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.
"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 solution's initial setup process is easy."
"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."
"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."
"The Report Studio that is aimed at professional report writers."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
"Mapbox integration for geospatial analytics down to longitude/latitude layers."
"It has been the best tool to work with from a self-service point of view."
"It is so easy to do a lot of things. There is a lot of flexibility and creativity in this product. In other products, you don't have this flexibility."
"The most valuable feature is the user experience."
"The most valuable feature is the geographic data analysis."
"It's easy to use."
"The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice."
"The initial setup is simple."
"Visualization attributes: Marks – Color, Size, Label, etc.. Easily Accessible and Intuitive."
"They should provide improved visual reporting."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"I would like them to reinclude PowerPlay. One thing that I am missing in the current Cognos is what was formally named PowerPlay. They have basically removed PowerPlay from it, which is something that I fail to understand because it was the most wonderful tool for business intelligence that I've ever used. As far as I know, they don't provide this functionality anymore, so this is one thing that I dislike about Cognos."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."
"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."
"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."
"The price of Tableau is too high."
"Its price should be improved. Its price is much higher than Power BI and QlikView. Programming is not easy on Tableau. For programming, you have to have a separate model. They should include programming directly on the web portion of the Tableau desktop so that people can write Python or JavaScript code for customizations instead of using a different model. Currently, Tableau Data Prep is a separate application that you have to purchase. It would be helpful if they can include Tableau Data Prep and programming languages such as R, Python in the next version. Tableau Public, which is a community version, doesn't allow you to save your work on your desktop. They should allow it. Currently, you can only upload it in the community."
"There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features."
"When it comes to large datasets, the data should be extracted faster."
"The product's features for cloud integration need improvement."
"The performance could be better."
"When compared to Power BI, it is less user-friendly."
"The interface can be improved, in part because there is no indication that something is running or that it's processing."
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.