InetSoft vs Birst Comparison
When deciding which business software is best, the choice may be rather difficult. Both InetSoft and Birst provide effective business intelligence tools. However, when recently placed head to head in ratings by research firm G2 Crowd, InetSoft won in a majority of categories. In addition, InetSoft won over 85% of individual ratings. Below is a breakdown of the various categories in which InetSoft outranked Birst.
In general ratings, InetSoft won over Birst in Meets Requirements, Ease of Use, Ease of Setup, Ease of Admin, Quality of Support and Ease of doing business with. An average of these ratings places InetSoft a full point above Birst. These high marks come as no surprise, as making BI easy to implement and use is a central aspect of InetSoft's core mission.
InetSoft's solution can run on Windows, Mac, Linux and can be accessed remotely from anywhere with a web browser. InetSoft outranked Birst on Customization, due to the software's flexibility to customize the look and feel, even by adding a customer's own branding.
InetSoft also won on internationalization, for the software's flexibility when it comes to adapting to different time zones, date styles, and languages. InetSoft also won over Birst in User Role and Access Management, Performance and Reliability, and Breadth of Partner Applications.
InetSoft as an Alternative to Birst Reporting
In the category of Self Service, InetSoft won over Birst in Calculated Fields, Data Column Filtering, Data Discovery, Search, Collaboration/Workflow and Automodeling. With InetSoft's tools, minimal coding is required since features such as calculated fields, and data column filtering can be performed with a visual intuitive user interface.
Since InetSoft's software is very user friendly and easy to use, a one person team can operate the program, reducing labor costs dramatically. In addition to self-service, InetSoft ranked a full point above Birst in Collaboration and Workflow.
In reporting, InetSoft provides many features that give clients the flexibility they need to get the answers they want. According to G2 Crowd, InetSoft has a higher rating in Reports Interface, Steps to Answer, Graphs and Charts, Score Cards and Dashboards. These winning ratings paint an overall picture of InetSoft's strength as a vehicle for information delivery and analysis.
Building reports couldn't be any easier. In building reports, InetSoft outranks Birst in Data Transformation, Data Modeling, WYSIWYG Report Design and Integration API's. With Inetsoft's software, and data mashup, InetSoft differentiates positively compared to data mashup in a data warehouse. When data is added into the software and kept in one area for you, it is easy to store and access.
InetSoft StyleBI Scored over Birst in the Following Areas
The detailed list of categories & parameters where InetSoft StyleBI scored over Birst is presented below. Please click here or the G2 logo to go over the individual reviews.
- Calculated Fields
- Data Column Filtering
- Data Discovery
- Search
- Collaboration/Workflow
- Automodeling
- Customization
- User, Role, and Access Management
- Breadth of Partner Applications
- Internationalization
- Performance and Reliability
- Reports Interface
- Steps to Answer
- Graphs and Charts
- Score Cards
- Dashboards
- Data Transformation
- Data Modeling
- WYSIWYG Report Design
- Integration APIs
- Meets Requirements
- Ease of Use
- Ease of Setup
- Ease of Admin
- Quality of Support
- Ease of Doing Business With
- Product Direction (% Positive)
- Data Visualization
- Big Data Services
Real Time Dynamic Data Integration
In addition, InetSoft's tools provide dynamic functionality so you can continuously update your data and have your reports and dashboards updated in real time. This real time dynamic data integration and mashup makes data warehousing unnecessary for many InetSoft clients, saving time, money and headaches. Winning in the category of WSYIWG Report Design, InetSoft offers an intuitively visual way to construct whatever kind of reports or analyses you need.
InetSoft offers Data Visualization and Big Data Services within their Software via Advanced Analytics. In addition. InetSoft has received a higher rating in Data Visualization than Birst by more than a full point. Also, Graphs, Charts and Dashboards within their software provide a visual aspect of data which customers find helpful and accommodating.
Several Big Data Sources are also available within the software such as Hadoop and Apache Spark. For an easy and agile big data analytics tool that scales with a cluster of commodity servers, consider InetSoft's BI platform, StyleBI.
