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IBM Cognos vs TIBCO Jaspersoft 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
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
134
Ranking in other categories
BI (Business Intelligence) Tools (9th)
TIBCO Jaspersoft
Ranking in Reporting
11th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Embedded BI (9th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Reporting category, the mindshare of IBM Cognos is 3.8%, down from 4.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Jaspersoft is 1.8%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Reporting Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM Cognos3.8%
TIBCO Jaspersoft1.8%
Other94.4%
Reporting
 

Featured Reviews

Robert Thorpe - PeerSpot reviewer
Robust platform delivers excellent reports and insights while needing improvement in self-service capabilities
Our clients utilize IBM Cognos mainly for static reporting, board packs, business reporting, and insights IBM Cognos is a robust governed platform with significant security features and provides excellent graphics and reporting. One of our customers can get a full company update on a Monday…
AnkurMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
A scalable and stable product that enables users to set properties dynamically
The solution is used mainly for reporting purposes. We generate PDFs, which are delivered to the recipient via email We can set any property dynamically. We have to use different currencies. Sometimes, we use the pound sign. Sometimes, we use the dollar sign. Our software is a multi-currency…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"IBM Cognos improves the effectiveness of the sales team."
"The solution's initial setup process is easy."
"The most valuable feature of IBM Cognos is security. The solution has updated features that other competitors' solutions come out with long after IBM Cognos has had them."
"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 initial setup is quite straightforward."
"The most valuable feature is developing reports from different data sources, making it a reliable data source."
"Cognos' most valuable features are the bundled studios, simple UI, and advanced features like the ability to create data modules."
"We can set any property dynamically."
"It's easy to use and maintain."
"With the online view, it's easier to create Ad Hoc reports. It has inbuilt reports so we can easily get data from the system and customize the fields."
"The end-user reporting is very handy and the standard reports that can be achieved by using Jaspersoft Studio are quite impressive."
"I give the stability of the solution a nine out of ten."
"The solution is standalone with the flexibility to use visualize.js to embed within the application."
"We find the access restrictions on different user groups valuable."
"You can do quite a lot with it in terms of automated reports and dashboards."
 

Cons

"IBM Support can be slow at times, but they can usually deliver in a timely manner."
"One thing that we really want is the ability to have data portrayed on an image. Cognos is not able to do it at the moment, and that's becoming a requirement from the business side: having an image and then plotting your dataset on top of the image as a map."
"I rate pricing as a four, meaning it is more expensive compared to other solutions."
"The charts and graphics are weak."
"Most of our company's customers want to be able to deploy IBM Cognos on a web application and use it as a desktop application, which is not possible currently."
"The data uploads that we do, such as Excel files, have a lot of restrictions. If we can make it a bit more user-friendly, allowing us to have more flexibility it would be a great help."
"The tool needs to improve the connectivity since I see that, at times, there is a need to increase the memory in the database."
"They should provide improved visual reporting."
"The stability of TIBCO Jaspersoft needs improvement."
"A better focus should be put on self-service reporting."
"The Ad Hoc Report Writer does not include as many features as Tableau and needs to be improved to meet expectations."
"Customization is an area with certain shortcomings in the solution that needs improvement."
"There might be some compatibility issues with the dashboard if we're using the latest version and some clients are using the older version. Some features might not be supported."
"I would like to see better support for big data."
"The upgrades are not easy."
"Jaspersoft should focus on user interaction features, and one should not expect it to suit every niche."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The solution is affordable."
"IBM Cognos is priced reasonable. However, it is more expensive than Power BI and Tableau."
"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."
"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."
"It is my understanding that the cost is very low. It's not very expensive."
"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."
"The solution is a little bit expensive."
"Since I checked last time, only one annual license costs about $25,000."
"I find the price to be reliable and not overly costly."
"I would rate the pricing as four out of five because it's expensive."
"The pricing is cost effective because it is based on servers rather than users."
"I give the cost of the solution a five out of ten."
report
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Comparison Review

it_user6978 - PeerSpot reviewer
Jun 10, 2013
Jaspersoft vs. Pentaho – Which one to use & is there any need to purchase the commercial edition
Any company (be it technology, manfucaturing, human resource, ecommerce, SME etc) always has the need for Business Intelligence to some or the other extent. If cost is one of the consideration factor, then the 2 BI tools which are at the forefront are Pentaho and Jaspersoft. But, often the same…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
14%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
15%
Healthcare Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business33
Midsize Enterprise23
Large Enterprise83
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise14
 

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.
Seeking lightweight open source BI software
The best and open source (No cost involved) solution for all BI requirements is Jaspersoft Open Studio. Refer to rajeshsirsikar.com for more information.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Jaspersoft?
I am sharing a scenario for pricing: for ten thousand users and a robust server, it may cost in the hundreds of thousands USD. However, TIBCO is more enterprise-focused and might have different pri...
 

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.
Mosaic, Vander University, Telesoft, Entrust, Ericsson, BT, Groupon, John Hopkins, Puma
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Cognos vs. TIBCO Jaspersoft and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
872,869 professionals have used our research since 2012.