What is Insights?
Frappe Insights is an open-source Business Intelligence (BI) platform that helps users analyze data and build reports without writing complex SQL queries. It enables both technical and non-technical users to connect multiple data sources, explore information visually, and create interactive dashboards through an intuitive interface.
Why Use Frappe Insights?
While the Frappe Framework provides an excellent platform for building applications and managing business data, analyzing that data often requires SQL expertise. Frappe Insights removes this barrier by offering a visual, no-code approach to querying, reporting, and dashboard creation, making business analytics accessible to everyone.
Who is it for?
Frappe Insights is designed for business users, analysts, managers, and developers who need to transform raw data into meaningful reports and dashboards without relying on complex database queries.
Key Features
Connect Multiple Data Sources
Bring together data from multiple databases, spreadsheets, and files into a single workspace. By combining information from different sources, you can analyze relationships across your business and gain deeper insights.
No-Code Query Builder
Create powerful database queries using a visual interface instead of writing SQL. The Query Builder guides you through selecting tables, creating joins, applying filters, performing calculations, grouping data, and more using a simple step-by-step workflow.
Interactive Charts and Dashboards
Convert query results into charts, graphs, and dashboards with just a few clicks. Insights recommends suitable visualization types based on your data and allows dashboards to be built using drag-and-drop components with interactive filters.
Support for Multiple Databases
Frappe Insights supports several popular databases, including:
- MySQL
- PostgreSQL
- DuckDB
- Google BigQuery
Additional database integrations are planned for future releases.
Tip
You don’t need SQL knowledge to create reports. The visual Query Builder automatically generates optimized database queries behind the scenes while allowing you to focus on analyzing your data.
Built With
Frappe Insights is built using modern open-source technologies:
- Frappe Framework – Full-stack web application framework.
- Frappe UI – Vue.js-based UI component library.
- Ibis – Dataframe-style library for generating SQL queries.
- Apache ECharts – Interactive charting and visualization library.
Installation
To install and configure Frappe Insights for production, follow the official installation guide available in the project’s GitHub repository.
Note
Frappe Insights is completely open source and can be self-hosted. It integrates seamlessly with applications built on the Frappe Framework while also supporting external databases.
Learning and Community
You can learn more about Frappe Insights and connect with the community through the following resources:
- Official Documentation
- Telegram Community Group
- Frappe Discuss Forum
- Frappe Technologies YouTube Channel
Best Practices
- Connect only the data sources required for your reports to improve query performance.
- Use the Query Builder whenever possible instead of writing raw SQL for easier maintenance.
- Organize dashboards with filters to make reports reusable for different teams.
- Choose visualizations that best represent your data rather than using charts unnecessarily.
- Regularly review connected data sources to ensure reports remain accurate and up to date.
