Easy to use web-based reporting tool

Question

I'm looking for recommendations for an easy to use reporting/business intelligence tool that can interface with an sql server or access database. It can be web-based or a desktop tool.

Ideally it would be freeware or low cost, and easy to use for users who are not that technically savvy (below the level of someone who can generate reports and complicated queries in Access).

Any tools I've seen so far (such as Crystal Reports) are either too expensive or too complicated to use for non-power users.

Answer 1

will this work for you? http://www.hkvstore.com/phpreportmaker/

and of course you can always start your own.

Answer 2

If they're that technically unsavvy, you'll also need to make sure the database presents useful entities. If they have to assemble their own Orders, for instance, they're not likely to be successful no matter how simple the tool is.

I've seen the "you can write your own reports!" thing blow up several times.

Answer 3

Hi, I invite you to try DBxtra. www.dbxtra.com Regards

Rudolf F. Vanek

Answer 4

Pentaho reporting (from the Community edition of the Pentaho BI Suite) might be worth a look.

Answer 5

Your requirements are very unspecific. Your are search a simple tool. Do you means an adhoc reporting like i-net Crystal-Clear?

Answer 6

Hi,

Did you see EasyQuery? They have online demo which you can play with.

Answer 7

I think the two most well known open source alternatives are:

• Pentaho Reporting
• JasperReports

I've been looking at them previously, but honestly haven't tried any of them as my company at the time decided to go for a commercial (expensive) alternative.

Answer 8

Reporting Services Report Builder for SQL is about the simplest. You do have to provide a model of your data for it but that would be necessary for users who dont understand the data structures anyway (sounds like you have that sort of user).

RS comes free with SQL Server too.

Answer 9

Recommend to see FastReport For .Net (Visual Studio) FastReport.Net, for Delphi/CBuilder - FastReport VCL. Both of them have the web-based editions. Standalone - FastReport Studio and web-based - FastReport Server.

Price - from $79 to $499 (499 is for FastReport Server per server - w/o any additional fees for connections, processors, etc.)

Answer 10

you can write your own reports!

And spend best years of his life to that task. :)

Answer 11

I hate to say it, but the one thing you'll find users doing even if you get a reporting tool is that they'll move their data to Excel for final output.

This is one of the reasons why SQL Server's BI tools integrate so nicely with Excel - they did some studies that found users have a tendency to revert to Excel, since everyone knows how to use and and knows how to make Excel output look exactly the way they want it to.

Having said this, you might want to consider some Excel based reporting solutions, or tools that integrate with Excel.

Palo, which is free, is similar to Cognos TM1 (spendy!) and will let users create reports in Excel. It also has a very Excel-like web interface.