• Home
  • IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics

IBM Cognos vs Pentaho Business Analytics comparison

Cancel
You must select at least 2 products to compare!
IBM Logo
IBM Cognos
Read 132 IBM Cognos reviews
9,140 views|5,304 comparisons
91% willing to recommend
Hitachi Vantara Logo
Pentaho Business Analytics
Read 42 Pentaho Business Analytics reviews
1,134 views|830 comparisons
89% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Download the complete report
Buyer's Guide
IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
May 2024
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Pentaho Business Analytics based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics Report (Updated: May 2024).
Download the complete report
771,063 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
SalmanAhmad
Has a user-friendly interface and simple integration
Previously, we were doing static reporting. Management would request a report, and it would take staff a week or more to provide it. With Cognos,... Read more →
Mir Gulzar Ahmed
Excels in handling unstructured data, helping organizations navigate through different storage systems
Pentaho Business Analytics can significantly improve an organization's IT insite, instead of creating silos of their data, they can manage, analyze... Read more →
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"The three IBM Cognos features I find the most valuable are Dynamic Cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson.""The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools.""The comprehensiveness or broadness of the software functions or business intelligence functions that it provides is valuable. It is also quite easy to use and user-friendly.""When it comes to decision-making, the product is very useful and used in many departments since a lot of people prefer the reports to be generated by IBM Cognos.""It is a stable product.""If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense.""Even while a user is using a cube for reporting, there will not be a situation as ' Cube file locked; unable to build or deploy'.""Security administration tools are powerful and flexible."

More IBM Cognos Pros →

"We were able to install it without any assistance from tech support.""Easy to use components to create the job.""Pentaho is an analytics platform that can be used when an organization has a lot of big data storage systems already installed and needs to manage and analyze that data. It has a specific use case for unstructured data, such as documents, and needs to be able to search and analyze it.""The initial setup is pretty straightforward.""Pentaho Business Analytics' best features include the ease of developing data flows and the wide range of options to connect to databases, including those on the cloud.""I use the BI Server, CDE Dashboards, Saiku, and Kettle, because these tools are very good and highly experienced.""The most valuable feature of Pentaho is the Tableau report."

More Pentaho Business Analytics Pros →

Cons
"It could have more options for themes.""There are a lot of limitations with the out-of-the-box tool.""Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures.""I don't like that when we use Colab packages, we get less functionality. For example, you can make groups of data with Excel or with the data sets from the packages, but when you use the Colab packages directly, you can only group the data when you analyze it with Analysis Studio. I think Cognos needs to improve more on this functionality.""We would like to see development of the product's UI function, to make it more of a UI tool that can be configured as required.""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 charts and graphics are weak.""I think the GIS pieces maybe not as good as we would like."

More IBM Cognos Cons →

"Another concern is that Pentaho is not customizable or interactive.""The repository should be improved.""Version control would be a good addition.""Deployment is not simple. It is not simple because we are dealing with a lot of data; we are dealing with a lot of storage. So, it's not a simple process.""Pentaho Business Analytics' user interface is outdated.""Logging capability is needed.""Pentaho, at the general level, should greatly improve the easy construction of its dashboards and easy integration of information from different sources without technical user intervention.""We did not achieve the ROI. The work delivered to users had lesser value than the subscription cost."

More Pentaho Business Analytics Cons →

Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
  • "The pricing and licensing policies are comparatively cheaper than other products in the market ."
  • "IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."
  • "Pricing should be improved."
  • "The pricing of this product is meant for medium to large-scale enterprises."
  • "It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
  • "Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
  • "It is quite pricy. I think Microsoft BI is cheaper. Tableau might also be cheaper, but it also depends on the usage. If you have very many users, Cognos can be a problem. It could be cheaper than Tableau but not for so many users. If you have a few thousand users, Tableau, which is generally quite expensive, can be cheaper than Cognos."

    • More IBM Cognos Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Free and commercial versions are available."
  • "Pentaho is expensive ."
  • "We were lucky enough to find a Pentaho OEM partner who offered a data warehouse model and the ETL software for about 60K SGD per year."

