Frequently asked questions

Dalgo helps nonprofits build better data systems so they can make better decisions. We combine open-source technology with hands-on consulting to help organisations collect, manage, analyse, and use data more effectively across their programmes.

The platform connects data from existing tools, creates a dependable data foundation, and turns it into dashboards, reports, alerts, and actionable insights. Our team helps you define indicators, improve data-collection processes, design data architecture, implement required solutions on Dalgo, and build a strong internal data culture.

Dalgo is for organisations that want to use programme, beneficiary, operational, fundraising, or outcome data more effectively — especially M&E/MEL, programme, operations, leadership, and data teams.

The platform is for you if data is fragmented, reporting is manual, definitions differ between teams, dashboards are slow or untrusted, or leaders lack a clear view across programmes, partners, or geographies. Organisations have used Dalgo to automate consolidation, improve timely access to information, and build role-specific reporting.

You do not need a large data-engineering team: a small organisation can start with one high-value workflow. Dalgo may be less suitable for organisations with mature, fully custom data systems and large in-house engineering teams. It does not replace field-data-collection, case-management, finance, or CRM systems; it connects and makes sense of data from them.

If you're just beginning your data journey, our consulting team can assess your current data lifecycle, identify gaps and opportunities, and develop a practical roadmap tailored to your organisation's goals.

Dalgo fits around the tools you already use — you don't need to replace anything. It connects to 600+ sources like KoboToolbox, CommCare, Avni, Google Sheets, Salesforce, and Zoho (and we can build a custom connector if you need one), and pulls that data into one place you control.

From there, Dalgo makes the data ready to act on: cleaned, joined, and calculated with consistent rules, so your team works from one trusted set of numbers. You can view it in Dalgo's own dashboards and reports, or keep using the BI tools you already have — Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio.

Dalgo doesn't collect data in the field. It works with data from the systems you already trust, and turns it into reporting and insight you can rely on.

Teams use Dalgo for programme and M&E dashboards, operational monitoring, beneficiary and service-delivery analysis, donor and CSR reporting, board packs, data-quality checks, portfolio views, partner reporting, and recurring reviews.

Dalgo can connect programme, beneficiary, service-delivery, and outcome data where suitable identifiers and privacy boundaries exist. It can provide portfolio-level and programme-, geography-, partner-, or team-specific views.

It supports input, outcome, and impact KPIs; live dashboards; fixed reports for quarterly or annual reviews; PDF exports; sharing by link or email; and email or Slack alerts when metrics, thresholds, or data-quality checks need attention. Explore our documentation to learn more about its capabilities in detail.

Yes. Dalgo supports click-to-create dashboards for field teams, programme managers, M&E teams, leadership, and donors. Administrators manage the platform, analysts create and edit analytical assets, and members have read-only access to shared information.

Non-technical users can create charts, arrange dashboards, apply filters, and create reports. UI4T supports common data-preparation tasks without SQL; SQL-based transformations are available for advanced work.

Dalgo can schedule data syncs and transformations, from multiple refreshes per day to monthly updates. It standardises and validates data during transformation, uses dbt tests, surfaces test results, model history, and freshness, row-count, or column-value anomalies.

Historical data can be cleaned, mapped to shared definitions, and loaded alongside current data. The scope depends on the volume, consistency, documentation, and reporting questions involved.

Dalgo also provides the governed, reliable data foundation needed for AI workflows. Availability and data-governance requirements are confirmed per organisation.

Dalgo runs on Kubernetes and can grow with your data sources, programmes, users, and reporting needs. There are no artificial limits on users, pipelines, dashboards, charts, or other core assets; SaaS pricing stays flat whether you have 5 users or 500, or process 1 GB or 500 GB of data a day.

Dalgo is an open-source Digital Public Good and can be self-hosted using the public GitHub code and instructions. Self-hosting has no SaaS licence fee, though you remain responsible for infrastructure, security, monitoring, and upgrades; Dalgo support can be scoped separately.

