Evidence — Build interactive business intelligence reports and dashboards using SQL and Markdown.
Analyzed by Sai Pavan Gopularam · Business Intelligence · Data Visualization · View on GitHub
- Stars: 6950
- Forks: 418
- Commits last 30 days: 40
- Health: Active (40 commits this month)
- Language: TypeScript
- License: MIT
What It Is
Evidence is an open-source tool that lets you build data reports and dashboards using code, specifically SQL and Markdown, instead of relying on traditional drag-and-drop business intelligence software. Think of it like building a dynamic website for your business data, where each report is a web page crafted with code.
This code-first approach brings software development best practices like version control, collaborative workflows, and automated deployments to data reporting. It solves the problem of brittle, hard-to-maintain dashboards by making them as robust and reviewable as any other software project.
License Verdict
MIT License — Build and Sell Freely — Commercial Use Approved • No Copyleft Restrictions
The MIT License is highly permissive, allowing you to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the software. You can build proprietary commercial products and services on top of Evidence without needing to open-source your own code.
How to Use It
Get Evidence running by installing it via a simple shell script, then initialize a new project. You can immediately start developing interactive data reports using SQL and Markdown within your local environment.
Prerequisites:
- Command Line Interface
- SQL knowledge
- Markdown knowledge
Estimated setup time: 5 minutes.
curl -fsSL https://evidence.studio/install.sh | sh
evidence init my-project
cd my-project
evidence devWhat I'd Build With This
SQL-Driven Data Storytelling for Small Agencies (micro-saas)
Offer a service where you take raw client data, write SQL queries, and build compelling, interactive data stories and dashboards using Evidence. This service helps small marketing or analytics agencies present complex data clearly to their clients without needing dedicated BI analysts. You charge a monthly retainer for ongoing reporting and updates.
Effort: 3 Days Build Time · Target: Small Marketing Agencies, Boutique Consulting Firms · Pricing: $500/mo per client
White-Label Data Reporting Platform (saas)
Develop a hosted, white-label platform built on Evidence that allows companies to generate and share their own internal or client-facing data reports. Provide a user-friendly interface for connecting data sources, managing reports, and deploying them securely. Companies pay a subscription based on the number of users or reports.
Effort: 3 Months Build Time · Target: Mid-Market Businesses, SaaS Companies needing embedded analytics · Pricing: $299/mo to $999/mo
Custom BI Solution Integration & Consulting (enterprise)
Provide consulting and integration services for large enterprises looking to adopt a code-first approach to business intelligence. You would help them integrate Evidence with their existing data warehouses (like Snowflake, BigQuery), develop custom reporting templates, and establish CI/CD pipelines for their data reports. This involves significant custom development and training.
Effort: 6 Months Project Time · Target: Large Enterprises, Data-Mature Organizations · Pricing: $50,000+ per project
Sai Pavan Gopularam's Take
Evidence is a game-changer for anyone who's tired of clunky, proprietary BI tools. Its code-first approach makes data reporting feel like software development, which is a huge win for maintainability and collaboration. I see a clear path to building a $10k/month micro-SaaS by offering specialized data storytelling services to niche clients.
Watch Out For
- Requires Technical Skills: Evidence is code-first, meaning users need proficiency in SQL and Markdown, and ideally some understanding of development workflows. It's not a drag-and-drop tool for non-technical business users.
- Self-Hosting Complexity: While you can self-host, deploying and maintaining Evidence in a production environment requires DevOps expertise. This includes managing infrastructure, security, and ensuring high availability for your reports.
- No Built-in Data Connectors: Evidence focuses on the reporting layer. You'll need to handle data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) into a database that Evidence can query. This often means integrating with other tools like dbt or custom data pipelines.
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