Birst vs Knowage comparison

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Birst

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

Knowage and Birst are competing business intelligence platforms. Based on data comparisons, Birst seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced features.

Features: Knowage offers open-source flexibility, robust data analytics, and the ability to integrate with various systems, making it suitable for customizable solutions. Birst provides seamless cloud integration, automated data refinement, and comprehensive analytical capabilities, allowing efficient data management and visualization.

Room for Improvement: Knowage could enhance its user interface for better accessibility, expand integration options with third-party applications, and improve its documentation for ease of use. Birst might benefit from enhancing the cost-effectiveness for smaller businesses, expanding offline functionality, and offering more customization options in its analytical tools.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Knowage provides straightforward deployment familiar to IT teams with open-source frameworks, supported by community forums and commercial service options. Birst has a sophisticated deployment model that integrates smoothly with enterprise systems, backed by dedicated and responsive customer service.

Pricing and ROI: Knowage, being open source, is cost-effective with lower initial setup costs, appealing to budget-conscious organizations. Birst, despite a higher initial investment, offers strong ROI by streamlining complex data processes, making it valuable for larger enterprises seeking advanced analytical and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Birst vs. Knowage Report (Updated: August 2026).

Birst vs. Knowage

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Birst

Ranking in Reporting

28th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Embedded BI (20th)

Knowage

Ranking in Reporting

21st

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (34th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of Birst is 1.0%, up from 0.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Knowage is 2.0%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Knowage	2.0%
Birst	1.0%
Other	97.0%

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Sreenivas K

Principal Engineering Manager I at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Offers dashboards and self-service reports. The report performance is very slow.

Dashboards and self-service reports. These are widely used by customers in the EPM domain Most of our customers are interested in dashboards and self-service reports. We are able to offer them these features with this solution. Customer support takes lot of time to get a solution The report…

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Albert Masanja

Margin Assurance Analyst at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees

A stable open source suite for modern business analytics with a useful replication feature

It would be better if more resources were available to help us learn how to use it. I wanted to use Knowage for a more extended period, but learning materials around the product were not really available and were not really straightforward. I've also seen inconsistencies between versions. For example, under the tools, especially in the cockpit, the way you create reports is now different. You will also find some configurations within a particular state, like a line chart, which differs from version to version. I think consistency is an essential feature in a product, especially for business intelligence products.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Birst provides quick and helpful support on raised queries."

"We found technical support to be very good and responsive."

"Scalability is one of the core features of this product that makes Birst great."

"The impact of Birst has been felt company-wide."

"Dashboards and self-service reports. These are widely used by customers in the EPM domain."

"It has given us the ability to join all our data sources into one place to streamline reporting and analytics."

"This tool possesses valuable features such as its ability to perform ETL, extract data from various sources (flat files, relational DBs, application connectors) and dashboard scheduling."

"Birst has made it easier for us to provide embedded data visualization tools to our customers."

More Birst pros

"It's a great product. It has a lot more features than many other BI tools. You can get the most out of machine learning, the best connectivity to Python, and it cuts across enterprise sections."

"Unified interface, a lot of tools for BI, easy configuration, standalone SDK."

"We can easily do our own customizations."

"I am satisfied with the product in general given what the company invested in it, which was just our time."

"Instead of just relying on emails to disperse our reports, having a central server to do this for us has helped our organization and has pushed us into a better place."

"The embedding feature is great."

"It improves sales and products, which motivates employees."

"I can't name the features the way the Knowage community calls them because I still don't know the lingo. However, I can describe them. I like the ability to join more than one report, set all fields on one end, and replicate that on the other reports. I like that a lot. I think it's one of the features that got me using Knowage. They have tables, and I like that too. They took SQL scripts and many other scripts and enabled them to even correlate with Python. That's also one of the best things about Knowage. You could also decide to get information per user role, and this is also a feature that I like in Knowage."

More Knowage pros

Cons

"We are yet to realize the real return on the investment given the need to alter the underlying intention of the product’s use."

"I would want to see some improvement in the user management module."

"My own experience just made me think that this was a hidden cost that they tried to hide, but keeping that in mind, it might only be my experience as to how this surfaced for us, because I had this image of Birst that you pay this amount and get everything."

"I would like to see better connection functionality. It is not very intuitive and the UI is kind of neglected."

"The cost-benefit was not great."

"The administration module was built using flash. It is clunky and outdated."

"Visualization: This aspect of the product is not up to the same level as its competitors in the market."

"Error logging is cumbersome to work through to find issues."

More Birst cons

"The only challenge here is that it's a Java-based platform. It requires very high technical skills."

"There are additional features such as Data Integration, Data Visualization, MobileBI, Cloud BI, Data enrichment and massaging should be implemented in the next release."

"I faced difficulties when using the email feature and documentation was scant."

"Many things need to be improved, most of all robustness."

"We expected the community to be bigger than what it currently is."

