Best 10 Free Dashboard Tools in 2023 [In Depth Guide]

John Ozuysal
John Ozuysal
May 12, 2023
May 12, 2023

Some of the best free dashboard tools for visualizing your metrics and KPIs are Datapad, Grafana, Databox, Dasheroo, FineReport, Metabase, Google Data Studio, Matomo, Tableau, and Inetsoft.

In this guide, you will find a detailed review of all the above-mentioned free dashboard tools and know why they’re the best in the market.

What is a Dashboarding Tool?

A dashboarding tool is a simplified data-management software that collects, monitors, and displays complex data via interactive and customizable dashboards and reports.

In simpler terms, dashboarding tools help you monitor and visualize your business health and accompany you with data-driven insights.

Now the question you might have is whether your business really needs a centralized dashboarding tool. 🤔

We would’ve said NO 🙅‍♂️ if it had been the 1990s, but as of today, every enterprise, despite the size, is surfing around tons of data - some are visible while most remain hidden.

And so, to easily squeeze, analyze, and monitor data from every place, dashboarding tools are a perfect solution. 

Apart from saving your resources, these tools are a great help when it comes to KPI measurements. They hold the capability to present the worst form of data in an easy-to-understand format.

Thereby helping the c-suites make timely and better data-driven decisions. 

If you don't want to read whole article, you can watch the video below to find out about the best free dashboard softwares.

Factors to Consider When Choosing the Best Free and Open Source Dashboard Tool for Your Team

Not all dashboard tools qualify for your business needs, here're a few factors to consider for choosing the right free dashboard tool.

#1. Is It Easy Enough For You to Set Up?

A building can't stand tall if the base is weak. In the same way, a dashboarding tool can't function if you can’t set things up quickly and easily.

It becomes crucial for any dashboarding tool to provide ease of setup. Although all the tools boast easy setup, you have to choose what easy setup means for you. Select the tool that lets you set up dashboards in clicks and takes minutes not hours.

Pro Tip: Look if the tool offers free setup resources such as guides, tutorial videos, and reliable customer support. 

#2. Would It Give You Quick Access to Your Dashboards?

Now some tools may delay you from accessing your dashboard. That means you can't instantly access your dashboard after setting it up. This might be due to slow loading time or while processing heavy databases.

Look for tools that empower you with data visualization capabilities instantly. Because in business, time is money. 

Your dashboard shouldn't be more than a click away from you. 

#3. Can You Have Access to Dashboard on the Go?

Most of the dashboarding tools make you sit in front of your desktop to access its features. For the time being, it's fine. 

But when you’re off work, far from your PC, and something urgent comes up, to prevent last-minute tantrums, ensure the dashboarding tool allows you to access your dashboards from anywhere.

So look for a free dashboard tool with a dedicated mobile app or mobile-optimized dashboards.

#4. Is It Easy for Your Whole Team To Use the Tool?

Collaboration is a crucial feature to look for in a dashboarding tool. Even if we suppose you have Einstein’s brain and can easily use any tool, many people don't have that. You can look around you for examples.

So, being a good leader and for the comfort of your team, make sure the dashboarding tool you opt for has a lower-learning curve. 

Moreover, ensure your team takes minimal time and training to get on board and kick things off. 

#5. Is It Completely Free?

Lastly, the most tricky part - Pricing.

Most tools out there have a competitive yet complicated pricing policy. 

While some might offer a free plan with limited features, others leverage a freemium (free for a period) version to attract you.

Honestly, we at Datapad don't burden you with pricing complications. Our tool is completely free for all without any limitations or restrictions.

But for other tools, we suggest you compare them wisely. And most importantly, don't confuse a completely free tool and a tool that offers a freemium version.

What Are the Best Free Dashboard Software to Create Stunning Dashboards? 

#1. Datapad

datapad homepage

Datapad is the easiest to use dashboard software on the market. It helps progressive business owners collect, monitor, analyze, and manage crucial business data from their web and also from their phones.

Who Is It For?

Datapad is for small to medium size enterprises and solopreneurs who want to manage their business KPIs quickly and easily from anywhere.

Here are the features that make Datapad a great free dashboard tool.

Key Feature #1. Highly Customizable

With Datapad, you can easily change the look and feel of every section on your dashboard. You can repurpose everything from texts and numbers to visual elements and colors.

