10 Best Cloud Reporting Tools in 2025

Cloud-based platforms and computing are more than an emerging trend; they’re the new way of running your business. Gartner estimates that 75% of organizations will adopt cloud infrastructure as their main underlying platform by 2026. It’s easy to see why, as cloud-based tools allow companies to interact with customers, track data, and generate insights through reports in real time. Learn which cloud-based reporting tools empower businesses of all sizes to make data-driven decisions that propel growth.

What are cloud reporting tools?

Cloud reporting tools are any program, software, or platform that collects, analyzes, and shares business data through cloud computing technologies. Authorized users can easily transform raw data into meaningful insights and strategies using a variety of self-service tools and an interactive dashboard on a web browser. Your team can generate easy-to-understand visualizations and reports to share and make better-informed decisions internally and externally. 

Benefits of cloud reporting tools

Cloud-based reporting tools have many advantages over traditional reporting methods for small businesses to large enterprises, including:

• Increased accessibility: Unlike on-premise tools, cloud reporting allows users access from anywhere, making it easier for teams or third-party clients to collaborate, regardless of location. Many cloud reporting tools have drag-and-drop features, so users don’t need coding skills or a technical background to understand and use them.
• Scalability: Cloud reporting tools are highly scalable, allowing companies to scale up as they grow long-term or back down after short-term or seasonal increases in demand or data. This flexibility is hard to come by with traditional reporting tools.
• Cost savings: Cloud-based reporting can be more affordable than on-premise options, with no expensive hardware or software licenses to purchase or maintain. You only pay for the reporting tools you need at a given time, which may further increase savings. 
• Improved security: Cloud reporting tools use best practices, including multiple security layers over secure architecture, encryption technologies, multi-factor authorization, and privacy controls within governance to protect data and increase control over who can access data. It also monitors and mitigates DDoS attacks to prevent data breaches. Traditional methods tend to be less secure and may leave your data vulnerable.
• Increased efficiency: Cloud reporting tools automate many processes and reports for your business, which are otherwise time consuming to do with traditional reporting methods.
• Better business decisions: Access to accurate, real-time data, customized reports, risk assessments, and automation ensures your organization makes data-driven decisions in a faster time frame over traditional reporting.

What to look for in a cloud reporting tool

Selecting a cloud reporting tool may seem overwhelming with the number of platforms available. However, understanding which features are crucial for analyzing and creating reports for an array of business data can help simplify the selection process. When considering any cloud reporting tool, look for the following elements.

Range of reporting capabilities

Top cloud reporting tools can generate a wide range of reports and offer report customization and scheduling of reports through automation. Platforms with multiple report formatting options or mobile applications make sharing your findings even easier. 

Ease of data integration

With increasing amounts of data from various sources, your company needs a cloud reporting tool to collect and integrate all your systems efficiently. Look for a platform that has the power to integrate and analyze large amounts of marketing, web, social media, financial, sales, CRM, ERP, and any of your other relevant data. 

Data visualizations

Charts, graphs, tables, maps, and other visualizations transform dense data into visual elements that are easier to understand. These graphical formats quickly spot patterns and trends within your data to improve decision-making and are a key element of your cloud reporting tool.

Allows collaboration

Mobile apps, report-sharing options like PDF, email, or PowerPoint, and user collaboration are must-have features in your cloud reporting platform. They let you easily share insights with team members, clients, and stakeholders for strategic decision-making. Asynchronous collaboration is another element to look for, as it allows team members to access, generate, and edit reports at any time for greater working efficiency. 

Offers advanced security

To protect your data, look for cloud reporting tools with advanced security features and industry-specific compliance requirements. Top platforms offer secure infrastructure with encryption, access control like multi-factor authentication and IP address restrictions, data masking, and monitoring for DDoS attacks.

Top 10 cloud reporting platforms

While there are endless cloud reporting platforms in today’s market, they differ in terms of industries served, technical skills required for use, ease of data integration, and reports generated. The following list closely examines some of the best platforms and their features.

1. Domo

Domo is a comprehensive, cloud-based data platform that combines business intelligence and data visualization with custom app creation. Domo’s no-code/low-code tools allow everyday business users to create self-service interactive dashboards, visualizations, and reports using real-time data. 

This cloud reporting tool offers over 1,000 connectors and drag-and-drop ETL for seamless data integrations and centralized reporting. Users can set up automated reporting to ensure business decisions are based on the freshest data. Domo’s built-in data governance, data security and compliance policies, group management through SSO, and granular user permissions ensure data protection and privacy.

2. Zoho Analytics

Zoho Analytics is a cloud-based self-service business intelligence and analytics reporting platform that enables users to easily transform raw data into interactive dashboards, visualizations, and actionable reports. This tool allows for seamless data connection, with the option of scheduled data syncs to ensure real-time insights. 

Users can create pivot tables, charts, widgets, and other visualizations through Zoho’s drag-and-drop interface. The reporting tool’s AI assistant can generate insights and what-if scenarios as well as predict future trends for data-driven decisions. Collaboration is easy with Zoho, as users may comment, share, and publish data presentations or portals for internal and external audiences. 

