What BI/Dashboard tool is best for embedding into a web application?

Question

I'm searching for the right BI/Dashboard tool to integrate within the web applications my company builds. The purpose of the tool would be to allow users to view pre-built but interactive reports/dashboards/charts.

Here are some of the requirements:

• Embeddable as an iframe or via other methods into our web application
• Only allows authenticated users on my app from accessing the dashboard/iframe/report. It also shouldn't require a separate login for the BI tool
• Our users only need to consume the data, possibly filtering the data in different ways or clicking to drill down into the data. We don't need to give them the ability to create their own new reports
• Preferably open source or lower cost, only charging per creator/editor, not per viewer.

We've used Metabase but seems like they get very expensive and the dashboard UI is pretty plain.

Answer 1

• Bold BI dashboards can be embedded in two ways: JavaScript-based embedding and iFrame-based embedding.

• In both the embedding ways, BI login can be integrated with your application through SSO mechanism. iFrame Embedding - https://help.boldbi.com/embedded-bi/iframe-based/dashboard-embedding-using-single-sign-on/

  JavaScript Embedding - https://help.boldbi.com/embedded-bi/site-administration/sso/overview/ However, JavaScript embedding allows the application to add more security control by implementing your own authorization server.

• You can give read-only access to specific authorized users who can only interact with the dashboard but cannot edit or create. https://help.boldbi.com/embedded-bi/manage-permissions/#specific-resources.

• Priced per named application. No limits on users or servers. Check the Pricing plans here.

Note: I work for Syncfusion.

Answer 2

Take a look at SeekTable, it seems it is a good fit for your requirements:

• self-hosted version is available (usually demanded for embedded BI) with easy deployment/maintenance (docker)
• 'live' connection to datasources - this means that reports always display actual data, this is also highly demanded for embedded reports
• secure embedding is supported via iFrame+JWT (easy to integrate): https://www.seektable.com/help/self-hosted-embed-secure-reports
• all configs (cubes, reports, published links) may be exported/imported to/from human-readable XML which can be stored under version control. This means that standard dev flow can be organized (dev env -> staging/qa env -> production)
• very flexible 'developers-friendly' dashboards where devs can easily use very custom HTML layout / any JS code that might be needed for custom visuals (= it is possible to satisfy ANY requirements for visuals)
• fixed cost per installation that doesn't depend on number of viewers/users in your app. With white-labeling (no mentions of SeekTable, CSS styles may be adopted to match your app UI) typical setup for embedding is only about $250/mo

Disclaimer: I'm affiliated with this product.