Our tool has an extensive library of pre-built charts, tables, graphs, and more. You can simply click on the element you want to put in your dashboard, and it's done.

The best part is that you can perform all these customizations from the mobile app. That's right, unlike other dashboard tools, we don't expect you to sit in front of your PC to customize or edit your dashboard.

Key Feature #2. Team Collaboration

Team collaboration is a vital feature of any dashboarding tool, so we tried to find the best way to help you communicate with your team.

With Datapad, you can simply comment under a KPI and allow your team to communicate below it. For example, if a particular KPI needs urgent attention, and you want someone to act on it quickly, all you need to do is, comment your suggestion under that KPI, and your team will be notified in real-time. 

This allows your team to act promptly upon your advice, as well as discuss any further details right below the KPIs so you can always be aware of the updates on the task. 

But that's not all!

With Datapad's team collaboration feature, you can:

  • Quickly onboard your team and assign tasks to them
  • Monitor and track individual member's performance
  • Get real-time alerts for team activity on the dashboard
  • Comment under a KPI for instant collaboration

Key Feature #3. Mobile Friendly Dashboards

Another sought-after feature of our tool is its highly responsive mobile app. Datapad's mobile application is flawlessly optimized for lightning-fast loading time.

datapad overview

Even if it's loaded with tons of data, you won't encounter any lags or glitches in your work.

Moreover, our tool has passed the compatibility test for all known devices and screen sizes - it fits wherever you want to access it. Flexible as a gymnast! 🤸🏼‍♀️

Key Feature #4. Ease of Data Import and Export

We thought about making the data import process an automatic one. And so we did it.

But then, we felt, what if you're in no mood to measure a small dataset?  So, our team finally decided to present you with both automatic and manual data entry.

Datapad offers one-click integration with popular platforms such as Google Analytics, Google Sheets, Facebook, etc.that helps automate data import. However, we'll soon pull in some major integration like Shopify, HubSpot, Salesforce, and more.

Our one-click integrations allow you to effortlessly import tons of data from these platforms to your Datapad dashboard with a single click.

Or, as we said, if you wish to measure some specific data to analyze some trends, you can always import data manually. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Easy access to your dashboards 

✅ Keep everything on your phone for instant access

✅ Set up alerts and push notifications to stay on top of your business

✅Completely Free

Cons

❌ Not suitable for creating sophisticated dashboards

❌ Not many integrations right now

#2. Grafana

Grafana dashboard

Grafana is an open-source analytical and dashboarding solution that allows businesses to ingest, query, and display data via interactive visualizations.

The platform allows you to create unified dashboards that combine data from multiple sources to foster a data-driven culture within your team.

Who Is It For?

Grafana has millions of business users, including many top companies like eBay, PayPal, Intel, and more. It's an excellent data visualization tool for anyone, ranging from startups to large-sized enterprises.

Features

  • Has pre-built data visualization options ranging from heatmaps to histograms and graphs to geo maps for faster and flexible data visualization
  • Easily import data via 40+ data source plugins and robust APIs from popular platforms such as Google Analytics, Github, and more
  • Use transformations to edit, combine, and perform calculations across different queries from multiple data sources
  • Setup Grafana alerting to easily manage, create, and get alerts from a centralized system
  • Use panel editor to quickly configure, customize, and visualize all your dashboards within a consistent UI

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Easily collaborate on dashboards with your teammates

✅ Great community support

✅ Set up custom alerts and notifications

✅ Allows to setup threshold limits on graphs

Cons

❌ Limited data visualization options

❌ Higher learning curve (best for coders and developers)

❌ Occasionally laggy (could be a data source issue)

#3. Databox

Databox dashboard

Databox is a leading business analytics dashboard that helps you connect data from any tool and track business performance from anywhere.

Over 20,000+ businesses use Databox to track and visualize their business data and make better data-driven decisions.

Who Is It For?

Databox is for data-driven marketers, CEOs, analysts, and decision-makers. Being a versatile platform, it’s suitable for small to large businesses.