Implementation usually follows five steps:

1. Discovery: Agree decisions, reports, users, indicators, sources, and privacy requirements.
2. Data foundation: Connect selected sources and understand data structure, history, and quality.
3. Transformation and quality: Clean, join, standardise, test, and document the required data.
4. Insights and reporting: Build metrics, dashboards, reports, alerts, and sharing workflows.
5. Validation and handover: Validate numbers, train users, document ownership, and establish support and improvement rhythms.

We start small enough to create early value, then expand in a controlled way.

Duration depends on source complexity, data readiness, reporting needs, historical data, and team availability. During discovery, we provide a realistic phased plan with milestones, dependencies, and the time required from both teams.

Your team's input and engagement is essential, particularly at the beginning. We need people who understand the programme, data collection, metric definitions, reporting expectations, and access approvals. Outcomes are strongest when programme, M&E, operations, and leadership teams participate actively.

Yes. Dalgo can help define data questions and metrics, identify priority decisions and stakeholders, assess data gaps, design data architecture, build and validate pipelines, create dashboards and reports, and help train internal data culture.

We can assess existing data-collection tools and workflows, identify gaps, recommend an approach suited to your programme and field conditions, and support audits, process design, and training. The right answer may be improving an existing tool, introducing a new one, or connecting several systems through Dalgo.

Training is available as a separate consulting offering or can be included in implementation. It can be tailored for dashboard users, M&E and programme teams, analysts, administrators, and technical partners, and is most effective when it supports real workflows such as review meetings, donor reporting, or data-quality follow-up.

Yes. Dalgo is DPDP-compliant as a Data Processor, independently audited by Pacta, under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

As Data Fiduciary, your organisation remains responsible for collection practices, data classification, access decisions, retention, and sharing. We support appropriate data minimisation, access, consent, retention, and governance practices.

Access can be managed by role, sensitive datasets can be restricted, reports can be shared deliberately, and dashboards can use appropriate levels of aggregation. Security, data-residency, audit, and contractual requirements should be raised early so they can be assessed before data is connected.

Dalgo SaaS costs ₹2.04 lakh per organisation per year, or ₹17,000 per month, in India. For nonprofits based outside India it is US$3,000 per year or US$250 per month. This is a flat organisation-level price, not a per-user or per-pipeline charge.

Consulting and implementation are priced separately, from ₹2,500 per hour in India or US$35 per hour internationally. Your warehouse is your own cloud infrastructure and is billed by your cloud provider. See the pricing page for what to plan for.

Dalgo has a flat pricing structure: your subscription covers all features and unlimited usage, with no per-user fees. See the pricing page for current rates.

Hosted Superset (an alternative to Dalgo dashboards), consulting services for implementation, bespoke data work, training, and strategy. Your warehouse is your own cloud infrastructure and is billed by your cloud provider.

Platform support is included. We help resolve failing pipelines and other platform-level issues, and provide guidance when your team needs help using the product or deciding the next step.

Unless included in your agreement, support does not cover bespoke data modelling, new connectors, historical-data remediation, source-system data-entry corrections, major dashboard redesigns, or organisation-wide strategy work. These are scoped separately.

Yes. Dalgo can supply cleaned, modelled, refreshed warehouse data to Power BI, Tableau, Looker Studio, or another visualisation tool, while reducing manual exports, duplicated calculations, and inconsistent source files.

Spreadsheets are useful for lightweight analysis, planning, and small ad hoc work. Dalgo becomes valuable when recurring reporting uses multiple sources, data needs regular cleaning or joining, several teams need the same numbers, data volumes are growing, or manual work becomes slow and error-prone.

You do not need to eliminate spreadsheets; the aim is to stop using them as the fragile, manual backbone of organisation-wide reporting.

Dalgo is a strong option when you need a reliable, nonprofit-oriented data foundation without taking on the full cost and maintenance burden of a custom platform.

A custom platform may make sense for unusually specialised requirements, a large in-house engineering team, or non-standard operational constraints. We can help assess the trade-offs.