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IBM Cognos vs Sigma 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
5.8
IBM Cognos boosts efficiency, saves over $650k annually, improving data insights and operational performance, with varied ROI based on implementation.
Sentiment score
7.1
Sigma reduces manual spreadsheet maintenance, offers instant insights, and boosts efficiency, justifying higher costs over Tableau for users.
It's essential for everything data-related within our company.
CEO at PeerSpot
I have definitely seen a return on investment through time saving because once the dashboards are built, they are built.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
I have seen a return on investment with Sigma; we already said that it saves about a quarter, it gets me to answers about 25% faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM Cognos support quality varies, with competent tech support; costs and partner reliance are noted; ratings mostly 6-9.
Sentiment score
6.8
Sigma's support is efficient and reliable, offering quick assistance, but improvements in visualization and data modeling are needed.
Our systems team, operating on a lot of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and maintaining long-term relations with IBM, benefits from good support coverage.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
I rate technical support from IBM as eight out of ten, indicating a high quality of service.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
As Sigma is a cloud platform, you do not need to do all that maintenance work.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM Cognos is generally scalable, handling thousands of users, though some face configuration challenges in distributed systems.
Sentiment score
5.2
Sigma's scalability and free unlimited viewer access enhance data sharing, while easy permissions and live data access set it apart.
It can be scaled out to other teams, but requires building cubes and implementing policies.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
Permissions are easily set, so you only get to see what you need to see and you can share what needs to be shared.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
IBM Cognos is generally stable, with occasional issues due to external factors, poor design, or large queries.
Sentiment score
8.3
Sigma is consistently reliable with stable performance, no reported issues, or disruptions, ensuring error-free projects across teams.
I rate the stability of this solution as nine out of ten, indicating it is highly stable.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
We did not face typical errors during our project with Sigma.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
 

Room For Improvement

IBM Cognos needs better data visualization, simplified database connections, enhanced interface, and improved performance to compete with Tableau.
Sigma's limited visuals, complex workflows, and steep learning curve hinder usability compared to competitors like Power BI.
There is room for improvement in self-service analytics and predictiveness.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
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.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
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.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities.
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
It is not as intuitive as I was hoping, so once you figure it out and get going, it is easy to use, but I would say at the very beginning, the learning experience is kind of hard.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Sigma lacks a versioning feature to track changes.
Technical Lead at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Setup Cost

IBM Cognos is costly but valued for features; negotiate near fiscal year-end for discounts, especially through partners.
Enterprise buyers find Sigma licensing costly, with high platform and creator fees, leading to a preference for view-only licenses.
I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
The pricing of Sigma is a concern, as it restricts our ability to provide more users with report-creating capabilities due to the high cost of admin or report creator licenses.
CEO at PeerSpot
 

Valuable Features

IBM Cognos offers flexible reporting, interactive dashboards, AI insights, and comprehensive BI functions for enhanced decision-making and scalability.
Sigma excels with pivot tables, data integration, collaboration, and visual appeal, enhancing teamwork and decision-making efficiency.
The AI features in IBM Cognos helped me gain deeper insights into our business processes, enabling me to make data-driven decisions easily and understand which points need our attention and which areas of our business are performing well.
Senior Data Engineer at LTI LATAM and Toubro Improtech
IBM Cognos is evaluated and complies fully with all our security standards.
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting.
head of commercial at Assimil8 Ltd.
Sigma has positively impacted my organization because I think it has been a huge impact, and we use it for all our reporting and our dashboards for tracking.
Head of Marketing at a tech company with 51-200 employees
The use of Sigma in decision-making, presentations to customers, and reporting to investors showcases its value in handling data-related tasks.
CEO at PeerSpot
Sigma has positively affected my organization by saving us time in accessing information, which ultimately gets us to complete projects faster.
Customer Success Manager at a tech company with 51-200 employees
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Cognos
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
9th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
136
Ranking in other categories
Reporting (5th)
Sigma
Ranking in BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Data Visualization (11th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the BI (Business Intelligence) Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 1.3%, down from 3.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Sigma is 1.6%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cognos1.3%
Sigma1.6%
Other97.1%
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2648136 - PeerSpot reviewer
EDW Manager at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Centralized reporting has supported university-wide regulatory dashboards and secure data access
From my experience, we use regular dashboarding with IBM Cognos for producing scheduled reports and for mandatory regulatory reporting. All our departments use IBM Cognos, with each department developing their own reports while our corporate IT team provides the data. Some people use the interactive dashboards feature of IBM Cognos, and there are also other tools in use. I think some users utilize Power BI and Tableau, but our IT organization only provides IBM Cognos as an enterprise business intelligence and reporting tool. IBM Cognos is evaluated and complies fully with all our security standards. In my opinion, IBM Cognos is very stable. It has been around for many years and many users are familiar with it, ensuring it performs well in its intended capacity. The benefits of choosing IBM Cognos, aside from cost savings, include having institutional knowledge for maintaining this infrastructure and a reliable solution that enhances developer productivity, given our team's extensive experience with IBM Cognos.
reviewer2729628 - PeerSpot reviewer
Lead Analytics Consultant at a outsourcing company with 51-200 employees
Great collaboration with intuitive interface and dynamic visualization capabilities
As we are exploring multiple features in Sigma, I think Sigma can add more functionality. As Power BI gives multiple modeling options in its interface with the query editor, those features can be added in Sigma for intuitiveness or for making the data very clean. From the dashboarding perspective, it performs well. However, from the modeling perspective, it requires more capabilities that can be added in Sigma. The main improvement needed is in data modeling capabilities. If they add those features in the near future, it would be very helpful for us to implement the same or do the data cleansing part in the Sigma tool itself.
report
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Comparison Review

it_user79932 - PeerSpot reviewer
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…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business34
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise86
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise2
 

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?
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 ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Sigma?
I do not know much about my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing because I am not heavily involved in that.
What needs improvement with Sigma?
I think Sigma can be improved because, for the last ten months since I first started here, this is my first time ever using it, and I think there is a steep learning curve. It is not as intuitive a...
What is your primary use case for Sigma?
My main use case for Sigma is that there are a bunch of reports, and many of our main reports are built on Sigma. I use it as a dashboard, review the reports, filter through there, and use it to he...
 

Comparisons

 

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.
Snowflake, Fivetran ,Autodesk, Flowspace, Super League Gaming, Zumper, Clover, Volta, Olivela
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. Sigma and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
880,954 professionals have used our research since 2012.