Features

  • Over 60+ one-click integrations to connect your data easily; integrate custom data via SQL database, Google Sheets, APIs, or Zapier
  • A rich gallery of 200+ proven dashboard and report templates for specific departments built by professionals
  • Use the drag-and-drop interface builder to easily calculate new metrics or create custom business metrics from multiple data sources
  • Intuitive dashboard designer to customize and visualize key performance indicators the way you want - no coding or design skills required
  • Set up automated alerts when specific metrics trend up or down from your set threshold point; schedule performance reports via email, Slack, and more

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Has a user-friendly interface

✅ Satisfying number of integrations and pre-built templates

✅ Quick and easy to set up

Cons

❌ Limited data source connection and dashboard for free plan (one each)

❌ Can be confusing for beginners

#4. Dasheroo

Dasheroo dashboard

Dasheroo is a cloud-based BI and analytics platform that helps you easily keep track of your messy business data via beautiful dashboards and stunning visualizations.

Who Is It For?

Dasheroo is a good fit for all, from small businesses to startup teams to enterprise companies.

Features

  • Comment and discuss in real-time from within Dasheroo to stay connected at all times and concentrate the team on results
  • Get alerted via instant group notifications when a specific metric trends up or down a certain threshold
  • Blend data from different platforms to create unique custom metrics and spot hidden correlations and trends 
  • Setup and schedule recurring emails to share dashboards with teams; export dashboards in PDF or PNG formats
  • Easily import data from internal or custom data sources with JSON and Push API Webhooks 

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Simple to use & easy to set up

✅ Great visual appeal and customizations

✅ Admirable collaboration features for teams

Cons

❌ Not much of a business intelligence dashboard (popularly a visualization tool)

❌ Limited integrations to popular platforms 

#5. FineReport

Finereport homepage

FineReport is a business intelligence software developed by Java. It addresses your need for data integration, management, and visualization across the organization.

Who Is It For?

FineReport holds the top spot in the Chinese BI market. It's best for SI's and ISVs, product managers and owners, CTO, etc. in the healthcare, manufacturing, finance & banking, real estate, and IT sectors.

It's also a popular voice among individual marketers because it's free for personal use.

Features

  • Easy-to-use designer that offers intuitive drag-and-drop functionality to create interactive reports within minutes
  • One-click integrations with mainstream databases, including direct connection to the database via JDBC
  • Has a stream-to-TV feature allowing you to track KPIs on large screens and TV dashboards easily
  • Over 19 categories and 50+ styles of pre-built HTML5 charts, with cool 3D and dynamic effects for quick data visualization
  • Has dedicated mobile app with newly adopted ReactNative technology for a seamless mobile dashboarding experience

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Intuitive and easy design mode

✅ Open source library (to add more functionalities)

✅ Excellent data connectivity

✅ Dedicated mobile app

Cons

❌ Being a product of Java, the tool has a technical touch

#6. Metabase

Metabase dashboard

Metabase is an open-source BI and data visualization tool that allows you to weave impactful stories from your data.

Its interactive dashboards present data in an easy-to-understand format to business owners and stakeholders, allowing them to make better data-driven decisions.

Who Is It For?

Metabase best suits small teams, growing businesses, and large enterprises. Or, if you only want to use the free plan, it's best for small teams and startups.

Features

  • Has a user-friendly interface with an embedded visual query builder for advanced users to drill-down data and extract hidden insights
  • Over 20+ integrated data sources and 15+ built-in visualizations to easily create beautiful live charts and dashboards
  • Easily share dashboards via smart links or schedule automated reports via email or Slack for timely alerts; embed dashboards in web pages, presentations, and more
  • Enable role-based management to keep control of when and how someone can view dashboards

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Unlimited charts and dashboards

✅ Access to friendly forums

✅ Easy to set up (just takes 5 mins)

Cons

❌ Highly reliant on SQL

❌ No formatting flexibility

#7. Google Data Studio

Google Data Studio dashboard

Google Data Studio lets you effortlessly collect raw data from everywhere and transform them into interactive, beautiful reports and dashboards. The dashboards built with data studio are fully customizable and easy to share with your teams and stakeholders.

Who Is It For?

Google Data Studio is for anyone who wants to make better use of their data without incurring any cost or taking the risk of data mishandling.