Compare Domo and Zoho Analytics side by side.

3. Sisense

Sisense’s cloud platform continuously incorporates new technologies and innovations in business intelligence and data analysis to empower and strengthen business strategies. Its flexible and scalable cloud reporting tools offer on-demand additions of users, projects, and data as you grow. Sisense’s cloud platform easily integrates with your data and access controls for easier collaboration between users and data systems. This cloud reporting tool adheres to industry best practices to secure data and ensures regulatory compliance for data privacy protection, including HIPAA, CCPA, and GDPR.

See how Sisense stacks up against Domo. 

4. Tableau

Tableau offers intuitive visualizations with standard reporting and dashboards that don’t require a learning curve for business professionals but still have the power data scientists require. This cloud reporting platform augments its analytics with smart data preparation, machine learning, natural language, and statistics for quicker insights. Tableau has enterprise-grade security, scalability, and flexibility for integrating data no matter where it’s stored. Users can collaborate with others, publish, and share data reports all through Tableau’s cloud. 

Learn how Tableau compares to Domo. 

5. SAP Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports is a cloud-based business intelligence and reporting tool for accessing and sharing data from almost any source. This tool connects with flat files like web logs, file systems, and Excel spreadsheets. It also connects with databases such as IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, and SAP HANA or data sources like Java Database Connectivity and Salesforce. SAP’s drag-and-drop elements make the platform accessible to more users, while its flexible formatting options make it easy to share with others.

6. Microsoft Power BI

Microsoft Power BI is a powerful data analytics and visualization platform. It offers advanced security features like end-to-end data encryption and the Azure Virtual Network to prevent data exposure. 

Power BI’s centralized data hub makes accessing, combining, and analyzing data sets from multiple sources a breeze, even without a technical background. This tool also incorporates the latest AI into calculations, reports, visualizations, and narratives for faster insights. 

See how Power BI compares to Domo.

7. Google

Google is often among the first analytics tools most people access and its cloud reporting capabilities are backed by the entire suite of Google products. While Google is intuitive and user friendly, its advanced features have a steep learning curve for its typical user base and it often lags behind other tools on this list in terms of the robust features and visualizations options available. But because many users are already familiar with the tool, it provides a good starting point for companies looking to get started in cloud reporting. 

8. Yellowfin

Yellowfin is a cloud reporting analytics tool that provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, making data analysis accessible to users with varying technical skills. One of the stand-out features for Yellowfin is its collaborative tools that make it easier to coordinate about the stories within your data and share insights across your organization as needed.

9. Qlik

Qlik is a robust cloud reporting tool. As a cloud-native platform, it can easily integrate with other cloud tools to help users gain insights into the vast amounts of data stored there. As an early adopter of AI, Qlik features many tools that integrate AI into your cloud analytics reporting. Qlik has 100 pre-built data connectors to quickly and easily connect with many of the tools you already use to bring in and analyze your data, not as many as other tools on the list, but it does provide users a way to quickly integrate some of their most popular tools.  

10. Looker

Looker is a self-service data analytics and business intelligence platform available through Google Cloud. This tool works best for enterprise-level companies with large volumes of data and advanced analytics needs. Users can build custom applications or integrate Looker’s predictive modeling language, LookML, into their existing infrastructure. With hundreds of connectors and over 50 SQL databases, Looker can quickly transform raw data into meaningful insights. However, you will need a highly skilled technical team to run Looker’s multi-layered data analytics.

See how Domo and Looker compare to each other. 

Drive real-time insights with cloud reporting tools

The continued growth of cloud infrastructure calls for organizations to use reporting tools with the power to gather and analyze large volumes of data from cloud, on-premise, and hybrid sources. Cloud reporting tools like Domo offer this capability and more, allowing business professionals and data scientists alike to access and understand their data for smarter decision-making.

Easily share these insights with colleagues, executives, clients, or consultants with Domo’s automated reports and interactive dashboards and visualizations. Domo’s governance, security, and compliance methods ensure your data remains secure and private. These must-have features make the platform a top choice for many companies.

FAQs

Have additional questions about cloud reporting or how to choose the best cloud reporting tool? We’re here with the answers.

What is cloud-based reporting?

Cloud-based reporting is the collection, analysis, and visualization of business data generated through a cloud environment rather than traditional on-premise servers and software. Users at any skill level can analyze data and create reports with self-service interactive tools through an internet browser.

What are cloud tools?

Cloud tools are any software program or application that uses cloud computing technology to collect, store, manage, and share data independent of your location. Any authorized user can access cloud tools using the internet and a web browser. Cloud tools include data analytics, sales data, financial data, customer relationship management (CRM), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) programs.

What are web-based reporting tools?

Web-based reporting tools, another name for cloud reporting tools, allow users to access, analyze, visualize data, and create reports through a web browser. 

What is the best tool for paginated reports?

Many cloud reporting tools offer paginated reports that include charts, data tables, graphs, stories, or other visualizations as part of their services, like Microsoft Power BI, Tableau, Sisense, and Domo. The best tool depends on how you want to create and share reports and the features your business needs.