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IBM Cognos vs Posit comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 1, 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 BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (6th)
Posit
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
27th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.1%, down from 4.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Posit is 0.4%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

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.
SUBRATADEY - PeerSpot reviewer
Addressing installation challenges to utilize interactive dashboards effectively
Posit is valuable because many geo-scientists I work with are more comfortable writing R scripts and using R Shiny, making it a suited choice for them. On top of that, it integrates with the application and database, creating interactive dashboards. While there's a need to manage a significant portion manually, the performance overall is stable.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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 basic platform comes with several meta-modelling tools."
"Dashboarding, reporting, and ad hoc reporting are the valuable features of IBM Cognos."
"I have worked on the features like dashboards and stories, and I do like them a lot."
"The most valuable features are Report Development (Functionality) and Information Distribution (Flexibility)."
"IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting."
"IBM Cognos is an excellent solution for tax, planning, budgeting, profit and loss statements and balance sheets."
"The dashboarding offered by this solution is very valuable to us."
"I have found Posit’s integration with R, such as the autocomplete feature and the help panel, to be invaluable."
"Overall, I think Posit is a stable product."
"The most valuable feature of Posit is that it allows users to host different models in one place, making it easy to share with colleagues and teammates."
 

Cons

"They should provide improved visual reporting."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"Extending dynamic cubes aggregate awareness with calculated measures."
"It would be nice to offer free online training on the tool for end-users."
"It would be good if the solution had conditional formatting."
"There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness."
"The technical support team’s response time is slow and needs to be improved."
"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."
"Posit lacks a smooth solution for the build and release pipeline, requiring duplicate effort for production transitions."
"I would like to see improvements in SSH capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Pricing should be improved."
"It's more expensive than similar solutions like Tableau and Power BI."
"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."
"Cognos is super expensive compared to Tableau ($70/month) and Power BI ($20/month) — I think Cognos is roughly $200 a month."
"There is need to assess the purchase license accordingly so as to avoid audit penalties."
"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 averagely priced."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
Information not available
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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
Financial Services Firm
15%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

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 is your primary use case for Posit?
I use Posit for both Posit Connect and Posit Workbench. The Workbench is used for development, as there are many packages not supported by RStudio because I didn't have RStudio Pro. Posit Connect i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Posit?
RStudio Pro and Workbench are quite expensive. Workbench is especially costly because it supports multiple sessions, so there's a strategy to use it only during full-phase development, then switch ...
What needs improvement with Posit?
Posit lacks a smooth solution for the build and release pipeline. Its documentation is weak, which can make installation cumbersome for someone without terminal experience. Additionally, there are ...
 

Also Known As

Cognos, Cognos Analytics, IBM Cognos Analytics
No data available
 

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.
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Posit and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.