There is no single answer. Building is right for some embedded BI projects and buying is right for others. The 10 questions help you judge which fits your goals and your customers.
Bold BI is Syncfusion's embedded, self-service and AI analytics platform, distinct from Bold Reports, BoldDesk and BoldSign.
The 10 questions in this Bold BI whitepaper (PDF)
- What is your desired time to market?
- How tech savvy are your users?
- Do you need to offer mobile device support?
- How many data sources will you need to support?
- Will you need to support multiple tenants?
- Do your users need to restrict access to certain data sets?
- What types of visualizations do you require?
- What export formats do you need?
- Is scalability important or will you target a fixed set of users?
- What is the true cost of an embedded BI solution?
The full PDF covers each of these in depth.
Question 1: What is your desired time to market?
Question 1 in the Bold BI whitepaper is time to market. If time is tight, a ready-made commercial solution is usually faster. The whitepaper estimates that buying a well-tested solution can bring time to market down to as little as two months, while building even a simple embedded BI solution will likely take longer. First estimates for custom analytics are almost always too short, because development, testing and validation take more time than planned.
Question 8: What export formats do you need?
Question 8 in the Bold BI whitepaper is export formats. Export to image formats is fairly simple to build. Export to PDF or Excel is not: you generally need to license a reporting library or spend years building one, because these formats are complex. If your users need PDF or Excel exports, a ready-made solution is usually the better choice. Bold BI dashboards can be exported to PowerPoint, image, PDF, Excel or CSV.
Question 10: What is the true cost of an embedded BI solution?
Question 10 in the Bold BI whitepaper is true cost. Look past the first price to the pricing model. If a product charges $10 per user per month and you grow to 10,000 users, you pay $1.2 million a year in licensing. If you expect to scale, compare how each vendor's licensing grows with your main growth metric.
Bold BI publishes prices from $499 a month for self-hosted deployments and $999 a month for Cloud, and is not consumption or usage-metered. Cloud Edition is licensed per user, On-Premises per user or per application, and Managed Private Cloud and enterprise licenses are by custom quote. Custom builds have costs too: developer salaries plus any third-party software licensed as part of the build.
The time and cost figures on this page, such as two months, one year and $1.2 million, are the whitepaper author's estimates and worked examples, not Bold BI product specifications.
Build or buy: a quick guide
The Bold BI whitepaper's answers point in a clear direction for most situations, as this table summarizes:
| Area | Building may work when… | Buying is usually better when… |
|---|---|---|
| Users | Your users are technical and do not need a visual designer | Non-technical users need drag-and-drop or configuration tools |
| Mobile | Mobile access is not required | Customers need BI on phones and tablets |
| Data sources | You connect to a small number of sources | You need to connect to many common data sources |
| Tenants | You serve one group of users | Customers must be firewalled from each other (multi-tenancy) |
| Visualizations | A limited set of charts is enough | You need maps, gauges and pivot tables that work together |
| Exports | Image export is enough | Users need PDF or Excel export |
The other seven questions, with build-effort estimates for each, are covered in full in the whitepaper.
Key takeaways from the Bold BI whitepaper
- Buying is usually faster when time to market matters.
- Non-technical users, many data sources, multi-tenancy and PDF or Excel export all favor buying.
- Building can work for a technical audience with simple charts and few data sources.
- Check the pricing model: per-user licensing can grow quickly as your application scales.
How Bold BI fits
Bold BI includes multi-tenant embedding in Managed Private Cloud and On-Premises, 145 documented data connectors across 23 categories, and 41 Modern widgets including maps, gauges and pivot grids. Dashboards export to PowerPoint, image, PDF, Excel or CSV, and the Bold BI mobile app is free for iOS and Android. Prices are published from $499 a month self-hosted and $999 a month on Cloud, with no consumption-based charges.
Frequently asked questions about this Bold BI whitepaper
Questions about this Bold BI whitepaper (PDF).
Should I build or buy embedded BI?
Build if your users are technical, you need a few charts, few data sources and image-only export. Buy if you need a drag-and-drop designer, many data sources, multi-tenancy, PDF or Excel export, or a fast launch. The Bold BI whitepaper walks through all 10 questions that decide the choice.
How long does it take to build embedded BI?
Longer than most teams expect. The Bold BI whitepaper estimates that a drag-and-drop designer alone takes a small team of experienced developers about a year, and native mobile support adds three to six months. Buying a ready-made solution can cut time to market to as little as two months.
How much does embedded BI cost?
It depends on the pricing model. Per-user licensing can grow fast: $10 per user per month for 10,000 users is $1.2 million a year. Bold BI publishes prices from $499 a month self-hosted and $999 a month on Cloud and is not consumption or usage-metered; Cloud is licensed per user, On-Premises per user or per application, and Managed Private Cloud and enterprise licenses are by custom quote.
Does Bold BI support multi-tenant embedded analytics?
Yes, in the Managed Private Cloud and On-Premises editions. A single Bold BI instance can serve multiple isolated tenants, each with its own database, branding and delegated admin. Row-level security then scopes what each user inside a tenant can see. The Cloud Edition does not support multi-tenancy.
Can embedded dashboards be exported to PDF or Excel?
Yes. Any Bold BI dashboard can be exported to PowerPoint, image, PDF, Excel or CSV, and scheduled email reports with exports are included in all 3 editions. Building PDF and Excel export yourself is one of the hardest parts of a custom embedded BI project.
Related Bold BI pages and whitepapers
Explore the Bold BI product pages behind the topics in this whitepaper, and the other free Bold BI whitepapers (PDF) in the Resource Library, which cover embedded analytics from different angles.