IBM Cognos vs Oracle HFM comparison

The compared IBM and Oracle solutions aren't in the same category. IBM is ranked #8 in BIT , with an average rating of 8.1, and holds a 2.2% mindshare in the category. Oracle is ranked #5 in BPM , with an average rating of 8.5, and holds a 6.2% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Oracle users who would recommend it.

IBM Cognos

Read 134 IBM Cognos reviews

5,905 Views
3,012 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Oracle HFM

Read 15 Oracle HFM reviews

1,650 Views
1,419 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Cognos

Oracle HFM

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between IBM Cognos and Oracle HFM based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools.

To learn more, read our detailed BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Report (Updated: August 2025).

Buyer's Guide

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

August 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,676 peers since 2012

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

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

134

Ranking in other categories

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (8th), Reporting (6th)

Oracle HFM

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Performance Management (5th)

Mindshare comparison

While both are Business Intelligence solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Cognos is designed for BI (Business Intelligence) Tools and holds a mindshare of 2.2%, down 3.8% compared to last year.
Oracle HFM, on the other hand, focuses on Business Performance Management, holds 6.2% mindshare, down 9.3% since last year.

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
IBM Cognos	2.2%
Microsoft Power BI	14.5%
Tableau Enterprise	11.0%
Other	72.3%

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

Business Performance Management Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Oracle HFM	6.2%
Anaplan	10.3%
Oracle Hyperion	8.1%
Other	75.4%

Business Performance Management

Featured Reviews

AMOL JAJU

Senior BI-ETL Consultant at CMA Consulting Services

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.

Read full review

AhmedHaridy

Managing Director at Emkan

Offers flexibility and ease of configuration

The initial setup of Oracle HFM is generally straightforward and not overly complex. The deployment time for Oracle HFM varies with the resources, but it usually takes around three to eight months, with an average of three to four months. The deployment process for Oracle HFM involves several key steps. It begins with the installation of Oracle software, followed by gathering requirements and relevant documents. These documents help define the report formats and service needs. Next, the team configures the system, starting with the enterprise structure, which needs to align with the ERP system. Data loading and configuration follow, with Oracle HFM typically requiring more resources compared to other systems like SuccessFactors.

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

"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."

"IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets."

"For planning, forecasting, in-boxing, modeling in general and for predicting numbers and doing work analysis, they are excellent."

"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."

"Cognos is the best application with dashboards,batch reporting, jobs, events and ad-hoc reporting for business users."

"If they want dashboarding, storytelling, and analyzing why KPIs are met or not, then Cognos is a better candidate than Qlik Sense."

"The initial setup was straightforward."

"The three IBM Cognos features I find the most valuable are Dynamic Cubes, PowerPlay, and Watson."

More IBM Cognos pros

"You can bring in data from any source and from multiple sources, and you can consolidate that data in HFM."

"Financial consolidation and reporting tool with good built-in features such as currency exchange and elimination."

"It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a better return on investment based on usage."

"The tool is stable."

"The most valuable features are around consolidations, eliminations, conversions."

"The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation."

"It is a very user-friendly software."

"Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."

Cons

"The high cost of a license makes it hard to scale up on a budget."

"I need improvements, particularly with the Framework Manager, which has an outdated user interface from older versions like IBM Cognos 10 or 8. Additionally, the Event Studio, which offered great flexibility in previous versions, is no longer available in IBM Cognos Analytics 12. These are areas that could be improved to enhance the product."

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

"The performance is a bottleneck and something that can be improved."

"It is a costly product; it is comparatively expensive."

"It could have more options for themes."

"It would be better if it is was easier to implement without extensive training for it."

"Compared to Tableau and PowerBI, the IBM interface is easier to use. However, the drag-and-drop functionality isn't as straightforward. Formatting is also more challenging in the cloud than in other applications, like Power BI. Also, if you encounter an issue, it takes more time to resolve it on the formatting side."

More IBM Cognos cons

"It's a difficult process to try to edit, configure, or change the business rules that exist and work within HFM."

"If there could be data integration between HFM and the accounting software that would be ideal."

"Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities."

"In terms of improvement, one challenge with Oracle HFM is the need for technical knowledge in writing SQL syntax for custom extensions."

"The complexity is okay. I don't see it as super complex. The solution could have more functionality to make it a little bit more flexible."

"The solution has integration challenges. We need a simple tool that is fool-proof for the data that is submitted not only for consolidation purposes but also for performance management and reporting purposes."

"The intercompany reporting function in this tool needs improvement, particularly being able to run reports in batches, rather than one at a time."

"Integration is an area where it lacks and can be improved."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Cognos price is on the higher side of the spectrum. However, with the features that it brings, such as correlation analysis, it's worth the money. They should look at the pricing more clearly because it's a little on the higher side."

"IBM Cognos offers competitive pricing similar to other BI vendors in the market."

"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."

"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."

"It's more expensive than similar solutions like Tableau and Power BI."

"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 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."

More IBM Cognos pricing and cost advice

"Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) uses the named user licensing model. There's different pricing depending on HFM and Essbase planning."

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

867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Comparison Review

it_user79932

Senior Manager - BI Head at NVidia

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

15%

Insurance Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Government

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

Retailer

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	33
Midsize Enterprise	23
Large Enterprise	83

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	9

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?

There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.

See all answers

What do you like most about Oracle HFM?

The most valuable feature is the flexibility and ease of configuration in terms of testing and formula creation.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle HFM?

It depends on the discount offered by Oracle. It is an expensive product but delivers what it promises, ensuring regulatory compliance, reducing risks associated with spreadsheets, and providing a ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Oracle HFM?

Improvements can be made by possibly different interfaces to modernize it, more automation in scripting, and better integration with third-party solutions and reporting capabilities.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Power BI vs IBM Cognos

Compared 12% of the time

Tableau Enterprise vs IBM Cognos

Compared 9% of the time

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

Oracle Hyperion vs IBM Cognos

Compared 8% of the time

IBM Planning Analytics vs IBM Cognos

Compared 5% of the time

More IBM Cognos Competitors

Oracle Hyperion vs Oracle HFM

Compared 27% of the time

CCH Tagetik vs Oracle HFM

Compared 26% of the time

OneStream XF vs Oracle HFM

Compared 9% of the time

Microsoft Power BI vs Oracle HFM

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Planning Analytics vs Oracle HFM

Compared 4% of the time

More Oracle HFM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cognos

September 2025

Download IBM Cognos product report

Buyer's Guide

Oracle HFM

August 2025

Download Oracle HFM product report

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics

HFM

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

Oracle Hyperion Financial Management is a financial consolidation and reporting application built with advanced Web technology. It provides financial managers the ability to rapidly consolidate and report financial results, meet global regulatory requirements, reduce the cost of compliance and deliver confidence in the numbers.

Oracle

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.

B&B Hotels, Goldwind, Drake & Scull

Buyer's Guide

BI (Business Intelligence) Tools

August 2025

Download Free Report

Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, SAP and others in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools. Updated: August 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

867,676 professionals have used our research since 2012.

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.