Related: Google Data Studio Alternatives

Features

  • Has an extensive gallery of pre-built reports and dashboard templates to create stunning data visuals easily and quickly
  • Over 800+ data sources and 650 connectors to effortlessly collect or import data from multiples sources with a click
  • Choose from an array of visualization tools such as Gantt chart, Gauge, Waterfall, or create custom visualization
  • Easily share reports and dashboards with individuals or teams; collaborate in real-time and embed reports on any web page with a simple code

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Strong integration with Google's ecosystem (eases most of your work)

✅ Granular access control and sharing mechanisms

✅ Completely free

Cons

❌ Lacks real-time updates

❌ No support for Excel

❌ Might find it difficult to perform complex visualizations

#8. Matomo

Matomo dashboard

Matomo is an all-in-one platform that collects data and presents it through easy-to-understand visuals through a unified dashboard.

The best part is that Matomo gives you 100% data ownership, which means you're in control of where your data is stored and what's happening to it.

Who Is It For?

Over 1 million websites trust Matomo in 190 countries. Its prominent customers include the United Nations, Ahrefs, and NASA. The platform serves all industries ranging from commercial stores to IT and aeronautics.

Features

  • Easily import historical Google Analytics data directly to Matomo with its built-in Google Analytics importer
  • Avoids data sampling to give you 100% accurate and actionable insights; offers unlimited websites, users, and data storage
  • Has a user-friendly interface allowing easy setup and training for teams
  • Has a dedicated marketplace with over 75 free plugins to easily customize analytical reports and dashboards
  • Offers ample visualization tools like heatmaps, session recording, and cohorts to quickly and effectively present complex data via simplified visuals

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Frequent updates help to prevent the platform from bugs and glitches

✅ Self-hosting is very simple and comfortable

✅ Offers 100% data control

Cons

❌ Poor UI/UX design

❌ Comes with a steep learning curve (best for advanced users)

#9. Tableau

Tableau dashboard

Tableau Public is offered as a totally free platform to organize, visualize, and publicly share significant data. It comes with an extensive library of data visualization tools; anyone can use them to structure unorganized datasets.

Who Is It For?

Tableau public is for data professionals, business teams, and even tech teams to make sense of raw data, seek guidance from the open-source community, and contribute valuable data.

Features 

  • Explore a wide array of public topics, maybe anything from business, sports, investing, or economy
  • Visualize faster than any other tool in the market with presets and representation libraries made to accommodate the smallest to largest of data heaps
  • An active global community to foster knowledge exchange and ways to interpret data, totally free to join, participate and promote among 
  • Create flawless interactive graphs, charts, and other representations without a bit of coding or plotting know-how
  • Easily export and share dashboards in multiple formats like Excel, CSV, and spreadsheets

Pros and Cons

Pros 

✅ Truly free to use and access libraries 

✅ Supports all kinds of data sources, including online and locally stored data sets.

✅ A platform with mobile friendliness and ease of use for the layman

Cons

❌ Lack of personal security when the data is stored publicly 

❌ Only 10 million records per data source and 10 GB of overall content per account.

#10. Inetsoft

Inetsoft homepage

Inetsoft is a leading analytics and dashboard reporting tool empowering businesses with reliable data insight in the cloud computing & SaaS era.

Inetsoft blends data from multiple platforms and allows you to report, analyze, and visualize complex data in real time.

Who Is It For?

Inetsoft is best suited for the Information Technology and Services industry. Or, more specifically, best fit for businesses in the computer software industry.

Features

  • Has built-in fine-grained, self-service customization and ad hoc reporting to present intuitive views of business data
  • Offers an extensive range of visualization options such as customizable charts, tables, and other visual components
  • Easily access dashboards and reports with the help of a highly-responsive web-based app (compatible with all devices and screen sizes)
  • Quickly import data from SaaS data sources, including Google Sheets; manually upload data via excel or CSV files
  • Publicly shareable dashboards via URL link or securely to a client, investor, or team

Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Easy to setup and use

✅ Quality support and assistance

✅ Ease data import and a crystal-clear UI

Cons

❌ Involves a certain extent of technical jargon

Have All Your Dashboards in Your Pocket with Datapad

Datapad is a free dashboard software  that sets the bar high in the dashboarding tool category. Its user-friendly  and allow you to access your KPIs instantly from anywhere. 

Do you remember we talked about how ease of setup is an essential feature for any dashboarding tool? Well, our tool just takes a minute to set up and get you rolling. Here's how to do that:

Step 1: Choose a title for your dashboard

Step 2: Set a goal for your KPI

Step 3: Choose from a gallery of charts and visual components

Sign up now to start tracking your KPIs with your team

Read more: How to Build a KPI Dashboard in Excel?