Traditional BI Tools vs Embedded Analytics in 2024

You may be here because:

• You are looking for a Business Intelligence tool.
• You are trying to figure out if embedded analytics is for you.
• You are looking for iFrame alternatives to implement embedded analytics into your app.

What has traditional BI been used for?

For a long time, traditional business intelligence tools like Power BI, Metabase, looker, Tableau and Preset have been used for internal reporting and business analysis. The use case for customer-facing apps that require custom reporting and dashboards for the end user — remains secondary. For example, Power BI has an embedded analytics offering i.e. “power BI embedded” but it isn’t optimized for customer-facing analytics in many ways. Let’s delve into the state of how traditional BI tools look next to embedded analytics in 2024 to help you decide which tool to embed into your SaaS app.

How do you select a BI tool for Embedded Analytics?

The options:

• You have traditional business intelligence tools that are mostly used for internal reporting and have a secondary offering for embedded analytics like power BI has “power BI embedded”.
• Open source javascript charting libraries such as chartjs and D3js for creating data visualizations and interactive charting capabilities using web standards such as HTML, SVG, and CSS.
• Then you have tools like Vizzly that provide embedded analytics specifically designed for customer-facing apps.

What you need to consider:

• Time-to-value, not time-to-market.
• The degree of customization and control over product and user experience.
• Are you embedding using a native JS component, or forced to use iFrame?
• Overall performance and latency.
• Integrations and support for different databases and APIs.
• Security and user permissions.
• Budget.

The difference in detail

Time to Value

Most embeddable solutions have good time-to-market, but very few offer good time-to-value. You might implement an analytics dashboard or reporting capability quickly, but if you can’t customize or extend it, then you will be limited in the value you can create for end-users.

For example, ‘customization’ needs to mean more than changing colors, fonts, and branding; it means complete design system alignment and workflow creation.

Naturally, this means having the ‘perfect’ blend of no-code and pro-code tools so you can do things like create datasets and dashboards with minimal dev input, but then engage engineering to configure and extend the analytics experience if needed.

Conversely, building from scratch with open-source charting libraries chartsjs and D3js means you have an uphill battle; developing the API, optimizing speed, configuring multi-tenancy, and creating the frontend reporting layer which translates to a very nuanced build. These tasks can easily grow beyond a basic project, taking many months and diverting attention away from vital activities.

UI Customizability and Features

Due to its isolation from the parent page’s styles and scripts iFrames act standalone from the rest of your app. Control over underlying CSS is what’s really needed to build that dynamic dashboard.

This is what really separates traditional BI from embedded analytics tools in making the dashboards feel like a part of your app. For example, API access and extensibility through code from Vizzly allow developers to customize themes, enhance user experiences, and build additional functionalities programmatically.

Some additional features from a purpose-built tool like Vizzly include:

• Component overrides for using your buttons, select inputs and more.
• Full control over both the data panel and format panel and also being able to Translate, using textOverride, into any language or change the way the component is worded to suit your audience.
• No code in user-facing tools like Vizzly allows non-stakeholders to create and edit datasets without writing any code hence saving time.
• Users can also easily generate custom reports through an intuitive, visual interface. This approach boosts data relevance and usability.

Alternatively, when it comes to making a dynamic dashboard from opensource charting libraries you might experience customizability limits that prevent you from fully adapting the visuals to the end user requirements.

Scalability

Scalability features for developers are crucial for managing complex data requirements and large user bases efficiently.

By embedding Metabase embedded solution which is open-source, you can take advantage of its enhanced query performance and load balancing, which scales well with rising data volumes and user counts. However, Metabase is not extensible with code.

With Metabase, the overall performance will depend on the composition of your system and your usage patterns.

Designed with the end-user in mind, Vizzly provides:

• Ability to extend the dashboard experience with code - beyond no-code tooling. For instance, you can leverage Vizzly's callback functions to create custom workflows directly from the dashboard, or you can customize individual components.
• No-code tools that reduce workload by enabling non-tech stakeholders to iterate on datasets and dashboards without requiring engineering input.
• User permissions and the ability to deal with complexity in permission logic with code. Traditional BI tools are quite restrictive in this manner.
• Vizzly can also manage intricate data structures that come with B2B SaaS programs as they develop; they include dynamic data structures that have custom fields.

Security

iFrames used in BI applications such as Metabase provide a security concern; instead, embed native JS or web components thereby reducing the risk of cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks and Phishing Risks.

On the other hand Vizzly, server does not require any contact with user data. You always have full control over your customer’s data.

Vizzly also allows you to load JSON straight in-browser if you don't want to connect to your database or warehouse for whatever reason. For row-level permissions, Vizzly provides SDKs for Authentication. This ensures your data remains secure and performance-optimized.

Embedded analytics advantages over traditional BI tools

Embedded analytics solutions, that are built-for-purpose, are designed to fit natively inside your app. Nearly every B2B SaaS companies have a reporting or analytics page inside their web application; meaning, at some point, they will all face this problem and decision process.

• Control and Customisation: Customer-facing applications require a far greater alignment of UI and UX therefore embedded analytics solutions need to offer much more control through developer tools.
• Performance: Dashboard load time must be swift. Users are impatient and they don’t want to sit and wait for a dashboard to load and catch up with the rest of the application they’re using.
• Built-for-Purpose: Roadmap alignment is crucial; you should partner with a product and company that are developing for your use case, which is customer-facing analytics rather than internal business intelligence. For example, Vizzly offers the option for Custom Reporting, otherwise known as self-serve analytics.

Conclusion

Many BI tools can be embedded in iFrames - but that doesn’t mean you should.

Partnering with an embedded analytics provider like Vizzly, will future-proof your product and user experience as you’ll have a team that understands your needs and a product built to solve your core problem. Building the analytics experience your customers deserve, without compromise.

See the best Metabase alternatives for embedded analytics in 2024.

Thank you for reading this.