Best 11 Open-Source Reporting Tools in 2024

Summary: Data visualization and report generation are important to analyze and understand different data sets for improving the decision-making procedure. What role do open-source reporting tools play in it? Find out below!

Open-source reporting tools are a boon for businesses that are tight on the budget and need only basic data reporting features like data visualization, report generation, etc.

With reporting tools, users can extract data from multiple sources, visualize it through different graphs and charts, and present it in an easy-to-read report. The reports generated are then used for further analysis and decision making. Further, all these reports can be easily exported to different file formats to edit them in different software.

If you are looking for web-based reporting tools that are open source, here are some of the best options you can consider. Keep on reading to learn more about these tools along with their features.

11 Best Open-Source Reporting Tools List

• Metabase
• KNIME
• BIRT by IBM
• Pentaho
• ReportServer
• JasperReports
• JFReeChart
• KNOWAGE
• QueryTree
• Seal Report & ETL
• Flexmonste

There are multiple types of open-source reporting tools that come with functionalities such as bulk data import in reports, data regression, customizing reports, data filtering, etc.

Here are some of the best reporting tools you can use for free and quickly generate intuitive reports.

• Metabase

Metabase data reporting and BI tool helps to create data queries, displaying the queries answers in multiple formats, and saving them in a centralized dashboard.

With it, you can create semantic data models, connect to multiple data sources, create queries without SQL, send data and reports via email, etc.

Features

• 15+ templates for data visualization
• Automated report creation post data visualization
• Visual query builder for creating queries of complex data
• Insert data visualizations in different webpages or presentations
• Performance management tools for tracking intensive data queries

• KNIME

KNIME is an open-source reporting tool for managing end-to-end data science operations. With this, users can develop data analytic models, deploy them and share insights within the company.

This open-source reporting tool can help you with accessing, analyzing, and visualizing data through various graphs and charts.

Features

• Support bulk data analysis
• Data blending for different data types
• Statistical tests for hypothesis
• AI models for data regression, representation, etc.
• Store the processed data in multiple formats

• BIRT

BIRT (Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool) by IBM is an open-source reporting platform helping users to generate charts and traditional reports. These reports can be easily inserted into different web applications.

Users can use it for generating reports for TADDM software, designing these reports for JDBC data sources, and for SQL queries for predefined databases.

Features

• BIRT viewer for viewing data charts and reports
• Data management portal for running the reports
• Modify the exported file via a designer tool
• Runtime engine for rendering or publishing reports

• Pentaho

Pentaho helps users with data integration, analysis, and reporting. With it, you can prepare, deploy and analyze business data. It comes with a report designing functionality to create and share detailed reports for any data sets. Further, it can also be used for Ad-hoc reporting and managing workflow.

Features

• Codeless pipeline creation for quick data extraction
• Supports meta data injection
• Schema workbench for Mondrian OLAP testing
• Business intelligence for analytics

• ReportServer

ReportServer business intelligence tool enables businesses to visualize different data sets for taking data-driven decisions. It comes with ad-hoc reporting and report scheduling features to simplify the report generation and sharing procedures.

With this open-source reporting tool, you can do multi-dimensional OLAP reporting, aggregate data, create pixel-perfect reports, audit-proof the reports, customize the software via scripting, etc.

Features

• Import and export files in different formats
• Conditioning scheduling to execute reports
• Data sinking via FTP, SFTP, FTPS, Email, etc.
• Report customization supported
• Supports OLAP Mondrian for data analysis

• JasperReports

JasperReports is an open-source reporting tool to create and share reports on the screen, printer, or into multiple file formats. Its main purpose is to create page-oriented, ready-to-print documents in a simple manner.

This tool comes with a vast library of reporting templates to quickly generate different reports.

Features

• Drag and drop functionality to design reports
• Support for data filtering and conditional formatting
• Interactive report generation via different graphs and charts
• Share reports in multiple formats like PDF, XLS, ODT, XML, etc.
• Restrict the access with the multi-tenant management

• JFreeChart

JFreeChart is an open-source Java programming tool to visualize data via multiple graphs, pie charts, Gantt charts, etc. The reports generated via these chats can be easily exported to PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG file formats, etc.

Features

• Create reports with several chart types
• Export charts in Swing components, JavaFX components, image format, etc.
• Design extension supports both client and server-side applications.
• Support both 2D and 3D graph charts

Suggested Read: 15 Best Free and Open Source Task Management Software

• KNOWAGE

KNOWAGE is a comprehensive analytics and business intelligence software helping businesses to organize their data and gain valuable insights for creating data driven strategies.

It comes with multiple features like ad-hoc reporting, document exporting, spatial inquiring, KPIs visualization, etc. All these features help users to organize and understand the data better.

