We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Microsoft BI based on our users’ reviews in five categories. After reading all of the collected data, you can find our conclusion below.
Comparison Results: Microsoft BI has a slight edge in this comparison. According to its reviewers, it is a more lightweight solution than IBM Cognos.
"This solution allows you to input a wide range of file formats."
"The most valuable features of IBM Cognos are governance and enterprise reporting."
"A drag-and-drop interface for selecting creating ad hoc reports makes this product very easy to use."
"The three IBM Cognos features I find the most valuable are Dynamic Cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson."
"It is a stable product."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"A positive feature is Report Studio, where we create beautiful, complex reports."
"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."
"The solution is easy to use."
"The most valuable feature of Power BI is its ability to provide customized visualizations and insights tailored to specific business needs."
"The capability to add custom visuals and create Power BI apps. You can package datasets, synchronization details, and dashboards into a single app."
"Provides data feeds for enterprise KPI reporting."
"Users already using Excel can generate new reports and dashboards within minutes."
"There is a feature in Microsoft BI that allows JSON data to SQL on the dashboards effectively and quickly."
"The uploading of information is very easy, as you just use an Excel sheet to start work right away and obtain the benefits of Power BI."
"The product is user-friendly."
"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."
"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."
"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."
"The solution's support could be better."
"There are some problems with how Cognos handles huge data sets and when connecting with multiple sources and searching the data."
"One key area for improvement is the need to improve the self-service nature and functionality of the product in terms of visual analytics."
"Chart quality: many other competitors have charts and graphics that look much better and that provide dynamic effects. Cognos doesn't."
"Needs single sign-on."
"The solution struggles with large amounts of data."
"The accounting data needs improvement."
"I would like to see a change in the premium capacity."
"I feel the modeling page should be simplified."
"Power BI could be improved by implementing more options for data integration. Nowadays, the cloud takes care of scalability and security. As we all know, data sources are increasing, so we get data from a variety of streams. But if we could get the downstream data into the database and update the reports more easily, Power BI would be better."
"BI is scalable, but there are some problems with limited online storage."
"Capacity could be improved."
IBM Cognos is ranked 4th in Reporting with 132 reviews while Microsoft Power BI is ranked 1st in Reporting with 297 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while Microsoft Power BI is rated 8.0. 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 Microsoft Power BI writes "A complete ecosystem with an builtin ETL tool, good integrations with python and R, and support of DAX and Power Query (M languages)". IBM Cognos is most compared with Oracle OBIEE, Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform, Oracle Hyperion and Amazon QuickSight, whereas Microsoft Power BI is most compared with Tableau, Amazon QuickSight, KNIME, Domo and SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. See our IBM Cognos vs. Microsoft Power BI 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.