IBM Cognos vs Looker Studio comparison

IBM and Google are both solutions in the Reporting category. IBM is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.3, while Google is ranked #11 with an average rating of 7.6. IBM holds a 3.3% mindshare in RT, compared to Google’s 2.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 83% of Google users who would recommend it.

IBM Cognos

Read 137 IBM Cognos reviews

5,536 Views
2,104 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Looker Studio

Read 16 Looker Studio reviews

1,849 Views
869 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

IBM Cognos

Looker Studio

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

IBM Cognos and Looker Studio are both in the business intelligence tools category. Users tend to prefer Looker Studio due to its integration with Google products, while IBM Cognos is favored for its comprehensive analytics features.

Features: IBM Cognos offers a wide array of tools like Report Studio and Query Studio, excelling in data modeling and complex analytics. It integrates effortlessly with diverse databases, providing robust reporting capabilities. Looker Studio is noted for its integration with Google Sheets and Excel, making data management intuitive and enabling detailed trend analysis.

Room for Improvement: IBM Cognos faces a steep learning curve and challenges with visualization capabilities compared to newer tools like Tableau. Users have noted its speed and flexibility issues when handling large datasets. On the other hand, Looker Studio's area for improvement lies in its lack of advanced calculation capabilities and the need for better live data integration and performance metrics.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Cognos is usually deployed on-premises, which might present challenges relative to Looker Studio's cloud-native setup, allowing for faster deployment. Cognos provides competent technical support that may come at a higher cost, whereas customer service experiences vary for both solutions depending on region and issue complexity.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Cognos requires a higher initial investment but delivers substantial ROI for large enterprises with complex needs, although pricing concerns arise due to complex licensing. Looker Studio is generally seen as cost-effective, being available for free, but additional integration costs can occur based on data sources and setup requirements, making it ideal for straightforward organizational needs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Cognos vs. Looker Studio Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos vs. Looker Studio

December 2025

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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

IBM Cognos

Ranking in Reporting

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.0

Number of Reviews

137

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (9th)

Looker Studio

Ranking in Reporting

11th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

5.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.3%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Looker Studio is 2.7%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Reporting Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cognos	3.3%
Looker Studio	2.7%
Other	94.0%

Reporting

Featured Reviews

Dishan Patel

Senior Software Engineer at McKinsey and Company

Efficient reporting with strong scheduling and time-saving features

The best features IBM Cognos offers include scheduled reports, calculation and transformation of raw data, and flexibility with the Excel format, which all stand out as especially valuable. I rely most on scheduling, calculation and transformation, and Excel flexibility, and these features affect my daily work by allowing me to use this tool for reporting to make and schedule reports easily. We are able to schedule over 300 reports in a day, where we also schedule them weekly to over 40 executives. Additionally, IBM Cognos transforms raw data into insights and analytics, enabling our data team to make great insights and data-driven decisions easily. IBM Cognos has positively impacted my organization by enhancing our data analysis capability which has helped us in our business planning. It is a great tool for reporting capacity, enabling us to update all of the leadership management about our business in one report. Auto scheduling and report generation are strong features that save a lot of time. Precisely, we have been able to save about 60% of our time from IBM Cognos Analytics, which helps us to make data decisions easily while also saving a lot of time.

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Heron Ziegel

Project Engineer at Quartz Consulting Group

Has supported quick dashboard creation and data sharing but lacks tools for managing multiple reports efficiently

We integrated Looker Studio with other platforms in our data ecosystem; we tried integrating with Sheets, and that went okay, but it could have been better. It could have been better because it needed a very specific format to read the data, so we had to reformat the sheet file. Looker Studio was mostly just helpful in that it provided live updating charts for tracking performance indicators in the organization. Integrating with a database was very difficult because there wasn't a lot of feedback for what was going wrong with the connection. I don't remember if we reached out to support. I didn't personally reach out, but my boss may have. I didn't reach out to support, so I do not have experience with it to rate it. We worked with the free version of Looker Studio initially, and we upgraded at some point to the pro version; I don't remember if we actually paid for it or if it was just a free trial. The pricing was reasonable. I remember doing a price comparison, and it was pretty reasonable, but it did have fewer features than a lot of other software, which was okay for a comparable price but a little cheaper.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."

"Self-service is possible through the use of dashboards, which are also very intuitive. Stories can be used to pin snapshots, tell the story for meetings, etc."

"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."

"We use IBM Cognos for enterprise analytics and reporting."

"Comparing IBM Cognos to other applications, once a person is trained on it or they have developed a skill set to operate the application, it is best in its category."

"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."

"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'."

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

More IBM Cognos pros

"The solution is free so that is a good feature."

"The fact that Looker Studio is free and has a free tier was probably the biggest benefit; it is very accessible and not too difficult to use."

"What I appreciate about Looker Studio is mostly the clean visuals, which is good, as I prefer a dashboard with a clean aesthetic rather than feeling sort of an old Windows type of dashboard."

