7 Data Aggregation Tools for Business Needs in 2023: A Guide to Choosing the Right One

Data aggregation tools are like a superpower for businesses to gather insights from multiple data sources. Whether you’re a business owner trying to gain insights into your customers, a marketing professional looking to track campaign performance, or a researcher analyzing large data sets, these platforms can help you make sense of the data and turn it into actionable information. Data aggregation solutions can extract data from systems, databases, and applications and merge them into a single data repository or data warehouse. 

By automating aggregation, you can save time and reduce errors. But with so many options available, finding the right data aggregation software for your business can take time and effort. This article will help you opt for the most favorable option for your business needs, considering data sources, volume, cost, user-friendliness, and system compatibility. Whether you’re a small business owner or a large enterprise, we’ve covered you!

How to choose the best data aggregation software for your business

To choose the most suitable data aggregation tool, it is important to consider three main steps: data collection, processing, and visualization. A good tool should be capable of collecting data from multiple sources and processing it in a clean and analysis-ready form. Another critical factor is its ability to integrate seamlessly with other tools and platforms, particularly BI tools such as Looker Studio, Tableau, or Power BI. This is important because it lets you visualize your data and gain insights into your business operations more efficiently.

Using the right data aggregation tool with BI platforms can help businesses create comprehensive, interactive dashboards that give real-time insights and actionable intelligence. Coupler.io, for example, offers a wide range of dashboard templates that demonstrate the results of using proper data aggregation tools in conjunction with BI tools, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions confidently.

Additionally, factors such as cost, user-friendliness, and compatibility with existing systems should be taken into account.

To review these key factors in more detail and better understand what to look for, let’s specify a few of them in the next section.

Key features to look for in a data aggregation tool

Regardless of the line of business, there are several factors to consider. Here are a few of them:

1. Capacity. As the business generates more data, the data aggregation tools must be able to handle it.
2. Costs. Business budgets must cover licensing fees and implementation costs.
3. Compatibility. The solution must be compatible with the business’s existing systems, including analytics and reporting tools.
4. Security. To protect sensitive data, the data aggregation solution must have robust security features, including user authentication, access controls, and encryption.
5. Adaptability. The platform must be scalable to accommodate the changing needs of the business. This means an increase in the volume of data or an expansion of data sources.
6. Flexibility. Adding or modifying data sources, customizing data processing workflows, and creating custom visualizations should all be possible with the tool.
7. Cooperation. The tool should provide collaboration capabilities, which may include the ability to share data, visual representations of the data, and dashboards.

By looking for these key features, businesses can choose a data aggregation solution that meets their specific needs and enables them to extract insights from their data more effectively.

Once you have identified the key factors to look for when choosing an aggregation tool for your business, it’s imperative to further consider specific metrics that are relevant to your niche or industry. By doing so, you can ensure that the tool you choose is not only the right fit for your overall business needs but also provides insights into the specific metrics that matter most to your industry.

For example, in e-commerce and marketing, an application must be able to collect data from multiple sources, such as sales channels, inventory management systems, data feeds, social media platforms, ad networks, and email marketing software. That provides a comprehensive understanding of customers and their behavior. Businesses can make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and sales tactics by analyzing data from different channels.

Visualization will make it easier. For example, Coupler.io can collect data from various sources, which can then be blended and visualized using Looker Studio:

Depending on the specific business line or industry, there may be additional requirements or considerations. To illustrate, a financial institution may require tools that can integrate with banking systems and provide advanced risk management and compliance features. In contrast, a healthcare organization may require tools that can handle sensitive patient data and comply with HIPAA regulations. The dashboard below shows an example of healthcare data aggregation with further visualization:

It’s crucial to thoroughly research and test the available options before choosing the data aggregation tools. It will ensure that the platform meets the specific business requirements.

7 best data aggregation tools

In the following section of the article, we’ll highlight seven of the most popular data aggregation solutions available today, each with its unique features and benefits. So, without further ado, let’s dive into our list!

#1 Coupler.io 

Coupler.io is an all-in-one data analytics and automation platform that allows organizations to gather, analyze, and transform their data to gain insight into their operations and make data-driven decisions.  

With Coupler.io, you can easily aggregate data from more than 60 business applications, saving time on data analytics and reporting. This data aggregation software provides expert services and a comprehensive suite of tools to help you intelligently automate your data flows and leverage your data to drive business success.

Coupler.io features

• Native integrations with 60+ apps, including CRM software, databases, marketing platforms, and accounting programs with no code needed.
• A JSON API connector for exporting data to Google Sheets, BigQuery, and Excel from REST APIs.
• Data analytics service that can perform custom data transformation and visualization tasks for businesses and organizations.
• Ability to schedule automatic data imports into a spreadsheet or data warehouse for added convenience.
• Data stitching feature to consolidate data from multiple sources into one destination.
• Both incoming and outgoing webhooks to cover different business scenarios, such as triggering events after importers run, notifying importers to run, etc.

