Background

Finding the right reporting software can be really overwhelming. Maybe your business friends will tell you like ‘I sincerely recommend FineReport to you, which I have used for years’, or like ‘Pentaho is the ETL on the fly‘.

When you google ‘reporting tools’, there are hundreds of products there,  there was no easy way to find the ones that would fit your company best from reporting tools comparison. Finding a reporting tool that perfectly meets your requirements will take you weeks of time-consuming and frustrating research and testing.

Exclude those ads, you will find that google prefers software review sites, they are ranked first.

When you google 'reporting tools'
Screenshot

However

Which review site should I trust most?

How do they work?

What do they have in common with others?

What are their differences?

Are they profit or non-profit?

So, I do a research about all the popular review sites, even I have to review the review sites, very interesting, isn’t it? It takes much time, and below I select 3 review sites that  are top ranked when I google ‘reporting tools’ . I am trying to figure out which one we can trust most and help us to find a right reporting software.

I will do a research about other review sites in the future. If you have turned to a review site and find a perfect software for your business, please leave a comment to let more people know about the great review site. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.

Comparison

Capterra

Capterra
From Capterra

History

  • In 1999, Michael Ortner founded Capterra;
  • In 2008, Capterra became the first business software site to offer user reviews;
  • In 2015, Capterra was acquired by Gartner, joining the Digital Markets family of brands. This division, made up of Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp, shares their values and passion for helping all businesses grow—today, and always.

How do they review products

Quality Assurance (QA) and Verification Process

Capterra is committed to being a platform for high-quality reviews and have built a robust reviews Quality Assurance (QA) process in order to achieve that goal. All reviews are manually examined by their team of experts in an effort to ensure published reviews are from verified sources and provide helpful content. All reviews are treated equally during the verification process, regardless of rating or vendor.

As a user-driven reviews platform, Capterra provides a neutral platform intended to facilitate discussion between software providers/vendors and software shoppers. As such, it is their aim to safeguard against fraud by taking steps to verify each reviewer’s identity. They also seek to confirm that the reviewer has no conflicts of interest (such as being an employee or competitor of the product’s company), and that the review content their our guidelines for publishing.

How do they make money

  • Advertising Revenue:Vendors pay Capterra when they receive web traffic and sales opportunities;
  • Capterra is free for users;

Pros

  • They have tested 176 reporting tools, the maximum one of all the review sites, even FineReport, the No.1 reporting tool in China is included;
  • Users are verified, their reviews can be trusted;
  • A product usually has many reviews to support your intelligent decision;
  • It has more details about a reviewed product like ‘Who uses this software’, ‘Training’, ‘Support’, many details about its different features;
  • You can compare at most 4 products at the same time, the result is very visualized;
Comparison feature of Capterra
From Capterra

Cons

  • Some popular products have much fewer reviews than less popular, so maybe it’s a marketing strategy for some software company to invite more customers to write reviews for them to make their products stand out in the crowd, like Wrike, it gots 1347 reviews, much more than Qlikview, which only got 113 reviews;
  • It doesn’t provide a buyer’s guide, but it provides ‘Reporting Tools Software FAQs’, which I think it very useless because of its brevity and it covers ‘What is reporting tools?’, ‘How much do reporting tools cost?’, ‘What are some common reporting tools features?’, ‘What are the benefits of using reporting tools?’, ‘Are there free reporting tools software options?’

Software Advice

SoftwareAdvice
From SoftwareAdvice

How do they review products

  • Software Advice is a Gartner company, along with Capterra and FinanceOnline, they share their reviews from users;
  • It features objective research by industry experts and reviews from validated users;

How do they make money

  • Vendors have to pay for leads that meet all of the requirements they specify when they sign up for the program.
  • Free for users;

Pros

  • It provides free consultation service to help you choose the right software for you;

Cons

  • It invites users who are visiting its website to write reviews, but mostly, it just presents reviews from Capterra and GetApp;
  • It provides fewer details and features than Capterra about the reviewed product;
From SoftwareAdvice

FinanceOnline

From FinanceOnline

How do they review products

  • What makes this site truly unique is their SmartScore™ system and the way they evaluate general satisfaction with the product. Their experts do a thorough and unbiased analysis of each product’s main functionalities and features, etc. 9 factors are taken into account when calculating the final score (on a 1 to 10 scale) giving their users a great initial impression on how useful each product is;
  • They implemented a reliable user review system that allows you to find out what other people think about the product. They also designed a unique Customer Satisfaction Algorithm™;

How do they make money

  • Vendors pay FinanceOnline when they receive web traffic and sales opportunities;
  • Free for users;

Pros

  • The list is short because they have selected the top products for you;
  • It provides professional guidelines for selecting a reporting software;
  • It breaks down the functionalities of all the leading products in the industry and judges them in detail by their own merits, because we cannot generally say that some reporting software is the best;

Cons

  • You cannot read real users’ reviews, FinanceOnline just gives you a list of their choice;

Summary

If you want to read real users’ reviews as many as possible, you can go to Capterra;

If you prefer to get free 1 on 1 expert advice, go to SoftwareAdvice please;

If you are looking for professional and detailed guidelines for selecting a reporting software, turn to FinanceOnline.

I am Luke Mei, an expert from FanRuan Software, senior consultant of medical health industry data management. If you have turned to a review site and find a perfect software for your business, please leave a comment to let more people know about the great review site. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge.