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.
"Integration with Office can enable the 'download' mode of storytelling."
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"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."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
"Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"Gradual scalability from simple to complex situations"
"It is very good for data visualization. It has very powerful visualizations and is easy to use."
"I consider Tableau to be the best analytical tool available. It's really handy to use and can be used by non-technical people."
"The most valuable features of the solution are the permission management and the user management."
"The use of a storyboard helps the flow of the data visualisation."
"It's easy to use."
"Show Me is a feature to help with knowing which chart is an appropriate one for the selected variables, and it makes helps in creating appropriate visuals."
"It is a complete solution allowing a lot of integrations, different graphics, multiple operations and analyzes our date and gives us meaning from it."
"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."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"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."
"The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved."
"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."
"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."
"The charts and graphics are weak."
"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."
"It should have more integration with different tools and technologies. Its licensing cost should also be improved."
"With Tableau, when you're dealing with very large datasets, it can be slow so the performance is an area that can be improved."
"There should be stronger data modules for the platform."
"If you wanted to create something without making it an extra column in the data set, you can't just rename it to a more user-friendly short name."
"The tool's OpenAI integration was announced last year. However, it is late. Tableau is a good solution for end customers. However, there are some concerns regarding the stability and performance of its server architecture, including SaaS services. The server side appears unstable, and performance issues are noticeable, often accompanied by unclear error messages."
"It is not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration, data mining, etc."
"I would like Tableau Prep to be integrated with Tableau Desktop. I would also like more customizations for tables."
"Bursting email is needed to deliver the reports to many people in their inboxes and this functionality is not provided by Tableau."
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.