    • More Pentaho Business Analytics Pricing and Cost Advice →

    report
    See Which Vendors Are Best For You
    Use our free recommendation engine to learn which BI (Business Intelligence) Tools solutions are best for your needs.
    See Recommendations
    771,063 professionals have used our research since 2012.
    Comparison Review
    Anonymous User
    Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

    Valuable Features

    1. SAP BO/BI Enterprise scalability Security Ease of use Semantic layer 2. Tableau Visualization Data discovery Turnaround time 3. IBM Cognos Enterprise scalability Security In-memory feature 4. MS BI - Flexibility 5. Pentaho - Open source but still enterprise grade 6. QlikView Data visualization Turnaround time. 7. OBIEE Enterprise security Semantic model

    Room for Improvement

    1. SAP BO/BI Visualization 2. Tableau Scalability 3. IBM Cognos Ease of use 4. MS BI Visualization Ease of use 5. Pentaho Ease of use Semantic layer 6. QlikView Scalability 7. OBIEE Visualization Database connectivities

    Use of Solution

    I have used SAP for almost 12 years Tableau – Rate 6/10 overall but 9/10 for visualization. I have used it for three years IBM Cognos - Rate 7/10 and I have used it for three years MS BI - Rate 5/10 and I have used it for two years Pentaho - Rate 5/10 and I have used it for over five years QlikView- Rate 7/10 and I have used it for two years OBIEE – Rate 7/10 and I have used it for five years

    Customer Service and Technical Support

    Customer Service: SAP BO/BI - Below average Tableau - Good IBM Cognos - Average MS BI - Average Pentaho - Average QlikView - Above average OBIEE - Average Technical Support: SAP BO/BI - Below average Tableau - Good IBM Cognos - Average MS BI - Average Pentaho - Average QlikView - Above average OBIEE - Average

    Other Advice

    There is no perfect solution or one…     Read more →
    Questions from the Community
    Seeking lightweight open source BI software
    Top Answer:It depends on the Data architecture and the complexity of your requirement Some great tools in the market are Qlik Sense, Power BI, OBIEE, Tableau, etc. I have recently started using Cognos… more »
    Read all 8 answers   →
    What do you like most about IBM Cognos?
    Top Answer:The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.
    Read all 29 answers   →
    What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
    Top Answer:The tool does not have much documentation on the internet. It is not easy to resolve issues by finding the reason for the problem on the internet. The tool needs to have more documentation on the… more »
    Read all 31 answers   →
    Seeking lightweight open source BI software
    Top Answer:There are many...It would rather depend what System BI architecture or Enterprise legacy you have at your end...I would recommend as follows:  1) If you have legacies of SAP, Oracle  - look for SAP… more »
    Read all 8 answers   →
    What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pentaho Business ...
    Top Answer:The organization has both options based on their needs and budget constraints. The Enterprise Edition is expensive with references to an added number of features.
    Read all 4 answers   →
    What needs improvement with Pentaho Business Analytics?
    Top Answer:The product to me is not as user-friendly as other players in the market. It also still needs improvement in the reporting module. You will need to search for deployment examples or need to have a… more »
    Read all 5 answers   →
    Ranking
    7th
    out of 114 in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
    Views
    9,140
    Comparisons
    5,304
    Reviews
    13
    Average Words per Review
    449
    Rating
    8.2
    19th
    out of 114 in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
    Views
    1,134
    Comparisons
    830
    Reviews
    4
    Average Words per Review
    526
    Rating
    7.3
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
    Pentaho, Kettle, Hitachi Pentaho Business Analytics
    Learn More
    IBM
    Hitachi Vantara
    Overview

    IBM Cognos Business Intelligence provides a wide range of tools to help you analyze your organization's data. IBM Cognos BI allows businesses to monitor events and metrics, create and view business reports, and analyze data to help them make effective business decisions.

    IBM Cognos applies techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data, and draw conclusions. This allows users to see trends and discover anomalies or variances that may not be evident by simply reading data. Data sources that contain information from different areas of a business can be stored in separate packages. Users can see only information that they have been granted access to, based on their group or role.

    IBM Cognos BI consolidates the following business intelligence functions into a single web-based solution:

    • IBM Cognos Insight: Create personal and managed workspaces for data analysis. Using these interactive workspaces, you can share insight results with managers. Cognos Insight supports write-back, and you can also use these workspaces to capture and integrate management goals, commitments, and forecasts.

