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 initial setup is quite straightforward."
"The comprehensiveness or broadness of the software functions or business intelligence functions that it provides is valuable. It is also quite easy to use and user-friendly."
"Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"Even while a user is using a cube for reporting, there will not be a situation as ' Cube file locked; unable to build or deploy'."
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"It is easy to use. It has got a desktop where people can develop their own dashboards. Basically, we have figured out how to connect finance contracts and all programs for the government agency. So, they can see everything in a dashboard. So, it is very easy to use from a technical standpoint of view."
"The visualization and reporting are the most valuable features of this solution."
"It's a powerful platform."
"The most valuable feature would be the abundance of connectors. It is also easy to use."
"The interface is very fluid."
"My favorite feature is the power query editor, where it can do the data transformations."
"It's quite flexible, and it's easy to create reports using this system. It is very graphic and very user friendly."
"I like that I can use Power BI to upload data. That is very important for me. The visualization is also convenient and easy to use."
"This product could use improvement in terms of usability for those with less technical know how."
"It would be nice to offer free online training on the tool for end-users."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"They were lacking in the initial phases of development in the area of big data, and they still need to improve that aspect of the product."
"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."
"The high cost of a license makes it hard to scale up on a budget."
"Chart quality: many other competitors have charts and graphics that look much better and that provide dynamic effects. Cognos doesn't."
"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."
"Areas of Power BI that could be improved are the learning curve for developers who come from non-technical backgrounds."
"The solution could improve the extraction and transformation of data. For example, you transform the data and then send it to Microsoft BI without having to use your own API. We are only providing the API to Power BI, and then Power BI is doing the job."
"Microsoft Power BI can be confusing, because it has two languages that you need to learn if you want to use it, and this makes it more difficult for nontechnical users."
"There's always room for improvement for Microsoft Power BI, especially for the UX and the menus to make it more accessible to business users."
"I would like to see more visualization options."
"Power BI could have better metadata management. It's easy to use for a single person. However, it lacks an enterprise-grade metadata management system, which can be a problem if you're doing an enterprise deployment with multiple users."
"The accounting data needs improvement."
"The cost of the solution can get high."
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.