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.
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"The main difference that I like about Cognos compared to other solutions is its data splitting functionality. We have all our company data inside the Cognos environment and so we prefer to split the information Cognos itself. It's more efficient this way."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."
"The three IBM Cognos features I find the most valuable are Dynamic Cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson."
"The solution helps users create dashboards and analyze data without relying on IT or product teams."
"The solution is being delivered to our customer, who appreciates the insights generated from the reports. It is easy for them to drill into the details and use interactive charts."
"The most valuable features are the visualizations, the way they show the combination charts."
"The product’s performance is better than other tools."
"The number one thing was just the ease of getting something up quickly. The other thing that was good about it was that it was fairly fast for decent-sized data sets in terms of performance and run time."
"It is very easy to implement and to use."
"It is a very stable product. It doesn't break."
"The solution has a lot of customization when comparing to Microsoft BI."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"We need more predictive analytical functions, not only diagnostic or decryptic analytics."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"This product could use improvement in terms of usability for those with less technical know how."
"The solution's support could be better."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"Need improvement towards Visualization."
"We would like a report model, because currently there is no schema that we can create in the tool."
"The solution needs to improve its integration capabilities."
"The setup was easy but we are having some problems with the configuration that is taking a long time. We have done some initial tests and some of the delays could be from bandwidth issues. However, the whole installation process should be simplified."
"There's no mature ETL tool in Tableau, which is quite a negative for them."
"The pricing is a bit higher than the competition. They'll need to lower it to stay competitive."
"Tableau's data modeling, mining, and AI library features need improvement."
"If you mainly need a tool for BI reporting, it's not the best option. Tableau needs better abilities to generate simple reports, integrate, create databases, and work with data lakes."
"The customization in the front end is a bit difficult."
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.