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 three IBM Cognos features I find the most valuable are Dynamic Cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson."
"Using custom controls, it is possible to extend the application with even more functionality and make the application intuitive and attractive."
"The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report."
"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."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."
"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."
"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"Tableau is highly scalable. Now that they've introduced Hyper, you can create an extract of more than 5 million rows in minutes and then do your analysis."
"The use of a storyboard helps the flow of the data visualisation."
"It is easy to adapt visualizers to have interactive conversations among decision-makers."
"This solution has transformed us from an Excel reporting environment to one of visual exploration."
"Tableau will automatically show charts for the related data that I choose making it very easy to use."
"When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources."
"While using this solution I have found the valuable features to be ease of use and the visualization. It is a complete solution."
"Better interaction and less time spent with end users."
"Cognos charts are not as fast as those of the other tools, even with DQM (dynamic query mode)."
"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."
"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."
"Cognos is quite slow - it's missing the performance of the PowerPlay cubes."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"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."
"Need improvement towards Visualization."
"There are a lot of limitations with the out-of-the-box tool."
"It should offer better features for customization."
"Small multiples (a.k.a. Trellis charts) are possible only through very hacky means. Update: Still remains a challenge."
"The interface can be improved, in part because there is no indication that something is running or that it's processing."
"The pricing is high. I'm using a student license, however, I know that even this license is very expensive. I've tried to have this product in our organization, however, it's quite expensive. We don't have the internal budget."
"It is not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration, data mining, etc."
"The solution could use more features in data analytics."
"When it comes to large datasets, the data should be extracted faster."
"The charts in Tableau are quite limited."
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.