A KPI App for iPhone and Android, Fed by Your Own Data

A KPI app is a dashboard built for your phone: a few live numbers you can read in two seconds, with a push notification when one of them needs you. The useful ones are native iOS and Android apps, not a website squeezed onto a small screen. They refresh in the background, keep showing the last good numbers when the signal drops, and let the same dashboard run on an office TV. This page covers what to look for, how the common options compare, and how to get your own numbers into one.

What a KPI app should actually do

Most dashboard tools have "mobile support". Far fewer are pleasant to open twenty times a day. The difference is in a handful of details:

• Glanceable layout. Big numbers, one per tile, readable without zooming. A dense desktop dashboard shrunk to a phone is not a KPI app.
• Push notifications that mean something. Not "your weekly report is ready", but "error rate crossed 5%" or "trial conversion dropped".
• Native, not a bookmark. Home-screen web apps work, but native apps handle sign-in, background refresh, haptics and notifications better.
• Honest about freshness. It should show when the data last updated, and keep the last good numbers on screen through a bad connection instead of an error.
• Fast between dashboards. Swiping from revenue to product to support should feel like flipping pages.
• The same board on the wall. The dashboard you check on your phone should be the one on the office TV, without a laptop logged in.

The options, compared

As of October 2026:*

A dash means we didn't verify it either way.

Databox is the strongest connector-based option on a phone: native apps, Apple Watch support and goals.* Geckoboard has stopped developing its native iOS app in favour of a progressive web app, and dashboards can't be edited on mobile.* Power BI has mobile apps, but it's a BI tool first, with a data model to build before anything appears. Looker Studio reports open in a mobile browser.

dashboardbase on your phone

dashboardbase is built around one idea: your own backend returns JSON in a fixed shape, and dashboardbase renders it as widgets, on the web, on a TV, and in native iOS and Android apps.

What that looks like day to day:

• Swipe between dashboards. Left and right moves through your dashboards, with a haptic tick when the swipe commits.
• Pull to refresh. A gauge fills as you pull and the dashboard re-fetches.
• Live updates you can see. When data changes, numbers count up to their new value and charts ease into their new shape, so you can tell what moved.
• Last good data stays. A failed refresh never throws an error at you; the last good numbers stay on screen until the connection comes back.
• Push on alerts. Any endpoint can return an alert, and members who opted in get a push notification. Email and Slack work too.
• Full screen on a docked phone or iPad. The controls hide and the screen stays awake, so a spare iPad on a desk becomes a small wall display.

You can edit dashboards from the app too, though arranging a free layout is easier on a big screen. New accounts are created on the web.

What the app shows: your numbers, your rules

Each tile is an endpoint you control. A KPI with an active alert, the kind that sends a push, is this response:

{
  "title": "Error rate",
  "actions": [
    {
      "title": "View Incidents",
      "type": "link",
      "url": "https://example.com/incidents"
    }
  ],
  "data": {
    "header": {
      "title": "8.2%",
      "subtitle": "vs last hour",
      "badge": {
        "text": "+3.4%",
        "icon": "ArrowUp",
        "color": "Danger"
      }
    }
  },
  "alert": {
    "active": true,
    "level": "critical",
    "message": "Error rate above the 5% threshold"
  }
}

The threshold lives in your code, not in a settings screen, so "alert me when trial conversion drops below 8%, but only on weekdays" is an if statement. When the alert object is active, the widget shows a pulsing severity dot and opted-in members get the notification. Four levels exist: info, success, warning and critical.

A whole-number KPI, such as active users, is even simpler:

{
  "title": "Daily active users",
  "actions": [
    {
      "title": "View Details",
      "type": "link",
      "url": "https://example.com/dau-details"
    }
  ],
  "data": {
    "header": {
      "title": "2,543",
      "subtitle": "vs last month",
      "badge": {
        "text": "+12%",
        "icon": "ArrowUp",
        "color": "Success"
      }
    }
  }
}

Paste either into the public endpoint validator and it renders the real widget, no account needed.

Getting your numbers in

1. Write one endpoint per tile in the backend you already have. Most are 10–20 lines; API dashboard examples has the JSON for each widget type. The free Skill teaches Claude Code or Cursor the contract, and the web editor can generate a prompt for any AI tool you use.
2. Protect it. dashboardbase sends your workspace secret as an x-dashboardbase-secret header on every request; reject anything without it. Testing a datasource also checks that the endpoint really refuses requests without credentials.
3. Add the widgets in the web editor and publish.
4. Install the app, sign in, and turn on alert notifications for the workspace.

If the data is in Stripe or RevenueCat rather than your own database, the Stripe MRR and RevenueCat tutorials show the endpoints. For an app business, the mobile app KPI dashboard suggests which tiles to start with.

From phone to wall

The same dashboard can run on an office TV. Open www.dashboardbase.com/tv on the television, scan the QR code with your phone (it opens the app), name the screen and pick the dashboard. The TV holds its own narrow, revocable display token, so nobody's account stays logged in on the wall. How TV pairing works.

When a KPI app isn't what you need

• You need to explore data on the go. Drilling, filtering and new questions belong in a BI tool.
• Nobody can write an endpoint. A connector-based tool such as Databox will get you further, faster.
• You want one app per person with private numbers. dashboardbase dashboards belong to a workspace, shared by its members.

Pricing

Flat plans with a seat ceiling: Startup $9.99/month (3 seats), Team $29.99 (10 seats), Business $79.99 (25 seats). Every plan has every feature, including the apps, TV pairing and alerts, and you don't pay per dashboard. 14-day free trial, no card needed.

FAQ

What is a KPI app? A mobile app that shows your key business numbers live, usually with alerts when one moves past a threshold.

Is there a KPI dashboard app for iPhone? Yes. dashboardbase and Databox both have native iOS and Android apps.*

Can I get push notifications when a KPI changes? With dashboardbase, any endpoint can return an alert, which arrives as a push notification on the native apps.

Can the app show data from my own database? Yes. Each widget calls an endpoint in your backend, so the data can come from anywhere your code can reach.

About the competitor details *

Competitor features and pricing change, and we don't control them. Everything marked with an asterisk reflects the vendors' public pages as of 6 October 2026.

Sources

• Databox mobile app and pricing, checked 6 October 2026
• Geckoboard mobile dashboards and pricing, checked 6 October 2026
• Power BI pricing, checked 6 October 2026