Insights · 10 min read

The best analytics products to use in 2024

As the digital world continues to expand, so does the need for top-notch analytics products. With the power of cutting-edge analytics, businesses can transform complex data into insightful information, delivering enhanced understanding, and resulting in more strategic and effective decision-making.

Below, we dig into the leading analytics platforms to provide an in-depth look into analytics products' dynamic world.

What are analytics products?

Analytics products are software tools or platforms that help businesses extract, process, and interpret data to generate actionable insights. They bridge the gap between raw data and decision-making, equipping businesses with the necessary tools to assess performance, track trends, understand customer behavior, and drive growth.

There are different types of analytics products, each offering a specific set of capabilities. The most common examples include:

  • Descriptive Analytics: These tools analyze historical data to understand what happened in the past. They deliver insights through reports and dashboards, providing a clear view of business performance over a specific period.

  • Predictive Analytics: Powered by machine learning algorithms, these tools use historical data to make future predictions. They help businesses forecast trends, anticipate customer behavior, and make proactive decisions.

  • Prescriptive Analytics: These are advanced tools that not only predict the future but also suggest actions to take for optimal results. They leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate decision-making processes.

  • Real-time Analytics: These tools process data as it comes in, providing instant insights. They're essential for businesses that require immediate responses, such as those in the ecommerce or finance sectors.

Types of product analytics

Why use analytics products?

The modern business environment is data-driven, with vast amounts of data being generated every minute. Product analytics have become vital tools to make sense of this data, turning it into actionable insights that guide strategic decision-making and foster business growth. Here are some of the biggest reasons to leverage one or more analytics platforms for your website or app.

Data-driven decision-making

Gone are the days when decisions based on assumptions or gut feelings were enough. Analytics tools provide businesses with solid evidence backed by data, greatly improving the accuracy and effectiveness of their decisions. Real-time analytics are crucial in this process, allowing businesses to quickly respond to market trends and changes in customer behavior. This immediate response not only enhances operational efficiency but also strengthens a business's competitive position in the market.

Improved customer experience

In today's customer-centric world, customer experience is crucial for business success. Analytics tools uncover valuable insights by identifying patterns and trends in customer behavior. Armed with this knowledge, businesses can tailor their products, services, and marketing strategies to better meet customer needs. This personalized approach increases customer satisfaction, loyalty, and ultimately leads to higher revenue.

Efficiency and productivity

Analytics tools simplify processes and allocate resources efficiently by uncovering trends and patterns. This improves productivity and results in cost savings and increased profitability.

Real-time capabilities allow for prompt issue resolution, further enhancing operational efficiency.

The top product analytics tools offer real-time collaboration to further improve efficiency.

Risk management

In the ever-changing business world, risks and challenges are a normal part of daily operations. Predictive analytics tools help businesses identify potential risks and challenges in advance, enabling them to develop strategies to mitigate these risks.

Competitive advantage

Analytics tools provide valuable insights about the market, competitors, and customer behavior. Leveraging these insights can give businesses a competitive edge, helping them identify opportunities, devise effective strategies, and make informed decisions that differentiate them from competitors. Additionally, predictive analytics enables businesses to anticipate future trends, putting them at the forefront of their industry.

Innovation

Data insights from analytics tools can spark innovation in products, services, and business models. By identifying unmet customer needs and emerging market trends, analytics can inspire businesses to differentiate themselves and innovate. This drives business growth and establishes a reputation as an industry leader known for innovation.

Ultimately, this attracts new customers and increases customer retention.

Who should use analytics products?

Analytics products cater to a broad range of industries and professions due to their versatility, and professionals in nearly any industry can reap significant benefits 

  • Business owners and executives: Analytics tools provide a comprehensive overview of business performance, empowering decision-makers with real-time insights that drive strategic planning and growth initiatives.

  • Product managers: Product managers can use analytics to track usage, understand feature adoption, and gain insights into customer preferences, thereby improving product development and customer satisfaction.

  • Marketers: With analytics, marketers can measure campaign effectiveness, understand customer behavior, and tailor strategies for optimal engagement and conversion.

  • Data analysts and scientists: These professionals rely heavily on data analytics tools for data mining, predictive modeling, and creating data visualizations to inform business strategies.

  • Customer service teams: Analytics can reveal patterns in customer inquiries and feedback, helping service teams enhance customer experience and resolve issues more effectively.

  • IT professionals: IT teams can use analytics to monitor system performance, identify potential issues, and ensure optimal operation.

Best analytics products for product analysis

Product analysis is crucial for understanding customer behavior, improving product features, and driving growth. Various analytics tools specialize in this and provide detailed insights.

FullStory logo over a blue background

Fullstory

Fullstory is a powerful digital experience intelligence platform known for its impressive capabilities in product analysis. It offers comprehensive insights into user interactions on your website or app, helping you understand how your product is used and where improvements are needed.

Fullstory offers session replay, funnel analytics, and click maps. The platform provides a robust array of features for capturing and analyzing digital experience data in real time. It leverages AI and machine learning for advanced predictive analytics and data mining, offering a full story about user behavior.

