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 most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."
"It is a stable product."
"It has a very powerful edit feature which allows users to back out of changes (undo) without forcing them to recreate entire reports."
"Self-service is possible through the use of dashboards, which are also very intuitive. Stories can be used to pin snapshots, tell the story for meetings, etc."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."
"The most valuable feature is the interface, which is user-friendly and intuitive."
"Since Tableau is on the cloud, we haven't faced any challenges around scalability."
"There is a lot of APIs available, which means that Tableau can be customized to a large extent."
"I believe one of the most valuable features of the solution is trend analysis."
"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."
"It's a very good, flexible product, and it's easy to learn."
"Its performance is pretty good, and the development time is very low."
"The stability seems to be very reliable."
"The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved."
"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."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"In terms of what could be improved, I would say, monitoring, monitoring, monitoring. Some improvements in monitoring would be helpful. I'd like to see more monitoring of specific reports and fields. The way the auditing is now is very limited, so I'd like to see more of that - of the monitoring."
"I would like for the platform to become more standard. If we make a development on our report and our dashboard, it will not be used in another solution. That means there is no portability for the developers."
"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"We need big servers to perform the operations that we are doing. They should probably relook at its architecture."
"The solution could improve the scalability, it is difficult to make changes."
"Improvements can be made in template support. The workbook file structure is really hard to version control. If there was some sort of version control support offered particularly for workbooks, that would help big time."
"The customization requires a lot of effort and should be simplified. The performance could be better."
"An advanced type of visualization is a bit tricky to create. It has something called a Calculated field, and that sometimes gets a bit difficult to use when you want to create an advanced type of visualization."
"The data processing in Tableau is pathetic compared to Qlik."
"Other tools are more competitively priced."
"The solution could use more features in data analytics."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 129 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.