Coupler.io pricing policy:

Coupler.io offers a free 14-day trial. Then users can choose from three pricing plans based on their needs:

1. Starter — $49 per month, billed annually — for entrepreneurs and small teams.
2. Squad — $99 per month, billed annually — ideal for teams that need advanced integration management features.
3. Business —$249 per month, billed annually — for teams collaborating on real-time data from multiple sources.

Who can benefit from Coupler.io? 

Coupler.io is a solution that enables data aggregation from Airtable, Xero, Pipedrive, HubSpot, Quickbooks, Jira, Google Sheets, etc. It makes the tool a great choice for marketing, sales, financial teams, e-commerce businesses, and data analysts. The platform helps consolidate data into a single dashboard for streamlined reporting, data-driven decision-making, and analysis. 

#2 Datadog 

Datadog is a cloud-based data aggregation and monitoring solution that enables users to collect, analyze, and visualize data from various sources in one centralized location. 

This data aggregation solution is designed to help organizations gain complete visibility into their IT infrastructure, applications, and logs and to improve their performance, security, and availability. It provides a user-friendly interface for data visualization and exploration, including customizable dashboards, graphs, and heat maps. It also offers various tools for troubleshooting and debugging, such as tracing, logging, and APM (application performance monitoring).

Datadog features:

• Advanced collaboration, automation, security features, team management, and role-based access control.
• API access, webhooks.
• Real-time alerting and anomaly detection to notify users of potential issues or threats.
• A wide range of integrations with popular databases, monitoring tools, and programming languages, including AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, MySQL, Elasticsearch, Python, and Java. 

Datadog pricing policy:

Datadog offers a 14-day trial with basic collection and visualization features and two pricing options:

1. Pro — $ 15 per host/month
2. Enterprise — $ 23 per host/month for more advanced features and administrative controls.

Who can benefit from Datadog? 

Datadogs’ integrations with various popular tools and services make it a versatile option for businesses looking to centralize their data collection and analysis.

With turn-key integrations, Datadog seamlessly aggregates metrics and events across the entire DevOps stack, including SaaS and Cloud providers, automation tools, monitoring and instrumentation, source control and bug tracking, databases, and standard server components. 

#3 Alteryx 

Alteryx is a data aggregation solution that offers an intuitive interface for creating customized data analytics and visualization solutions. The platform also offers advanced analytics capabilities, including predictive and spatial analytics and machine learning models. Alteryx provides data preparation, blending, and cleansing features, allowing for quick and easy data cleaning, aggregation, and analysis. Its scalable architecture enables the rapid processing of large volumes of data.

Alteryx features:

• Spatial analytics and data mining
• Flexible deployment options
• Access to a wide range of data connectors
• A range of built-in predictive modeling tools

Alteryx pricing policy:

The annual plan starts at $2300. A free 30-day trial is available.

Who can benefit from Alteryx? 

Alteryx is an end-to-end analytics platform that offers a wide range of data connectors and advanced analytics capabilities. This makes it an ideal solution for analysts, data engineers, and data scientists who need to quickly and easily extract, transform, and analyze data from various sources. Alteryx’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface and flexible deployment options make it easy to collaborate and share results with team members.

#4 Databricks

Databricks is a modern tool that combines the strengths of data lakes (a repository of all structured and unstructured data) and data warehouses to provide a unified and simplified solution for managing data. The Databricks Lakehouse Platform eliminates data silos and provides unrestricted access to open-source data projects and the Databricks partner network, which helps organizations achieve enhanced flexibility. 

This data aggregation software ensures a consistent management, security, and governance experience across all clouds for a multi-cloud solution. 

Databricks features:

• Built-in centralized governance
• Seamless integrations with the rich ecosystem
• Open and reliable data lake as the foundation
• Easily ingest, transform, and orchestrate data
• Modern analytics and BI with tools of choice

Databricks pricing policy:

The free trial is available for 14 days and contains a collaborative environment and interactive notebooks to use Apache SparkTM, SQL, Python, Scala, Delta Lake, MLflow, TensorFlow, Keras, and more.

Pricing starts at $0.07 per Databricks Unit (DBU). Process metrics, such as compute resources used and data processed, determine how many DBUs a workload consumes.

Who can benefit from Databricks?

DataBricks’ Lakehouse is a valuable solution for retailers seeking to enhance their performance while reducing costs. By using the platform, retailers can offer a more personalized customer journey and enhance their touchpoints. 

DataBricks’ Solution Accelerators offer fully functional notebooks that can speed up results in various use cases, including propensity scoring, customer lifetime value, and order picking optimization. The platform also offers industry-specific solutions for financial services, addressing challenges such as data governance, deeper customer insights, real-time decisions, and access to third-party data.