    • IBM Cognos Workspace: With IBM Cognos Workspace, you can create rich, interactive workspaces using IBM Cognos content as well as data from external sources. You can view and open your favorite workspaces and reports, edit content in your workspaces, and share your workspaces via email.

    • IBM Cognos Analytics: IBM Cognos Analytics utilizes built-in AI and intuitive searches which helps users to quickly create the visualizations and a wide range of reports. Cognos Analytics provides cognitive and managed self-service, enabling you to gain insights from controlled and trusted data.

    • IBM Cognos Report Studio and IBM Cognos Query Studio: Easily create structured and query reports. IBM Cognos allows users to create application and report templates. In addition, report authors can reuse report objects to apply filters, fields, and styles to reports. Users can set the language of the user interface and report content according to the user's native language.

    • IBM Cognos Event Studio: Receive notifications of events that occur within your organization in real time. Event Studio enables the creation of agents that detect the occurrence of business events, failures, or anomalies, based on the change of specific events or data conditions. Notification can be sent via email, publication in the portal, or by triggering reports.

    • IBM Cognos Connection: This is the Web portal for IBM Cognos BI and is the central area for accessing all the IBM Cognos functions. In the web portal, users can schedule and distribute reports, create tasks, administer the server and the access permissions, and more.

    Reviews from Real Users

    IBM Cognos stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its powerful analysis tool and its reporting capabilities.

    Prasad B., a senior software engineer at a financial services firm, notes, “The product is a very good reporting tool and is very flexible. It allows for the users to get a scheduled report. We can receive automated reports as well. They are easy to schedule on a weekly or monthly basis. It is very fast. I mean in means of report output, it's very fast compared to the actual clients involved.”

    Pentaho is an open source business intelligence company that provides a wide range of tools to help their customers better manage their businesses. These tools include data integration software, mining tools, dashboard applications, online analytical processing options, and more.

    Pentaho has two product categories: There is the standard enterprise version. This is the product that comes directly from Pentaho itself with all of the benefits, features, and programs that come along with a paid application such us analysis services, dashboard design, and interactive reporting.

    The alternative is an open source version, which the public is permitted to add to and tweak the product. This solution has its advantages, aside from the fact that it is free, in that there are many more people working on the project to improve its quality and breadth of functionality.

    Sample Customers
    More than 23,000 leading organizations across multiple industries use Cognos. Some examples of Cognos customers include BMW Financial Services, Quinte Health Care, Troy Corporation, Michigan State University, and GKN Land System.
    Cargo 2000 Lufthansa, Marketo, ModCloth, Cardiac Science, Telefonica, ExactTarget, Active Broadband Networks, and Brussels Airport.
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Computer Software Company11%
    Insurance Company8%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization58%
    Financial Services Firm7%
    Computer Software Company5%
    Government4%
    REVIEWERS
    Computer Software Company19%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    University13%
    Educational Organization6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm22%
    Government12%
    Computer Software Company12%
    Educational Organization9%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business23%
    Midsize Enterprise15%
    Large Enterprise61%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business8%
    Midsize Enterprise62%
    Large Enterprise31%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise17%
    Large Enterprise33%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business26%
    Midsize Enterprise13%
    Large Enterprise61%
    Buyer's Guide
    IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
    May 2024
    Free Report: IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics
    Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics and other solutions. Updated: May 2024.
    DOWNLOAD NOW
    771,063 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    IBM Cognos is ranked 7th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 132 reviews while Pentaho Business Analytics is ranked 19th in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools with 42 reviews. IBM Cognos is rated 8.0, while Pentaho Business Analytics 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 Pentaho Business Analytics writes "Flexible, easy to understand, and simple to set up". IBM Cognos is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Oracle OBIEE, Tableau, SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform and Oracle Hyperion, whereas Pentaho Business Analytics is most compared with Microsoft Power BI, Databricks, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and SAP Crystal Reports. See our IBM Cognos vs. Pentaho Business Analytics report.

    See our list of best BI (Business Intelligence) Tools vendors and best Reporting vendors.

    We monitor all BI (Business Intelligence) Tools 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.