"The product's initial setup phase is very simple."

"Valuable features include advanced integrated analysis and easy implementation."

"Data Studio integrates seamlessly with other Google products, and we can use it with other APIs if we like."

"I find it favorable regarding speed of development, ease of building, and flexibility."

"The best thing about the tool is that it allows you to share information easily and dashboards with colleagues and teammates because it's all online. No matter where you are, as long as you have the Internet, you can connect and use these dashboards. Google made good documentation for this tool. There are many examples of how to use and create dashboards and videos on YouTube. So, I think it's easy to learn."

More Looker Studio pros

Cons

"I would like to see the introduction of mapbooks for supporting some geographical information."

"Tableau and Power BI are faster than Cognos."

"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."

"Need improvement towards Visualization."

"The visualization aspect needs to be improved and I believe, this is being resolved in upcoming versions."

"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."

"We are generally satisfied, but I am not certain if IBM Cognos meets every feature request from users since we only provide IBM Cognos as our standard and do not maintain infrastructure for other tools."

"The AI-based features could be further enhanced by the solution."

More IBM Cognos cons

"From the perspective of infrastructure, I cannot provide a valuable opinion on the ease of use and customization options of Looker Studio."

"Looker Studio did not fit our needs for scalability."

"Insisting on forums, blogs and community outreach in communications, and posting videos on an established calendar would be useful."

"When you physically install a product on one machine instead of the cloud, you have a better visibility, best icon quality, etc.. It's more of an issue with how we are adapting to the transition. We are still in the early moments of using this tool, and we need to go deeper to discover some improvements."

"There is a significant degree of sophistication required to compete with Tableau or Cognos."

"There are issues with integration and I encountered limits and warnings, especially with my pivot table size."

"Stability and scalability an be improved for a full ten."

"It's not yet a replacement for a complete BI tool."

More Looker Studio cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is pretty expensive."

"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."

"The solution is affordable."

"There is a standard license required to use this solution. There are some additional tools but I am not sure if they are an extra cost."

"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."

"I don't know the exact cost, but I believe Cognos is quite expensive, especially when it comes to the support consultants and the procedures that need to be applied."

"I rate the product price as four or five on a scale from one to ten, where one is a low price, and ten is a high price."

"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"The solution is free but the Google Looker is expensive."

"The product is available for free."

"The tool is free."

"I think the tool is cheap because you don't need to pay anything for using the tool. However, when connecting and analyzing other data sources, you should consider where to analyze this information because Google Data Studio doesn't handle much data well. You must also consider how you will connect this data to it. In this case, you might need to hire DevOps or a data team to help with these issues."

"The cost is quite affordable based on feature analysis."

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Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head with 5,001-10,000 employees

Feb 4, 2015

Comparison of SAP BO, Tableau, QlikView, Cognos, Microsoft, OBIEE and Pentaho

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…

Read full review

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

14%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	34
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	87

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

Seeking lightweight open source BI software

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 Enter...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Cognos?

The solution's most valuable feature is its ease of use, which makes it easily compatible with other tools.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?

Since IBM Cognos is a futuristic platform with many robust features, it takes time to grasp all the features and how they work, so there is a learning curve. The more I use this platform, the more ...

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What do you like most about Google Data Studio?

The company dashboard is useful because we could share it via a link as a reminder for everyone to check it weekly. We observed the progress of our portfolio from last week to the current week, all...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Data Studio?

I would appreciate improvements in the data modeling features, as it's not straightforward, and it's not what people in analytics are used to. Specifically, most people using this visualization too...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Data Studio?

I used Looker Studio mainly for reporting, where I created multiple dashboards on it. I wouldn't say I made the most of the usage of the connections because all the connections were based on flat f...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos

Compared 11% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 6% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs IBM Cognos

Compared 6% of the time

SQL Server vs IBM Cognos

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Amazon QuickSight vs Looker Studio

Compared 31% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Looker Studio

Compared 14% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs Looker Studio

Compared 8% of the time

RStudio Connect vs Looker Studio

Compared 4% of the time

Databricks vs Looker Studio

Compared 3% of the time

More Looker Studio Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

January 2026

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

Looker Studio

January 2026

Download Looker Studio product report

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics

Data Studio

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.”

IBM

Google Looker Studio is a free tool designed to help users create visually appealing reports and dashboards, making data easier to understand. It allows you to connect to various data sources such as Google Analytics, Facebook Ads, and spreadsheets. With Looker Studio, you can create charts and graphs to showcase trends and comparisons, build comprehensive dashboards that provide an overview of your data, and customize reports to match your brand or preferences. Additionally, you can share your reports online or export them as PDFs for wider distribution.

Google

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.

Genesys, Shueisha

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos vs. Looker Studio

December 2025

Free Report: IBM Cognos vs. Looker Studio

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