We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Tableau based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: In this comparison, IBM Cognos comes out on top. Users are happier with the support than Tableau users are, and IBM Cognos users also report an ROI.
"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."
"We are able to generate quality reports easily which allows us to decrease response time."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."
"Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."
"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."
"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."
"The product’s performance is better than other tools."
"The data blending capabilities is a huge factor for our team."
"The solution has a lot of customization when comparing to Microsoft BI."
"Its dashboarding is the most valuable. It is easy to create visualizations and dashboards and import Excel sheets and ESP files in Tableau as compared to other tools."
"The most valuable feature is the geographic data analysis."
"I have found many of the self-service features valuable."
"The most important feature is the tool is very easy to use. This makes it simple to introduce it to CxOs. After a rapid demo, they are usual impressed by the results shown, because it has such a rare simplicity."
"The most valuable features are the visualizations, the way they show the combination charts."
"There are a lot of limitations with the out-of-the-box tool."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"There are some small features that are missing. It would be nice if the graphics were better. You can use external sources for charts, but it's quite complex to use and not easy to implement. If you want a new chart, you can download it from multiple tools and implement it into IBM Cognos."
"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."
"I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information."
"The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions."
"Compared to Tableau and PowerBI, the IBM interface is easier to use. However, the drag-and-drop functionality isn't as straightforward. Formatting is also more challenging in the cloud than in other applications, like Power BI. Also, if you encounter an issue, it takes more time to resolve it on the formatting side."
"Other tools are more competitively priced."
"It needs a little bit more advanced modeling. I would like to see functionality like Cognos has in the Framework Manager."
"It needs more ETL capabilities, to be able to address the end-to-end BI need."
"Areas for improvement would be visualization and augmented analytics. In the next release, I would like to see automated insights from the data added to the dashboard."
"It would be nice if we could export more raw data. Currently, there is a limit as to how much data you can export."
"It should offer better features for customization."
"Tableau's data modeling, mining, and AI library features need improvement."
"The process of embedding the dashboards on external portals and websites could be improved."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 132 reviews while Tableau is ranked 2nd in Reporting with 290 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while Tableau is rated 8.4. 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 Tableau writes "Provides fast data access with in-memory extracts, makes it easy to create visualizations, and saves time". IBM Cognos is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Oracle OBIEE, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Oracle Hyperion and Amazon QuickSight, whereas Tableau is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Amazon QuickSight, Domo, SAS Visual Analytics and Oracle OBIEE. See our IBM Cognos vs. Tableau 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.