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IBM Cognos vs Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 4, 2025

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
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (7th)
Microsoft SQL Server Report...
Ranking in Reporting
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 4.6%, down from 5.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is 3.4%, down from 4.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

AMOL JAJU - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers ad hoc analysis reports and good for operational dashboarding
There used to be many valuable features, but in the last three or four years, whatever IBM is doing with enhancements, it has taken a lot of time to build and develop. But the best usage of Cognos is the ad hoc analysis reports. I really like that. Our customers also like that. But now the usage of Cognos and OBIE is reduced by various business users because people and business users are now more focused on analytics, slice and dice, and the dashboard, and the widgets.
MartinSimons - PeerSpot reviewer
Ensures database access and monitoring have been manageable, but batch load analysis needs better support
There are occasions during maintenance runs when the Check Point monitoring system reports a lot of blocked sessions. This is typically due to system processes or maintenance processes that temporarily block themselves. Additionally, a tool within the studio for performing SQL analysis does not provide useful information for batch load processes, often advising not to use an index, which is expected with batch loads.

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."
"One of the strong suits of Cognos is its robust corporate reporting capability."
"The correlation analysis is excellent. It's one of the best that I have used to date."
"The initial setup was straightforward."
"The basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"IBM Cognos offers tools so that you can design and develop your own test queries and reporting solutions."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"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."
"We were able to embed the report builder within our internal proprietary systems, improving our reporting capabilities."
"We get good support from Microsoft."
"The SQL Server Reporting Services makes it very easy to get the data whenever we need it."
"It is a stable solution."
"I like Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services' automated reporting feature."
"The initial setup is easy."
"We can create quality reports in real time."
"The solution is known for its robust security features."
 

Cons

"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."
"IBM Cognos's error messages seem to be a bit ambiguous. An error will be encountered and a message will be sent out very ambiguous and after investigating the error message it could be any number of issues. There was never a direct answer to the question or a direct answer to the error messages. Sometimes it would be a generic error message for 21 different solutions. It wasn't very specific, which required a lot of digging around and trial and error trying to fix the problem. The messaging in their error messaging is something needing improvement."
"There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness."
"It is a costly product; it is comparatively expensive."
"The high cost of a license makes it hard to scale up on a budget."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"The solution seems to slow down the servers."
"They were lacking in the initial phases of development in the area of big data, and they still need to improve that aspect of the product."
"Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services needs to improve performance."
"Sometimes, we need to make sure that the configuration stays consistent across the reporting instances. They all connect to the same database. So, it shares that same backend, but the reporting services itself can also be configured. On the application level, for reporting level. And it is, based on my own experience, it is a manual effort to make sure that the reporting servers are configured the same across the environment."
"I would like the solution to add the scheduling feature for reports."
"We have had issues with the refresh interval since we have too many reports scheduled. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services is also expensive."
"We encounter some barriers while trying to build a report."
"There are occasions during maintenance runs when the Check Point monitoring system reports a lot of blocked sessions."
"The setup is difficult because you have to install different servers."
"The product could be improved by reducing the time it takes to build and deploy reports."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of IBM Cognos it's more or less the same as most of the other solutions on the market. They're very competitive with the rest of the market and it is not the most expensive product."
"It is pretty expensive."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"The solution is affordable."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"On a scale from one to ten where one is low pricing and ten is high pricing, I would rate this solution at eight."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very 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 expensive."
"The tool's licensing costs are expensive."
"The solution is free to use for developers."
"The pricing is high."
"The price is pretty good."
"The product pricing is reasonable in terms of suitable features for business."
"The solution is cheaper than its alternatives."
"Value-wise, the solution's pricing is good for the price that we pay."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Reporting solutions are best for your needs.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
37%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Insurance Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
11%
Computer Software Company
9%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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...
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.
What needs improvement with IBM Cognos?
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
What do you like most about Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
I mainly use the solution for the ease of reporting and for executive dashboards.
What needs improvement with Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services?
They could improve the scalability and stability of SQL Server Reporting Services. I haven't used it recently, so I can't provide detailed suggestions on improvements.
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft SSRS, SSRS, MS SQL Server Reporting Services
 

Overview

 

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.
CMS Wire, The New York Times
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.