written by
5000fish Team

Introducing DashboardFox: Business Intelligence Software With No Subscriptions

BI Problems and Solutions 5 min read
DashboardFox - Alternative to Power BI and Tableau

Subscriptions are everywhere you look. You subscribe to everything from Netflix to Amazon Prime, and it’s the same in business. In fact, we analyzed the business intelligence (BI) software industry, and we found that 99.0% of BI companies use a subscription model (we actually couldn't find any that didn't but we wanted to leave the door open in case someone notifies us of one).

Tableau was one of the recent companies to make the move to subscriptions. Of course, from the provider's point of view, it makes perfect sense. Recurring revenue keeps the company profitable and Wall Street very happy.

But are subscriptions really in your best interest as a customer?

We don’t think so. That’s why we’re different.

The Subscription Sales Pitch

How do providers convince companies to keep paying their high prices over and over and over again?

Salesforce led the way in the early 2000s. They told businesses that they didn’t have to buy expensive software and by paying for a subscription, they could save significantly (and ironically, in 2019, they purchased Tableau).

The famous Salesforce No Software Campaign

But now, in 2020, the cost of subscriptions has skyrocketed. You pay more now every month or year than you used to for a full “expensive” purchase.

What’s more, you aren’t getting any real asset. If you stop paying, you lose access. You have nothing to show for the months and years of money you invested in your SaaS solution.

We don’t think this is best for you as a customer, so we decided to do things differently.

The DashboardFox Difference

As a team, we have been developing BI tools for over 20 years. And DashboardFox, while new, is a very mature business intelligence software solution. We’re bootstrapped, so we’re not beholden to VCs or Wall Street investors. We don’t have anyone to answer to but ourselves – so we can afford to do things that work for you, the customer, not just the business.

Unlike other BI vendors that make a big push towards Cloud BI (which forces a recurring subscription model due to infrastructure costs), we focus on serving businesses that have data stored in databases and manage their own servers.

With DashboardFox, your servers can be local or in the cloud.

DashboardFox is installed on a Windows server in your local environment, on your private network, and connects securely to your database. No need to copy everything to a third-party cloud!

The BI Software Problem DashboardFox Solves

As we looked at the business intelligence (BI) software available in the industry, we realized there was a lot of frustration around the subscription software model. When people spoke to us about BI tools, they felt that things were just too expensive, and the payments never ended.

We know businesses don’t like recurring costs.

They were frustrated at annual increases and felt powerless to do anything about it. They felt there were too many hidden costs and they felt locked in, unable to switch providers due to multi-year fees or a third-party cloud.

In a word, people have subscription fatigue.

So we decided to go “back to the future” and bring back the actual purchase of software that you don’t have to keep paying to use. And to be totally different, we decided to be transparent and open with our pricing (see for yourself).

The No Subscription BI Software

So, if we don’t do subscriptions, how DO we provide our service?

We offer you the number of concurrent session login licenses you need on a perpetual license model. That means you pay ONCE and can use it FOREVER.

The concurrent session login license model has a lot of benefits. You don’t need the complexity of worrying about varying costs of licenses based on if the user can build or view only, or how many data sources or the size of the data they can work with.

Instead, anyone can log in as long as you don’t exceed the number of login sessions at one time. They can have any role – admin, builder, viewer – and can talk to any number of data sources.

The purchase includes one year of priority support and upgrades. If there are new features in that year, you get them at NO ADDITIONAL COST.

After year one?

Keep using your software! If it’s doing what you want, you’re good to go!

But, if we’ve earned your business, keep up with software developments. We’re going to keep adding features and making upgrades. You can purchase another 1, 2, or 3 years of Upgrade Protection.

It’s totally optional. We won’t hold anything over your head or cut off your access to the software. If you prefer, you can keep the software and after a few years, just buy a new license for the upgraded version or reinstate maintenance. Check out our support community to learn all about our licensing options and plans.

Other DashboardFox Benefits

What else do we offer? Quite a bit!

Professional Services – Need to outsource the management and functioning of a BI solution, or just need a helping hand? We have a team of BI experts that can ensure you go from 0 to success at a fraction of the cost of building a team.

DashboardFox Server Hosting – Have no desire to install or maintain a Windows Server? We offer hosting and can handle that for you. We'll deploy your DashboardFox server in our cloud and take care of all the maintenance for you. The key, we need to be able to access your data.

As you can see, we’re dedicated to offering the very best BI software and services. Our model means we have to earn your business, and we plan to do exactly that.

Choose to Be Different, Choose DashboardFox

Everyone else wants to sell you an expensive ongoing subscription. With us, you have another option. Simply choose the number of concurrent session login licenses you need, knowing that anyone can use them at any time.

With DashboardFox, you’ll save significant money over long-term payments to another provider. Best of all, if you don’t decide to keep paying, you’ll still be able to use the software! Unlike with subscriptions, your investment will purchase a real asset for your business.

Ready to see how much you can save? Contact us for more information, or use our cost saving calculator to compare DashboardFox to your current subscription software.

Buying Decisions DashboardFox Subscriptions