Data Mashup Capability
InetSoft provides dashboards which portray Data Mashup, which is the integration of multiple data sets into a single graphical interface. Data mashup is a central capability of InetSoft's StyleBI business intelligence software. It's a platform focusing on operational BI with an intuitive user interface that accelerates usage of BI. Requirements as diverse as reporting, OLAP, scorecards, dashboards, visualization, and ad hoc analysis are all met in a unified application. For example, Imagine you were to create and manage a database and need to obtain snippets from different sources. Upon finding them, at first it may not be compatible altogether. Therefore, using data mashup, you can collectively combine your data easier as you get the benefit of greater access to data, and enhanced ability to gain insight from it.
Advantages of InetSoft over Infor Birst
A detailed comparison between InetSoft Style Intelligence (InetSoft) and Infor Birst (Birst) highlights multiple areas where InetSoft may provide stronger value for organisations seeking high flexibility, self-service analytics, rapid deployment, and lightweight infrastructure. It is worth noting that every organisation’s requirements differ, so pains and priorities should guide vendor evaluation.
| Advantage | What it means | Practical impact |
|---|---|---|
| Strong data mashup and lightweight architecture | InetSoft emphasises a “data mashup engine” that allows combining disparate data sources (databases, web services, spreadsheets, cloud) on the fly, with less dependency on a large data-warehouse build. Birst emphasises a model of unified analytics, networked BI, and pre-built industry content which often assumes significant architecture. | For organisations that need to move quickly, experiment with mixed data sources, and avoid heavy upfront infrastructure investment, InetSoft offers faster time to value. It enables smaller teams to stand up dashboards and analytics more rapidly. |
| High self-service for business users | InetSoft emphasises intuitive web-based designer, ad hoc reporting, calculated fields, and visual mashup for business users. While Birst offers self-service and discovery, the emphasis of its offering is enterprise-governance, pre-built models, and industry solutions which may involve more IT involvement. | Business teams can iterate faster on their own, customise dashboards, experiment with data without lengthy IT mediation. This leads to greater agility, fewer bottlenecks, and higher end-user adoption. |
| Lower infrastructure and total cost of ownership (TCO) potential | InetSoft’s platform is built on open standards, supports on-premises, hybrid or cloud deployment, with modular design that allows scaling up gradually. It emphasises lower-cost entry and incremental growth. Birst positions a multi-tenant cloud environment, pre-built models, industry content – which is powerful, but may require larger scale or more commitment. | For mid-sized organisations or those not yet ready for enterprise-scale roll-out, the investment and risk may be lower with InetSoft. Organisations can pilot analytics, grow usage, and pay for what they use rather than committing to a large fully-managed schema upfront. |
| Flexibility in deployment and embedding | InetSoft emphasises embeddable OEM-friendly capabilities, white-labelling, multi-tenant hosting, web-based UI, and support for mixed on-prem/cloud sources. Birst focuses chiefly on its cloud multi-tenant architecture and role/industry-specific content. | If the requirement is to embed analytics in a custom application, to brand the analytics UI, or to integrate analytics as part of a vertical application or partner SaaS product, InetSoft may offer more flexibility. |
| Rapid prototyping and iterative approach | InetSoft emphasises gradual BI adoption (“business intelligence at your own pace”), starting with basic operational reporting then gradually introducing interactive dashboards and self-service over time. Birst emphasises fast time-to-value via pre-built models and role-based content, but often in the context of an enterprise rollout. | Organisations that are exploring analytics for the first time, or that want to try a pilot without committing to large scope, may find InetSoft easier to spin up and experiment with. This supports innovation, lowers risk, and allows faster proof-of-concept. |
| Integration of reporting and dashboarding in one platform | InetSoft positions itself as offering both operational/pixel-perfect reporting and interactive dashboards/visual analytics in one solution. While Birst supports pixel-perfect reports and dashboards, often the narrative is more on large-scale analytics, data lake blending, governance and enterprise-scale consumption. | If the business needs both formatted operational reports (for example, scheduled reports to operational users) and interactive dashboards in one place, InetSoft may reduce tool-sprawl and simplify vendor management. |
| Strong internationalisation and customisation flexibility | According to comparative materials, InetSoft states higher ratings for customisation (look/feel, branding) and internationalisation (languages, date/time formats, time zones) than some competitors. Birst focuses strongly on cloud multi-tenancy and industry-content rather than customising every UI or embedding scenario. | For global organisations with diverse language/time-zone needs, or firms wanting strong branding/embedding, InetSoft may provide stronger fit and fewer constraints. |