#5 Keboola 

Keboola is a data aggregation platform that offers an alternative approach to building a data stack. The tool offers elastic and secure storage for structured and unstructured data, along with built-in data-sharing features that facilitate secure and fast data transfers. Data transformation in Keboola is user-friendly, with familiar data aggregation tools for data engineers, version control, and automation features. Keboola also provides data science sandboxes with support for SQL, Python, R, or Julia. 

The data aggregation software offers flexibility to design workflows as per requirements, provides enterprise-grade security features, and provides an open platform to build custom components and services.

Keboola features:

• Elastic, scalable, and secure data storage for structured and unstructured data.
• Built-in Data Catalog for secure and fast data sharing between projects and teams.
• Enterprise-grade security that comes standard.
• An open platform that enables you to build and publish your components and services.

Keboola pricing policy:

With a free tier, you can consume up to 120 minutes of computational runtime. Once you have used up your free credits, you can purchase additional minutes at 14 cents per minute. The current pricing details are not provided by the vendor.

Who can benefit from Keboola? 

Small and medium businesses can greatly benefit from Keboola’s data platform, which simplifies and accelerates data engineering for companies. With Keboola’s cloud-based data integration platform, data engineers, analysts, and developers can work collaboratively covering the entire data workflow from data transformation to data management, including ML-based predictions. 

Keboola’s platform also provides management-level access to performance analytics on sales and labor, empowering franchisees to make informed decisions that are suitable for their businesses. 

#6 DOMO

Domo is a data platform that provides a comprehensive solution for businesses to integrate their data, business intelligence, and workflows into a customizable app. With the tool, users can access real-time insights and create automated reporting, which can be easily distributed to teams. By using Domo, companies can build data apps to streamline their workflows and empower all teams to make better data-driven decisions. Additionally, Domo enables businesses to integrate existing systems to maximize the value of their data.

DOMO features:

• Customizable, real-time, and interactive self-service dashboards — no coding required.
• Over 1,000 connectors to tap into cloud or on-premises systems–with the power to combine them using built-in, drag-and-drop ETL.
• Real-time insights and on-the-fly analytics on any mobile device leverage real-time alerts that signal calls for action to make better decisions.

DOMO pricing policy:

Pricing is based on several factors, including data storage, data refresh rates, the number of queries, and the number of users. The vendor has not provided pricing details. However, the platform offers a variety of packages that can be customized according to the needs of users.

Who can benefit from DOMO? 

Domo can benefit many different roles within a company, from executives to operations teams. By using the tool, companies can gain visibility into data across channels to prove ROI and inform marketing, finance, and sales decisions. Domo also helps companies deliver insights faster and scale their BI operations. By putting data at the forefront of business operations, the tool helps users build and retain people, monitor their business in real-time, and better service and support customers.

#7 Matillion

Matillion ETL is a cloud-native data integration and transformation platform designed to help enterprises efficiently manage and process their data. One of Matillion’s standout features is its native integrations with popular cloud data platforms such as Snowflake, Delta Lake on Databricks, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery, and Microsoft Azure Synapse. This allows for easy and efficient data transfer and transformation across different platforms. 

Matillion features:

• Pre-built connectors to popular data sources, including Salesforce, Google Analytics, and Amazon S3.
• Built-in data quality checks and error handling ensure accurate and consistent data.
• Ability to scale up or down to meet changing data processing needs.

Matillion pricing policy:

Matillion offers a consumption-based pricing model, which is based on how much a customer uses a product or service. You can choose from 4 editions, purchase capacity up-front, or pay-as-you-go:

• Free
• Basic $2.00 /credit
• Advanced $2.50 /credit
• Enterprise $2.70 /credit

Who can benefit from Matillion? 

Matillion provides data productivity solutions that can benefit companies of all sizes. For enterprise-level organizations, the tool offers a full-featured data transformation and ETL solution with infrastructure-free scaling, enterprise-level security, data lineage, clustered environments, and more. 

Guidelines for selecting and deploying data aggregation solutions

Using data aggregation tools can significantly benefit a business by streamlining operations. It is necessary to follow specific guidelines to do this effectively.

• Firstly, it is crucial to research and compare different tools to find one that meets the requirements and goals of the project. This involves considering features, functionality, pricing, compatibility, and customer reviews.

• Secondly, before making a purchase, testing the tool on a small-scale project is essential to evaluate its performance and features. This helps to identify any technical issues and to gauge the tool’s user-friendliness.

• Thirdly, planning for the implementation process is crucial. This includes defining the scope and timeline of the project, allocating resources and budget, creating a project plan with specific milestones and deadlines, and identifying potential challenges and risks.

• Lastly, training employees on how to use the tool effectively to maximize its benefits is imperative. This involves developing training materials and documentation, conducting training sessions, providing ongoing support and guidance, and monitoring usage and effectiveness.

These steps will help businesses choose and implement a data aggregation solution that enhances their operations and helps them make more data-driven decisions.