We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Microsoft BI has a slight edge in this comparison. According to its reviewers, it is a more lightweight solution than IBM Cognos.
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
"It's enabled us to report directly from our main application systems. We're removing islands of data and we're removing inefficiencies, where people or small divisions had their own store of information."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is that it is an easy-to-use tool."
"The user interface is easy to work with."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten."
"Microsoft BI was very helpful for me because I had a huge variety of connections. It is very convenient to build reports, even if somebody has no experience using BI tools or data visualizations. Additionally, the performance is very good when generating reports."
"I like the flexibility it offers."
"It is very good, and it supports the Microsoft ecosystem, including Excel, etc."
"It is a powerful tool that helps our data analysis processes."
"Ease of development and maintenance."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"It would be nice to offer free online training on the tool for end-users."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"Data modeling needs to be improved. We use the ETL process, and when we get errors, we then need to identify which structural change is required. The error messaging should be better. They should be descriptive rather than semantic."
"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."
"I would like to see is more easy building, movement in the reports, and dashboard functionality within reporting. Overall more simple elements within reports. If the elements are simple then you don't have to render a full page, but you can move separate parts in the page."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map."
"Things can slow down if you create too many pages."
"The reporting could be a bit better."
"The solution could improve by having more attractive graphical charts."
"It's quite difficult to learn how to use Power BI."
"Better mapping capabilities and easier administration access would be beneficial, especially for understanding who has viewed reports."
"The formatting template could be improved."
"The Microsoft BI interface should be simpler and more user-friendly. I find it very difficult to move between their data sources and their analytics section."
"It's not user-friendly; more tutorials, training, and better documentation would be helpful."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 132 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in Reporting with 297 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of IBM Cognos writes "Improved the quality of our KPIs, while reducing calls to the IT department". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". IBM Cognos is most compared with Oracle OBIEE, Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Oracle Hyperion and Amazon QuickSight, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. See our IBM Cognos vs. Microsoft Power BI report.
See our list of best Reporting vendors and best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors.
We monitor all Reporting reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.