Features

• Supports pixel perfect reporting
• Data clubbing from different sources
• Role-based access control
• Scheduler to generate reports in bulk
• Automated reports collection

• QueryTree

QueryTree is a data reporting and visualization tool allowing users to develop and share reports with Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or MySQL databases. With it, users can select, club, aggregate, and visualize different data sets for these databases.

Through several visualization options and drag-drop builder, it has made it easier to generate reports on the go and email them easily to different team members.

Features

• Data organization with the sorting tool
• Remove errors in the data automatically
• Share reports in different formats
• Statistical tools to perform data calculations
• Encrypted connections for databases

• Seal Report and ETL

Seal Report and ETL, Extract Load, Transform is one of the best free reporting tools to create daily reports from different databases or from No SQL sources.

With this reporting tool, you can create queries from different data sources, display data in the pivotal tables, generate reports in FTP, SFTP servers, or share them with team members via email.

Seal Report and ELT can also be used for loading the data in bulk for report generation.

Features

• Upload and edit reports on the web
• Reports scheduler
• Dynamic SQL sources to query your SQL
• Tasks creation for ELT data (Extract, Load, Transform) tasks
• Report customization with HTML5

• Flexmonster

Flexmonster helps users with visualizing the different data sets through intuitive reports. With it, you can represent your data through multiple pivot charts and graphs to easily understand it and gain actionable insights from it.

Flexmonster comes with an easy-to-use toolbar for saving, formatting, or exporting reports to different formats.

Features

• Report export into PDF, Excel, HTML, CSV, etc.
• Data aggregation and filtering
• Built-in pivot charts for data visualization
• 10+ themes for report customization
• Support for data grouping

Bonus Products

• FineReport

FineReport helps with data visualization and analytics through features like data consolidation, advanced reporting, and BI-based analytics. It can be used for data integration, analysis, generate data reports, analyze and publish reports to different reports servers.

• KoolReport

KoolReport is an open-source PHP Reporting software that assists users with data retrieval, processing, visualization, reporting. With it, users can extract data from different sources, represent data via charts, generate and share reports in different formats.

• OpenReports

OpenReports is an open-source web reporting software that helps users in creating browser-based, SQL-based, and parameter driven reports. With it, you can also do OLAP-based analysis and manage access-controls for reports and data.

Benefits of Using Reporting Tools

Using reporting tools can help businesses in integrating data from different sources, visualizing it, generating reports, and sharing them with other teams for collaboration. Some other benefits of using data reporting tools include-

• Easy Data Consolidation: With reporting tools, you can extract data from different sources including sales, inventory, or accounting software. This makes it easier to generate reports in a short period of time.
• Export Reports in Different Formats: The tools not only help in generating reports but also let users share them in multiple file formats like PDF, excel, word, JPEG, etc. This enables users to edit the report from any other software supporting a particular file format, hassle-free.
• Improves Data Accuracy: These tools help in improving data accuracy by detecting and rectifying the errors present in it. This ensures that only accurate data is moved forward for further analysis, helping them to make informed decisions based on true statistics.
• Multiple Options for Data Visualization: Reporting tools provides several options for data visualization such as graphs, charts, tables, 2D or 3D maps, etc. The availability of multiple options makes it easier to clearly visualize data for better understanding.
• Easier Complex Data Calculation: Data reporting tools come with advanced statistical features that make it easier to perform complex data calculations. This not only saves time but also provides error-free calculations.

Types of Reports Available

There are different types of reports available and used for different purposes. Each report is created for a specific industry and serves a different business purpose.

However, all types of reports help in summarizing details of various activities based on business objects. Here are some of the most popular business reports-

• Informational: These reports provide information about a specific topic.
• Analytical: Analytical reports provide qualitative and quantitative insights into data for better decision making.
• Operational: These reports deliver complete details about all the business operations to enhance operational efficiency.
• Departmental: Departmental reports stores information about every department and helps all the departments to maintain coordination and work towards business goals.
• Progress: The progress report provides details on a project’s progress including the number of tasks completed and the time taken to complete each task.
• Industry: These reports deliver information for a specific industry including its key trends, top performing firms, industry-specific profit, etc.
• Strategic: These reports provide details on the business objectives, its KPIs, issues and the solutions to meet the goals.
• Financial: These reports provide valuable insights on the organization’s financial health and complete visibility of cashflow, assets, and liabilities.

In addition to that, some other types of reports include statutory, internal, external, sales, marketing, accounting reports, etc.

Conclusion

Taking quality decisions is essential to increase profitability and enhance business efficiency. However, the decision making depends on how well the business data is documented and visualized.

In that case, the reporting tools can be of great relief as they can not only help with data visualization but also help with generating valuable insights. These insights can help business to take data driven decisions to increase profitability and meet business objectives.

Related Categories: Big Data Tools | Machine Learning Software | Statistical Analysis Software

FAQs