Pros of Fullstory

  • Real-time analytics provide instant insights

  • AI-driven analytics deliver predictive insights

  • Exceptional data visualizations make it easy to understand big data

Cons of Fullstory

  • There's a learning curve for some of its advanced features

Plans

Fullstory offers a free plan with limited features and other tiers with expanded functionality. Their Enterprise plan offers full access to the platform's capabilities, including advanced analytics, unlimited data retention, and priority support. Pricing is custom and based on specific needs.

Google Analytics logo over a blue background

Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4, the latest iteration of the popular Google Analytics platform, offers valuable insights into user behavior, helping businesses optimize their products. Google Analytics 4 provides real-time data, tracking features, and metrics. It offers both web and app analytics.

Pros of Google Analytics 4

  • Free for basic use

  • Integration with other Google products enhances functionality

Cons of Google Analytics 4

  • Can be complex for beginners to navigate

  • Limited customer support

Plans

Google Analytics 4 is free for basic use. An advanced version, Google Analytics 360, is available for enterprises with custom pricing. 

Heap logo

Heap

Heap is an analytics platform that helps businesses approach product analysis. This includes tracking clicks, form submissions, transactions, emails, and more. With Heap, businesses receive a view of the customer journey, facilitating decision-making. Its reporting further helps businesses stay abreast with the latest trends.

Pros of Heap

  • Real-time reporting offers up-to-date insights

Cons of Heap

  • Implementation can be technically challenging and time-consuming

  • The user interface may be overwhelming for non-technical users

Plans

Heap offers custom pricing based on data volume and number of users.

Best for Business Intelligence

Business intelligence is critical for driving strategic decisions based on data. Several analytics tools offer strong business intelligence features. This section will compare Microsoft Excel, Domo, and Microsoft Power BI, giving you three powerful options for your BI management.

Excel logo

Microsoft Excel

Microsoft Excel, a component of the Microsoft Office suite, has long served as a trusted tool in statistical analysis and business intelligence. Owing to its extensive use across industries and professions, it brings a level of familiarity and ease of use that few other tools can match. Excel's primary strength lies in its powerful spreadsheet functionality. However, its capabilities extend far beyond this, offering a wide array of statistical and financial functions, pivot tables, and data visualization capabilities.

Pros of Microsoft Excel

  • Widely used and familiar to many.

  • Customizable for various data analysis needs.

Cons of Microsoft Excel

  • Lacks real-time data capabilities.

  • Can become complex and unwieldy with large datasets.

Plans

Excel is part of the Microsoft Office Suite, available in both standalone purchases and Microsoft 365 subscriptions, starting at $7/month for personal, and $10/month for family.

Domo logo

Domo

Domo is a cloud-based platform designed to provide direct, simplified, and real-time access to business data for decision-makers at all levels. Domo pulls together data from diverse sources, facilitating a unified view of business operations. It features interactive dashboards for a visual overview, and its data visualization tools translate complex data into comprehensible visuals.

Pros of Domo

  • Integrates with a wide array of data sources

  • Strong mobile access capabilities

Cons of Domo

  • The platform can be difficult for non-technical users

  • Customization requires technical expertise

Plans

Domo provides custom pricing based on business needs.

BI analytics logo

Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that transform unrelated data sources into coherent, visually immersive insights. Power BI can bring all your data together and turn it into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. It offers data preparation, data discovery, and interactive dashboards.

Pros of Microsoft Power BI

  • Seamless integration with other Microsoft products.

  • Offers a good range of data visualization options.

Cons of Microsoft Power BI

  • Can be complex for non-technical users.

  • Limited ability to manipulate data compared to other tools.

Plans

Power BI offers a free version with limited capabilities, as well as more powerful paid versions. Power BI Pro is available for $10 per user/month, and Power BI Premium provides more capacity and flexibility starting from $4,995/month.

Tableau logo

Tableau

Tableau is a leading tool in the field of business intelligence and data visualization. Designed for businesses of all sizes, Tableau provides an intuitive platform that transforms raw data into easily understandable formats.

It offers an extensive array of interactive data visualization, dashboarding, and data blending capabilities, thereby turning complex data into insightful narratives. With Tableau, users can drill down into their data, conduct in-depth analyses, and generate reports that aid strategic decision-making.

Pros of Tableau

  • Intuitive data visualization and dashboarding tools

  • Good data handling capacity

Cons of Tableau

  • Can become expensive for large teams

  • It has a steep learning curve for advanced features

Plans

Tableau offers a range of plans, starting with Tableau Viewer at just $15/month, and including Tableau Explorer for $42/month and Tableau Creator for $70/month.

Best for Data Exploration

Data exploration is a preliminary step in data analysis, where businesses deploy a range of techniques from statistical summarization to visualization methods to understand the makeup of a dataset. It's a critical process that uncovers patterns, identifies anomalies, and confirms assumptions with data.

Several tools offer these capabilities, but their efficacy varies significantly. 

Looker logo

Looker

Looker is a modern data platform that is part of Google Cloud and offers powerful data exploration and business intelligence capabilities. Looker provides a platform for data exploration, visualization, and operational analytics. It offers advanced features like customizable dashboards, scheduled data deliveries, and data collaboration.

Pros of Looker

  • Highly customizable for various data needs

  • Seamless integration with SQL databases

Cons of Looker

  • Requires technical expertise for effective use

  • Customization can be time-consuming

Plans

Individual Viewer Users can be had for $30/month, the Standard User level is $60/month, and the Developer User is $125/month.

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The Fullstory Team

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