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.
"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"The initial setup is quite straightforward."
"Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users."
"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."
"In terms of stability, I think that Cognos is more stable than Tableau and Power Bi because of its framework manager concept that allows us to import metadata and store it in the framework manager."
"We found Tableau has the quickest learning time out of the few other BI reporting tools that we have used."
"I like the visualization component."
"The ease of presenting findings is very helpful."
"The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice."
"You can create attractive dashboards that inform users using Tableau."
"The best use case for us is the solution's integration with Salesforce because we are also partners of Salesforce."
"Tableau has data relationships that can be applied to a data source which helps build out a directory which is helpful. Data blending has also been valuable to us."
"Easy for beginners to use"
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"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."
"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."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information."
"The pricing is a bit higher than the competition. They'll need to lower it to stay competitive."
"It needs a little bit more advanced modeling. I would like to see functionality like Cognos has in the Framework Manager."
"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."
"Could have more integrations with different platforms."
"Most of the problems in Tableau Online that I have noticed have to do with performance or weird, inexplicable bugs that I can't pin down. For example, you might try unloading some data, and you'll be waiting for a long time without anything happening."
"It is not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration, data mining, etc."
"There should be more widgets that would help less trained individuals create charts with less difficulty."
"If they could add global filters in the stories, more chart types, and default colours, it would help."
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.