Birst Reviews

The dashboard tool is the most valuable feature, as it gave a quick customizable overview of data I needed to access on a daily basis.

Everything we did in the marketing team needed to be based on data and Birst helped us to make calculated decisions based on the given data.

The ability to filter out massive amounts of data and load it properly on screen needs to be improved. I would need to hide the data while I put a report together because it would load too slowly.

I have used this solution for around one and a half years.

There were some stability issues less on Birst's end and more in regards to the different types of data that were fed into Birst. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the stability.

Personally, I did not encounter any scalability issues because I only had to deal with the given data for a six month period at a time (season) or maximum for a year's worth. However, I can imagine how slow the system would be, if we needed to look at it in terms of years and years of data.

I didn't have to deal with anyone from Birst directly, as we had someone in-house who was our Birst source of truth and he would help us technically as well.

Prior to me joining the company, I understand that they used another system. When I joined, they had recently switched to Birst, as we were in need of a more powerful way to deal with data, apart from PowerPivot tool.

I didn't experience the initial setup. I helped build the dashboard with zero knowledge or prior Birst background. It wasn't too complex as I could figure it out with little help but not as straightforward in terms of the UI. It wasn't as intuitive.

I wasn't part of the decision-making process but I know they evaluated other products as well. Eventually, it was down to features and pricing.

It's quite a powerful tool, i.e., if all the data you need can be integrated properly.

The option to build and deploy analytical models quickly, within days rather than months. We use a variety of cloud applications such as Google Analytics.

Birst offered us a solution that had built-in connectors which could be used to build a fact model. We can use this to perform the standard data modelling steps: extract, transform, load, and develop scheduled reporting within weeks.

Daily, weekly, and monthly automated reports delivered to senior management. Prior to this rollout, there was no visibility.

I would like to see improvements in the administrative modules. These are about to be addressed in Version 6.

We have used this solution for about two years.

There have been no stability issues.

There have been no scalability issues.

Technical support is excellent.

The Initial setup was delivered in four weeks with a clear use case for data sources aligned to two KPIs.

Pricing and licensing is negotiable.

We evaluated Tableau, Looker, Business Objects, and QlikView.

Ensure that you fully understand BI and enterprise data warehouse architecture.

This tool possesses valuable features such as its ability to perform ETL, extract data from various sources (flat files, relational DBs, application connectors) and dashboard scheduling.

Unfortunately for us, we are looking for better options other than Birst as it is not so user friendly.

Birst needs to improve various features, namely:

• Application connectors as existing ones aren’t quite reliable.
• Resolve issues of frequent timeouts.
• Provide a friendlier UI.
• The BQL (Birst Query Language), which is used for applying filters in dashboards, conditional formatting, custom calculations, etc., needs a more constructive syntax.
• The error messages displayed need more useful information about resolving issues.
• Build an external forum/community for online help. The in-built Birst community is relevant only for simple tasks.
• Provide concepts for Dev, QA and Production environments.

I have used this tool for about a year and half.

Owing to the above reasons, we could not make use of the Birst tool productively. Hence, we will not be able to make a fair comment.

Owing to the above reasons, we could not make use of the Birst tool productively. Hence, we will not be able to make a fair comment. In addition, this tool does not allow frequent updates.

Personally, I have not interacted with their support team but when my colleagues did they received an average response.

Initially, we have used Tableau, SSAS, BO. At first, we were quite impressed with Birst’s capabilities. Now we understand that it is still a maturing tool.

Recently we have evaluated Looker, Sisense & Qlikview. Tableau seems to be the best amongst the lot. Sisense would follow thereafter.

There is no doubt that Birst possesses great abilities. However, it becomes too time consuming to understand and implement this product. It is important to decide the main criteria for selecting this tool whether just as a dashboard function or to provide start to end solutions from ETL to visualization. This product requires users to come out of their comfort zone and explore it.

The fact that it is completely cloud based makes the maintenance easier since we don't have the onus of maintaining the server.

Since Birst is completely cloud based, we do not have access to its servers. It is very slow at times. We can do nothing about it and we can't even restart the servers.

We have used this solution for six months.

There were stability issues with Birst. A dashboard/report takes a lot of time to open if there is a lot of data. In a typical customer facing scenario, such things aren't acceptable. A customer does not want to wait for ten minutes for a single report to open.

The tech support was an OK experience. Birst depends primarily on their forum for their issues to be resolved.

The initial setup was very straightforward.

As far as other products are concerned, I used Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) before using Birst. I am back to using it.

Birst is only good for small scale organizations which have to deal with less data.