"Unfortunately, many interesting features do not work when you are using a custom database for storing the metadata."

"When it comes to Knowage, it's a bit heavy, it's time-consuming sometimes, it's not very fast, and definitely not as fast as other business intelligence tools in terms of getting graphical reports."

"It would be better if more resources were available to help us learn how to use it. I wanted to use Knowage for a more extended period, but learning materials around the product were not really available and were not really straightforward. I've also seen inconsistencies between versions. For example, under the tools, especially in the cockpit, the way you create reports is now different. You will also find some configurations within a particular state, like a line chart, which differs from version to version. I think consistency is an essential feature in a product, especially for business intelligence products."

More Knowage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Please negotiate on the price and purchase the latest version."

"It allows the implementation of an effective reporting system using internal skills at a limited upfront cost."

"Knowage is open-source, and an enterprise edition is also available."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Construction Company

18%

Financial Services Firm

15%

Outsourcing Company

12%

Marketing Services Firm

Construction Company

24%

Manufacturing Company

University

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	7
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	6
Large Enterprise	6

Comparisons

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Compared 22% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Birst

Compared 21% of the time

Board vs Birst

Compared 6% of the time

QlikView vs Birst

Compared 6% of the time

Qlik Sense vs Birst

Compared 5% of the time

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Tableau Enterprise vs Knowage

Compared 8% of the time

Pentaho Business Analytics vs Knowage

Compared 7% of the time

Procurify vs Knowage

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Knowage

Compared 5% of the time

ElegantJ BI vs Knowage

Compared 5% of the time

More Knowage Competitors

Product Reports

Birst

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Download Knowage product report

Also Known As

No data available

SpagoBI

Overview

Birst is a comprehensive business intelligence platform that leverages cloud technology to unify data from multiple sources, facilitating informed decision-making for enterprises by offering robust analytics and reporting capabilities.

Birst offers businesses a seamless way to transform data into valuable insights by integrating data across cloud and on-premise environments. Known for its powerful analytics and user-friendly interface, Birst provides a cohesive platform for data exploration and visualization, making it ideal for organizations aiming to innovate their data strategy.

What are the key features of Birst?

Networked BI: Connects various data ecosystems to deliver consistent analytics across the enterprise.
Automated Data Refinement: Streamlines data cleansing and integration with minimal manual intervention.
Visualization and Dashboards: Offers customizable dashboards for intuitive data display and analysis.
Embedded Analytics: Allows integration of analytics into other applications for contextual insights.

What benefits or ROI should you consider?

Scalability: Grows with business needs, allowing for extensive data handling without loss of performance.
Cost Efficiency: Reduces the need for multiple tools by unifying data functions into one platform.
Enhanced Decision Making: Provides timely and accurate insights leading to better strategic decisions.
Increased Productivity: Automates data processes, which frees up resources for more critical tasks.

Birst finds applications in various industries including finance, retail, and healthcare. In finance, it helps in risk management and financial reporting. Retailers use Birst for performance insights and customer analytics, while healthcare organizations leverage it for patient data analysis and operational efficiency.

Infor

Knowage is an open-source business intelligence suite offering features like engine concepts and report customization. It's favored for its integration capabilities and self-service BI functionality, allowing users to leverage cross-platform access and conduct comprehensive data analysis.

Knowage stands out in the BI landscape by providing tools that facilitate autonomous data exploration, with an emphasis on flexibility and extensive integration options. With capabilities for embedding reports and dynamic dashboards, it supports various analysis needs through integration with databases and tools like Jasper and BIRT. Despite its technical complexity and interface limitations, Knowage's features such as GIS integration and big data visualization enhance operational efficiency and profitability analysis.

What are the key features of Knowage?

Powerful engines: Facilitate complex data processing with high efficiency.
Report customization: Tailor reports to meet specific business requirements.
Cross-platform access: Enable data accessibility across different devices.
Open-source: Leverage the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of open-source solutions.
Embedding capabilities: Integrate seamlessly with tools like Jasper for enhanced functionality.
Python support: Use Python for advanced data correlation and analyses.
GIS integration: Incorporate geographical data for enriched insights.

What benefits should you consider in reviews?

Increased efficiency: Streamlined report deployment and big data visualization.
Comprehensive analysis: Tools for evaluating activities and profitability.
Data export options: Support for exporting data in preferred formats simplifies reporting tasks.
Operational cost savings: Eliminates the need for third-party BI solutions.

In the healthcare and financial sectors, Knowage is used for deriving insights from health data warehouses and performing financial analyses. Companies use it to create dashboards and reports from MySQL databases, embedding them for wider distribution, and enabling effective resource evaluation and decision-making.

Sample Customers

Citrix Systems, Jive Software, SunnyD, Toshiba Medical Systems, Cisco OpenDNS, RB, Sunny D, Vertafore

FIAT Group, Italian air navigation service provider, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Telecom Italia, ASL Genovese, San Giovanni Battista University Hospital

Birst vs. Knowage