT for the 1 pane rollup.
  • From a leadership perspective, BG has allowed me to make difficult staffing decisions with confidence. Detailed metric driven decisions on who is hitting KPIs/who isn't - as well as when data proved we were overstaffed and understaffed.
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Zendesk
  • Money saved due to proper staffing.
  • Happier Staff- proper staffing ensures no one is overworked.
  • Ability to quickly pinpoint where issues are and why.
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ScreenShots