Item: Geckoboard
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Geckoboard

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Initially Geckoboard was used by and for IT/IS staff exclusively. We used several (free at the time) dashboards to monitor system uptime, internal ticketing system SLA, ongoing project statuses (like AWS glacier uploads, file server migrations) as well as a somewhat makeshift Kanban board/task management system by using integrations from other platforms like Planview, etc. In fact, it was so quick and extensible, we often changed and added/removed dashboard frequently. We used wall mounted iMacs and rolling carts with HDTVs and Mac Minis to place dashboards when and where we wanted them. As the agency staff took notice, we began receiving requests from Project Management to create boards to observe things like deployments, website feature rollouts, app development, and client engagement and uptime displays.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Relatively cheap for what it is Over the years the pricing has gotten more restrictive but if you are rolling your own hardware (thin clients on TVs, etc.) and you are all local in an office it is still affordable.
Lots of different integrations that don't require coding. From SYsAdmins monitoring AWS or VPN functions to counting website visitors and engagement data to showing CRM reporting.
Clean and simple interface. Automatic refreshing that is browser independent.

Cons

Pricing model has gotten more restrictive such as limiting to number of TVs, etc.
The 'support' is bare bones, you will have to learn how to implement your solutions on your own.
Limited number of database connections means that we would have to pay a huge amount to keep all of our potential dashboards live at a given time.

Return on Investment

While we originally used this as an internal IS tool, we eventually have expanded it to be used by nearly every department.
Because pricing is monthly, we can grow or decrease our usage based on our current client needs.
Because it is low cost and easy to deploy, we can utilize it in place of considerable resources in analytics and reporting by delivering snapshots of data without pulling reports.

Alternatives Considered

Google Data Studio

We are a Google shop and our Analytics and Reporting team have and use GDS. However, Geckoboard can output some of the same types of data (albeit maybe not as granular) and can be used by a wide swath of our users (including project managers, account execs, developers, etc.). We can also save and reuse boards for similar products and get our data in front of the eyes that need to see it quickly without a lot of fuss.

Key Insights

Do you think Geckoboard delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Geckoboard's feature set?

Yes

Did Geckoboard live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Geckoboard go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Geckoboard again?

Yes

Other Software Used

NICE inContact CXone, Atlassian Confluence, A Cloud Guru (Linux Academy)

Usability

With a simple interface and available templates, creating basic dashboards is easy. Obviously depending on the data you want to visualize, there may be higher learning curves. That being said, they have a huge amount of integrations and extensible frameworks. If you are using anything made in the past ten years there is an API function or integration that can get it talking to the platform. As such, it's pretty easy to hit the main data points you want and get it on a cheap display in front of your team.

Support Rating

The support levels vary based on the level of plan that you have but that's to be expected. Virtually everything except the Enterprise plan has basic chat/email support. While they are responsive they are not going to be much assistance in helping you figure out API calls or implementing 3rd party integrations. That is to be expected and the support community can pretty much get you in the right direction if you look.

Likelihood to Recommend

Great value for the money. Excellent for smaller agencies with multiple projects and teams in a smaller space. We can quickly roll out mobile displays to help with a particular deployment push or monitoring a clients website engagement. It's also useful for showing live data without requiring analytics to run reports from a CRM, etc.

Geckoboard Feature Ratings

Comments

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Geckboard is a relatively inexpensive way to get actionable data in front of your team quickly and easily.

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